Information for Prospective Ph.D. Students
If you're reading this page, you're probably interested in applying to the Ph.D. program in Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, and perhaps in working with me as an advisor or mentor in the realm of video games and/or computing. MCC has an intellectually diverse faculty with considerable strengths in critical theory and historical analysis of media, and is an excellent place to pursue doctoral research in this arena.
Every admission seasons brings many inquiries from prospective students, so I've designed this web page to cover the basics of my research area, and to let you know more about the kinds of doctoral projects I advise in MCC. I'm just one of many faculty, however, and I only speak for myself. Every advisor/advisee relationship is different, every faculty member has their own interests--this webpage is only to help you understand my research and how I work at a potential mentor/advisor. General inquiries should be sent to our Director of PhD Graduate Studies, Mara Mills.
What I Do
I'm a historian of computing and video games, and that's what my higher-level teaching and research focuses on: historical methods, archival research, and political economy of the game and computing industries (past and present). While my historically-oriented publication record doesn't reflect it, I have a very high level of interest and knowledge in the global game industry, mobile gaming, microtransactions, fluctuations in corporate game industry finance, M&A, etc. (I tweet about this subject alot). Very generally, these interests extend to any work focused on the political economy and corporate finance of computational media.
If you hit either of my zones of expertise--history of computing and/or video games (any period or locale), or political economy of tech--I'm interested in hearing about your project.
What Kinds of Projects I Advise
There are many different types of faculty-doctoral student relationships. Sometimes a faculty member is someone you simply take a class with, or request advice from on occasion. In other cases, a faculty member's research agenda may inspire or influence your own; you may chat with them frequently as you hone and develop your project, and they may serve as a committee member for you. The primary advisor/s role, however, is unique: it involves intensive intellectual engagement on the part of both faculty and doctoral student over the course of many years. You want to have some sense of who your core faculty might be when you apply to a doctoral program, even if just in the abstract. If you are looking for someone who could be a potential dissertation advisor down the road, I almost exclusively work with students whose research is squarely in my areas of interest, noted above.
*A Special Note for Games Studies Applicants
First of all, if you are interested in pursing a Ph.D. in game studies and have not yet read Bo Ruberg's blog post "Getting a Game Studies PhD: A Guide for Aspiring Video Game Scholars," I highly recommend you give it a read generally, just to understand what you should be looking for in a doctoral program. Additionally, you should also explore the work of my MCC colleague Whit Pow, who works on queer and trans media studies, queer software histories, and other topics related and relevant to games.
If you would be applying to do game studies in MCC, please know that I consider game studies to be an "area of competence" but not an "area of expertise." In other words, I'm familiar with alot of the work in game studies by virtue of having friends and colleagues in that space, but I spend most of my time keeping up with the history of computing and the contemporary game industry. I do not consider myself someone invested in core game studies debates (about narratology/ludology, play, embodiment, representation, etc. etc.) and I do not teach "canonical" game studies at either an undergraduate or a graduate level (by which I mean Huizinga, Callois, Juul, Bogost, Aarseth, Murray, Shaw, Pearce, Flanagan, etc). With regard to feminist and queer game studies, I work more on gender as a category of historical analysis, rather than on representations of gender in media per say.
Phone Calls/Skypes/Etc.
Unfortunately there are too many requests to speak with everyone. I currently limit myself to exchanges with students whose dominant focus is squarely in the research areas I've outlined above (and am increasingly limiting even those).
Am I Accepting Doctoral Students?
In MCC, faculty do not "own" doctoral students. Students are accepted to the department, and then form advising relationships with individual faculty members based on research area and interpersonal preferences. You do not need any faculty member's permission to apply to MCC, nor do you need my permission to list me as a faculty member you would be interested in working with in your application. I currently do not anticipated being away from campus or on leave long enough that it would impact anyone's capacity to work with me.
How Useful is it to Talk with Me?
Here's the truth: not very. I am one faculty member of over 30 who vote on PhD applications. In MCC, no single faculty member gets to unilaterally make decisions about incoming students, no matter how much they may personally support an application. This is not an invitation to contact other faculty with requests to examine your work, but to recognize that this process is not within the control of any one, or even a subset, or individuals. I appreciate a quick email with your info, interests, and research background, so that I can flag the application for deeper reading if I'm interested, but that's largely the limit of the attention I can offer applicants.
General Admissions Info
Our admissions process is coordinated centrally by NYU Steinhardt's Office of Graduate Admissions. Information about how to apply is available at http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/graduate_admissions and on our department website at http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/doctoral/Admissions.php. Please note that a minimum of three letters of recommendation and a writing sample are required as part of the application.
Every admission seasons brings many inquiries from prospective students, so I've designed this web page to cover the basics of my research area, and to let you know more about the kinds of doctoral projects I advise in MCC. I'm just one of many faculty, however, and I only speak for myself. Every advisor/advisee relationship is different, every faculty member has their own interests--this webpage is only to help you understand my research and how I work at a potential mentor/advisor. General inquiries should be sent to our Director of PhD Graduate Studies, Mara Mills.
What I Do
I'm a historian of computing and video games, and that's what my higher-level teaching and research focuses on: historical methods, archival research, and political economy of the game and computing industries (past and present). While my historically-oriented publication record doesn't reflect it, I have a very high level of interest and knowledge in the global game industry, mobile gaming, microtransactions, fluctuations in corporate game industry finance, M&A, etc. (I tweet about this subject alot). Very generally, these interests extend to any work focused on the political economy and corporate finance of computational media.
If you hit either of my zones of expertise--history of computing and/or video games (any period or locale), or political economy of tech--I'm interested in hearing about your project.
What Kinds of Projects I Advise
There are many different types of faculty-doctoral student relationships. Sometimes a faculty member is someone you simply take a class with, or request advice from on occasion. In other cases, a faculty member's research agenda may inspire or influence your own; you may chat with them frequently as you hone and develop your project, and they may serve as a committee member for you. The primary advisor/s role, however, is unique: it involves intensive intellectual engagement on the part of both faculty and doctoral student over the course of many years. You want to have some sense of who your core faculty might be when you apply to a doctoral program, even if just in the abstract. If you are looking for someone who could be a potential dissertation advisor down the road, I almost exclusively work with students whose research is squarely in my areas of interest, noted above.
*A Special Note for Games Studies Applicants
First of all, if you are interested in pursing a Ph.D. in game studies and have not yet read Bo Ruberg's blog post "Getting a Game Studies PhD: A Guide for Aspiring Video Game Scholars," I highly recommend you give it a read generally, just to understand what you should be looking for in a doctoral program. Additionally, you should also explore the work of my MCC colleague Whit Pow, who works on queer and trans media studies, queer software histories, and other topics related and relevant to games.
If you would be applying to do game studies in MCC, please know that I consider game studies to be an "area of competence" but not an "area of expertise." In other words, I'm familiar with alot of the work in game studies by virtue of having friends and colleagues in that space, but I spend most of my time keeping up with the history of computing and the contemporary game industry. I do not consider myself someone invested in core game studies debates (about narratology/ludology, play, embodiment, representation, etc. etc.) and I do not teach "canonical" game studies at either an undergraduate or a graduate level (by which I mean Huizinga, Callois, Juul, Bogost, Aarseth, Murray, Shaw, Pearce, Flanagan, etc). With regard to feminist and queer game studies, I work more on gender as a category of historical analysis, rather than on representations of gender in media per say.
Phone Calls/Skypes/Etc.
Unfortunately there are too many requests to speak with everyone. I currently limit myself to exchanges with students whose dominant focus is squarely in the research areas I've outlined above (and am increasingly limiting even those).
Am I Accepting Doctoral Students?
In MCC, faculty do not "own" doctoral students. Students are accepted to the department, and then form advising relationships with individual faculty members based on research area and interpersonal preferences. You do not need any faculty member's permission to apply to MCC, nor do you need my permission to list me as a faculty member you would be interested in working with in your application. I currently do not anticipated being away from campus or on leave long enough that it would impact anyone's capacity to work with me.
How Useful is it to Talk with Me?
Here's the truth: not very. I am one faculty member of over 30 who vote on PhD applications. In MCC, no single faculty member gets to unilaterally make decisions about incoming students, no matter how much they may personally support an application. This is not an invitation to contact other faculty with requests to examine your work, but to recognize that this process is not within the control of any one, or even a subset, or individuals. I appreciate a quick email with your info, interests, and research background, so that I can flag the application for deeper reading if I'm interested, but that's largely the limit of the attention I can offer applicants.
General Admissions Info
Our admissions process is coordinated centrally by NYU Steinhardt's Office of Graduate Admissions. Information about how to apply is available at http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/graduate_admissions and on our department website at http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/doctoral/Admissions.php. Please note that a minimum of three letters of recommendation and a writing sample are required as part of the application.