The Ph.D. program offers students the opportunity to pursue Cinema and Media Studies through coursework, comprehensive exams, a viva, and a dissertation project. Students are expected to give primary attention to an area of expertise of their choice while training in the broader theoretical, critical, and historical contexts of the chosen field.
Faculty research specialties include strengths in contemporary cinemas and media culture, one that highlights media and film theory, cult cinema, documentary studies, early cinema, feminist and post-feminist media studies, American, Canadian and European cinemas, television studies, and sound studies. There are particular strengths in contemporary Anglophone cinema and television products and cultures within a global context. Our students occasionally engage with professors and students in our renowned directing, design and film production graduate programs.
We accept up to two students per year, and we strongly urge applicants to consider whether their project matches our faculty’s past expertise or current research interests.
For specific program requirements, please refer to the departmental program website
B.C.’s favourable position as a hub for the international film and media production industry allows opportunities for research topics and case studies not easily available elsewhere.
As a selective boutique program, we provide close mentorship of all accepted students. We are usually able to provide teaching assistant experience to PhD. students in our large first and second year undergraduate courses. At the ABD stage, students may have the opportunity to teach an undergraduate course. Graduate students have the opportunity to work on the film studies journal Cinephile. The Visual Resources Centre provides access to nearly 10,000 DVDs. The Centre for Cinema and Media Studies in the Department occasionally sponsors visiting scholars. UBC has the second largest research library in Canada, including the 30,000 Videomatica collection, a unique resource.
Gabrielle Berry
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:
Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.
Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.
Minimum requirements for the three most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:
Overall score requirement : 5.0
Reading
4.5
Writing
4.5
Speaking
4.0
Listening
5.0
Overall score requirement : 100
Reading
22
Writing
21
Speaking
21
Listening
22
Overall score requirement : 7.0
Reading
6.0
Writing
6.0
Speaking