Savannah Sima
Contributing Writer
The Global Media and Digital Studies (GMDS) major is a new program to be added to the list of majors that The College of Wooster offers. GMDS will expand upon existing media-related majors and minors and introduce technical elements of study.
One prospective GMDS major, Mariam Zghuladze ’22, discussed her excitement with the new major. “I am interested in working in film/media industry after I graduate [as well as] advertising, production and distribution,” she said. “I came to Wooster as a communication studies major and a film studies minor, and I was very thrilled to hear about GMDS because it has everything that was missing for me.” Zghuladze also speculated that “GMDS will bring more students to Wooster who are interested in studying film, media or digital studies.”
Faculty, who officially approved the major, and administration were overall supportive of the new major. According to Dean for Curriculum and Academic Engagement Bryan Karazsia, “The GMDS program is a wonderful addition to the offerings that students may choose from. I believe it will have positive benefits for students in the program, as well as other students. The increased visibility of the major will highlight courses that even non-majors may want to take … either because they have a specific general education designation, or simply because they are so intriguing!”
Karazsia also described a personal experience to show the potential benefits of the major for students. “I’ll note that I heard on the radio the other day that a new streaming service just launched … specifically for viewing on mobile devices (Quibi, with videos no more than 10 minutes),” he said. “When I heard this, I immediately thought through so many dimensions that the proposers of this new program mentioned in their documents … and I was immediately grateful that Wooster students will have a chance to wrestle deeply with implications of these new technologies and the ideas they will communicate.”
Ahmet Atay, professor of communication studies and one of the proposers of the major, commented on the importance of GMDS. “We live in a very highly mediated and digitalized world. We need to educate our students about both positive and negative aspects of these,” Atay said. “We also need to give them tools to become more mindful of traditional and new media creators and consumers. Media is also global; it circulates around the world cutting across the borders of nation-states. Hence, we need to understand these processes. For these reasons, I think this major is very crucial and I am glad that we finally have it.”
Atay also went into detail about the development of the major. “The idea started some years ago to create an interdisciplinary major and a program that connects faculty and students who are interested in media, film and digital studies,” Atay said. “I was hired to teach media courses for the College and quickly I realized our students needed and wanted more courses on media and I wanted to deliver that.”
Karazsia oversees the construction and implementation of new majors as the co-chair of the Educational Policy Committee (EPC). He explained some of the technical aspects of the proposal and the procedures related to introducing GMDS as a major. “[EPC] studies proposals that are submitted with an eye toward current policies and practices, and even more so with an eye toward student experience,” he explained. “EPC has two student members that comment on all proposals too — we want to see that new programs are exciting to students, will enroll associated courses and attract prospective students and develop students in a way that aligns with Wooster’s mission and graduate qualities. We also have to consider staffing demands, as staffing demands reflect one aspect of the faculty lived experience (i.e., we have to honor faculty workloads and commitments to existing parts of the curriculum).”
Jennifer Hayward, professor of English and the other proposer of the major, detailed the courses GMDS majors must take. “Students will complete six courses to earn a minor, 10 courses for the major (a total that includes both junior and senior Independent Study),” Hayward said. “The major is designed to be flexible so that students can build a program of study that integrates their individual interests with their career goals, taking a wide range of courses across the College and beyond. Within GMDS, all majors will take the same introductory course, a core sequence, and the same research methods course. Between these bookends, each student will be guided through the process of mapping their own pathway; templates will assist students in shaping a cohesive curricular story that speaks to their academic and professional goal.”
GMDS was approved as a major in the fall semester’s last faculty meeting, but that does not mean the program is growing gradually.
“Things are moving very quickly at this point,” Hayward said. “We are in conversation with the administration about the best way to introduce the GMDS major to students and hope to share that news soon.” Atay added, “We want the students to know about us. We have a lot to offer. We also hope to have an information session to the students to get to know us and our major.”