Media Anthropology Graduate Program Overview

In addition to a Secondary Field in Film & Visual Studies, the Department of Anthropology now offers a Ph.D. in Anthropology with Media for students who wish to undertake practice-based research, and make substantial ethnographic use of audiovisual media in their doctoral work. This track is open to all Social Anthropology doctoral students. Media anthropology students are regular members of the graduate program in social anthropology, and all requirements for the Ph.D. in anthropology pertain to those specializing in media anthropology. Application to the program is the same as for application to the Social Anthropology Ph.D. program, and follows the usual procedures for applications to the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, including GRE examinations. You should indicate your interest in media anthropology in the statement of purpose when applying to the Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, and, whenever possible, include a portfolio of documentation of your own media work, on a DVD or CD. (Please supply two copies and a statement of the disc’s contents and your role therein.)

In addition to their written dissertation, all media anthropology PhD candidates must produce an original creative work, or works, emerging from intensive ethnographic fieldwork, in an audiovisual medium or media such as film, digital video, CD-ROM, DVD, still photography, or phonography.  For work in time-based media, this will normally result in a work of not less than 30 minutes’ duration.  The work must be supervised throughout by a qualified faculty member from within the department, who will also serve on the candidate’s doctoral committee, and in that capacity be charged with evaluating the merits of the candidate’s media work.

The work must be accompanied by a Practitioner’s Statement of two to three pages, outlining the intentions of the media work, and its relationship to the written dissertation.  In collaborative media projects, the Practitioner’s Statement must be accompanied by a further paragraph detailing the candidate’s role in the work.  Collaborative media projects will only be considered when the student not only contributes ethnographic expertise, but also has a primary authorial role in the work. 

The work, and the Practitioner’s Statement, must be formally submitted, exhibited, and defended in conjunction with the written dissertation.


More Information
Media Anthropology/Sensory Ethnography Lab website

Contacts

	Director of Graduate Studies Mary Steedly William James Hall 440 (617) 495-3730 msteed [at] wjh.harvard.edu website
	Graduate Program Administrator Marianne Fritz Department of Anthropology Harvard University William James Hall 360 33 Kirkland Street Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 495-5564 mfritz [at] fas.harvard.edu