The Documentary Studies Program at the University of Utah provides leadership, resources, archival and distribution impetus and educational opportunities in support of the documentary arts. Its initiatives include a broad array of activities, from basic documentation and research, through new pedagogical products, to public presentations using varieties of technologies and media outlets.
Formed in 2003, the Program is an interdisciplinary partnership of faculty from a variety of colleges at the University of Utah that is administered through the College of Humanities. It engages the documentary in all its varieties of form: oral narrative, architectural sketch, still photography, film and video, and website presentation.
The Program approaches the documentary from a western vantage, an outlook and experience that generate a unique perspective. The Program believes “the west” is both distinct landscape and metaphor.
The Documentary Studies Program sponsors a Minor in Documentary Studies. A six-course program of study culminates in the creation of a student-produced documentary in any of the several forms of documentary presentation.