The Media Studies Initiative invites applications for Media Studies Graduate Working Groups, generously funded by the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. These competitive grants will encourage supportive and critical discussion of materials related to the A-exam, dissertation prospective, and drafts of dissertation chapters in any graduate field.
The funds will provide support for small groups of interdisciplinary graduate students to convene regularly to collaboratively discuss scholarship in the field of media studies, share drafts of dissertation chapters, and discuss research and writing strategies for approaching the group’s common interdisciplinary focus. The selected groups of graduate students will meet throughout the 2024-25 academic year.
Grants of $250 per person will be made available to groups of 4-5 participants who can demonstrate that their research interests productively converge. These groups should include students working in at least two different graduate fields or students within a single field whose research projects lend an interdisciplinary approach to their fields. We welcome proposals representing the broad range of scholarship that comprises media studies at Cornell, and especially encourage projects that involve the study of race, ethnicity, and media.
The use of these funds will be flexible, including copying and printing, books and supplies, and other expenses to support research and facilitate group meetings.
Applications must propose a schedule of meetings (roughly one every 2-3 weeks) to be held in the course of the academic year, which necessarily includes regular circulation to the group of chapters-in-progress, or of secondary readings, by each member. Meetings should offer substantive response and discussion by the group of each individual chapter. If the groups consist of students who have very recently passed the A-Exam, their sessions could be focused on penning a prospectus.
Application Guidelines:
For more information, and up to date guidelines on applications, please refer to the Media Studies Program's site, and reach out to mediastudies@cornell.edu with additional questions.