In the film They Live , Roddy Piper puts on a pair of sunglasses that reveal the subliminal messages in all art and advertising and the secret alien invasion behind it all. It's true: having a critical eye can take the joy out of mindless consumption.

In this program, you'll develop your critical edge, by means of critical sociological studies of film, literary studies and creative writing as influenced by semiotics, and performance workshops that challenge you to activate your imagination in new ways—not least of all your capacity for spontaneity and collaborative storytelling. Such work will train you to see how filmic images, stories of all kinds, and social systems are assembled in ways that generate meaning and guide our thinking.

Whole-program work will include three separate weeks dedicated to watching and discussing films—our own "film festivals." A critical approach to these films will be central to our shared examination and integration of program concepts and themes.  Through discussion and writing about these films, you'll learn to deconstruct media messages about American culture with a special focus on gender, sexuality, race, and class. In addition, we will consider the potential for film and other creative activities to promote empowerment and social change.

As a complement to our sociological study of film, students will join one of two focus areas (with limited space in each): improv performance or creative writing.

• Students in the improv focus area will learn introductory or intermediate skills (depending on experience) in improv performance, through which they'll develop critical thinking in relation to story-generation, creative thinking, collaboration, and the construction of character.  CRNS: 30364(Fr), 30365 (So)
• Students in the creative writing focus area will learn to practice close reading and careful critique of texts, exploring the means by which literary texts reproduce and resist conventions and norms. CRNs: 30366 (Fr), 30367 (So)

In addition, everyone will participate in workshops in writing, improv, and sociology with the goal of collaborating with peers across focus areas in developing integrative projects that explore program themes of social identity, performance, social systems, dramaturgy, creative process, narrative form, representation, liberation, and empowerment.