Area Advisor: Matthew Frye Jacobson (matthew.jacobson@yale.edu)
Public Humanities provides a range of opportunities for students to study both the history and the practice of documentary work in film, photography, and sound. Courses such as “Introduction to Documentary Studies” and “Documentary Film Workshop” give students the chance to investigate documentary work as a cultural form with a deep and complex history of its own, and also as a set of technical skills, investigative methods, creative techniques, and production practices to be studied and mastered. Yale’s faculty includes several scholars across the disciplines who have experience in making documentaries; and the Public Humanities program regularly offers lectures and workshops by documentary practitioners. Past events have included talks and screenings by Peter Davis, Gaspar González, Zareena Grewal, Thomas Allen Harris, Matt Jacobson, Alexandra Juhasz, Errol Morris, Charles Musser, John Lucas, Helen Whitney, and Oliver Stone.