Graduate Courses

Core Courses

HAVC 201A: Introduction to Visual Studies and Critical Theory (Fall)
An introduction to the visual studies discipline through a range of discourses and approaches that have proven productive for practitioners of visual studies, in diverse thematic foci and cultural contexts. The course features intensive readings and student-led discussions. Students work on three short papers on topics of their choice that relate to the broader issues discussed in class. Required seminar for all first-year visual studies graduate students. N. Furtado

HAVC 202: Introduction to Visual Studies Methods (Winter) 
Examines research methods and approaches in a variety of materials, cultures, periods and subjects that are relevant in the discipline of Visual Studies. Discussions focus on research and readings by individual VS faculty who share practices, experiences and advice. Required seminar for all first-year visual studies graduate students. R. Kyo

HAVC 204: Grant Writing, Pedagogy, and Professional Development (Fall) 
Students work on grants for educational support, dissertation funding, or both; learn about effective, accessible, and equity-minded TA- and GSI-related pedagogy (including developing course content, logistics, assessment, and grading criteria); and cultivate professional skills in relation to the publication process, CV preparation, and gaining employment in academia and beyond. K. Parry

Electives

HAVC 220: Rithy Panh’s Films and Writings (Fall)

The topic of this graduate seminar for Fall 2025 will be the films and writings of Rithy Panh, an award-winning Cambodian-French filmmaker; notably, his film, The Missing Picture (2013), was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Film. In his work, Panh frequently explores the contexts of the Khmer Rouge genocide and its aftermath. This year, 2025, marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam-American War as well as the beginning of the Khmer Rouge genocide; given this year of anniversary, we will take the opportunity to look at how Panh’s films capture the legacy of wars, genocide, trauma, displacement, political ideology, betrayal, conflict and reconciliation. In addition, we will explore themes such nature and culture, food, love and the body. Fortuitously, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at UC, Berkeley (BAMPFA) will be screening selected films by Rithy Panh in the fall of 2025 with public lectures and events that students may attend. This seminar provides fruitful opportunities for interdisciplinary exploration and discussion for students from film studies, literature, art, art history, sociology, Asian studies, anthropology and other fields and disciplines. B. Ly

HAVC 242: Radical Futurisms (Spring)

There is widespread consensus that we are living at the end—of democracy, of liberalism, of capitalism, of a cool planet, of the Holocene, of civilization as we know it. Catastrophic environmental breakdown, mass species extinction, financial collapse, global nuclear war, apocalyptic populism, racist separatism—the diagnoses are seemingly endless, prompting multiple questions: What hopes for survival, how can we imagine the unimaginable, and what will life look like beyond the many ends portrayed in pop-culture, dystopian sci-fi, political commentary, Indigenous worldviews, and post-anthropocentric philosophies? Addressing this urgent, multifarious, and world-historical subject, this seminar addresses comparative futurisms articulated within disparate sociopolitical domains in an effort to imagine—with the help of visual cultural and aesthetic practices introduced aside theoretical positions—what comes after the end of the world. T. Demos

HAVC 297: Independent Study

Independent study or research for graduate students. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. May be repeated for credit. The Staff