The Graduate Program in Media Studies at Pratt Institute – M.A. Degree Program
In an endlessly mutating world of media, scholars, creative practitioners and professionals in a variety of fields need to understand the ways in which media transforms and dissolves boundaries among disciplines and creates new forms of knowledge and cultural production.
The Master of Arts (M.A.) in Media Studies provides students with the conceptual and practical tools necessary to prepare themselves to engage the fundamental challenges and complexities of our times. The program addresses the social, practical, economic, political and theoretical stakes of mediation considered in the widest possible sense, encompassing more traditional approaches to the study of media (print, film, photography, audio and television), in conjunction with approaches that address the massive shifts produced by the computer and internet. Students will benefit from an academic environment shaped not only by theorists and critics, but also by distinguished practitioners of the forms being studied. Students will study and work among artists and designers and be taught by faculty-practitioners. To find out more, see our Faculty pages here.
Our courses are small, intensive, seminars taught exclusively by professors. As our department’s only graduate program, Media Studies has our full commitment. The program is 30 credits and can be completed in three semesters. Among the core requirements are (1) six credit hours of courses that provide students with critical and theoretical tools and (2) six credit hours of courses that enable students to acquire a range of basic competencies in media aesthetics and production. Additional courses introduce students to professionals from media fields. There are 12 credits of free electives, which give students the liberty to customize their study. Four credits are reserved for the thesis, which will take the form most relevant to the student’s course of study. Finally, we will help students find internships that complement their work. For more, see the Curriculum page here.
Among the electives we have planned for upcoming semesters are: Third Cinema; Theories of the Image; The Media Metaphors Project; Key Concepts in Net Art; Media Theory and Social Difference; Visual Economies, Cognitive Capitalism, and Attentional Labor; Film Sound; Semiotics of Media; Networks, Media, and Philosophy; Algorithmic Mediologies; and many more! For full information on these and others, see our Upcoming Courses page here.
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS for FALL 2013 INCOMING CLASS!!: To apply to admission to our program, go to www.pratt.edu/apply.
