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From Our Chair
Welcome to the Department of Cinema, Media Arts, and Theatre at Vanderbilt!
CMAT is a department that encourages students to think about and think with the visual and performing arts. The unit offers two majors: one in cinema and media arts, and one in theatre. Both majors offer students the opportunity to engage in “studies” courses, which focus on history, theory, and criticism, and “production” courses, which offer hands-on, experiential, and creative forms of learning. CMAT also offers minors in both cinema and media arts and in theatre.
Our faculty, composed of scholars, makers, artists, and performers, educate students in key critical debates and aesthetic practices to prepare our majors for a range of careers in entertainment industries, the arts, public service, and creative entrepreneurship. Our classes feature low student/teacher ratios and one-on-one interaction with faculty members, and our courses will help you hone your critical, creative, and professional skills.
The CMAT curriculum is inherently immersive. Students have opportunities to complete Immersion projects through independent research, production experiences, professional engagement, and coursework. Our exceptional faculty provide hands-on advising to students’ Immersion projects. CMAT also has a number of paid staff jobs in the theatre scene and costume shops, as well as the media services lab.
Our cinema and media arts courses approach film as a modern aesthetic form and hands-on cultural practice. Courses cover diverse international cultures as well as critical and creative practices, including training in both 16mm and digital cinematography and production in fiction, experimental, and documentary modes. We encourage our majors to create work outside of the classroom and to submit senior projects to academic journals, film festivals, and conferences. Through the Vandy-in-Hollywood summer internship program, coordinated through Vanderbilt’s Career Center, students explore pathways into the entertainment industry. Both CMAT’s International Lens film series and POVU student film festival enable students—and members of the larger Vanderbilt and Nashville communities—to engage with groundbreaking cinema.
In addition to courses on theatre history, design, production and performance, CMAT produces a multi-show season over the course of the academic year. Plays are typically directed and designed by faculty or guest artists, with some student directors and designers. Plays are cast from the student body, and any Vanderbilt student is welcome to audition. We typically hold auditions at the start of each semester. Our production season offers many opportunities to learn about working backstage, and productions serve as a way for students to expand their learning beyond the classroom and to continue to work closely with theatre faculty.
Sincerely,
Claire Sisco King
Chair, Department of Cinema, Media Arts, and Theatre
Professor of Communication Studies
Why Cinema, Media Arts, and Theatre?
Cinema, media arts, and theatre gives students the knowledge to communicate effectively, solve complex problems creatively and analytically, and be successful leaders—valuable skills that prepare them for a wide range of careers, both in the arts and beyond.
Our students gain the following marketable proficiencies:
- Creative expression and visual communication: Courses in the study and production of cinema, media, and theatre enable students to develop skills for communicating effectively and inventively through storytelling across a variety of mediums and platforms and to take creative risks.
- Innovative problem solving: Courses in cinema and media production and theatre performance, design, and production enable students to address challenges and setbacks with unexpected and dynamic solutions, to champion their vision while adapting to logistical and time limitations, and to develop improvisatory skills.
- Leadership and collaboration: Courses in cinema and media production and theatre performance, design, and production enable students to guide teams, work productively with others, and cultivate such interpersonal skills as empathy and effective listening.
- Analytical thinking: Courses in cinema, media, and theatre studies enable students to strengthen their capacities for interpretation, critique, and reasoning through close readings of texts and engagement with history and theory.
- Cultural awareness and social engagement: Courses in cinema, media, and theatre studies enable students to engage with diverse perspectives and global theatrical traditions and to explore identity, community, and representation through art. Courses in cinema and media production and theatre performance, design, and production enable students to create theatrical works as forms of social commentary and advocacy and to reflect on ethical responsibilities in storytelling.
Contact Us
Building Address
Buttrick Hall
390 24th Avenue South
(615) 343-8724
Department Mailing Address
Vanderbilt University
Box #350120, Station B
Nashville, TN 37235-0125
Theatre Production Mailing Address
Vanderbilt University
VU Station B #350001
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37235-0001
Neely Auditorium
103 Neely Auditorium
Nashville, TN 37212
(615) 322-2404