[Commlist] Applications Now Being Accepted for a Fully Funded PhD in Media Arts + Practice

Applications Now Being Accepted for a Fully Funded PhD in Media Arts + 
Practice


The interdisciplinary Media Arts + Practice PhD program (iMAP) 
within the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern 
California is now accepting applications for Fall 2027; the deadline is 
December 1, 2026.

iMAP is a full-funded practice-based doctoral program at the 
intersection of film, media studies, critical theory, and practice that 
invites students to explore the boundaries of cinema understood in its 
broadest sense while also creating new forms of scholarly expression.

What is the cinematic when it becomes immersive, mobile, 
environmental, playable, generative, virtual, ambient, live and 
spatialized? What role can hybrid scholar-practitioners play in the 
evolution of these forms within a critical, ethical and political 
framework? And how can we express our findings through new forms of 
scholarship?

Core to the iMAP program is its transdisciplinary ethos; 
after completing foundational coursework, students design their own 
curricula, drawing on expertise across all divisions with the School of 
Cinematic Arts. Students also have access to the school’s 
state-of-the-art facilities and research labs, and they are encouraged 
to collaborate with students and faculty across the USC campus.

Research groups include:

• Mobile and Environmental Media Lab

• Ganek Immersive Studio

• World Building Media Lab

• Game Innovation Lab

• Affective Media Lab

• Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center

• AI for Media & Storytelling Studio

• Center for Ethnographic Media Art

The areas of research investigated by iMAP students are broad 
and include: intersectional AI; critical code studies; machine 
learning; archives and counter-archives; experimental documentary and 
ethnography; Afrofuturism; queer and transfeminist 
worldbuilding; transmedia story design; intersectional media studies; 
performance; sound studies; and computational design.

Fellowship Opportunities

All PhD students accepted into the iMAP program are funded 
through fellowships that offer tuition coverage, a stipend, as well 
as opportunities to serve as paid research and teaching assistants.

Apply

The iMAP program is practice-based, and as such, students are 
encouraged to be creative and reflective in designing, defining and 
articulating their research methods and scholarship. For this reason, 
the program seeks candidates who are interested in helping define new 
fields; those willing to combine theory and practice; and those ready to 
face the challenges of uncharted scholarly territory.

Deadline: December 1, 2026

Further information and application materials are available at 
http://map.usc.edu/phd/ <http://map.usc.edu/phd/>

Questions? (map /at/ cinema.usc.edu) <mailto:(map /at/ cinema.usc.edu)>

Division of Media Arts + Practice

School of Cinematic Arts

3470 McClintock Avenue, Suite 101

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, 90089-2211

213-821-5700

map.usc.edu <http://map.usc.edu>

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