Explore UAB

Out of their Seats, Into the Streets, by Scott Hodnett and Amanda Khorramabadi

Produced in The Birmingham Movement: Civil Rights and Documentary Film, as part of the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the events of 1963 in Birmingham.

Learn the technical skills to produce original media and think critically about the impact the media has had on society throughout history.

The Media Studies minor is an interdisciplinary program designed to provide you with solid grounding in the history, theory, and practice of media. It is designed to prepare you for professional work in media industries or utilizing media in your major field of interest or in your future career. The curriculum emphasizes a commitment to create media that is responsibly sourced and reflects the range of experiences of our diverse society.

You'll be able to take courses in the following areas:

  • digital storytelling
  • documentary film
  • film history
  • oral history
  • ethnography
  • community studies
  • media theory

Explore Birmingham Communities and People

This minor will give you experience working in communities in the Greater Birmingham area, often in collaboration with nonprofit organizations, neighborhood groups, and cultural institutions. Birmingham, a city rich in Civil Rights and Labor history, offers a great number of community-based research opportunities close to campus. Students have made films about subjects ranging from healthcare to street art, from immigration to historic preservation to surgery.

Our classes emphasize experiential learning and offer you opportunities for hands-on participation in local communities through service learning and internships with non-profit organizations, businesses, and educational and governmental institutions. They are taught by members of the UAB College of Arts and Sciences faculty.

Students have had the opportunity to partner with many community organizations, including the following:

  • Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
  • Birmingham Museum of Art
  • Lakeshore Foundation
  • McWane Science Center
  • Red Mountain Park
  • Rev Birmingham
  • Sidewalk Film Festival
  • StoryCorps: National Listening Project
  • Vulcan Park and Museum
  • UAB Hospital
  • UAB School of Public Health
  • WBHM

Requirements

A complete list of minor requirements and courses are available in the UAB Undergraduate Catalog.

Questions?

If you have questions about the Media Studies minor, please contact program director  Michele Forman.

Student Films

Check out some of our students' work on the UAB Media Studies Vimeo Channel.

Benching: The Art of Watching Trains

By Bo Hughins and Neil Kirkpatrick from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo.

Produced in Ethnographic Filmmaking and featured by Railroad Park Landscape Architect Tom Leader as he planned the new park. Winner, Sidewalk Film Festival Short Documentary Film, 2004.

Self-Portrait

By Jessica Chriesman from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo.

Produced in "Memoir in Writing and Film," an interdisciplinary course taught by Kerry Madden Lunsford (Creative Writing) and Michele Forman (Media Studies).

If You've Never Seen a Sea Lion

By Daniel Lindsay and Dani Mason from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo.

Company Town

By Amir Ahmed and Gina Sherman from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo.

Headways

By Anissa Latham from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo.

Feral

By Matt Henton & Lane McCaig from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo.

Act Two: A Gift From A Previous Generation

By Alec Dixon and Brian Zekoff from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo.

Biophilia

By Stephanie Lockhart and Taylor Tincher from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo.