Academic PLan

Jennifer Thomas
Peter Haratonik
12/7/09
Jennifer Thomas’s Academic Plan: Master’s in Media Studie

Goals:
My goals reflect both my personal, professional and academic interests, so the ideas behind my goals are very diverse. One of the overarching themes is to combine film production and new media with an international focus. I hope to also work closely with some of the faculty here at The New School, including my advisor Paul Ryan, and others. I am interested in working with Paul Ryan especially as he has been able to somehow fuse new media technologies with sustainability. His work right now is somewhat of a mystery to me, as I do not fully understand it yet. As I will talk about later, I am interested in also combining my passion for helping to establish a better food system with my passion for filmmaking. For instance Christiane Paul’s research interests are vey much something that I could see myself working on and have started a literature that is in the works on Expanded Cinema. Her class that she is teaching, this coming semester did not really interest me as it has to do with mobile technologies.
Another goal of mine is to do some type of internship experience every semester. This semester I had the chance to intern at The Weinstein Company. I am still unsure whether I am going to continue this, but I am leaning more towards no as there are other places I wish to intern. One of the places I hope to apply to soon for an internship is Eyebeam. Here is a brief description of Eyebeam found on their website:
“Eyebeam is the leading not-for-profit art and technology center in the United States. Founded in 1996 and incorporated in 1997, Eyebeam was conceived as a non-profit art and technology center dedicated to exposing broad and diverse audiences to new technologies and media arts, while simultaneously establishing and demonstrating new media as a significant genre of cultural production. Today, Eyebeam offers residencies and fellowships for artists and technologists working in a wide range of media”.

I feel an internship here will help me fuse together my creative and academic pursuits. Some of the projects that Eyebeam fellows are working on cover issues such as healthcare, sustainability, neuroscience and brain imaging scanning (I have taken neuroscience courses as an undergrad). Eyebeam reflects the interdisciplinary nature of media and technology and I would like to become a part of this growing movement. It really is the only thing like it in the United States.

Other places of interest for internships include IFC, the Sundance Channel, and any non-profit having to do with film. I plan on going to the career-counseling center here at The New School soon. While practical, real world experience is very important to me, I also plan to do a thesis. One of the major concerns I have with doing a thesis is the lack of credits I have with the classes I want to take. I would definitely have to add on a semester and would have to possibly rearrange my timeline and drop classes I am really interested in taking. Things will become clearer when I find out about a potential scholarship. If I am going to do a thesis it might be best to start during the summer. However, financial aid is not available to me this summer, so coming up with that much cash might be a problem. I feel like I need one more semester though to figure out what I would want to do for a thesis. Some potential research interests right now include Expanded Cinema, semiotics and film, and media in China. These are broad areas of interest that I need to learn more about. I am also interested in working on films as a production assistant.

Strategies:
One of my goals and a one of the reasons I wanted to go to graduate school is the connections it allows one to make. I have already made some solid connection with fellow students by working on projects with them and volunteering my time helping out on video shoots. It’s also a reason why I like working in film because there is a social aspect there that is not always available in other art forms. I also plan on taking the Film Form production sequence and have already outlined my plan of action as follows. Each course I feel is essential to what I would like to do. However I am a little apprehensive about if I will be able to fit in all the classes. The courses I am most excited about taking out all the Film Form studios, and the Cinematography course. Taking “Semiotics For the Digital Producer” will allow me to have Paul Ryan as a teacher. He is also my mentor for a project I have applied to and waiting to hear the results from The India China Institute. The India China Institute’s student travel and research program allows New School students to create a research project based on a particular theme in India or China. This year’s theme was “social innovation and sustainable solutions”. Based on my previous experience working with Health, a non-profit who educates students on nutrition, I became very passionate on reformulating where our society gets their food and how. This will allow me to also combine my interests in documentary filmmaking and photography. However, it is not definite that I will receive this scholarship, but if I do, I hope to apply to more scholarships to fund this project.
Another way I wish to incorporate an international component to my education is to do an International Field Placement through the Masters in International Affairs, here at The New School. I have already applied for this year and gotten in, but there are some financial hindrances that are in the way. If I were to go this summer I would have had to take out additional student loans. The Grad Plus loans have a significantly higher interest rate than the normal Stafford loans. I went to a financial aid advisor and was informed that if I wait another year, that I could use my last semester Fall 2011 loan money. I would actually get more money than if I took out a Grad Plus loan. Another benefit is that it would be my last six credits, not counting if I do a thesis, and could incorporate my travels into a thesis paper. I was originally accepted into the Hong Kong International Field Placement. If I do end up going to China this summer, and study the effects of sustainable agriculture on the city and country, I am wondering if it would be more beneficial to go to China again, or continue my research in another place like Nepal or India, both bordering countries, but vastly different culturally speaking.
Recent developments have made my plans more firm as I have been awarded the student travel funds to go to China. While I am there, and beforehand, I want to research how I can incorporate China into a thesis project. Based on the work of my advisor, and mentor for the project, Paul Ryan, I am thinking about doing something with sustainability and communication. Maybe I can even incorporate Christiane Paul’s research on Expanded Cinema, that I used to write my Literature Review, and connect these two themes.


Fall 2009
Understanding Media Studies 3
Media Studies: Ideas 3
Media Practices: Concepts3
9

Spring 2010
Media Practices: Film Form (production class) 3
Semiotics and the Digital Producer (production) 3
Projects in Multi-Sensorial Spaces (production) 3
18

Fall 2010
Film Form Production Studio (fall only) (production class) 3
Visual Systems (seminar) 3
Cinematography Art and Technique (production) 3
27 (thesis proposal)

Spring 2011 4th
Film Form Post-Production Studio spring only,(3 production)
*GPIA course (methods) (approval)
*GPIA Seminar course & Language Course (3 credit seminar, approval)
33 credits so far
*Thesis tutorial (1) and supervision (1) (approval)

Summer 2011 (39)
*Field Placement (6 credits of seminar course approval)

December 2011 Graduation
4 seminar courses (12)
6 production courses (18)
1 methods (3)
Required Courses (9)
Thesis (3)
Total (45)
Now in this plan there are some minor inconsistencies with the general Media Studies program requirements.