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The MA in Comparative Media Arts is at the forefront of an emergent intermedial approach to

the arts. A radical mutuality characterizes the relationships among the visual arts, visual culture,

performing arts, and art forms that incorporate reproducible and digital media. This program

thinks across the media arts in a comparative perspective that synthesizes the historical and

theoretical approaches of art history, cinema studies, performance studies, and studies of

computer‐based arts.

With its intimate scale, interdisciplinary design, and faculty of international reputation,

The School for the Contemporary Arts at SFU provides a rich environment for scholars of the

fine and performing arts. This MA will allow scholars to immerse themselves in an environment

of creative experimentation, working in parallel with students in the interdisciplinary MFA

program.

The MA in Comparative Media Arts prepares students for work as curators, cultural

programmers, arts administrators, arts writers, and other careers in the arts. It also prepares

students for a range of PhDs that study the fine and performing arts, including practice‐based

PhDs.

The MA in Comparative Media Arts is a four‐semester, seven‐course program, culminating in a

public symposium. The research methods course introduces methods appropriate to the

comparative study of the media arts, drawn from art history, cinema studies, studies of the

media arts, performance studies, and related disciplines. Seminars give students a strong

grounding in new developments in visual culture, cinema studies, digital art studies, and

performance studies. Students also take an elective from an array of courses across the

university, or the practicum in comparative media arts, in which students work on focused

projects in the local arts community. The research colloquium prepares students in research

presentation and professional development, including grant applications, teaching skills, and

revising for publication. In the extended essay students research in depth a topic in comparative

media arts and develop an original argument, with the goal of producing an essay suitable for

publication.

Applicants should have an undergraduate degree in visual culture, art history, cinema studies,

performance studies, cultural studies, communications, literary studies, or other degrees

focusing on the arts. Applications with Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees that include substantial

scholarly studies will also qualify.