How do we best support graduate students in media studies? Do universities and graduate programs have a responsibility to readjust their model of grad education in the field? What is the value of a humanities-based approach to media studies? How can media be a site of convergence for the disciplines?
In today’s episode we investigate these questions with Walter Metz, Professor of Film Studies, and Dean and Director of Graduate Studies for the college of Mass Communication and Media Arts at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He received his S.B. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Materials Science and Engineering, and Film and Literature (in the Humanities Department) in 1989; an MA in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa in 1991; and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996. He is the author of three books: Engaging Film Criticism: Film History and Contemporary American Cinema (Peter Lang, 2004), Bewitched (Wayne State University Press, 2007), and Gilligan’s Island, (Wayne State University Press, 2012). He is currently writing a manuscript about Dr. Seuss and the animated films made at Pixar Studios.
His film criticism website is located at: waltermetz.com