What schools offer a PhD and/or funded masters in comparative media studies?

[Aerothorn]

Hey all,

Long story short, I'm just starting to look at the graduate school route. There are a lot of ways in which the general concept is a good fit for me, but I'm having trouble finding programs that mesh with my particular interests and background.

For my undergraduate education I self-designed a major on "storytelling across media," that looked at films, novels, video games, etc, developing analytical skills for each medium and then trying to compare/constrast the way they told stories. My senior thesis was a book on the history of storytelling in video games, using 13 games as examples of the medium's development.

In short, I really like this sort of broad approach to the humanities and media studies. So far, however, the vast majority of MA/PhD "media studies" programs have been film/television programs with a little bit of digital media tacked on. I enjoy studying films and television, but would not want it to be the chief emphasis of my work. So far, MIT's Comparative Media Studies program and the University of Buffalo's Media Studies programs are the only ones (in the USA) that I've found that really fit the bill.

Do you know of any others that fit in this mold? And do funded masters exist in this field? Thanks for any help you can provide

Edited April 22, 2012 by Aerothorn

[ArtHistoryandMuseum]

If you are seeking East Coast and New York, while not as fancy name brand as MIT, Champlain College in Vermont offers a MFA in Emergent Media. From the website, the school appears interdisciplinary and Professor Esckilsen over there teaches interactive story-telling. I am in the museum field, and I am aware the school does a lot with video games and apps.

[Swagato]

Look into Duke's Literature program. They have major stars like Mark Hansen, N. Katherine Hayles, etc. Also consider Brown's Modern Culture and Media program.

[Aerothorn]

Thanks much for the tips, these are definitely the sort of things I'm looking for. And as far as Chaplain, brand name isn't at all important to me - I'm doing this mostly for the process/education in-and-of-itself, with no ambition of becoming a tenture track professor etc.

[ArtHistoryandMuseum]

You'll find a home at Champlain then! People there are about ideas and creating... things. Their graduates get jobs. The college itself has also really taken off in a powerful direction the last few years.

It is no Seattle, but Burlington, Vermont is gorgeous; the city is set on the lake, and the city has proximity to Montreal, QC and to Boston, MA.

[wreckofthehope]

Communications departments could also be a good bet - UCSD's seemed really interesting when I was looking at it; also, Minnesota's Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature dep't is very cool.