User:Turnj/Communication, Culture & Technology Program

The Communication, Culture & Technology Program (commonly abbreviated as CCT) is one of 55 graduate programs offered through The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Georgetown University. A master's only program focused on bringing an interdisciplinary approach to complex problems examines the challenges and contexts created through the intersection of technology within a range of fields including history, government, journalism, art, politics, business, health, and medicine.

History

Historical building

Historical image of the Car Barn

Car Barn is located in 3520 Prospect street, Georgetown Washington, District of Columbia.  

The building consists of four floors and rooftop patio. The building has two entrances from Prospect street and M street and is adjacent to neighboring Georgetown University. The majority of the building is leased to the University, with the remainder owned and rented by Douglas Development Corporation.

The famous "Exorcist steps"

In 1950 the Georgetown Commission of Fine Arts included Car Barn in the list of historical sights of Georgetown, Washington DC by passing “the Old Georgetown act 1950.”

The famous stone steps from the film The Exorcist are part of the Car Barn complex that starts at the corner of Prospect Street and 36th Street and ends at M Street.

Academics

Admissions

Prospective Students

The CCT Program looks for applicants who demonstrate an aptitude and eagerness to learn from a wide range of fields and have an intellectual agility to innovate when challenged to find new solutions through the lenses of multiple disciplines. CCT students are from diverse academic backgrounds, including English, economics, linguistics, international studies, business, education and communication, and more. Many enrolled students decide to return to school and choose CCT after years of working experience in either public or private sectors. The average years of work experience before coming to CCT is three years.

Many factors influence the admission decision and CCT does not set minimum test score standards for both GRE and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Average GRE scores of enrolled students are 156 for verbal section, 156 for quantitative section and 4 for analytical writing section. International applicants whose native language is no English are required to submit TOEFL scores. Average TOEFL score of enrolled students is 106.

Application

Priority Fall Admission: the application deadline is January 15. Applicants could receive CCT decision by early March. Applications for CCT scholarship or fellowships are only accepted once a year during the Priority Fall season.

Regular Fall Admission: the application deadline is April 1. Applicants could receive CCT decision by mid-May.

Spring Admission: the application deadline is November 1. Applicants could receive CCT decision by early December.

Scholarship & Fellowship

CCT Merit-based Scholarship

CCT Merit-based Scholarships goes towards off-setting tuition costs only and may be renewable upon satisfactory completion of the first year. This type of scholarship is dependent on external grant funding, thus funding may not always be available.

GNOVIS Fellowship

CCT offers fellowship positions with gnovis, our student-run academic journal to full-time incoming students. Five fellows are selected each year to receive funding support between $2,600 and $5,000 per year.

CNDLS Fellowship

Two CNDLS (The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship) fellowships are offered each year. The two available positions are technical/media position and writing/communication/research position.

During the academic year, they will hold a Graduate Associate position for which they will be paid an hourly rate of $19.50 and be expected to work 15–20 hours per week. They may earn up to a maximum of $13,260 throughout the academic year.

Course Clusters

The CCT program offers a variety of courses and classes that span the fields of communication, culture, and technology. Course clusters have been created to guide students into an area of interest. It is not required to choose one, and students take courses across clusters.

The Eight Clusters Include:

• Cultural Studies: Cultural Studies includes courses that delve into various fields and studies of high and mass culture. Associated Faculty: Michael Macovski, Matthew Tinkcom
• Globalization Studies: Globalization Studies analyze the complex relationships and patterns between people, places, and things.
• Art, Media and Representation: Art, Media, and Representation focuses on key issues within the realm of representation of contemporary media and visual arts in the social stratosphere of today’s post-Internet world. Associated Faculty: J.R. Osborn
• Media and Politics: Media and Politics explores the history and presence of traditional news media and how their relationship newer technologies in the field. Associated Faculty: Leticia Bode, Diana Owen
• Technology and Society: Technology and Society courses discuss how major social changes come about while highlighting the interconnectedness between social and technology-based networks. Associated Faculty: Evan Barba, Martin Irvine
• Technology, Business, and Economics: Technology, Business, and Economics courses explore the impact of technologies on businesses, analyzing the opportunities and challenges they bring. Associated Faculty: Jeanine Turner
• Technology, Information & Innovation Policy: Technology, Information, and Innovation Policy focuses on decisions that policymakers make which in turn impact technology and technology users. Associated Faculty: Meg Leta Jones

Student Life

CCT Student Organizations

The program offers numerous organizations, both student run and faculty affiliated, in conjunction with the interdisciplinary study of the community.

Car Barn Labs

Run multiple times throughout the year, workshops range in subject matter, from the editorial to the technical to the theoretical. The lab's motto is “students are teachers and teachers are students”, and built to engage students in community learning. Previous lab workshops include Gif Making, Photography, 3D Printing, InDesign, and Public Speaking.

Gnovis

Gnovis is CCT’s peer run and reviewed journal, publishing scholarly work across multiple disciplines (CITE gnovis ) Gnovis publishes two printed journals per year, in addition to maintaining an online blog. Submissions are open to any graduate level student. The organization also hosts debates, social events, and their annual gnovicon conference. (CITE http://www.gnovisjournal.org/category/gnovicon15/)

Media Fest

CCT students manage an annual event aimed at celebrating the mixed media work of other Georgetown CCT students (CITE MediaFest-homepage). Students may apply online to participate in this exhibition, and if they choose to display their work, they are offered creative support leading up to the event (CITE Application). Previous galleries include the 2015 and 2016 Media Fests (CITE 2015-artists    2016-artists).

TechTour

CCTechTours is the program's flagship student-organized networking initiative. Students organize site visits to DC companies, speaking with employees about careers in the field. Past tours have included NPR, The World Bank, Ad Council, Google, Berkman Klein Research Center, and SLATE magazine. In addition to DC tours, the initiative leads a spring break trip every year, touring companies in cities like New York, San Francisco and Boston. (CITATION Techtour)

Others

CCT runs its own radio show, GU Forum Radio. A public radio production since the 1940s, the half-hour show began as interviews with Georgetown faculty and community members. (CITATION.GU Forum Radio homepage ) In 2010, Professor Evan Barba revamped the program to include a wider range of programming and student input.

The Electronic Media & Politics online communication journal brings together new media and political communication on a multimedia platform (CITE Research AND eM&P Homepage). Published pieces include interviews, videos (CITE video), blogs, and articles about timely political issues and their relationship to CCT coursework (CITE http://www.emandp.com/news/ ). New posts are distributed via the “Tuesday Drop” email to subscribers (CITE eM&P Homepage).

Projects & Awards

Publications

Founding Director and Associate Professor Dr. Martin Irvine has authored The Making of Textual Culture (and its revised version) and Web Works: The Norton Guide to the World Wide Web. He also has four published articles in various books and they are about culture, literary theory and global e-education.

Associate professor Dr. Diana Owen is the author and co-author of three books: Government and Politics in the Information Age, New Media and American Politics, and Media Messages in American Presidential Elections. Additionally, she has edited two books; Making a Difference: The Internet and Elections in Comparative Perspective and  The Internet and Politics: Citizens, Voters, and Activists. She also has seventeen articles published in books, journals and in the press. Her work is mostly focused on civic education, political engagement and new media’s role in politics.

CCT program director Dr. David Lightfoot is the author and co-author of eight books. Additionally, he has edited three books  Syntactic effects of morphological change, Verb movement and  Explanation in linguistics: The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition and written many book reviews. He has published over twenty articles in books, journals and online. While the content of each books and articles differ, the topics are centered around Lightfoot’s interest and research in language as human biology.

Research & Grants

Throughout CCT’s 20 years as a program, various professors have received grants in order to continue research in their specific fields of politics, media studies, robotics, and beyond. Some of the most recent research grants awarded to CCT faculty include:

Associate professor and associate dean of academic affairs Matthew Tinkcom was awarded a Georgetown Senior Faculty Grant for the spring semester of 2017. This grant will allow Tinkcom the opportunity to complete 3 chapters of his new book, Allegories of Pleasure: Global Science Fiction Cinema and the Technologies of Gender.

In 2016, assistant professor Leticia Bode and colleagues were awarded $40,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York in support of their publication titled “Young Adults, Media Flows and Electoral Engagement: Understanding How Campaign Dynamics Drive Millennial’s Knowledge and Participation.” Bode was also awarded a 2016 Massive Data Institute (McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University) Seed grant. $38,000 to support a study titled, “Parenting and Social Media: Sources of Parenting Information and Misinformation on Twitter.”

In 2015, assistant professor Evan Barba received an $875,000 grant that will last through 2020 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to support a project titled, “An Enhanced Interface for Tele-robotic Servicing of Orbital Space Assets.”

Distinguished Alumni

• Amanda Lenhart

References

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