what is phd media

Department of Modern Culture and Media

Ph.d. program.

The Department of Modern Culture and Media (MCM) is committed to a broad spectrum approach to the study of media and culture.

We study machine-enabled media alongside flesh-based media, media ecologies, elemental media, and media infrastructures. A medium may beany means, mode, or material of making, transporting, transmitting, transforming, producing, preserving, collecting, selecting, or deselecting for sound, image, gesture, affect, text and information broadly conceived. Alongside histories and theories of photography, film, television, print, and digital media, we engage decolonial methods and speculative means for the innovation of livable futures. We are sensitive to entanglements among genres, forms, mediums, and materialities of human and nonhuman. We consider modes of extraction, redaction, abstraction, diffraction, interpellation, and circulation as well as habits, ceremonies, or architectures of access involving a broad range of media practices. Our graduate program is a Ph.D. program aimed at: (1) Preparing students to engage in quality scholarship and teaching in the theory, history, and critical analysis of one or more media, in ways that encompass diverse cultural contexts, practices, and historical periods, within a methodological framework that includes awareness of modern textual, cultural, political, social, and performance theory; (2) Preparing students to seek academic appointments in a market that offers positions to media and culture specialists in media-specific disciplinary units (e.g., Film Studies, Television Studies, Digital Studies); in amalgam fields (Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Visual Studies, Performance Studies); and also in programs with expanded concerns (American Studies, Black Studies, Comparative Literature, English, and foreign language Departments). Plans of study in MCM are individualized, based on the student's own particular areas of interest. Students are encouraged to take courses throughout the University, and many take advantage of courses in the broader Humanities as well as in the Arts, the Sciences and the Social Sciences. Many of our Ph.D. students include faculty from outside the department on their preliminary exam committees and on their dissertation committees.

Coursework and Qualifying Reviews

For students entering the program with a B.A., courses are normally completed in the first three years of the program — six courses are taken in the first year, four in the second year and three in the third year. During this period, the student also fulfills the foreign language requirement. After completion of 8 courses in the second year, there is a qualifying review, and the candidate is awarded an M.A. in Modern Culture and Media.

After completion of all coursework in the third year, the candidate takes a three-hour oral preliminary examination. Passing the preliminary examination authorizes her or him to proceed to the doctoral dissertation, which is written during the fourth and fifth years.

Students entering the program with an M.A. from another institution take courses at the same rate as those entering with a B.A. Such students may apply to accelerate their coursework and, if they receive approval, may take their preliminary examination as early as the end of the fourth semester.

Students entering with an M.A. will have their qualifying review after they have completed 6 courses, which is normally at the end of the second semester.

Teaching is considered a vital part of graduate education in this program. We believe that a variety of pedagogical experiences not only contributes to the candidate's professional qualifications but also to her or his intellectual development. A minimum of two years of teaching is required for the degree, but a doctoral student will normally teach more.

A candidate typically begins holding a teaching assistant position in a large introductory course during the second year in the program and continues teaching in various classroom contexts through the fifth year. We try to provide all senior doctoral candidates with at least one opportunity to teach a small, autonomous class on a subject directly related to their dissertation research.

Brown offers five years of guaranteed support for graduate students, including for international students. First-year students are on fellowship. Students in their second and third years work as TAs (one course per semester), leading a discussion section of a large lecture. Students in their fourth year design and teach their own section of MCM 0900 “Undergraduate Seminars in Modern Culture and Media.” Students in their fifth year usually are supported through a combination of TA-ships (again, one course per semester) and university fellowships.

Job Placements

Most, if not all, of our students in the Ph.D. program go on to work in academia, in positions as professors, teaching and doing research. This does not mean it would be impossible to go into some other profession -- curating or working for a non-profit agency, for instance; however, we train students for work in academia.

An annual collection of data pertaining to the employment of Ph.D. alumni one, five, and ten years after graduating. Read more .

5th Year Master’s Degree

MCM concentrators may continue working towards their master’s degree at Brown after completing the bachelor’s degree.

Five students sitting outside and laughing

Doctorate in Communication

With one of the nation's premier doctoral programs in Communication, the Annenberg School is a tight-knit, supportive community of scholars committed to advancing knowledge of our media environment.

Founded through the generosity and vision of publisher, diplomat, and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, the Annenberg School for Communication is devoted to furthering our understanding of the role of communication in public life through research, education, and service. Our five-year doctoral program has a strong reputation as one of the best in Communication, based on Annenberg’s unparalleled combination of world-class faculty , students , and alumni , as well as access to the larger intellectual and cultural resources of the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia .

Three photo collage of graduate students during daily activities

In an inherently interdisciplinary field, Annenberg researchers are engaged with a spectrum of topics related to health, politics, media systems, networks and digital culture, journalism, race and gender, and more, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Three students posing in their graduation gowns

Our Ph.D. program allows students to tailor a curriculum to suit their specific interests, and provides them the financial resources to launch their academic career.

In addition to a full tuition waiver, our students currently receive an annual stipend as well as a budget for research and travel and health insurance for all five years.

Annenberg is the smallest of the 12 schools at Penn, and it functions as close-knit community of scholars whose doors are always open to one another. Our students also appreciate our staff , who routinely go above and beyond to support them.

Please note that we do not have a standalone master’s degree program at this time. All students are admitted directly into the doctoral program.

Request for More Information

The application will open in October.

Our Students By the Numbers

Here are some fast facts about our students and the admissions process . Get to know Annenberg!

Students currently in the program

Different nationalities represented by our students, applicants each year, students accepted each year, average undergraduate gpa of applicants, average toefl of admitted candidates, of students came from a previous graduate degree program, of students worked in a career before joining annenberg, of students came straight to annenberg from an undergraduate degree.

Guobin Yang seated at a table and speaking during a meeting

Our Faculty

Our graduate faculty is at the heart of the school. Their innovative work, often in collaboration with students, pushes the field of Communication forward.

Students on Video

Hear from some of the Annenberg School's doctoral students as they talk about their work and what brought them to Annenberg.

A woman smiling at the camera as she's being interviewed outdoors

What is it like to be a doctoral student at the International Communication Association annual conference? We followed four students to find out.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctoral candidate Kelly Diaz used her phone to document the many signs displayed in yards and windows around her West Philadelphia home. She has now collected that body of work into a photo essay .

Doctoral Candidate and artist Roopa Vasudevan studies the ways that the everyday technologies shape our daily lives.

Three student faces spliced together into a triptych

What is it like to be a Ph.D. student? We followed five of our students through their daily activities.

Prateekshit Pandey works with the Communication Neuroscience Lab to study how the brain reacts to humor.

Buenos Aires-native María Celeste Wagner looks at how gender influences credibility in news.

Jennifer Henrichsen seated with shelves of library books behind her

Jennifer Henrichsen studies the way that journalists adopt information security technologies to protect themselves and their sources.

Our Students

Annenberg's doctoral students represent a broad spectrum of interests, methodologies, and backgrounds. Here are just a few of our incredible students.

Arlene C. Fernández

Azsaneé Truss

Danielle Clark

Neil Fasching

Tom W. Etienne

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Adetobi Moses Awarded 2024 Penn Global Dissertation Grant

Penn Global has announced that Annenberg School doctoral candidate Adetobi Moses is an awardee of its newly established Penn Global Dissertation Grants program. The program provides support to Penn Ph...