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Technology

Technology, media and humanities

Rapid and pervasive changes in technology and media continue to reshape our connections to community and our access to information. History, science, literature, community and nonprofit development intersect with new social technologies, film and online journalism within the College and result in exciting and dynamic new opportunities.

College and campus initiatives

From publications that bring together VCU and the community to film screenings and extensive online library collections, the following VCU programs and initiatives offer opportunities to explore media and its place in the humanities.

College initiatives

  • Blackbird is an online journal of literature and the arts that joins students, alumni and faculty in the Department of English with its publishing partner — the New Virginia Review — community volunteers, a regional nonprofit and members of the Richmond, Va., and Doha, Qatar communities.
  • David Coogan, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of English, created the Prison Writing Project, where VCU students in his prison writing course read the published literature of prisoners and ex offenders, take turns typing the hand-written drafts of the men in the city jail workshop, offer feedback and meet those who have been released during class.
  • Peep This partners adolescent males, ages 13 to 17 years, who have been identified as “at risk” by the Family Resource Center, with undergraduate student mentors in the African American Studies program and graduate students in the Media, Art, and Text and Photography and Film departments. Each team will select a topic for a documentary film that focuses on historical issues relevant to the Richmond area, execute its production and present it in a community viewing of the projects.
  • The Science, Technology and Society began in 2006, with the recognition that VCU’s wealth of programs and resources — ranging from the VCU School of Medicine to the School of the Arts to the Ph.D. in Media, Art, and Text — has made it uniquely well-positioned to create an interdisciplinary program that integrates medical and science Ph.D. students, as well as science, humanities, and social science undergraduates.
  • To train local citizen journalists and build a news and information portal for Fulton Hill, a low-income neighborhood in Richmond, Va., the School of Mass Communications works with the Fulton Hill Neighborhood Resource Center to help local residents produce stories, photos, audio, video and a Fulton Hill wiki, as part of the Greater Fulton News.
  • CreateAthon on Campus is a part of a semester-long course focused on communication issues specific to nonprofits, where college students in the fields of mass communication, marketing and design partner with faculty members and local professionals to develop and produce materials ranging from identity packages to PR strategies.
  • Richmond Legacies is an emerging focus on Richmond’s history, involving the departments of History and African American Studies and community partners, such as the Richmond Slave Trail Commission.
  • In collaboration with several community partners, faculty and students in the Wilder School developed DataShare to make data on the greater Richmond area easy to access.
  • The School of World Studies’ Film and Media in a Global Perspective provides rich opportunities for the study of film and other media, including the internationally recognized French Film Festival, Richmond’s first Brazilian Film Festival, and the school-sponsored Ciné-club, a student organization dedicated to the appreciation of international cinema.

Campus initiatives

  • VCU Libraries Digital Archives presents materials — primarily from Special Collections and Archives — ranging in subject matter from African American history in Virginia to Richmond’s past and present, from the comic book and cartooning arts to the history of VCU itself, in a variety of formats, including photographs, art, text, video and audio.
  • VCU Libraries Online Exhibits highlight various collections housed in the Special Collections and Archives departments located in the James Branch Cabell and Tompkins-McCaw libraries, such as the women’s suffrage movement in Virginia, race and education in Prince William County, Va., and a history of film and dance in VCU’s Grace Street Theater.
  • The Community Outreach Information Network works to increase access to high-quality health information for the Richmond’s high-risk population by providing the right information at the right time and place and in the right format, strengthening the relationships among its multiple participating health information organizations and linking them with the appropriate community agencies.
  • The School of Engineering’s Computer Programming Contest encourages the development of creative problem solving and communication skills as high school students work with their teammates to generate solutions to programming problems.
  • The FIRST Robotics competition strives to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders through interesting challenges and exciting sports-like competitions.

Academic programs

If you’re interested in the role of media and film in the study of humanities, the College offers a variety of academic programs. Visit the school and department Web sites for more information on the degree and certificate programs available.

Other academic programs offered at VCU that intersect significantly with technology and media include:

Community resources

Visit the Web sites below to learn more about the media and technology resources in the Richmond area.

VCU Department of Music Virginia Commonwealth University