Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s challenge ‘…to think expansively about our intellectual and geographic boundaries, opening new avenues for students and faculty to tackle the most pressing issues of our day’ is something we hear a lot about at Syracuse University.

The fact is that it is much easier to say than to do was clear in The Daily Orange’s Sept. 26 article ‘English department adds film, creative writing tracks.’ In short, the article implied that SU students had a new choice to make when it came to film studies: to get a film degree from English and textual studies or the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications — and no, they didn’t mention our friends in the College of Visual and Performing Arts who have a film studies program of their own.

I had already heard the buzz around the press release before I got the call from The D.O. The most prevalent reaction was, ‘Did you know about this film track?!’ implying that if I had known I shouldn’t have allowed it or, at least, have felt threatened.

Thanks to the intricate process of curricular review, I did know about these new programs and believed they, in service to Cantor’s vision, expanded intellectual boundaries for students and faculty of multiple fields to pursue — despite the fact that one of them happened to use the F-word in our department name.

Should we be threatened by the expanded use of a word ‘film?’ Or, more broadly, do we own the words in our department names? If this is so, then the writing department is being robbed as there is more than a great deal of writing going on in classes outside of the writing department. With the widening effect and accessibility of film, television and other screen texts across disciplines, similar intellectual expansion can be expected.

The ETS tracks are not designed as alternatives or, as the article termed, ‘switch’ opportunities to screen studies programs in Newhouse or VPA. They are complementary opportunities for students in all areas of study to acquire critical thinking skills, for example, ‘avenues for students and faculty to tackle the most pressing issues of our day.’ When you say, ‘Not all students are interested in making the switch,’ you trivialize the interdisciplinary richness in adding this sequence to the ETS curriculum. Critical studies is not a contest.

Sadly, the article also managed to imply that Newhouse is churning out film producers who have no regard for history, cultural studies, gender studies, ethnic studies and critical theory — as if these are subjects that only the ETS department covers in their film program. My first phone call on the day of the article was from a faculty member who leads our departmental charge in critical studies. He wondered if perhaps he should switch to the ETS department because somehow I managed to communicate to The D.O. that television, radio and film offers no critical studies courses, when in fact we offer many. Critical Perspectives is a requirement for TRF majors and has distinguished the TRF program from competitors for decades, particularly in its approach to critical and historical perspectives on television.

One of the reasons why your interviewee Anna Hilder — and others — chose the TRF major was for its reputation. That reputation is built on solid instruction in critical thinking, not to mention a broad arts and sciences foundation. It’s essential for producers of TV and film and radio to have a critical understanding of texts of all kinds, including the process of creating content and understanding the ways in which it is consumed by audiences. And despite the fact that we offer a variety of screen studies courses that exercise critical thinking, we are delighted the ETS department is providing additional opportunities for students, including many of our own majors, to further develop their critical thinking skills.

Expanding intellectual boundaries involves clear communication and trust. Portraying cross-disciplinary ventures as contests only serves to strain the pursuit of explorations that remain ahead.

Michael Schoonmaker

Chair, Television Radio and Film Department

Published on October 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm