Transmedia @ Universities

Each year I’m emailed by prospective students asking for information about universities in the USA and Europe that would be good for studying transmedia at the undergraduate or post-graduate level. Of course, the research approach you intend to use (are you researching narrative, game, interaction, marketing, media, art, and/or so on?) influences the choice; and one can study this area in just about every department at the post-graduate level. But attending universities with academics that are already familiar with the area would be a great help.

So, I’m starting a resource page to assist those looking to pursue this area. I haven’t listed all the ones I’ve come across because I haven’t trawled through all my notes as yet, but I’m hoping this list may provoke contributions. I’ve included both current and old courses because the person involved or department may help those that inquire.

Please note: for those new to academia — there are many existing classes and programmes in which you can study transmedia. The courses and programmes do not have to list transmedia for you to study it at the postgraduate level. This list is not a general list of all under- and postgraduate courses available.

— last update – 9th Jan 5.30pm —

— added resource of transmedia practice courses

::CANADA::

Simon Fraser University
School of Interactive Arts and Technology: “The School of Interactive Arts + Technology (SIAT) at SFU is an interdisciplinary future-focused school where technologists, artists, designers and theorists collaborate in innovative research and immersive study.” I know Jim Bizzocchi has students studying the area. (prompted by Nathan Charley)

York University
From Birgit Schneidmueller: “I am writing my dissertation on transmedia storytelling and will promote that field (narrative across media, cross-cultural entertainment, convergence culture, participatory culture etc.) as much as I can in the future.”

::UK::

De Montfort University
The Transliteracy Research Group is based at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, in the Institute of Creative Technologies and the Faculty of Humanities. It is led by Sue Thomas, Professor of New Media, and Kate Pullinger, Reader in New Media.

De Montfort University
Online Masters in Creative Writing and New Media programme. [now closed]

University of the Arts London has a course on Expanded Cinema in which Yomi Ayeni gives guest lectures.

::USA::

Comparative Media Studies (CMS) graduate program at MIT

Georgia State University
College of Arts and Sciences: Alisa Perren reports that “a few of us (including myself) deal with transmedia at Georgia State”.

Georgia Tech University
Digital Media PhD: “The study of these new [media] forms…is an emerging field, one that requires a convergence of the methodologies of several traditional disciplines, and one that is also defining its own methodologies of research and practice.” (from Aaron Smith, who says there are people who know transmedia)

Middlebury College
Film and Media Studies, features Comparative Media Studies as part of a liberal arts education. (from Aaron Smith, who says there are people who know transmedia)

New York University
Tisch School of the Arts: Interactive Telecommunications Program: “Explore the imaginative use of communications technologies — how they might augment, improve, and bring delight and art into people’s lives. Perhaps the best way to describe us is as a Center for the Recently Possible.” (from Aaron Smith, who says there are people who know transmedia)

Ohio State University
Digital Media Studies: “Aims to lead in innovative research and teaching involving new media technologies and the study of emerging media forms. Our program reaches across specializations within English studies—rhetoric, composition, literature, folklore, literacy studies, and film studies.” (from Aaron Smith, who says there are people who know transmedia)

University of California
Established in 2005, the Transliteracies Project includes scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and engineering in the University of California system (and in the future other research programs). It will establish working groups to study online reading from different perspectives; bring those groups into conjunction behind a shared technology development initiative; publish research and demonstration software; and train graduate students working at the intersections of the humanistic, social, and technological disciplines. (They’ve studied alternate reality games)

University of Central Florida
FIL5810, Transmedia Story Creation, offered by the Department of Digital Media at the University of Central Florida during the Summer 2007 semester, course instructor is Dr. Rudy McDaniel.

University of Mary Washington
ENGL367MM English Department – Zach Whalen teaches New Media and much of the coursework deals in some way with transmedia. Zach teachs an upper division course in New Media studies that involves students in documenting and archiving ARG texts and eventually producing their own. (from Zach Whalen)

University of Southern California
>Annenberg – School of Communication and Journalism: Transmedia Storytelling and Entertainment, course instructor is Henry Jenkins.
>School of Cinematic Arts - Media Arts and Practice PhD: “Situates technology and creative production alongside the historical and theoretical contexts of critical media studies. This practice-oriented Ph.D. program provides students with both practical experience and theoretical knowledge as they work to define new modes of research and production in the 21st century.” (from Aaron Smith, who says there are people who know transmedia)
>Institute for Multimedia Literacy, School of Cinematic Arts: “has several classes implement transmedia strategies” (from Vicki Callahan)

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Communication Arts: Media and Cultural Studies: “Focusing primarily on sound and screen media — radio, television, film, popular music, internet — but reaching out across boundaries, MCS encourages interdisciplinary and transmedia research.” (from Aaron Smith)
 
::The Netherlands::

University of Professional Education Utrecht
The CrossmediaLab is the physical and virtual meeting place for the researchers that participate in research executed by the Crossmedia Content Research Group: Policy and Business Models for New Media. This group researches the nature and consequences of changes in the value network of content creation, packaging, distribution and consuming, as a consequence of more and easily accessible digital platforms, communication channels and consumer devices becoming available. Professor Harry van Vliet heads the research group and the CrossmediaLab.

::Belgium::
Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel
The Transmedia Postgraduate Arts Program. I don’t think this is a transmedia course in the sense of transmedia I use. It looks more like a multimedia artist course in which installation artists learn new media. It is described as follows: “Transmedia does not want you to switch discipline and start from scratch: the program is not designed to turn web designers into filmmakers or conceptual artists into graphic designers. instead, it creates an interdisciplinary research environment from which you can learn and further your individual practice.” Thanks Eric!

Other countries…

6 Replies

  • Hi Christy! Thanks for putting together this resource! Here are some US programs I would add:

    New York University, Tisch School of the Arts: Interactive Telecommunications Program (http://itp.nyu.edu/sigs/program/courses/) “Explore the imaginative use of communications technologies — how they might augment, improve, and bring delight and art into people’s lives. Perhaps the best way to describe us is as a Center for the Recently Possible.”

    University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts: Media Arts and Practice P.hd. (http://imap.usc.edu/?page_id=2) “Situates technology and creative production alongside the historical and theoretical contexts of critical media studies. This practice-oriented Ph.D. program provides students with both practical experience and theoretical knowledge as they work to define new modes of research and production in the 21st century.”

    University of Wisconsin-Madison, Communication Arts: Media and Cultural Studies (http://commarts.wisc.edu/graduate/mcs/ ): “Focusing primarily on sound and screen media — radio, television, film, popular music, internet — but reaching out across boundaries, MCS encourages interdisciplinary and transmedia research.”

    Georgia Tech University, Digital Media Ph.d (http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/graduate/dmphd/): “The study of these new [media] forms…is an emerging field, one that requires a convergence of the methodologies of several traditional disciplines, and one that is also defining its own methodologies of research and practice.”

    Ohio State University, Digital Media Studies (http://dmp.osu.edu/dms/): “Aims to lead in innovative research and teaching involving new media technologies and the study of emerging media forms. Our program reaches across specializations within English studies—rhetoric, composition, literature, folklore, literacy studies, and film studies.”

    And I gotta give a shout-out to my alma-mater, Middlebury College, Film and Media Studies, which features Comparative Media Studies as part of a liberal arts education. (http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/majors/filmvid)

  • Thanks heaps Christy this university may even be benificial because i know people who will be living in derby

  • Hi Christy,

    I’d like to add my own humble efforts to your list:

    At the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, I teach New Media in the English Department, and much of my coursework deals in some way with transmedia. Most directly, I teach an upper division course in New Media studies that involves students in documenting and archiving ARG texts and eventually producing their own. Here’s the website for the most recent iteration (i.e. the second): http://real.zachwhalen.net, which includes some excellent ARG post-mortems on our “Gavin the Gorilla.”

  • Hello Mrs Dena, I have found also the MA in Visual communication in Berlin University of Arts.

  • Hey Christy and all,
    You can certainly add York University in Toronto, Canda to your list. I am writing my dissertation on transmedia storytelling and will promote that field (narrative across media, cross-cultural entertainment, convergence culture, participatory culture etc.) as much as I can in the future. Questions? Feel free to email me.
    Cheers from Toronto!
    Birgit

  • Hi Christy

    Transmedia Storytelling has caught interest of Marketing researchers as well. Behice Ece at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and me (at National University of Singapore) are among few taking a consumer perspective to it.

    Thanks
    Prashant Saxena
    PhD Student (Marketing) at National University of Singapore

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