::fibreculture:: Call for Applications: International M.A. in New Media ­at the University of Amsterdam

[Michael Dieter]

International M.A. in New Media ­at the University of Amsterdam

Call for Applications for­ Fall 2014, rolling admissions open on December
15, 2013 and close on 1 April 2014

One-year and two-year New Media M.A. Programs available. For the two-year
"Research Master's Program: New Media Specialisation," see below.


### International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture (one-year program) ###

/// Overview

The MA Program in media studies New Media and Digital Culture offers a
comprehensive and critical approach to new media research and theory. It
builds upon the pioneering new media scene that Amsterdam is known for,
with an emphasis on the study of Internet culture. Students gain an
in-depth knowledge in new media theory, including perspectives such as
software studies, political economy, and other critical traditions, and
applied to such topics as social media, data cultures, and locative
devices. They engage with the emerging area of digital methods, an ensemble
of Internet research approaches and techniques that are specific to the new
media and the study of natively digital objects. Additionally, students can
choose to train in the areas of issue mapping, information visualization,
digital writing and publishing, or social media research. The MA program
combines a variety of teaching formats, ranging from lectures and group
projects to lab sessions. Interested students are also supported in
undertaking research internships. Students produce a wide portfolio of
work, including theoretically engaged essays, empirical research projects,
new media experiments, blog and wiki entries, in addition to organizing
symposia. The program thereby enables students to contribute to timely
discourses on digital culture, to conduct innovative research projects, and
to critically engage in new media practices. The International MA in New
Media and Digital Culture is an up-to-date digital humanities study program.

Students maintain a new media issues blog, recognized as among the leading
academic blogs on the subject of digital culture, where they critique and
discuss books, events, and new media objects. Students also get involved in
a lively new media culture, both at the university, where internationally
renowned speakers present their work and collaborative research projects
are developed, and beyond. Cultural institutions, such as the Waag Society,
the de Balie Center for Culture and Politics, and Mediamatic regularly host
inspiring events. The Institute of Network Cultures, initiators of such
events as UnlikeUs, Society of the Query, MyCreativity, and Video Vortex,
regularly collaborates with the program. Digital media practitioners, such
as Appsterdam, various Fablabs, and hacker festivals regularly open their
doors to interested audiences. Finally, students are also encouraged to
participate in PICNIC, the creative industries festival.


/// Curriculum

The New Media and Digital Culture program is a one year MA (60 EC) that
begins in early September and ends with a festive graduation ceremony at
the end of August. It is divided into two semesters:

First Semester (September - January)
Students follow a course in New Media Research Practices, which addresses
doing research in and with new media. It engages with recent methodological
debates around big data, realtime research, and software analysis. As part
of the course, students conduct experimental new media projects, run a
wiki, https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/MoM/, and the Masters of Media site,
http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl, regarded as a top blog for new media
research and nominated for a Dutch award for best educational blog.

Concurrently, the New Media Theories class introduces students to major
theoretical frameworks in new media studies, including cybernetics,
software studies, digital labor theories, network criticism, media ecology,
and cognitive/communicative capitalism. An important aspect involves
reading influential texts on media forms and digital networked
technologies, addressing key thinkers such as Marshall McLuhan, Norbert
Wiener, Vilem Flusser, Friedrich Kittler, Alexander R. Galloway, N.
Katherine Hayles, Matthew Fuller, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, and Jodi Dean.
Through a variety of individual and group assignments, including a
symposium presentation, students gather the relevant skills and resources
for writing a critical research paper that concludes the course.

The final first semester class, New Media Research Methods, taught by the
program Chair, Richard Rogers, trains students in digital methods research,
a set of novel techniques and a methodological outlook and mindset for
social and cultural research with the web. (see
http://www.digitalmethods.net) Students use “natively” digital methods to
investigate state Internet censorship, search engine rankings, website
histories, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, and other web platforms by
collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data through various analytical
techniques.

New Media Research Practices (6 EC), week 1-8
New Media Theories (12 EC), week 1-16
New Media Research Methods (12 EC), week 9-20

Second Semester (February-June)
In the second semester, students have the opportunity to further specialize
by choosing between theme seminars on issue mapping for politics,
information visualization, social media and value, the digital book, new
media literary forms, and other courses offered outside of new media. Issue
Mapping for Politics is concerned with mapping online discourse, and is a
member of the international network of mapping courses following, amongst
others, Bruno Latour's methods. The finest student work is entered into the
annual controversy mapping award in Toulouse. New Media Project:
Information Visualisation is a joint theoretical-practical collaboration
between designers, programmers, and analysts, where the product, showcased
in the annual 'show me the data' event (http://showmethedata.nl), is an
online tool, digital visualization or interactive graphic. The Value of the
Social - Studying Social Media is a theoretical/empirical module which
addresses the valorisation of social life in digital media, including
concerns around data mining, platform politics, the numerification of
affect, and digital economies. The Digital Book investigates how the
concept of the ‘book’ is translated into new media forms that coincide with
transformations in the contemporary publishing industry. The subject
contains both theoretical and practical components. New Media Literary
Forms explores new forms of writing for and in digital media and
practically engages with the production of creative, interactive, or
collaborative texts.

The program of study concludes with the MA thesis, an original analysis
that makes a contribution to the field, undertaken with the close
mentorship of a faculty supervisor. The graduation ceremony includes an
international symposium with renowned speakers.

Elective (12 EC), week 1-16
MA Thesis (18 EC), week 1-20


/// Career perspectives

Graduates in New Media and Digital Culture will have gained the critical
faculties, skills, and outlook that will enable them to pursue a career in
research as well as in the public and private sectors, ranging from NGOs,
government, and cultural institutions to online marketing and the growing
field of creative industries. Various alumni have also started their own
successful new media businesses. As the exposure to the Internet and
related technologies continues to grow, new media researchers are in demand
in a variety of sectors. With digital technologies becoming the preferred
platforms for business, information exchange, cultural expression, and
political struggle, research skills focusing on these complex and dynamic
environments are becoming central to working in these fields. In addition,
advanced students can pursue academic careers in research and teaching.


/// Student Life

The quality-of-living in Amsterdam ranks among the highest of international
capitals. UvA's competitive tuition and the ubiquity of spoken English both
on and off-campus make the program especially accommodating for foreign
students. The city's many venues, festivals, and other events provide
remarkably rich cultural offerings and displays of technological innovation
(see https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/MoM/NewMediaAmsterdam). The program
has many ties to cultural institutions and companies active in the new
media sector, where internship opportunities and collaborations may be
available, in consultation with the student's thesis supervisor. Students
attend and blog, tweet or otherwise capture local new media events and
festivals, while commenting as well on larger international issues and
trends pertaining to new media. The quality of student life is equally to
be found in the university's lively and varied intellectual climate. New
Media and Digital Culture students come from North and South America,
Africa, Asia, and across Europe; they draw from academic and professional
backgrounds including journalism, art and design, engineering, the
humanities, and the social sciences.


/// Application and Deadlines

Rolling admissions from December 15, 2013 to April 1, 2014 for Fall 2014
admission.

More Info & Questions

- International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture - University of
Amsterdam -
http://gsh.uva.nl/ma-programmes/programmes/item/new-media-and-digital-culture.html
for
admission details, including fees.

- Student information website - http://student.uva.nl/mnm/

- Graduate School for Humanities, General Information - http://gsh.uva.nl

- Further general questions? Please write to UvA's Graduate School of the
Humanities, graduateschoolhumanities-fgw[at]uva.nl.

- Specific questions about curriculum and student life? Please write to Dr.
Carolin Gerlitz, New Media Program Coordinator, University of Amsterdam,
c.gerlitz[at]uva.nl




### Research Master's in Media Studies, New Media Specialization (two-year
program) ###

/// Overview

The New Media Research Master is a specialization within the Media Studies
Research Master's Degree Program, and focuses on the theoretical, artistic,
practical and methodological study of digital culture. The New Media
Research Master has two 'routes,' the theoretical aesthetic and the
practical empirical ones. In the theoretical aesthetic route, students
focus on contemporary media theory, with a concentration on critical media
art, including areas that have been pioneered in Amsterdam (tactical media,
distributed aesthetics). The other route is the practical empirical, which
is the other specialty of new media research in Amsterdam: digital methods
and information visualization. Students also may combine coursework from
each of the two routes, putting together a course package that treats
aesthetics and visualization, on the one hand, or media art and digital
methods, on the other.

As a crucial component of the Amsterdam New Media Research Program, the New
Media Research Master encourages fieldwork and lab work, which result in a
'new media project' and also provide materials for the thesis. In
undertaking fieldwork, students are given the opportunity to spend a period
abroad for structured data collection and study, doing either a 'research
internship' or an independent project, supervised by a staff member. For
example, in the past students have studied ICTs for development in Africa,
and electronics factories in China. The lab work, which fits well with the
practical-empirical route, would result in a research project that combines
web data collection, tool use and development as well as visualisation. It
often addresses a contemporary issue, such as Wikileaks Cablegate, and
brings together a group of researchers in a data sprint, hackathon or
barcamp, intensively working to output new info-graphics, blog postings and
research reports on the state of art of the subject.

Outstanding New Media research master graduates are expected to compete
favorably for PhD positions nationally and internationally, and have skill
sets enabling new media research in scholarly and professional settings.

The New Media Research Master Specialization has as its target 15 students
annually.


/// Curriculum

- Year one

1st Semester: students follow courses in new media research practices and
digital methods, which provides in-depth training in Internet critique and
empirical analysis of the web. The research practices course is an
introduction to and overall resource crash course on searching &
collecting, social media data, journals in the field, blogging, the
Amsterdam Scene, new media events, academic writing, (data) collections,
data tools, data visualisation, new media methods, key works, collaboration
& coordination. Concurrently students take new media theories, a course
that introduces students to some of the major theoretical traditions in new
media, including perspectives such as software studies, political economy,
and other critical traditions, and applied to such topics as social media,
data cultures, and locative devices. (For more details on these courses,
see the one-year MA description above.)

2nd Semester: the student follows media & politics, which places both
historically crucial and contemporary political manifestos in relation to
media analyses, encouraging a consideration of concepts such as labour,
spectacle, the machine, identity and affect. Students also have an
elective, and may choose between theme seminars on issue mapping for
politics, information visualization, social media and value, the digital
book, new media literary forms and other courses offered in the research
master's. (For more details on theme seminars, see the one-year MA
description above.)

- Year two

1st Semester: students may pursue a "research internship" or a study abroad
program with partner universities. They may undertake fieldwork for a
research project, or join a digital methods lab project. Students also may
follow an elective course, taken from the broader Media Studies offerings.

2nd Semester: students follow an elective course, where again the choice is
between theme seminars on issue mapping for politics, information
visualization, social media and value, the digital book, new media literary
forms and others. Students also write the thesis, which is expected to be
original and make a contribution to a discourse in the field. The research
master's degree program concludes with a presentation and defense of the
thesis.


/// Application and Deadlines

Rolling admissions from December 15, 2013 to April 1, 2014 for Fall 2014
admission.

More Info & Questions

- International Research M.A. in Media Studies - University of Amsterdam -
http://gsh.uva.nl/ma-programmes/programmes/item/media-studies-research.html for
details, including fees. When applying, indicate that your application is
for the "New Media Specialization."

- Student information website - http://student.uva.nl/mmic/

- Graduate School for Humanities, General Information - http://gsh.uva.nl

- Further general questions? Please write to UvA's Graduate School of the
Humanities, graduateschoolhumanities-fgw[at]uva.nl.

- Specific questions about curriculum and student life? Please write to Dr.
Carolin Gerlitz, New Media Program Coordinator, University of Amsterdam,
c.gerlitz[at]uva.nl




### New Media M.A. Faculty - University of Amsterdam ###

Richard Rogers, Professor and Chair. Web epistemology, digital methods.
Publications include Information Politics on the Web (MIT Press,
2004/2005), awarded American Society for Information Science and
Technology's 2005 Best Information Science Book of the Year Award, and
Digital Methods (MIT Press, 2013). Founding director of govcom.org and
digitalmethods.net.

Bernhard Rieder, Associate Professor. Digital Methods, software theory and
politics. Current research interests include search engine politics and the
mechanization of knowledge production. http://thepoliticsofsystems.net

Jan Simons, Associate Professor. Mobile Culture, gaming, film theory.
Publications include Playing The Waves: Lars von Trier's Game Cinema (AUP,
2007). Project Director, Mobile Learning Game Kit, Senior Member, Digital
Games research group. http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/j.a.a.simons/

Carolin Gerlitz, Assistant Professor. Digital research, software/platform
studies, social media, economic sociology, topology, numeracy and issue
mapping online. http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/c.gerlitz/

Niels van Doorn. Assistant Professor. Materialization of gender, sexuality,
and embodiment in digital spaces.
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/n.a.j.m.vandoorn/

Thomas Poell. Assistant Professor. Social media and the transformation of
activist communication in different parts of the world.
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/t.poell/

Yuri Engelhardt, Assistant Professor. Computer modeling and information
visualization. Publications include The Language of Graphics (2002);
founder and moderator of InfoDesign (1995-9); co-developer of Future Planet
Studies at UvA.http://www.yuriweb.com

Erik Borra, Lecturer. Data science, digital methods, issue mapping online.
Digital methods lead developer.http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/e.k.borra/

Esther Weltevrede, Lecturer. Controversy mapping with the Web,
temporalities and dynamics online, device studies.
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/e.j.t.weltevrede/

Mark Tuters, Lecturer. New media literary forms, avant-garde media history,
locative media.

Michael Dieter, Lecturer. Media art and materialist philosophy. Critical
uses of digital and networked technologies such as locative media,
information visualization, gaming and software modification.
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.j.dieter/

-- 
Michael Dieter
Gentequemola, "Social Media Expert"
Old West Amsterdam
"Information is like a bank. Our job is to rob that bank." - Genesis
P-Orridge
http://twitter.com/#!/mdieter
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