Major Moment: Audrey Hinsdale '25

Audrey Hinsdale ‘25 is a senior Tour Guide, a supervisor at Uncommon Grounds, and a Program Representative for the Visual Studies program. They also play on Bryn Mawr’s ultimate frisbee team (Sneetches) and are an active member of Craft Collective. Here, Audrey shares their academic journey as an Independent Major in Visual Studies. 

Tell us a bit about your major and how you discovered it at Bryn Mawr. 

I came into college with a vague interest in humanities, social science, and performing arts, but I wanted to have an open mind about my interests. I discovered Visual Studies my sophomore fall when I took “Introduction to Visual Studies” and “Foundations of Film Production” simultaneously. The Visual Studies program focuses on practice-based research, and through these courses, I was participating in hands-on assignments that connected to the theory I read and discussed with peers.

In my sophomore year, I declared an Independent Major in Visual Studies.  

Visual Studies is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of visual culture. The program engages in art, exhibition, performance, film, and media through analytical study and the practice of making. The visual studies department is different from an Art History or Film Studies department because it considers an extremely wide array of visual images as worthy of study. In my courses, we’ve learned about documentary filmmaking, reality television, performance art, surveillance, and many other methods of making images. Visual Studies is currently offered in the Bi-Co as a minor program, but I wanted to expand my engagement with the discipline and pursue it as my main focus which led me to the independent major. The core faculty of Visual Studies is at Haverford, but I’ve been able to take classes at Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore for my major. 

Which courses helped shape your academic path? 

My favorite class that I took for my major was “Race and Representation in Documentary Filmmaking.” As a class, we watched and discussed the ethics of documentary filmmaking over the last century of documentary production. The final project for the class was to collaboratively make a documentary with a classmate that dealt with identity in a way that was important to you. My partner and I directed, filmed, and edited a short piece called Soup on Skin about tattoos and their relationship to identity on Bryn Mawr and Haverford’s campuses. We premiered the film at a screening event for community members and got a lot of productive feedback from our professor throughout the creative process. 

"My partner and I directed, filmed, and edited a short piece called Soup on Skin about tattoos and their relationship to identity on Bryn Mawr and Haverford’s campuses."

Tell us about a time you were able to put learning into action.  

In the summer of 2024, I attended the Flaherty Film Seminar in conjunction with Haverford’s Hurford Center for Arts and Humanities. The Flaherty is an annual seminar where academics, filmmakers, programmers, and other professionals come together to watch and discuss documentary films. Me and three other Bi-Co community members flew to the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Thailand to attend the program. After the event, my peers and I programmed a screening for the Bi-Co community of a few films we watched to reflect on our amazing experience. Throughout this process, I met a lot of amazing filmmakers, producers, and fellow students, watched a plethora of amazing films, and learned to produce programmed events. This experience was completely funded by the Hurford Center for Arts and Humanities, and I will forever be grateful for the experience! 

What advice would you give to a first year in the process of declaring a major?   

My advice is to have trust in yourself! Follow what you feel is right and don’t worry too much about making the “perfect” decision. The Bi-Co has an abundance of amazing opportunities no matter what path you take, and therefore, you’ll find your place wherever you go!