Overview
The International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture (NMMA) at the
University of Amsterdam (UvA) is accepting applications for 2010-2011
academic year. The NMMA is a one-year residence program undertaken in
English at UvA in the heart of Amsterdam. Students become actively
engaged in critical Internet culture, with an emphasis on new media
theory and aesthetics, including theoretical materialist traditions
and practical information visualization trends. Our permanent faculty
are recognized experts in their fields, who are committed to their
students. The program admits approximately forty students per year,
classes are no larger than 20 and often smaller, and the faculty-to-
student ratio is 1:8.

Curriculum
1st Semester: students follow a course in academic blogging, led by
critical Internet theorist and tactical media practitioner Geert
Lovink. Their entries form the internationally noted Masters of Media
site, http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/, regarded as a top blog for
new media research and nominated for a Dutch blog award for best
education blog. The concurrent new media theories course focuses on
classic texts by innovators from Alvin Turing to Tim Berners-Lee. The
final first semester class, Digital Methods, given by the program
Chair, Richard Rogers, trains students in novel techniques for
Internet research, http://www.digitalmethods.net/. 2nd Semester: the
student chooses between courses on digital aesthetics, new media
politics or information visualization. The digital aesthetics course
is theoretically inclined in the traditions of art history and visual
culture, and the new media politics class is concerned with the
transformations the Internet is bringing to politics. Information
visualization is a joint theoretical-practical collaboration between
designers, programmers and analysts, where the product is an online
tool, digital visualization or interactive graphic. The course of
study concludes with the M.A. thesis, an original analysis that makes
a contribution to the field, undertaken with the close mentorship of a
faculty supervisor. The graduation ceremony includes an international
symposium with renowned speakers. Graduates of the NMMA have gained an
analytical and practical skill-set that enables diverse careers in
research and practice-related areas that make use of the Internet,
including business, government, NGOs, and creative industries that are
evolving with emerging new media. Our graduates include Lotte Meijer,
winner of a Webby award, and Eva Kol, whose MA thesis, Hyves, was
published by Kosmos in 2008 and sold over 5000 copies its first year
in print.

Student Life
The quality-of-living in Amsterdam ranks among the highest of
international capitals. UvA’s competitive tuition (see below) and the
ubiquity of spoken English both on and off-campus make the program
especially accommodating for foreign students. The city’s many venues,
festivals, and other events provide remarkably rich cultural offerings
and displays of technological innovation. The program has ties to
organizations including PICNIC, the Waag Society, Institute for
Network Cultures, Virtueel Platform, Netherlands Institute for Media
Art, govcom.org, and other cultural institutions, where internship
opportunities may be available, in consultation with the student’s
thesis supervisor. Students attend and blog, twitter or otherwise
capture local new media events and festivals, while commenting as well
on larger international issues and trends pertaining to new media. The
quality of student life is equally to be found in the university’s
lively and varied intellectual climate. NMMA students come from North
and South America, Africa, Asia and across Europe and from academic
and professional backgrounds including journalism, art and design,
engineering, the humanities and social sciences.

Faculty
Richard Rogers, Professor and Chair. Web epistemology, Digital
methods. Publications include Information Politics on the Web (MIT
Press, 2004/2005), awarded American Society for Information Science
and Technology’s 2005 Best Information Science Book of the Year Award,
and the End of the Virtual (U Amsterdam P, 2009). Founding director of
govcom.org. http://www.govcom.org/.

Geert Lovink, Associate Professor. Critical Internet theory, Tactical
Media. Publications include Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical
Internet Culture (Routledge, 2007). Co-founder nettime listserve (1995
– present); founder, Institute of Network Cultures, 2004.
http://www.networkcultures.org/.

Jan Simons, Associate Professor. Mobile Culture, Gaming, Film Theory.
Publications include Playing The Waves: Lars von Trier's Game Cinema
(U Amsterdam P, 2007). Project Director, Mobile Learning Game Kit,
Senior Member, Digital Games research group. http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/j.a.a.simons/

Yuri Engelhardt, Assistant Professor. Computer modeling and
information visualization. Publications include The Language of
Graphics (2002); founder and moderator of InfoDesign (1995-9);
codeveloper of Future Planet Studies at UvA. http://www.yuriweb.com/

Edward Shanken, Assistant Professor. Digital aesthetics, visual
culture. Publications include Art and Electronic Media (Phaidon, 2009)
and Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and
Consciousness (U Cal P, 2003). http://artexetra.com

Thomas Poell, Assistant Professor. New media politics. In 2007 he
defended his PhD-dissertation on the democratization and
centralization of the Dutch state during the revolutionary period
around 1800. http://nl.linkedin.com/in/thomaspoell

Application & Deadlines
1 January 2010 for “early bird” candidates for Fall 2010. Early bird
candidates notified on 1 February. General deadline: 1 April for Fall
2010. Applicants will be notified around 15 June. Applications
received after 1 April may be considered if places are available. See
http://www.studeren.uva.nl/ma-nieuwe-media/ for details.

More Info & Questions
• International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture - University of
Amsterdam, http://www.studeren.uva.nl/ma_new_media/
• Graduate School for Humanities General Information,
http://www.hum.uva.nl/gs/actueel.cfm • Further general questions?
Please write to UvA’s Graduate School of the Humanities,
graduateschool-fgw “at” uva.nl.
• Specific questions about curriculum and student life? Please write
to Richard Rogers, Chair in New Media & Digital Culture, University of
Amsterdam, rogers “at” uva.nl.

Download .pdf of announcement:
http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/amsterdam_newmedia_MA_2010-11.pdf