Media Arts & Culture

Occidental’s Media Arts & Culture (MAC) department integrates media theory and production, helping you to develop critical and creative skills for engaging in an increasingly participatory media culture.

MAC is the only liberal arts film/media department in the country located in a major metropolitan area. Our close proximity to the Los Angeles media and creative industries means you’ll be able to take advantage of invaluable internships and networking opportunities as you cultivate your own work in a close-knit and collaborative liberal arts environment.

You’ll study and create a wide range of media forms; you’ll push media making beyond the screen into installation, public, and mobile spaces; and you’ll learn new tools for digital scholarship, from podcasts and video blogs to GIS applications and VR.

Majors select one of two concentrations: Critical Media, which focuses on aspects of film and media history, visual culture, and digital culture, or Media Production, which focuses on production across a range of evolving fictional, experimental, and documentary-based media forms. As a MAC student, you’ll access Los Angeles as a production location, an archive of film history, a repository of compelling stories and subjects, and a space for internships and professional development. You’ll also be encouraged to study abroad and to apply for Summer Undergraduate Research and Richter Travel Grant opportunities.

MAC fosters graduates who are technically savvy, creatively innovative, critically questioning, and socially engaged on local and global registers. Alumni often enter straight into the entertainment industry, working on a wide array of film, television, streaming, and emergent media forms. Others are making their mark in independent fictional and documentary media, and many are charting career paths as media analysts, scholars, museum exhibition designers, curators, and community-engaged activists.

Meet Our Faculty

What Our Graduates Are Doing

Exhibition/user experience developer, Exploratorium in SF

Doug Thistlewolf
2006

Manager of West Coast Production, HBO

Moana Casanova
2008

Interactive & AI product developer, Google

Ethan Ambabo
2006

Fellow, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University

Tatiana Garnett
2021

Television Editor, Bumin/Murray Productions

Ryan Rambach
2014

MFA, Cinema and Media Production, Boston University

Ryan Metzler
2014

Medical student, Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine

Cruz Riley
2017

Senior social media manager, Amazon Studios

Cindy Tang
2009

Master's program, Screen Cultures, Queen's University

Francesca DiBona
2023
Contact Media Arts & Culture
Weingart 109
Katarzyna Marciniak
Department Chair