The PhD in Communication, New Media, and Cultural Studies (CNMCS) brings together three interdisciplinary fields that all originated in attempts to understand and debate big problems using tools from the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Cultural studies began by trying to articulate the significance of culture beyond the privileged space of the university, communication studies wanted to understand how mass media was changing modern society, and new media scholars and artists wanted to probe how computing and digital communications were changing human knowledge and creativity. Each of these fields understands that the problems society faces today, with all their varied technological, economic, ecological, and political implications, are, fundamentally, problems of communication and culture. Learning to read, critique, and create culture, media, and communication is critical to seeing things, and doing things, in new ways.

Students will have the option of completing a traditional academic thesis, a research-creation project, or a “sandwich” thesis comprised of student’s published or to-be-published articles. The students will gain training in a minimum of two fields and create interdisciplinary research.

Graduates of the program will be equipped with advanced research skills that are in wide demand in the labour market: the policy, not-for-profit, private and education sectors. The program’s emphasis on rigorous interdisciplinary training and professionalization will equip students with advanced cultural, social, and digital literacies; the ability to navigate and innovate in multiple modes of communication; and the capacity for analyzing and engaging complex systems and problems. In particular, this training will make students competitive in the growing academic job market in communication and new media.