Let's not get stuck in the past. Photo from the college archives.
In the fall of 2008, I took my first course with a New Media scholar named Alison de Fren, who had come to Conn for her post-doctoral fellowship. De Fren taught courses with themes that didn’t fit into conventional department genres. To find them, you had to search deep in the College Courses section of the course catalog for names like “New Media and Digital Art,” “Autobiographical Documentary” and “Remix & Mashup.”
She taught theory and practice. In her courses, we read Foucault and McLuhan and Vannevar Bush, and discussed Biocybernetic Reproduction and Audio Graffiti. We talked about ways the Internet blurs previously understood distinctions between public and private, and between real and virtual life.
I self-designed a New Media Studies major to explore how new technology has changed the way we consume and interact with our news. CAT didn’t feel relevant because my work wasn’t related to computer science, nor to music, theater or dance. I have found relevant courses in the English department, in Anthropology, in Psychology, Human Development and Film. But since de Fren left last spring, I’ve found it quite hard to find people and resources on campus that have the background and training to teach in Media Studies.
Oberlin, Bates, Swarthmore, Amherst and Grinnell all have a “Film and Media Studies” major. Hamilton has “Cinema and New Media Studies.” There is an interdisciplinary Media Studies program at Pomona and at Vassar, and a Film and Media Culture program at Middlebury. Skidmore also offers interdisciplinary courses in Communications and Media Studies.
Our generation is expected to leave college as media-fluent young adults. Some of the most abundant post-baccalaureate job openings are in social media and technology. Our general education requirements tell us what’s important for a well-rounded graduate to draw from: literature, science, math, social sciences, art, philosophy and religion, history, and language. While Liberal Arts schools like Conn may shy away from majors like journalism, business, and health because they’re considered pre-professional, Media Studies is in fact interdisciplinary and layered. To ignore it leaves us far behind our peers. With de Fren gone, we now have nobody who specializes in the history, theory or practice of media – let alone digital media – on the college faculty.
Connecticut College should hire a full-time faculty member who teaches courses in Media Studies. Doing so will fulfill its promise to prepare its students for the future, and keep the college competitive with its peers intellectually and professionally.
