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Detailed Information

Program of Study

The interdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree provides substantial advanced study for a small number of highly talented individuals. The program emphasizes the artistic development of the individual student and the creation of high-quality artistic works in photography, film, video, sound, new media, and interdisciplinary media. Course work in production, criticism, theory, history, and combined media studies emphasizes the interwoven character of traditional and contemporary approaches and technologies in the twenty-first-century.

Research Facilities

Southern Illinois University Carbondale has been designated as a New Media Center. State-of-the-art interactive multimedia labs, extensive facilities for audio, film, new media, photography, graphics, and video production, are available. Students have the opportunity to plan and organize the annual international Big Muddy Film Festival or Visiting Arts program. There are opportunities to work with WSIU Public Broadcasting, which operates two PBS-affiliated television stations and two NPR-affiliated FM radio stations. Students may also choose to become involved with the off-campus Big Muddy Independent Media Center, Carbondale’s community radio station, and the town’s emerging public access TV channel. The College also houses the Global Media Research Center, which brings together communication with other disciplines and draws in academic colleagues nationally and internationally, to study and evaluate global media operations and trends. The extensive holdings and wide array of bibliographic and instructional support services offered by Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Morris Library place it among the foremost research institutions. The library holds memberships in the Association of Research Libraries and the Center of Research Libraries in Chicago.

Financial Aid

Financial support that includes a stipend and a tuition waiver is available. The College provides three years of assistantship funding. A number of fellowship, assistantship, and scholarship opportunities, including those for traditionally underserved populations, are also available at the University level.

Cost of Study

In-state graduate tuition is $328 per credit hour in 2009–10. Out-of-state tuition is 2.5 times the in-state tuition rate ($820 per credit hour). Graduate students with at least a 25 percent appointment as a graduate assistant receive a tuition scholarship. Fees vary from $589.03 (1 credit hour) to $1557.50 (12 credit hours). Students with a graduate assistantship receive a 50 percent reduction in the primary care medical fee. New graduate students from Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee qualify for the alternate tuition rate, which is equivalent to the in-state graduate tuition rate.

Living and Housing Costs

For married couples, students with families, and single graduate students, the University has 690 efficiency and one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments that rent for $499 to $720 per month in 2009–10. Residence halls for single graduate students are also available, as are accessible residence hall rooms and apartments for students with disabilities.

Student Group

In 2006–07, there were 25 graduate students in the College’s M.F.A. program. The Graduate School has more than 3,644 students and 526 registered professional students.

Location

Carbondale is approximately 100 miles southeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Immediately south of Carbondale begins some of the most rugged and picturesque terrain in Illinois. Within 20 miles of the campus are two state parks and four recreational lakes, and much of the area is a part of the 240,000-acre Shawnee National Forest.

The University

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a state-funded university founded in 1869. The Department of Cinema and Photography, the School of Journalism, and the Department of Radio-Television are in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, located in the Communications Building on the west side of the campus. WSIU Public Broadcasting provides hands-on experience for students.

Applying

Prospective students must present evidence of exceptional talent and/or potential in one or two media pursuits in the degree program and have a minimum GPA of 3.0. This evidence ordinarily consists of a portfolio of photographs or digitally generated art works, one or more films, videos, sound works, multimedia productions, Web art projects, or other evidence of artistic potential as well as a supporting letter of intent. A campus visit and interviews with faculty members are recommended, particularly for applicants with minimal course work in the field. Applications should be received at the Mass Communication and Media Arts graduate office by January 2 for admission consideration.

The Faculty and Their Interests

• Department of Cinema and Photography
• Lilly A. Boruszkowski, Associate Professor; M.F.A., Northwestern, 1979. Cinema production, postproduction sound, editing, documentary and experimental film.
• Cade Bursell, Assistant Professor; M.F.A., San Francisco State, 2002. Cinema.
• Susan Felleman, Associate Professor; Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center, 1993. History and theory of film in relation to art, classical and contemporary Hollywood cinema, European “art” film, surrealism, psychoanalytic and feminist theory.
• Sarah Kanouse, Assistant Professor; M.F.A., Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004. Public space, media art, cultural geography, labor history, urban and rural relationships, art and activism.
• Jyotsna Kapur, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Northwestern, 1998. Feminist and Marxist analysis of media, globalization, children’s film and consumer culture, documentary and ethnographic film, the German and Japanese new wave and Indian cinema.
• Gary P. Kolb, Professor and Interim Dean; M.F.A., Ohio, 1977. Photography and digital arts.
• Fern Logan, Associate Professor; M.F.A., Art Institute of Chicago, 1993. Photography, digital applications and alternative processes.
• Antonio Martinez, Assistant Professor; M.F.A., East Carolina, 2005. Digital imaging, alternative printing processes, multimedia installation, class and racial identity.
• Daniel Overturf, Associate Professor; M.F.A., Southern Illinois Carbondale, 1983. Photography.
• Jan Peterson Roddy, Associate Professor; M.F.A., Illinois, 1987. Photo/digital production, media arts, image and word, art/politics/spirituality, race, class, gender, sexuality in media, rural U.S. culture.
• R. William Rowley, Associate Professor; M.F.A., Iowa, 1974. Digital and analog film production and postproduction techniques, experimental filmmaking, observational documentary, intermedia arts.
• Deborah Tudor, Associate Professor and Chair; Ph.D., Northwestern, 1992. British cinema, Australian cinema, war and cinema, digital cinema, sports, the documentary.
• Dru Vratil, Associate Professor; M.F.A., Iowa, 1998; Screenwriting.
• Department of Radio-Television
• Lisa Brooten, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Ohio, 2002. Media and globalization, gender, social movements, political communication, interpretive/critical research methods, ethnography.
• David Burns, Assistant Professor; M.F.A., Parsons, 2001. 2-D and 3-D digital imaging and animation.
• John Downing, Professor and Director, Global Media Research Center; Ph.D., London School of Economics, 1974. International communication; alternative media and social movements; racism, ethnicity, and media; media and cultural history.
• John Hocheimer, Professor and Chair; Ph.D., Stanford, 1986. Community radio, global media, media studies pedagogy, media history, spirituality and education, popular music.
• Phylis Johnson, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Southern Illinois Carbondale, 2003. Sound production and performance acoustic ecology and sound culture, radio drama, oral literacy, media education.
• Wago Kreider, Assistant Professor; M.F.A., Rutgers, 2006. Independent filmmaking, broadcast television production, media studies.
• Novotny Lawrence, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Kansas, 2004. African American representations in film and television, Japanese animation, Hindi cinema, film history, genre theory.
• Sarah Lewison, Assistant Professor; M.F.A., California, San Diego, 2007. Video, media studies.
• Eileen Meehan, Professor; Ph.D., Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1983. Political economy of the media, cultural studies, mass communications history, critical communications research.
• Howard Motyl, Assistant Professor; Film and video production, the documentary.
• Jay Needham, Assistant Professor; California Institute of the Arts, 1989. Video, film, digital audio production, electroacoustic music.
• Manjunath Pendakur, Professor; Ph.D., Simon Fraser, 1980. Cultural imperialism, U.S. and Canadian film industries, India’s film and television industries, media and public policy issues, the New World Information Order debate, globalization issues.
• Jake Podber, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Ohio, 2001. Media studies, oral history, cultural studies, Appalachian studies, media history.
• Jan Thompson, Associate Professor; M.G.S., Roosevelt, 1988. Video production, documentary and sports production.
• Paul Torre, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., South Carolina, 2006. Electronic media management, TV, film, critical studies, media management, international media market, relationships between Hollywood studios and German media companies.
• School of Journalism
• Linda Correll, Assistant Professor; M.A., CUNY, Hunter, 2007. Advertising, creativity in advertising.
• Shahira Fahmy, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Missouri–Columbia, 2003. New media, international communication, visual analysis.
• William Freivogel, Associate Professor and Director; J.D., Washington (St. Louis), 2001. Journalism, law.
• Katherine Frith, Associate Professor; Ed.D. candidate, Amherst. International advertising, copywriting, advertising and society.
• Laura Hlavach, Assistant Professor; J.D., Texas, 1985. Libel, open meetings/open records acts, copyrights, twenty-first-century news writing and reporting, pedagogical constructivism.
• Walter B. Jaehnig, Associate Professor and Director; Ph.D., Essex (England), 1974. Media ethics, media theory and philosophy, political violence reporting.
• Michael Lawrence, University Professor of Journalism; B.A., Knox (Illinois), 1964. Former press secretary to the governor of Illinois, public policy.
• Xigen Li, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Michigan, 1999. News media and the Internet, impact of technology on mass media, theory of influence on news content, international news and media systems, news media and U.S.-China relations, China’s news media.
• Dennis Lowry, Professor; Ph.D., Iowa, 1972. Social issues in advertising, communication research methods, content analysis.
• Cinzia Padovani, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Colorado at Boulder, 1999. Historical approaches to political economy, public service broadcasting, international communication, social movements and the media.
• Jyotika Ramaprasad, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Southern Illinois Carbondale, 1984. Communication and social change, global journalists, international communication, international advertising/consumer behavior.

Correspondence and Information

Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Director of Graduate Studies
College of Mass Communication and Media Arts
Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6606
Telephone: 618-452-5120
Fax: 618-453-7714
Email: mcmagrad@siu.edu