Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies

The PhD in Media Studies at the University of Virginia is based in the interdisciplinary field of critical media studies, which emphasizes understanding the role of media texts, audiences, industries, and technologies in relation to economic, political, and social systems of power. Our curriculum draws on literatures in communication, cultural studies, film studies, sociology, media history, political economy, science and technology studies, and allied disciplines to provide students with theoretical and methodological fluency and familiarize them with core concerns within media studies. By exposing students to the diverse and interdisciplinary strands of critical media studies, we offer them a rich foundation from which to conduct novel research, contribute to theoretical debates, and teach various courses in media studies.

Our department is committed to forms of media studies that interrogate arrangements of power, historicize and critique narratives of media change or newness, tackle questions of policy and equity, interrogate international and global forms of media circulation, and explore race, gender, sexuality, and disability as axes of oppression. In short, we conduct media studies research through grounded analysis and theoretical intervention, with transformative goals.