[spectre] Call for Applications Fall Œ09 Admissions UvA New Media MA

[Richard Rogers]

Call for Applications Fall ‘09 Admissions UvA New Media MA

The New Media International MA program at UvA has issued a call for
applications for students who would like to begin study in Fall 2009.
We already have an impressive pool of applicants and encourage
additional applications in order to recruit the best incoming class.
Please feel free to share with colleagues and friends who may be
interested and who would make a valuable contribution to the program.

Direct link to the .pdf of the call for applications:
http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/fall09cfa/

Overview
The International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture (NMMA) at the
University of Amsterdam (UvA) is accepting applications for the
2009-2010 academic year. The NMMA is a one-year residence program
undertaken in English at UvA in the heart of Amsterdam.  Students
become actively engaged in critical Internet culture, with an emphasis
on new media theory and aesthetics, including theoretical materialist
traditions and practical information visualization trends. Our
permanent faculty are recognized experts in their fields, and
committed to their students.  The program admits up to forty students
per year, classes are no larger than 20 and typically smaller, and the
faculty-to-student ratio is 1:8.

Curriculum
The curriculum has two complementary tracks that all students follow:
the theoretical track (New Media Theories and Digital Aesthetics) and
the practical-empirical track (Academic Blogging, Digital Research
Methods and Information Visualization). The final thesis, a
contribution to digital media studies, rounds out the program.

1st Semester: students follow a practical course in academic blogging,
led by Internet theorist and tactical media practitioner Geert Lovink.
Their entries generate the internationally noted Masters of Media
site, which currently has the high authority ranking of 43 on
Technorati (http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/). The concurrent new
media theories course focuses on classic texts by innovators from Alan
Turing to Tim Berners-Lee. The final first semester class, Digital
Research Methods, trains students in new techniques for studying the
Internet (http://www.digitalmethods.net/).

2nd Semester: the student chooses between courses on digital
aesthetics or information visualization, the former more theoretically
inclined in the traditions of art history and visual culture, and the
latter a joint practical-empirical collaboration between designers,
programmers and analysts, where the product is an online tool or
digital visualization. The course of study concludes with the M.A.
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. Graduates of the NMMA have gained an analytical and
practical skill-set that enables diverse careers in research and
practice-related areas that make use of the Internet, including
business, government, NGOs, and creative industries that are evolving
with emerging new media.  Our graduates include Bauke Freiburg,
Founder of Fab Channel and Eva Kol, whose MA thesis, Hyves, was
published by Kosmos in 2008 and sold over 5000 copies its first year
in print.

Student Life
The quality-of-living in Amsterdam ranks among the highest of
international capitals. UvA’s competitive tuition (see below) 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.  The program has ties to
organizations including PICNIC, the Waag Society, Mediamatic, Virtueel
Platform, Netherlands Institute for Media Art, and other cultural
institutions.  Students attend and blog, twitter or otherwise capture
local events, 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.  NMMA students come from North and South America, Africa, and
across Europe and from academic and professional backgrounds including
journalism, art and design, engineering, marketing, the humanities and
social sciences.

Faculty
Richard Rogers, Professor and Chair.  Web Epistemology. Publications
include Information Politics on the Web (MIT, 2004/2005), awarded
American Society for Information Science and Technology’s 2005 Best
Information Science Book of the Year Award. Founding director of
govcom.org. http://www.govcom.org/publications.html

Geert Lovink, Associate Professor.  Critical Internet theory, Tactical
Media. Publications include Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical
Internet Culture (Routledge, 2007). Co-founder nettime list (1995 –
present); founder, Institute of Network Cultures, 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Lovink

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

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/

Edward Shanken, Assistant Professor.  Digital aesthetics, visual
culture.  Publications include Art and Electronic Media (Phaidon,
2009) and Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and
Consciousness (U Cal P, 2003).  http://artexetra.com

Application and Deadline
1 April for Fall 2009.  Applicants will be notified around 15 June.
Applications received after 1 April may be considered if places are
available.  See
http://www.studeren.uva.nl/application_and_accreditation for details.

More Info & Questions

•       International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture - University
of Amsterdam: http://www.studeren.uva.nl/ma_new_media/

•       Graduate School for Humanities General Information:
http://www.hum.uva.nl/gs/

•       Tuition and Fees: http://www.studeren.uva.nl/finance

•       Further general questions? Please write to UvA’s Graduate  
School of
the Humanities, graduateschoolhumanities-fgw “at” uva.nl.

•       Specific questions about the curriculum? Please write to Richard
Rogers, Chair in New Media & Digital Culture, University of Amsterdam,
rogers “at” uva.nl.