Annette Elliot-Hogg

Taiwanese director Edward Yang is a poet of film. His intimate epics exhibit a mastery of form characterized by meditative narrative rhythms, long takes, medium shots over close-ups, and a detached, static camera. In this class, we will formally analyze three films—Taipei Story (1985), A Brighter Summer Day (1991) and Yi Yi (2000) to understand how cinematic techniques work together to create meaning in a film. We will also examine the films within the broader context of the Taiwanese New Wave. First Year Seminar I is an intensive writing course. In class, we will engage deeply with course materials in productive discussions that will foster critical thinking and inform student writing. In addition to weekly homework assignments and in-class writing, students can expect to compose and revise 15-20 pages of formal writing through a process approach to hone their argumentative skills and build their confidence in expressing their ideas clearly and effectively.

Taiwanese director Edward Yang is a poet of film. His intimate epics exhibit a mastery of form characterized by meditative narrative rhythms, long takes, medium shots over close-ups, and a detached, static camera. In this class, we will formally analyze three films Taipei Story (1985), A Brighter Summer Day (1991) and Yi Yi (2000) to understand how cinematic techniques work together to create meaning in a film. We will also examine the films within the broader context of the Taiwanese New Wave.

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

In her films Water Lilies (2007), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and Petite Maman (2021), French director Céline Sciamma subverts the “male gaze” of traditional Hollywood to define a revolutionary “female gaze.” Her slow rhythm of cutting, economical framing and sparse narratives, create a feminist grammar of cinema. “It’s always about the female characters,” she explains in an interview, “because they can be themselves only in a private space where they can share their loneliness, their dreams, their desires.” In FYSII, we will expand our critical reading, writing and thinking skills. We will develop a descriptive vocabulary to analyze the use of camera movements, cutting and composition of the frame that goes into the making of a film. We will write two critical essays (20 to 25 pages of formal writing), which will be workshopped in class and revised.

This critique course is offered for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students build competence in giving critiques, participating in class discussions, and giving presentations. Students make artwork to present to the class. They learn and practice the vocabulary of visual and design elements and use these to analyze and critique their own and their classmates' works. Students practice a variety of critique formats by using formal, social-cultural, and expressive theories of art criticism. They discuss and critique works both verbally and in writing.