Undergraduate Education Overview

Courses Offered for the Upcoming Semester – Fall 2008 Courses

Current and Past Semester Courses – Spring 2008 Courses

Instructors

Undergraduate Certificate

Documentary Studies Courses and Cross-Listed Courses

Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professor in Documentary Studies and American Studies

Student Opportunities at CDS





Courses Offered for the Current Semester


Spring 2008

DOCST 100S.01 Children and the Experience of Illness
Instructor: Moses
W 3:05 p.m.–5:35 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 201)
An exploration of how children cope with illness, incorporating the tools of documentary photography and writing. Students will work outside class with children who are ill and teach them how to use a Polaroid camera, working toward an exhibit of photographs at the end of the semester. Permission required. No prerequisites.
Cross list: PUBPOL 100S.01


DOCST 115.01 Introduction to Photography
Instructor: Hunter
Th 10:05 a.m.–12:35 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 201)
Foundation class in black-and-white photographic process as the basis for using photography as a visual language. Students learn to make a printable exposure using black-and-white film, make a “proper proof,” and make an 8-by-10 enlargement. Assignments include portraits, alternative techniques, landscape, and a final portfolio that embodies a single visual idea. Consent of instructor required.
Cross list: ARTSVIS 115.01


DOCST 118S.01 Alternative Photographic Process
Instructor: Hunter
Tu 10:05 a.m.–12:35 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 201)
Survey of historic photographic processes, including Gun Bichromate, Cyanotype, Kalotype, and Platinum/Palladium printing. Consent of instructor required.
Cross list: ARTSVIS 122AS.01


DOCST 120S.01 Documentary Research Methods
Instructor: Cline
TTh 10:05 a.m.–11:20 a.m. (CDS, Bridges 113)
A how-to course in doing research for documentaries, including film, photography, audio, and narrative projects. Students collaborate on a class project, using fieldwork in the community, local archives, and other resources to document a chapter of Durham history. Students find and analyze documents, oral histories, photographs, and artifacts, as well as examine intersections between documentary and history, analyzing key contributions to the documenting of American and European history throughout the past century. Discussion topics include memory, truth, objectivity, propaganda, narrative, audience, and authority. As a final project, students have the opportunity to research a documentary interest of their own. No experience in film, photography, or audio documentary necessary.
Cross list: HISTORY 150CS.01(6)



DOCST 129.1 Contemporary Documentary Films
Instructors: Paletz, Rankin
Tu 1:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m. (Nasher 105)
Integrated with the films and filmmakers of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The art form and technology of documentary films. Continuity and change in the style, issues, and politics of contemporary documentary filmmaking. Analysis of outstanding films from around the world. Presentations and discussions by filmmakers.
Cross list: FVD 103.1(25); POLSCI 156A.1(25); PUBPOL 171.1(30)


DOCST 132.01 The South in Black and White
Instructor: Tyson
Tu 7:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m. (Hayti Heritage Center)
Documentary traditions in the American South, with focus on call and response between black and white cultures in a region where democracy has been envisioned and embattled with global consequences. History and culture as documented in spirituals, gospel, blues, and rock-and-roll; civil rights photography; Southern literature; and historical and autobiographical writing. Will include work by such historians as W.E.B. Du Bois, C. Vann Woodward, John Hope Franklin; literary achievements of Richard Wright, Zora Neal Hurston, and Ernest Gaines along with their white counterparts: William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Lillian Smith, and others. Includes lectures, music, poetry, film clips, discussion, and visitors. Open to Duke, UNC, and NCCU students and the general public.
Cross list: AAAS 131.001(20)

Special Web site for The South in Black and White

Directions to the Hayti Heritage Center


DOCST 133S.1 Adapting Literature – Producing Film
Instructor: James
W 4:25 p.m.–7:25 p.m. (Biddle 101)
Students will participate in the collaborative production of a short dramatic film, adapted from a short story. Students will be exposed to every aspect of the filmmaking process. Utilizing on-campus and off-campus expertise, students will gain a better understanding of the interdisciplinary aspects of filmmaking.
Cross list: FVD 133S.1(5); ARTSVIS 138S.1(5)


DOCST 144S.01 Literacy Through Photography
Instructor: Hyde
Tu 1:15 p.m.–3:45 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 113)
Children’s self-expression and child development through writing, photography, and documentary work. Focus on the reading and critical interpretation of images. The history, philosophy, and methodology of Literacy Through Photography. Includes internship in elementary- or middle-school classrooms. Consent of instructor required.
Cross list: EDUC 144S.01(4)


DOCST 150S.01 Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking
Instructor: Hawkins
Th 1:15 p.m.–3:45 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 104)
Th 6:15 p.m.–8:45 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 007)
Intermediate to advanced filmmaking techniques. Presumes a working knowledge of Final Cut Pro, mini-DV camera, and some fieldwork experience with a camcorder. Topics include fieldwork in a variety of communities and work on pertinent social and cultural issues. Prerequisite: Documentary Studies 105S or equivalent experience and knowledge. Consent of instructor required.
Cross list: FVD 116S.01; PUBPOL 182S.01


DOCST 155S.01 Intermediate Audio Documentary
Instructor: Biewen
Tu 3:05 p.m.–5:35 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 104)
Intermediate to advanced audio documentary techniques. Includes instructor-supervised fieldwork with an audio recorder in variety of cultural settings on a particular issue, as well as independent work on students’ own audio productions resulting in broadcast-quality piece suitable for radio or podcasting. Prerequisite: Documentary Studies 135S or equivalent. Consent of instructor required.


DOCST 158S.01 Small Town USA
Instructor: Post-Rust (Smith Arts Warehouse)
Th 4:25 p.m.–6:55 p.m.
Theory and practice of documentary photography in a small-town context. Class works in collaboration with one nearby small town; each student completes a documentary photographic study of one individual or group within that town. Course of study includes an analysis of the documentary tradition particularly as it relates to locally situated work and to selected individual projects. The course addresses issues inherent in the documentary process, including building visual narrative, developing honest relationships with subjects, responsibility to subjects and their communities, and engaging with and portraying a community as an outsider. Students learn photo elicitation and editing techniques and use them to inform their projects during the semester. As part of coursework, students produce exhibition quality work for presentation to the public within the town. Students must have access to transportation (including shared rides) during the semester. Consent of instructor required.
Cross list: PUBPOL 158S.01, ARTSVIS 158S.01


DOCST 162S.01 Farmworkers in North Carolina: Poverty
Instructor: Thompson
MW 10:05 a.m. –11:20 a.m. (CDS, Bridges 201)
Focus is on those who bring food to our tables, particularly those who labor in the fields of North Carolina and across the Southeast. Course will cover farm work from the plantation system and slavery to sharecropping, and to the migrant and seasonal farmworker population today, as well as documentary work and its contributions to farmworker advocacy.
Cross list: AAAS 195S.01(3); CULANTH 162S.01(6)


DOCST 190S.01 Collaborative Art in Durham
Instructor: Cook
W 3:05 p.m.–5:35 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 113)
Exploration of progressive educational philosophies, radical democratic theory, and diverse contemplative exercises as applied to the Durham context. Students reflect upon their own identity within Durham’s diverse and overlapping communities while creating public artworks and community celebrations that express a variety of social and aesthetic positions. Students explore the history of the larger Durham community and investigate how the community can grow in a positive way. Students examine the implications of working collaboratively and the relationship between process and product. During the semester the class will work on community-based murals in Durham neighborhoods through a project titled Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life.
Cross list: ARTSVIS 269S.01(1)

For further information: Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life


DOCST 190S.03 Our Culinary Cultures
Instructor: Alexander
F 10:20 a.m.–12:50 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 113)
Documentary approach to the world of food using fieldwork research. Topics of food and its preparation examined through deep stories of how food is raised, prepared, and presented in order to explore how the myriad ways in which what we eat reveal key biographical, economic, religious, and other truths about our cultures. Introduces students to the history of food writing and the concept of food in general as a nonverbal tool of communication. Photography, audio, and documentary writing employed. Visits to restaurants, farmers markets, and/or local farms.


DOCST 193S.01 Documentary Engagement
Instructor: Harris
M 1:15 p.m.–3:45 p.m. (Smith Arts Warehouse)
Documentary photography as a tool for social engagement in preparation for intensive field-based projects. Students study documentary photographers while planning and refining their own documentary projects through which they will address societal issues locally, nationally, and abroad. Students learn valuable technical skills such as Photoshop, inkjet printing, and web-based methods in order to complete a preliminary documentary project by the end of the semester.


DOCST 196S.01 Capstone Seminar
Instructor: Rankin
Th 10:05 a.m.–12:35 p.m. (CDS, Bridges 001)
Immersion in fieldwork-based inquiry and in-depth projects that serve as Certificate in Documentary Studies capstone experiences for students. Methods of documentary fieldwork, including participant observation, and modes of arts and humanities interpretation through a variety of mediums (including papers, film, photography exhibits, radio pieces, and performances). Consent of instructor required. Prerequisite: DOCST 101 and four DOCST electives.

See listing of required and elective certificate courses

Fall 2007

Spring 2007

Fall 2006

Spring 2006

Fall 2005

Spring 2005

Fall 2004

Spring 2004

Fall 2003








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Untitled, from the series Latino Pastimes—La Vida y el Fútbol. Photograph by William L. Plaxico, from the course "Documentary Photography and the Southern Cultural Landscape," taught by Professor Tom Rankin.