Media Studies, MA

Explore contemporary media in an arts-focused environment. Immersed in Pratt’s art and design community, our students blend critical theory with creative skills to reflect on how the media influence the economy, race, gender, and politics.

Media Studies word cloud (white background)

Type: Graduate, MA
Start Term: Fall Only
Credits: 30
Duration: 2 Years
Courses: Plan of Study
School and Department: School of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
Humanities and Media Studies

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An Interdisciplinary Program Embedded in an Arts College

Our unique program is integrated into the creative landscape of Pratt’s Brooklyn campus. In addition to writing essays, our students produce practice-based research work—creative writing, film, multimedia installations, and other interdisciplinary projects. Through an array of electives and optional certificate programs, students explore other arts and design disciplines and incorporate them into their work.

Cutting-Edge Practices in New York City, the World’s Cultural Capital

NYC is an ideal laboratory to study how the media shape our perceptions and interpretations of the world. With deep connections within the city’s creative industries, MA in Media Studies faculty members engage students in internships and collaborative projects with prominent artists, scholars, and industry professionals who guide the students to the forefront of media research and innovation.

Small Classes and a Close-Knit Community

Small classes allow you to work closely with faculty and contribute to a strong sense of community in our program. Students form close-knit cohorts and work collaboratively within the program and across the Pratt campus.

Detailed Program Overview and Structure

The MA in Media Studies at Pratt, offered at the Brooklyn campus, is situated in the uniquely vibrant environment of an art, design, and architecture school. Students who value both media scholarship and media practices are encouraged to apply. Classes are small and students work closely with their professors.

Our program is connected to a larger community of artists and designers on and beyond our campus who are using and producing the very media we study. Creativity or the creation of ideas, worlds, and things is a central feature of our program. Our students engage “media” as more than a set of technologies with which to create and share information. “Media” encompasses an array of cultural, social, aesthetic, and economic processes, policies, and practices that shape the ways we experience and interpret the world. In other words, we understand media creation and media forms to be world-making projects that have histories and politics.

Students and faculty investigate the significant social, political, cultural, economic, and aesthetic questions of our time as we read contemporary theory, rethink media forms, and revisit relevant archives to consider the ways in which gender and sexuality, race, nation, and power as well as technology mediate our understandings and experiences of the world we inhabit. The coursework invites and requires students to practice both critical analysis of media and basic media production skills. Depending on their interests, the electives may focus more on scholarly practices or art practices. In all cases students in the Graduate Program in Media Studies at Pratt will gain a deeper knowledge of media theories, politics, and practices.

The Master of Arts in Media Studies graduate program consists of 30 credits, taken over three semesters, and a thesis, which is finished in the fourth.

The core sequence for the MA consists of Mediologies I and II (6 credits total) and Encounters I and II (2 credits total), elective seminars and project courses of which Experimental Media Lab and Methodologies Lab are strongly recommended (18 credits total), an internship course (optional), and a final thesis with a required Final Project/Thesis Workshop (4 credits total).

Mediologies courses (HMS-650A/HMS-650B) provide students with crucial critical and theoretical tools; students take this two-course introductory sequence during their first year. These courses are designed for students with substantial experience in media studies as well as students with less exposure.

Practices courses comprise a range of electives, including those taught in other programs, such as digital arts. These courses enable students to acquire basic competence in media aesthetics and production.

Encounters courses (HMS-549A/HMS-549B) enable students to engage directly with others working in media fields, and with timely issues and ideas, in an open-discussion “salon” environment.

The Final Project/Thesis Workshop (HMS-659A) offers an intensive, small support group in which students can develop and write their thesis, which they complete in the fourth semester by taking HMS-659B (Thesis in Progress).

Students may also choose to undertake an internship for academic credit (HMS-9700, HMS-9701, HMS-9702, HMS-9703) and professional enrichment.

In addition to the core courses described above, the program offers a range of electives in areas of specialization and interdisciplinary constellations within media studies, enabling students to develop particular areas of concentration, first through coursework and then in their one-to-one work with thesis advisers. Faculty represent areas that include new media; documentary studies; global media; media and the urban environment; media and performance; music/sound studies; media/attention economies; media ecology; archaeology of (new) media; and media, activism, and social change.

Elective seminars run in the format of small discussion courses focused on individual or team presentations on the analysis of texts, films, objects, themes, and theories. Elective project courses are semester-long laboratory/workshops in which students and one or more faculty members—in any one of several departments—engage a topic, idea, interface, space, or modality focusing on the interface between the theorization and production of media objects. Foci will vary based upon specific expertise and interests of involved faculty and students.

ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

Applications for admission to the Master of Arts in Media Studies are due January 5 for the following fall; the program accepts fall entrants only. Applicants should have a BA, BS, or BFA from an accredited institution. Candidates must submit:

a statement of purpose in which they describe their interest in the program;
10–20 pages of relevant writing sample(s), with emphasis on analytical writing about media;
transcripts of undergraduate coursework; and
two letters of recommendation.

All applicants must follow the standard admissions process for graduate programs at Pratt. See www.pratt.edu/graduate-admissions/apply/.

Chair
Gina Marchetti
gmarchet@pratt.edu

Office
Tel: 718.636.3790
www.pratt.edu/programs/ma-media-studies/

Faculty Bios
www.pratt.edu/graduate-media-studies/core-faculty

Our Faculty: Leading Academics and Media Practitioners

Our faculty bring a wealth of knowledge in areas such as digital media, global communication, cinema studies, critical race studies, performance studies, and experimental media art. In one-on-one mentoring sessions, workshops, and collaborative projects, our faculty prepare students for the contemporary media and academic landscape.

**Jonathan Beller**
Professor, Graduate Program

**Faith Holland**
Assistant Professor, Graduate Program

“Initially, I had intended for my thesis to be a short essay film with a small written supporting document. [My professor] really encouraged me to expand my research until eventually the writing component grew from a small supporting document into a full monograph.”
Eric Trenkamp, MA Media Studies ’18

Student Work

Take a look at recent examples of work by our students in our media studies courses.

After Graduation

Three students sit in front their respective desktop computers. They are all facing away from the camera. The appear to be discussing amongst themselves. They are in a well lit room.

This interdisciplinary curriculum prepares you for a variety of roles after graduation. Our graduates lead thriving careers, addressing critical challenges, and creating innovative work that reshapes our collective experiences. With an MA in Media Studies from Pratt, graduates are able to:

work as writers, curators, administrators, critics, educators, or social media professionals
work across media platforms dedicated to promoting the arts, humanities, education, culture, and social justice
promote their creative practice within the contemporary media environment
pursue a PhD in cinema, media, cultural studies, race and gender studies, queer studies, and more

Alumni Success

Eric Trenkamp, GPMS ’20, author of Race, War, and the Cinematic Myth of America: Dust That Never Settles—book based on MA thesis project.
Keisha Nicole Knight, GPMS ’18 created Sentient.Art.Film, a creative distribution initiative for distributing experimental films.
Lauren La Melle, GPMS ’18 Office Manager at Aubin Pictures and creator of ScaryCrit — a podcast about horror films and Blackness.
Alexa McDougall, GPMS ’20 Project Manager at NBCUniversal Media.
Paige Polk, GPMS ’19 joined the Advancement Project National Office team in DC as Sr. Digital Campaigns Innovator, where she builds interactive digital projects related to their community organizing campaigns.

Career Support for Life

Students and alumni can schedule one-on-one appointments with career strategists in Pratt’s Center for Career and Professional Development. A career strategist can work with you to develop your job/internship search strategies and life and business plans, as well as review résumés, cover letters, websites, and other marketing materials.

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