{"id":8804,"date":"2026-02-09T15:57:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/academics\/?page_id=8804"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:41:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:41:55","slug":"rhetoric-film-and-screen-studies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/academics\/majors-and-minors\/rhetoric-film-and-screen-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Visit the full Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies site<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Department of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human communication focusing on the intersectional nature of meaning and knowledge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Our courses examine how texts and screen texts \u2014 film, television, and the virtual world \u2014 transmit messages and look at the historical, sociocultural, and economic forces that shape their circulation and interpretation, taking into account race, ethnicity, gender, class, and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Contact Us<\/h5>\n\t

Nicole Emery, Academic Administrative Assistant
\n305 College Street
\nPettigrew Hall
\n Phone: 207-786-8392\n<\/span>rfss@bates.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>

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What You Will Learn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How to articulate the role of language and visual media in creating, negotiating, and maintaining power and privilege<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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To apply your critical thinking skills through the analysis and creation of arguments<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The art of identifying and describing different theoretical approaches to discourse<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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How to communicate clearly, assessing how to speak to different groups based on situation, topic, and audience<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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To create critical discourse through the synthesis of creative thinking, research, and analysis<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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How to navigate the ways power and privilege are challenged and reinforced by media, form, and message<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Life After Bates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Our major prepares students to work in a wide range of fields, including politics, broadcast journalism, education, advocacy and activism, video game design, film and television, and more. Recent graduates include digital content managers, production assistants, film producers, and morning show news anchors, and many students go on to achieve post-graduate degrees across many different topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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94%<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

of 2020-2024 Bates graduates are employed and\/or attending graduate school \u2014 settled into their next opportunity within 6 months of graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“The rhetoric department at Bates gave me my adult professional life. Full stop. I walked in with no plan and walked out with the components for a career I didn’t even know existed yet. My professors taught me that persuasion, argument, and rhetoric (the real kind, not the pejorative cable shout-y kind) were ways of genuinely engaging with other humans and their points of view. That you could build an actual life being creative. The documentary classes, my thesis, and my film independent study, the debate team, all of it. These people handed me everything I needed. Advertising, entertainment marketing, branding, every campaign and creative brief I’ve touched in thirty-plus years traces back to that department.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Christopher Donovan \u201992<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Selected Places of Employment\/Service<\/h6>\n\n\n\n