PhD Programs in Comparative/Interdisciplinary Media and Studies

This page describes my interest in further graduate education and candidate programs.

Interest

I want to learn, write, and teach about communities, media and their associated technology, critical theory, and popular culture. I expect obtaining a PhD will further this goal.

I've long enjoyed interdisciplinary work combining technology, social studies, and popular culture. I'd like to combine these personal interests more closely with my profession (to date) of technology, policy, and law. I also take great enjoyment in the interaction with my peers, writing, and working with students; I'd like to make this my profession.

Scope

Digital Media: zines, blogs, wikis, IMC / APC (indie/alternative media), and "groups" (list/community tools).
Culture: informal versus formal standards setting , open source development, management / work-styles , the effects of pervasive recording, audio, video, and digital imaging on our conceptions of the world and personal authenticity. What the size and scope of our communities (e.g., self-definition and boundary enforcement)? Who gets to be labelled an "artist" when everyone has a digital camera and web site? Are the distinction of producer/consumer even relevant?
Technology: design maxims , http, html, blogger, xml, rss, semantic web, python, p2p
Policy: social protocols , deep linking, intellectual monopoly rights (e.g., replayTV/Tivo, napster/gnutella, DeCSS), syndication/aggregation, media convergence, and hyper-democracy.
Economies: trust and reputation, Computational Socical Science , Social Informatics , Google link reciprocation and page ranking, P2P incenting mechanisms (i.e. discouraging "leeches").

Requirements

Minimal time , 4 years or less. This interest is motivated by selecting and focusing some of what I already do at MIT (lectures, working with students, conferences, and writing) in the context of critical media studies. Consequently, I feel I have a lot I want to do and learn and don't want to loose focus or be sidetracked; I don't want to repeat the curriculum I completed in 94-96, nor do I want to be introduced to what I've been working on for the past 5 years.
Curriculum : Unfortunately, there are few programs with the right focus, and, as is typical with interdisciplinary studies, people often obtain their degree in a more established discipline and can only branch out afterwards. However, I don't want a J.D. in three years, nor a PhD in CS in 5+. These things, by themselves, are not the objects of my passion. Also, while I took many film classes in college, I'm rather ignorant of formal identity, gender, media and cultural critical theory; I'd like to learn more about and apply to what I know about the Internet and its culture
Language requirement : Unfortunately I never obtained a foreign language competency. While I appreciate and envy the skill, I'm not interested in obtaining one because it is a costly investment outside my intended scope.
Funding : Optimally, full funding. Substantive teaching would be great, or a research assistantship — or grants/fellowships as necessary.

Candidate Programs

These are programs that have been recommended to me. They are roughly ordered by seeming relevance with a cursory evaluation given the requirements above.

NYU Media Ecology: There is a PhD program in the School of Education (which might of use given my interest in teaching) which has interesting course work and faculty . Can it be done in four years?
Tufts' Interdisciplinary Doctorate: The spirit of the program is very approriate, but I don't think there is much of a "media studies" core curriculum nor faculty.
MIT: Comparative Media Studies (CMS): An interesting focus and faculty! Unfortunately, there is no PhD program yet.
MIT: Media Lab: The media lab has a relvant focus, and I would be able to take Sloan Management and CMS courses. Unfortunately, the Electronic Publishing Group is not accepting Fall 2003 students.
Syracuse Ph.D. in Information Transfer: This seems mostly oriented towards managing large data stores for governments and corporations.
MIT Science, Technology, and Society: I was familiar with, and took one course of, this this program when I was in the Technology and Policy Program. I remember thinking of it as having a more humanistic/historical perspective. On re-examination , it seemed like it may have potential but after speaking with the program chair I was referred to the CMS program!
Georgia Tech: School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC): No PhD program
UC-Irvine: Visual Studies: Not enough geekyness.
Rochester: Visual Studies Workshop (?): Focus on traditional media. No PhD program.
University of Michigan: Communications Program: Not sure how geeky it is, there is one faculty in eMedia. However, I'm already familiar with most of the tech/law curriculum
Cardiff: School of English, Communication and Philosophy or School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies: Little focus on eMedia; the latter school has no PhD program.
USC, U Texas, UW-Madison, Northwestern, Chicago: ...