Performing and Media Arts (BA)

College of Arts and Sciences

Program Website

Program Description

Performing and Media Arts (PMA) majors acquire a broad understanding of performance and media through several rubrics: history, theory and criticism; creative authorship (i.e. directing for stage or screen, choreography, writing for performance and media); design; and embodied performance (acting, dance, movement). Each rubric entails historical and geographical breadth, encompassing theatre/performance, dance/movement, and cinema/media from every continent and across periods, studying and producing artworks from antiquity to the present. All students benefit from the synergies between the study and practice of dance and movement, of live theatre, and of time-based media works, the writing of plays and screenplays, design and technical realization across art forms, and the critical study of canons and traditions of each form. Additionally, majors practice a range of methods and interpretive strategies, including theories and practices of acting and directing; the study of speech and dialects; design theories and technologies; media platforms and production; and humanities- and arts-based forms of inquiry. Majors are encouraged to locate theatre, performance, movement/dance, cinema and media within allied humanities fields and the applied arts by taking courses in such areas as history, art history, psychology, literature, history of architecture, music, and fine arts. The study of foreign languages is strongly encouraged.

Performing and Media Arts is the department where it is possible to creatively explore and study theatre, film and dance separately or to link these together in new ways. For example, students can combine creative and critical work in acting and film, cinema and media, theatre and television, dance and light, or film and sound. The major is both flexible and rigorous, giving students opportunities to devise their own course of study. In consultation with their faculty advisor, students can also plan a departmental sequence in an area of special interest. Students are encouraged to complete both creative work and critical studies.

Prospective majors must consult the director of undergraduate studies, pma-dus@cornell.edu.

To be admitted to the major, students must have completed one course in the department (or equivalent for transfer students), excluding first-year writing seminars and laboratory classes, and received a grade of B or above. This course will count toward the requirements for the major.

Honors

Second-semester sophomores who have completed superior work in PMA and related subjects may consider admission to the departmental program leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in PMA. Requirements include a GPA of 3.5 in PMA major courses, an average of 3.0 in all courses and completion of specific, required, prerequisite courses in the student's area of Honors study. Potential Honors students must consult with their Honors advisor in the spring of their junior year about the Honors program and complete and submit to the PMA Undergraduate Coordinator their advisor-approved, PMA Honors Project Application. Honors projects are possible across the spectrum of creative and analytical work. Creative projects require a written analytical component. The PMA Director of Undergraduate Studies encourages interested students to review the PMA Honors Program application as soon as they become PMA majors.

Cornell University in Los Angeles Study Away Semester

Beginning Spring 2027, the Department of Performing and Media Arts will offer an optional 12 credit spring semester program in Los Angeles, open to all students at Cornell.

Students take:

PMA 3482 CULA: Understanding the Creative Media Industries In Los Angeles

PMA 3483 CULA: Performing and Media Arts in Los Angeles

PMA 3999 CULA: Directed Study

For more information, contact program director Prof. Kristen Warner at kjw247@cornell.edu.