UC Santa Cruz announces a new graduate program leading to a Ph.D. in Film & Digital Media.
Applications are now being accepted through January 15 for the inaugural class, beginning in fall quarter of 2010.
Focusing on cinema, television, video art, and Internet-based media, the new doctoral program will challenge the traditional borders between creative practice and critical studies.
"Increasingly, the study of media is converging with the production of media," noted UCSC film and digital media professor Warren Sack, director of graduate studies for the department. "For example, scholars are now producing films, web sites, and 3-D models, and media producers are studying history, theory and criticism to create something new and different. We are creating a new Ph.D. program that will integrate both media scholarship and production."
Sack added that UCSC's new Ph.D. program is designed to provide a platform for the creation of hybrid work that would be difficult to accomplish in other academic settings.
He stressed that candidates for the program must have demonstrated skill in critical, theoretical, and historical scholarship, and a demonstrated interest in film, television, video, or new media production.
"We hope to attract seasoned artists whose work has moved them to dig more deeply into the history, theory, and criticism of their medium," said Sack. "And, we are equally welcoming of media scholars whose writings have broadened to incorporate multiple media of expression."
Larry Andrews, chair of the UCSC Film and Digital Media Department noted that faculty are excited about the increased research energy that the presence of graduate students will bring to the department.
"The film program is now entering a moment when we will soon be celebrating our 10-year anniversary, and it is fitting that at this point in time we should be launching a new graduate program, marking a new phase for the department," said Andrews.
"Our program, although relatively young, is beginning to see the mark that our undergraduates are making on the world," Andrews added. "It will be incredibly exciting to see the same thing happen with our future grad students."
For more information, contact graduate program coordinator Abby Young at fdmphd@ucsc.edu, or visit the Film & Digital Media website.
