Program in Media and Modernity

Director

Beatriz Colomina, Architecture

Executive Committee

Eduardo L. Cadava, English

Brigid Doherty, German, Art and Archaeology

Hal Foster, Art and Archaeology

Rubén Gallo, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures

Michael W. Jennings, German

Thomas Y. Levin, German

Anson Rabinbach, History

Associated Faculty

Stanley T. Allen, Architecture

Carol Armstrong, Art and Archaeology

Leora F. Batnitzky, Religion

James Boon, Anthropology

M. Christine Boyer, Architecture

Claudia Brodsky, Comparative Literature

Perry R. Cook, Computer Science

Stanley A. Corngold, German, Comparative Literature

Angela N. H. Creager, History of Science

Rachael DeLue, Art and Archaeology

Elizabeth Diller, Architecture

Paul J. DiMaggio, Sociology

Edward Eigen, Architecture

Caryl Emerson, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Comparative Literature

Diana J. Fuss, English

Mario Gandelsonas, Architecture

Stephen M. Kotkin, History

Paul Lansky, Music

Michael Mahoney, History of Science

Anne McCauley, Art and Archaeology

Esther da Costa Meyer, Art and Archaeology

Alexander Nehamas, Philosophy, Comparative Literature

Phillip G. Nord, History

Jeff E. Nunokawa, English

Spyridon Papapetros, Architecture

Jessie Reiser, Architecture

M. Christine Stansell, History

Paul E. Starr, Sociology

Thomas A. Trezise, French and Italian

Sarah Whiting, Architecture

Michael G. Wood, English

Alastair Wright, Art and Archaeology

Sits with Committee

Susan M. Taylor, Art Museum

 

The Program in Media and Modernity promotes the interdisciplinary study of the unique cultural formations that came to prominence during the last century, with special attention paid to the interplay between culture and technology. The program centers on architecture, art, film, photography, literature, philosophy, music, history, and media from radio to information technology. The program draws on the rich human and material resources that exist at Princeton and provides a focus and forum for research and teaching in the spaces, texts, media, and modernities of the 20th century. The program offers a graduate certificate, and, more broadly, collaborative teaching, learning, and research opportunities centered on team-taught and cross-disciplinary colloquia.

Graduate Certificate in Media and Modernity

The graduate Program in Media and Modernity offers students from a wide range of fields—architecture to computer science, visual arts to anthropology, literature to political theory—the opportunity to enrich and broaden their study through participation in the interdisciplinary activities of the program. Students obtain the certificate by fulfilling the following requirements: participating in one of the program’s team-taught seminars, and enrolling in at least two further seminars in 20th-century culture outside the student’s home department.

Focus

Each year the program designates a theme or a problem that serves as the focus of an interdisciplinary seminar and a major conference. The themes are chosen for their capacity to frame new approaches to research and teaching on 20th-century culture. These themes engage issues that rarely become a central focus within established fields, yet provide a productive perspective when played back onto these fields. Past themes have been surveillance, sound, little magazines of the 1960s and the 1970s, and Dada.

The program offers one seminar, co-taught by scholars from different fields, which focuses on that year’s theme. Every seminar is oriented toward the production of an event (such as a conference or exhibition), a publication, Web site, or media project. The program, often in collaboration with other departments, programs, and centers at Princeton, sponsors a wide range of events on the year’s theme; these include a major conference as well as smaller colloquia and lectures.

MOD 500 Topics in Media and Modernity

Staff

An interdisciplinary seminar, co-taught by program faculty, devoted to a particular theme in media and modernity. Topics change from year to year.

 

For more information on the program, and related courses in other departments, see the program Web site at web.princeton.edu/sites/mandm.