Computational Media, Arts & Cultures PhD
Program Code: G-CMAC-PHD
Degree Designation: Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Computational Media, Arts & Cultures
Website: cmac.duke.edu/phd
Program Summary
The Computational Media, Arts & Cultures Program offers graduate work leading to the PhD in computational media, arts & cultures. It is co-sponsored by the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies (AAHVS), the Program in Literature, the Information Science + Studies (ISS) Certificate Program, and the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. The doctoral program is small, experimental, and interdisciplinary. Its focus is on the intersection of media arts and humanities, sciences, and technology, both in theory and in practice. The program is committed to full and equal funding of its students during their time in residence at Duke, for up to five years. Admission to the program is usually limited to two students every two to three years.
The PhD program is affiliated with the interdisciplinary arts and humanities media labs led by the CMAC program faculty. Lab emphases include: digital archaeology; emergent media arts; information science and studies; digital art history and visual culture; art, law and markets; digital humanities; media theory; and physical computing. At the core of the program is the computational revolution and its implications for how humans live, think, work, create, and communicate within and across various disciplines. Critical engagement with the global, social, and cultural impact of computational media is a central feature and value of the program, alongside media affordances and effects within existing and emerging fields. In keeping with the program ethos, mentoring in the program is collaborative, though each student also identifies one or two primary advisors.
The PhD program shares its administrative support with the Department of AAHVS and is housed in the historic Smith Warehouse on East Campus. Students in the program are encouraged to participate in activities with other graduate students such as those in Art History and Visual Culture, Literature, the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts, the Digital Art History/Computational Media MA, the Information Science+Studies Certificate, and the Labs associated with the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. Many of our students also participate in vertically-integrated Bass Connections teams and other co-curricular activities as collaborators and mentors. In addition, the annual CMAC Exhibition and Symposium features the work of, and is organized by, our students.
For further information on the PhD program, prospective applicants may visit the program’s website or write to the director of graduate studies.
Academic Requirements
The program requires students to engage in both critical and historical study of computational media and to have an active computational media practice. This may take the form of digital art, data analysis, design, programming, or some combination of these. Over the course of the program of study, students are expected to take a mix of graduate seminars in the participating programs, as well as practice-based courses where appropriate, and to participate in one or more labs formally or informally.
All students are expected to take language exams in one “human” and one “computer” language, with specific expectations set based on the individual students’ preparation and program of study.
The qualifying exams take place at the end of the third year, and include a portfolio as well as written and oral examinations.
The dissertation includes both formal written and practice-based dimensions.