The Department of Film and Media Studies is designed for those who are captivated by the large screen and the small screen. As home to the Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television and New Media, we have become one of the world’s leading film and media research centers, fostering a new generation of visionaries with a stake in the future of screen media.

We focus on film, television, and new media around the world. Our 400 undergraduates cultivate critical and analytical skills through the study of media objects and practices. Students have the opportunity to interact closely with distinguished faculty on research projects and to meld theory with practice through a vibrant mix of activities, such as the Screenwriters' Co-op, Reel Loud Film Festival, and Media Fields Journal.

The Department hosts the long-running AFI Routledge book series.  

The Department of Film and Media Studies at UCSB is a place creative young minds can thrive. Watch as students describe their creative and academic experiences.

Film and Media studies News & Events

Featured
Leah Grossman's Journey Through Storytelling
Student Spotlight
Leah Grossman's Journey Through Storytelling
Student Spotlight

Leah Grossman, an award-winning screenwriter and graduating UCSB student, has turned a childhood passion for storytelling into a promising career in film. Her character-driven work, including the surreal short Hollow, has earned festival recognition and a fellowship that now propels her to the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Student Spotlight
How One UCSB Student Swapped Calculus for a Camera
Alumni All-Stars
How One UCSB Student Swapped Calculus for a Camera
Alumni All-Stars

After a transformative backpacking trip during the pandemic, UCSB alum Malakai Isaacs shifted from environmental science to filmmaking, discovering a passion for nature-based, underwater, and adventure storytelling. Now a freelance filmmaker, Isaacs credits UCSB’s production courses—particularly the Coastal Media Project—for equipping him with the skills he continues to use in his documentary and commercial work.

Alumni All-Stars
Abuse of Native Children and the Stories We Must Remember
News
Abuse of Native Children and the Stories We Must Remember
News

At a UCSB Carsey-Wolf Center screening of the documentary Sugarcane, UC Santa Cruz professor Caitlin Keliia emphasized the power of film in preserving the violent histories of Indigenous children who were taken from their families and forced into labor and abuse at residential schools. Drawing from her own research on Native women in domestic labor, Keliia highlighted how remembering these stories through media and discussion is essential for truth, accountability, and healing.

News
The Struggles of Growing Up in the Digital Era
News, Student Spotlight
The Struggles of Growing Up in the Digital Era
News, Student Spotlight

The Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara hosted a screening and panel called Panic!: Social Studies, about a new docuseries by Lauren Greenfield that explores the impact of social media on teens’ mental health, identity, and activism. Featuring candid stories from diverse youth, the series invites critical reflection on how corporate algorithms shape the digital lives of a generation.

News, Student Spotlight
Podcasting to Expand the Study of Black Life
News
Podcasting to Expand the Study of Black Life
News

Earlier this month, 2025-26 postdoctoral fellow at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Adam McNeil gave a talk hosted by UCSB History on the importance of podcasting for the study of Black life. McNeil, from Rutgers University, has interviewed over 110 intellectual scholars about their field of study and believes his work as an African American podcast host is changing the world.

News
Filmmaker Wendy Jackson’s Dual Calling as Producer and Teacher
Focus on Faculty
Filmmaker Wendy Jackson’s Dual Calling as Producer and Teacher
Focus on Faculty

UCSB film lecturer Wendy Jackson brings her industry expertise and passion for storytelling to the screen with Facing the Falls, a documentary short about one woman’s courageous journey through the Grand Canyon while battling a rare muscle disease. Balancing her roles as a producer and educator, Jackson uses the film to highlight themes of resilience, accessibility, and the transformative power of perseverance.

Focus on Faculty
STEM and Storytelling: Following Interdisciplinary Passions
Student Spotlight
STEM and Storytelling: Following Interdisciplinary Passions
Student Spotlight

UC Santa Barbara Biology student Maritza Ramos Leon is proving that science and art don’t have to live in separate worlds. While pursuing a STEM degree, she wrote and directed a short film that explores a tender queer relationship, drawing from personal experiences and a desire for authentic representation. Ramos’ journey reflects the power of following all your passions—even when they seem to pull in opposite directions.

Student Spotlight
Studying Soccer: A User-Friendly Approach to Cultural Studies
Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty
Studying Soccer: A User-Friendly Approach to Cultural Studies
Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty

UC Santa Barbara literature and film professor Eloi Grasset, who has taught at Harvard and the University of Barcelona, now brings his expertise in Spanish and Iberian culture to a new course open to all majors: Soccer in the Hispanic World. 

Cool Courses, Focus on Faculty
Of Land and Memory in the Middle East
News, Student Spotlight
Of Land and Memory in the Middle East
News, Student Spotlight

The Center for Middle East Studies recently held a graduate panel to highlight student’s research, a part of the center’s Spotlight Series. Camilla Falanesca, Giovanni Vimercati, and bridge mcwaid all presented their research, spanning from the film distribution in Beirut, to the fish market in 1950’s Palestine, to the oilfield in El Borma, Tunisia.

News, Student Spotlight
The Dark Legacy of the Krishna Movement
Alumni All-Stars, News
The Dark Legacy of the Krishna Movement
Alumni All-Stars, News

UC Santa Barbara alum Nori Muster joined filmmaker Jason Lapeyre and moderator David Gartell, a religious studies expert in the UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections, for a screening and post-screening discussion of docudrama Monkey on a Stick hosted by UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center. Muster was recruited by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) when she was a sociology senior at UCSB in 1978. She was a historical advisor for the film.

Alumni All-Stars, News
Arriving at University After More than Two Decades
Student Spotlight, Blog
Arriving at University After More than Two Decades
Student Spotlight, Blog

At 41, Jose Alejandro Mendoza represents a growing wave of non-traditional college students navigating higher education after decades in the workforce. His journey—marked by resilience, mental health battles, and creative achievements—challenges traditional timelines and redefines what it means to belong on a college campus.

Student Spotlight, Blog
Honoring Donors and Student Creativity
News, Student Spotlight
Honoring Donors and Student Creativity
News, Student Spotlight

The 2025 winners of the UCSB Humanities and Fine Arts Division’s Give Day Creativity Contest joined HFA faculty and donors at a lunch last week to receive awards for their original work in writing, photography, art and music.

News, Student Spotlight
From Campus Coverage to Broadcast Journalism
Alumni All-Stars
From Campus Coverage to Broadcast Journalism
Alumni All-Stars

UCSB alumna Alexandra Goldberg turned her passion for journalism into a career in broadcast news. From reporting at UCSB to working at WHAS11, an ABC-affiliated TV station in Louisville, Kentucky, Goldberg believes her time at UCSB helped her develop key journalism skills. Now, she shares how her college experience shaped her path to the professional newsroom.

Alumni All-Stars
From Actor to Director: Delving Deep into "Sweeney Todd"
Student Spotlight, News
From Actor to Director: Delving Deep into "Sweeney Todd"
Student Spotlight, News

UCSB English student and actor-turned-director Curran Seth made his directorial debut with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, collaborating with the UCSB Music Department and Shrunken Heads Production Company to bring the dark, character-driven story to life. Emphasizing emotional depth over technical precision, Seth guided his cast—many of whom were primarily singers—to tap into their characters' psychology, resulting in a raw and immersive production.

Student Spotlight, News
HFA Speaks: Five Years after Lockdown, a Lingering Legacy in the Arts
News, Focus on Faculty
HFA Speaks: Five Years after Lockdown, a Lingering Legacy in the Arts
News, Focus on Faculty

Five years after COVID-19’s initial outbreak across the U.S., Letty García, Nomi Morris and Nathan Roberts from the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts gathered to unpack its impacts on film, the performing arts, writing and academia for a UC Santa Barbara audience. While quarantine fostered artistic innovation and collective creativity, it also transformed university students in both positive and negative ways, according to the speakers.

News, Focus on Faculty