Subject overview

Programmes

• PhD in Creative and Critical Practice
• PhD in Media and Cultural Studies
• MPhil in Creative and Critical Practice
• MPhil in Media and Cultural Studies

Faculty have expertise in the following areas: digital art, documentary, working-class cultures, globalisation, new media technologies, media audiences, popular culture, Hollywood cinema, sound cultures and radio, journalism and the public sphere, lesbian and gay studies, feminism, advertising and consumption, identity and cultural space, and representation. We also offer supervision across a range of critical and creative practice, supported by state-of-the-art facilities. Students interested in pursuing research in these fields are particularly encouraged to apply.

Coursework

All new research students will be required to participate in a programme of research training modules and to take other modules that may be recommended by the supervisor of their research (exemption from research training modules can be granted to those who have already taken such modules at postgraduate level). The Department offers a range of support for research training, including research seminar presentation days, ‘away days’ support for new skills, and the Research in Progress seminar series.

For information on MPhil and PhD study, refer to Research.

Recent and current PhD thesis titles

Aesthetics and identity in landscape photography of the South Downs

Articulating dissent from the margins to the mainstream: the communicative strategies of protest coalitions

European identity and the management of public information

The political economy of open source and free culture

Representation, subcultures and memory: rethinking the 1950s in British popular culture

The role of brands in the contemporary culture of children

Entry requirements

MPhil in Creative and Critical Practice

UK entrance requirements

Normally a Masters degree in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

MPhil in Media and Cultural Studies

UK entrance requirements

Normally a Masters degree in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

PhD in Creative and Critical Practice

UK entrance requirements

Normally a Masters degree in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

PhD in Media and Cultural Studies

UK entrance requirements

Normally a Masters degree in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Visas and immigration

Find out more about Visas and immigration.

For more information about the admissions process at Sussex

For pre-application enquiries:

Student Recruitment Services
T +44 (0)1273 876787
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

For post-application enquiries:

Postgraduate Admissions,
University of Sussex,
Sussex House, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk 

Related subjects

• Creative and critical writing
• Drama
• Film studies
• Gender studies
• Music

Fees and funding

Fees

MPhil in Creative and Critical Practice

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

PhD in Creative and Critical Practice

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

MPhil in Media and Cultural Studies

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

PhD in Media and Cultural Studies

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

Faculty interests

Our internationally respected research explores questions around the materialities, technologies and politics of cultural forms and formations. Researchers work on, across and through a range of media: film, television, radio, photography, and ‘new’ and interactive forms. 

They specialise within three interlocking themes: 

Cultural histories/cultural politics 

Research is focused on histories of journalism and the public sphere and the relationships between cultures, technological change and social and political change. It also encompasses an analysis of the construction of national identities and borders, and their institutionalised histories and marginalised others. 

Media technology, form and experience 

The relationships between technology, form and experience are explored through studies of techno-cultural innovation, sense perception, and embodied experience. A key aspect, which builds on expertise in the Department, is the development of new critical frameworks for the exploration of new media forms and practices as they emerge in everyday life. 

The politics of representation 

The Department of Media and Film has long been a centre of excellence for research on gender, sexuality and representation. We continue to build on this through a concern with the images and narratives of popular culture, and the ways in which these construct identities and play on pleasures, fears and desires. 

Individual research interests are briefly described below.

Dr Caroline Bassett New media technologies, most recently working on narrative and new media. Published widely on new media and gender. 

Dr Michael Bull Works extensively on the nature of auditory experience. Specialises in the work of The Frankfurt School. 

Wilma de Jong Researcher, scriptwriter, director and producer. Media and activism, independent production, documentary and news. 

Andrew Duff Production tutor. Specialises in exploring reactive and interactive multimedia, experimental digital and analogue audio. 

Melanie Friend Documentary photographer. Representations of conflict and trauma, asylum detention in the UK. 

Lee Gooding Senior production tutor. Has produced a range of programmes for a number of organisations. 

Adrian Goycoolea Film-maker addressing issues of identity, exploring the intersections of personal memory with social and political histories. 

Dr Ben Highmore The culture of daily life. Author of A Passion for Cultural Studies (2009); Ordinary Lives (2009). 

Dr Gholam Khiabany Academic leader of the journalism degrees. 

Dee Kilkelly Production tutor. Co-runs APT new media, a collective responsible for art events and club nights in and around Brighton. 

Mary Agnes Krell Media artist whose work spans performance, digital media and narrative practices. 

Dr Kate Lacey Gender, media and the public sphere. Has published widely on radio history and theory. Current work focuses on listening publics. 

Andy Medhurst Post-war British popular culture; media representations of masculinity and homosexuality. 

Dr Monika Metykova Lecturer in media communications/journalism studies. 

Dr Sharif Mowlabocus Digital cultures, gender, sexuality and representation. Author of Gaydar Culture (2010). 

Professor Sally R Munt Queer studies, cultural studies, identity and emotion. Co-author of Queer Spiritual Spaces: Sexuality and Sacred Places (2010). 

Dr Kate O’Riordan Cultural studies of science and technology. Author of Human Cloning and the Media: from Science Fiction to Science Practice (2008); The Genome Incorporated (2010). 

Dr Martin Spinelli Produces award-winning literary and experimental radio projects. Interests include radio art and sound poetry, and cultural studies. 

Lizzie Thynne Film-maker who has exhibited widely in broadcast, festival and gallery contexts. Interests include auto/biography and surrealism. 

Janice Winship Published on women’s magazines, advertising and consumption in the 20th century. 

Kirk Woolford Media artist who engages in practice-led research to explore concepts that defy textual representation. 

Careers and perspectives

Our graduates have gone on to pursue careers in academia, production research, broadcasting, and project and cultural management. Employers of our graduates include Scenestealer Interactive Video Solutions, Viasat Broadcasting, Autumn Publishing and Ofcom.

School and contacts