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Performing and Media Arts Ph.D. (Ithaca)

Field of Study

Performing and Media Arts

Program Description

The graduate program (Ph.D.) in Performing and Media Arts ffers students an interdisciplinary environment in which to pursue critical studies of various theatrical and performance traditions, cinema and media cultures, and expressive behavior in multilingual, intermedial, and transnational contexts. Students may work with a strong emphasis in either theatre and performance studies or cinema and media studies, and they are also encouraged to find novel, fresh, and rigorous ways to produce work at interdisciplinary sites of contact between theatre and performance studies on the one hand and cinema and media studies on the other hand.

A student’s Special Committee is made up of three faculty members, two PMA field faculty members representing the student's major area (theater and performance studies, cinema and media studies, or theatre theory and aesthetics) and a third, from outside the PMA field faculty, representing the student's minor area. (e.g., Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Asian Studies). Please note that while the graduate field is not coterminous with the department and the graduate field includes many faculty members with interests in performing and media arts from other Cornell departments, every special committee must include at least one current faculty member in the Dept. of Performing and Media Arts.

Contact Information

Website: https://pma.cornell.edu/
Email: dm246@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 254-2757

Graduate Field Assistant
223 Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, 430 College Avenue
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Concentrations by Subject

  • cinema and media studies
  • theatre and performance studies
  • theatre practice (acting or directing) (minor)
  • theatre theory and aesthetics

Tuition

Visit the Graduate School's Tuition Rates page.

Application Requirements and Deadlines

Application Deadlines:

Fall: December 15

Requirements Summary:

Admission is highly selective. Applicants must submit a scholarly writing sample. An undergraduate major in theatre, film, or a related discipline is not required for admission, although applicants who have had little or no academic work in performance and/or media may have to do more than others to acquire the competence in scholarship expected in the program.

Learning Outcomes

  • Make an original and substantial contribution to the chosen field.
  • Be able to develop appropriate concepts and methodologies and to articulate the value of the chosen research.
  • Demonstrate advanced research skills, which may include creative scholarship in conversation with their theoretical application.
  • Demonstrate commitment to advancing the values of scholarship by being actively engaged in the university's scholarly/creative community, professional societies, and other forms of knowledge exchange.
  • Demonstrate growth as a teacher.