Apr 11, 2025

2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog

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2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog

Interdisciplinary Programs Major, BA - Visual and Interactive Storytelling Program (VIS) Concentration

The interdisciplinary BA in Visual and Interactive Storytelling Program (VIS) is designed to prepare students for careers in emerging forms of storytelling that employ visual, narrative, and performative elements. Core classes will provide students with a broad introduction to traditional and new concepts, art and literary history, various modes of storytelling, visual and audio art practices, and emerging technologies. Students elect experiential and project-based learning through studio and laboratory experiences to specialize in animation, filmmaking, theatre, interactive media, virtual reality, sound design, data visualization, and artificial intelligence, supported by a strong historical and narrative grounding in great storytelling as a fundamental human activity.

College Requirements

Arts and Sciences

Prerequisites (6 credit hours):

ART 102 - Introduction to Art: Time 3 Credit Hours *
ARTH 173 - Western Art: Renaissance to Contemporary 3 Credit Hours *

Major Requirements

The VIS concentration consists of 33 credit hours.

Historical Foundations (3 credit hours).

Choose one of the following.

ENGL 201 - British Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 221 - World Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 231 - American Literature, Beginnings to the Civil War 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 232 - American Literature, Civil War to the Present 3 Credit Hours *
THEA 414 - Topics in Theatre History 3 Credit Hours

Narrative Foundations (6 credit hours):

Choose two of the following.

ENGL 263 - Introduction to Creative Writing Credit Hours
or
ENGL 277 - Honors: Introduction to Creative Writing 3 Credit Hours
CNST 365 - Writing the Screenplay 3 Credit Hours /
ENGL 365 - Writing the Screenplay 3 Credit Hours
HIUS 310 - American History Through Video Games 3 Credit Hours
THEA 413 - Dramaturgy and New Play Development 3 Credit Hours

Digital Technology Foundations (6 credit hours):

Choose two of the following:

ARTC 233 - Animation I 3 Credit Hours /
CNST 233 - Animation I   3 Credit Hours
ARTC 236 - Introduction to Cinema and Video Art 3 Credit Hours /
CNST 236 - Introduction to Cinema and Video Art 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 370 - Multimedia Storytelling 3 Credit Hours

VIS Major Requirements (6 credit hours):

Choose two of the following:

ENGL 252 - Introduction to Drama 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 253 - Introduction to Fiction 3 Credit Hours *
CNST 281 - Introduction to Film Studies 3 Credit Hours * /
ENGL 281 - Introduction to Film Studies 3 Credit Hours *
THEA 200 - Play Analysis 3 Credit Hours

Major Electives (12 credit hours):

Choose four of the following from at least two different areas.

(Note: Courses used in a Foundation area can not be used as a Major Elective)

Art and Cinema Studies Area

ARTC 233 - Animation I 3 Credit Hours /
CNST 233 - Animation I   3 Credit Hours
ARTC 333 - Animation II 3 Credit Hours /
CNST 333 - Animation II   4 Credit Hours
ARTC 433 - Animation III 4 Credit Hours /
CNST 432 - Animation III 4 Credit Hours
ARTC 236 - Introduction to Cinema and Video Art 3 Credit Hours /
CNST 236 - Introduction to Cinema and Video Art 3 Credit Hours
ARTC 335 - Narrative Filmmaking 3 Credit Hours * /
CNST 335 - Narrative Filmmaking 3 Credit Hours *
ARTH 356 - Video Game Art 3 Credit Hours
ARTH 403 - History of Photography 3 Credit Hours
ART 456 - Studio Art Internship 1-6 Credit Hours
CNST 431 - The Business of Cinema 3 Credit Hours
CNST 490 - Internship 1-9 Credit Hours

Narrative Humanities Area

ENGL 225 - Introduction to African Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 226 - Introduction to Caribbean Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 233 - Major Black Writers 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 285 - Introduction to Digital Humanities 3 Credit Hours /
DH 200 - Introduction to Digital Humanities 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 301 - British Culture to 1660 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 302 - British Culture: 1660 to Present 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 303 - American Cultures 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 306 - Shakespeare and Film 3 Credit Hours
CNST 306 - Shakespeare and Film 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 331 - Race and Ethnicity in American Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 332 - Women in American Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 333 - Black American Literature and Aesthetics 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 334 - Film and American Culture 3 Credit Hours *
CNST 334 - Film and American Culture 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 335 - African Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 336 - Caribbean Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 339 - Children’s/Young Adult Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 340 - Science Fiction and Fantasy 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 341 - Religion and Spirituality in American Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 342 - Literature and Medicine 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 345 - Graphic Novel and Comics 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 346 - The Gothic 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 351 - The Short Story 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 363 - Writing Poetry 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 367 - Honors: Writing Poetry 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 364 - Writing Fiction 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 368 - Honors: Writing Fiction 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 365 - Writing the Screenplay 3 Credit Hours *
CNST 365 - Writing the Screenplay 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 369 - Writing Creative Nonfiction 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 370 - Multimedia Storytelling 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 401 - Medieval Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 402 - Chaucer 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 404 - Shakespeare I: Early Plays 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 405 - Shakespeare II: Later Plays 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 406 - Shakespeare’s Contemporaries I: Renaissance Drama 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 409 - Shakespeare’s Contemporaries II: Renaissance Poetry and Prose 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 410 - Donne, Milton, and Their Contemporaries 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 411 - Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century British Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 412 - Late Eighteenth-Century British Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 414 - The Romantics 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 420 - The 19th-Century British Novel 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 421 - Modern British Novel 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 422 - Women Writers in Britain 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 423 - Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 424 - Jane Austen 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 430 - Black and Indigenous Literatures 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 431 - Early American Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 432 - American Romanticism and Transcendentalism 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 433 - American Realism and Naturalism 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 434 - Modern American Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 435 - American Fiction to 1900 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 436 - Modern American Novel 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 439 - Race and Ethnicity in American Cinema 3 Credit Hours *
CNST 439 - Race and Ethnicity in American Cinema 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 441 - Southern Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 443 - Topics in Black Literature 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 444 - Appalachian Literature and Culture 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 451 - Modern British and American Poetry 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 452 - Modern Drama 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 453 - Contemporary Drama 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 454 - 20th-Century International Novel 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 456 - Contemporary Fiction/Narrative 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 463 - Advanced Poetry Writing 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 464 - Advanced Fiction Writing 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 469 - Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing 3 Credit Hours
ENGL 480 - Fairy Tale, Legend, and Myth: Folk Narrative 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 489 - Special Topics in Film 3 Credit Hours *
CNST 489 - Special Topics in Film 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 491 - Foreign Study: Drama in Stratford and London 1-4 Credit Hours *
ENGL 492 - Off-Campus Study: Drama in New York 3 Credit Hours *
ENGL 494 - Cultural Rhetorics 3 Credit Hours *

Theatre Area

THEA 230 - The Black Arts Workshop: Performance and History 3 Credit Hours *
THEA 323 - Stage Movement 3 Credit Hours
THEA 326 - Voice and Speech for the Stage Actor 3 Credit Hours
THEA 373 - Sound Design I 3 Credit Hours
THEA 415 - Theatre for Every Body: Plays by and about underrepresented people 3 Credit Hours
THEA 450 - Special Topics in Design and Technology 1-3 Credit Hours
THEA 460 - Advanced Lighting Design 3 Credit Hours
THEA 475 - Projection and Media Design 3 Credit Hours
THEA 481 - Applied Theatre 1-3 Credit Hours
THEA 492 - Off-Campus Study 1-15 Credit Hours

Notes:

*Meets Volunteer Core Requirements