PhD Program Objectives

The ATLAS PhD Program prepares students for research and professional careers working across traditional boundaries between information and communication technology and a wide variety of other areas, including media, telecommunications, business, law, and many of the social sciences, arts and humanities. It prepares students for university teaching and research careers, both in traditional departments (e.g., communications, computer science, or sociology) where the study of technology, media and society is incorporated, and in the growing range of interdisciplinary schools and colleges of Information, Informatics, Computer and Information Science, and related areas. It also prepares students for policy and research positions in industry, in government, in sectors including telecommunications, media, and technology.

Graduates of the PhD in Technology, Media and Society:
• Possess the intellectual tools to understand, critique and conduct interdisciplinary research at the interface of technology, media and society.
• Demonstrate research skills appropriate to the candidate’s chosen fields.
• Conduct high quality research that meets current standards for publication in at least one substantive area in the interface of technology, media and society, demonstrating advanced knowledge of both research methodologies and the limitations of these methodologies.
• Bring reasoned argument, informed judgment, and a well-articulated standpoint to issues of significance in technology, media and society.
• Can collaborate effectively with scholars from multiple areas, in research and inquiry, grant application, and publication.
• Can demonstrate how their research findings contribute significantly to multiple fields of inquiry.
• Can communicate the products of their scholarship effectively at a professional level, orally and in writing, to diverse constituencies.
• Can compete successfully for academic, industrial or public-sector jobs.