Sandra Ristovska, PhD, studies how, under what circumstances, and to what ends images shape the pursuit of justice and human rights in institutional and legal contexts nationally and internationally. Her research is informed by her experiences as a documentary filmmaker and premised on the understanding that without systematic guidance and applications for treating images as evidence, human rights and civil rights may be disparately recognized and upheld.
MDST 1001 - Foundations of Media Studies
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Summer 2019 / Spring 2020 / Summer 2020 / Spring 2021 / Summer 2021 / Summer 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
Introduces students to key issues and debates and contemporary applications of critical media studies focusing on economic, social, political and cultural implications. Provides an understanding of the relationship between theory and practice and equips students with the tools to critically analyze various forms of textual transmission.
MDST 2002 - Media and Communication History
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018
Examines the historical development of communication forms, tools, technologies and institutions (orality, writing, printing, photography, film, radio, television, computers, internet); their influence on culture (forms of expression and social relationships); and their impact on social and individual experience. Applies knowledge of communication history to contemporary social issues and problems in media and society, domestically and internationally.
MDST 3002 - Digital Culture and Politics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
Examines issues at the intersection of digital media, culture and politics, such as regulation and network architecture, piracy and hacking, and grassroots activism. Engage with a range of theories about cultural politics, democracy, liberalism and neo-liberalism in relation to digital information and communication technologies.
MDST 4241 - Visual Culture and Human Rights
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020 / Fall 2023
Provides the critical tools needed to understand images and their impact on the recognition and restitution of human rights claims. The course examines both visual practices (e.g. documentation, archiving, witnessing, advocacy and surveillance) and visual media (e.g. photography, film, video, drone and satellite images), unpacking the growing entanglement between visual culture and human rights.
MDST 4931 - Internship
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Summer 2018 / Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 / Summer 2019 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Summer 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Summer 2021 / Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
MDST 6241 - Visual Epistemologies: Theory and Practice
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2024
Examines visuals as a form of knowledge on its own terms with an emphasis on both theory and practice. It first considers how social, cultural and cognitive mechanisms shape visual ways of knowing, and it discusses methodological approaches for working with and in images. Then it traces the complicated status of visual knowledge over time and across institutional contexts�religion, art, science, the law, journalism and politics.
MDST 6871 - Special Topics
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Fall 2022
Special topics. May be repeated up to 15 total credit hours hours
MDST 7021 - Proseminar in Media and Communication Theory 2
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
Continues the introduction of principle concepts, literature, and theoretical and paradigmatic perspectives of media studies and mass communication and their ties and contributions to parallel domains in the social sciences and humanities. Formerly MDST 7021.
MDST 7051 - Qualitative Research Methods in Media
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019
Provides a survey of various qualitative modes of inquiry, attending to the philosophical, conceptual, and practical foundations of qualitative research in media, communication, and information. The course is designed to support students in developing a critical understanding of the different considerations in and stages of qualitative research, including the development of research questions, theoretical and conceptual frameworks, methodological approaches, data collection, data analysis, and assessment of reliability and validity of qualitative data.
