Graduate Studies

Please note that MA and PhD applications close on December 1, 2024.

The Department of Cinema & Media Studies at University of Pennsylvania is excited to welcome applications for graduate degrees for the current admissions cycle. We began offering independent graduate degrees as of Fall 2024.

Students can choose to pursue a Ph.D. or a terminal M.A. Doctoral students receive an M.A. upon completing the Master’s-level requirements on the path to the Ph.D.

These programs are designed to provide and promote:

· Interdisciplinary, multimodal, and publicly engaged scholarship rooted in the field of cinema and media studies.

· Training in a variety of global and comparative approaches to studying diverse national cinemas and a wide array of media texts, formats, institutions, and creative practices.

· Humanistic study of film and other audiovisual media, material texts of various forms, digital and environmental media, and an array of media arts.

Building on the strengths of the core faculty of the Department of Cinema & Media Studies and the wider Graduate Group of distinguished faculty from across the Penn campus, our graduate program welcomes future scholars, scholar-practitioners, and scholar-activists to engage in the humanistic and artistic study of film and media. Interested applicants are encouraged to peruse our course offerings, public programming and faculty profiles.

Please be in touch with Rahul Mukherjee, Graduate Chair of Cinema & Media Studies, with any inquiries.