About the Program

The Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM) offers two programs for graduate students at UC Berkeley, a Designated Emphasis in New Media and a Graduate Certificate.

Designated Emphasis

BCNM's designated emphasis is for selected students from any Berkeley doctoral program. It provides enhanced skills in analyzing and/or designing future media with an awareness of historical, social, cultural, and other perspectives that might not be visible from any single disciplinary point of view. Students completing the PhD program receive the designation "in New Media" on their diplomas. New Media Designated Emphasis students are also eligible for a variety of fellowships and graduate student instructor positions through BCNM.

Graduate Certificate

The Graduate Certificate in New Media is an addition to existing master’s degree-granting programs. Students receive a certificate with the designation “Graduate Certificate Program in New Media,” which certifies their successful completion of the New Media requirements. The award is posted to students’ transcripts. Designed to enhance interdisciplinary graduate studies at UC Berkeley, the graduate certificate program emphasizes critical understanding of the nature and implications of new media, broadly conceived, drawing on theories and methodologies from across the disciplinary spectrum—the arts, the humanities and social sciences, and science and engineering. The Graduate Certificate in New Media provides students with a competitive edge for some of the most desirable jobs in industry and academia and may enhance opportunities for innovative and collaborative research.

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Admissions

Admission to the Designated Emphasis

Any UC Berkeley PhD student in good standing may apply. Admission to the BCNM Designated Emphasis program is determined by the BCNM DE Academic Programs Committee. To apply, students must send a letter of intent, their curriculum vitae, a letter of recommendation from their UC Berkeley faculty adviser, their Berkeley course transcript, BCNM course requirements worksheet, along with the BCNM cover form to the Center for New Media. Applications are accepted twice a year, with deadlines for admission on March 1 and November 1.

Admission to the Masters Certificate Program

Any UC Berkeley master's student in good standing may apply. To apply, students should send a letter of intent, their curriculum vitae, a letter of recommendation from their UC Berkeley faculty adviser, their Berkeley course transcript, BCNM course requirements worksheet, along with the BCNM cover form to the Center for New Media. Additionally, applicants may supplement their portfolio with their own research publications and creative productions, which pertain to the critical study of new media, in the form of DVDs, websites, and so on. Submitting a creative portfolio is optional. Applications are accepted twice a year, with deadlines for admission on March 1 and November 1.

Designated Emphasis Requirements

Curriculum/Coursework

It is possible to provide evidence of equivalent level of experience/skill in an area and request a waiver of a core course by writing a petition to the DE academic program committee, endorsed by your program adviser, describing how the requirement has been met with a previous course (include a copy of your transcript to confirm completion) or provide evidence of equivalent experience. Questions about the core requirements may be addressed to the BCNM graduate adviser, Coye Cheshire, at coye@berkeley.edu.

Qualifying Examination

Your PhD qualifying exam committee must include at least one member of the BCNM Graduate Group/Affiliated Faculty who will evaluate your knowledge related to the designated emphasis.

Dissertation

Your PhD dissertation topic must be related to New Media and your PhD dissertation committee must include at least one member of the BCNM Graduate Group/Affiliated Faculty who can evaluate it from that perspective.

Certificate Requirements

Curriculum/Coursework

Core Classes

Certificate students must take one of the following core seminars offered each year by BCNM:

Elective Courses

Students must complete new media-related breadth courses in at least two of the following three areas: technology, art/design, and humanities. The two courses must be approved by the BCNM graduate adviser. Breadth courses must be taken at Berkeley (transfer credit will not be accepted).

Research Resources

Lyman Fellowship

The Peter Lyman Graduate Fellowship in new media, established in the memory of esteemed UC Berkeley Professor Peter Lyman, provides a stipend to a UC Berkeley PhD candidate to support the writing of his or her PhD dissertation on a topic related to new media. The fellowship is supported by donations from Professor Barrie Thorne, Sage Publications and many individual friends and faculty. Funds total approximately $5000 each year.

Summer Research Fellowships

The Center for New Media endeavors to offer five $1,000 summer research fellowships each year to support its graduate students’ research agendas.

Conference Fellowships

The Center for New Media seeks to support its students' scholarship through conference grants. The Center disburses approximately $3,000 each Fall and Spring to this end.

Additional Conference and Research Support

Each year, BCNM provides seed funding for student-led conferences. These awards are available by petition to the director and program officer.

Space

Cubicles are available by application on the fourth floor of Sutardja Dai Hall. The BCNM also administers 340 Moffitt, which can be booked for classes, office hours, seminars, and meetings.

Teaching Opportunities

The BCNM strives to provide its graduate students with opportunities for teaching experience. Each year, the center employs three GSIs (graduate student instructors) to staff small discussions or assist with grading its three core courses. The BCNM seeks to offer summer session courses and encourages its students to apply for these positions.

For more information, visit the Berkeley Center for New Media website.

Courses

New Media

Faculty and Instructors

+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Faculty

Pieter Abbeel, Associate Professor. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR), Machine Learning.
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Dor Abrahamson, Associate Professor. Mathematics cognition through the lenses of design-based frameworks.
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Ilan Adler, Professor. Financial engineering, optimization theory, combinatorial probability models.
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Alice M. Agogino, Professor. New product development, computer-aided design and databases, theory and methods, intelligent learning systems, information retrieval and data mining, digital libraries, multiobjective and strategic product, nonlinear optimization, probabilistic modeling, supervisory.
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Charles F. Altieri, Professor. Literature and the visual arts, Wittgenstein, Modern American poetry, Contemporary American poetry, history of aesthetic philosophy.
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William Andrew Atwood, Assistant Professor.

Ruzena Bajcsy, Professor. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biosystems & Computational Biology (BIO), Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR), Graphics (GR), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer vision, Bridging information technology to humanities and social sciences, Security (SEC).
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Brian A. Barsky, Professor. Computer science, geometric design and modeling, computer graphics, computer aided cornea modeling and visualization, medical imaging, virtual environments for surgical simulation.
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David William Bates, Professor. Enlightenment, early Modern European intellectual history, 20th century European and American intellectual history, history and theory of media and technology, history of political thought.
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Mark Berger, Adjunct Professor. Film studies, film production, film sound.
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Henry Brady, Professor. Comparative politics, public policy, electoral politics, political participation, survey research, program evaluation, statistical methods in the social sciences, social welfare policy, Soviet Union, inequality in America.
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Edmund Campion, Professor. Music, composition, musical application of computer technologies.
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John Canny, Professor. Computer science, activity-based computing, livenotes, mechatronic devices, flexonics.
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Anthony J. Cascardi, Dean of Arts & Humanities. English, comparative literature, literature, Spanish, Portuguese, philosophy, aesthetics, early modern literature, French, Spanish Baroque.
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Coye Cheshire, Associate Professor. Sociology, trust, social media, social psychology, social networks, collective action, social exchange, information exchange, social incentives, reputation, internet research, online research, online dating, online behavior.
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Raveevarn Choksombatchai, Associate Professor.

Galen Cranz, Professor. Architecture, sociology of space, urban parks, Alexander Technique, chairs, ergonomics, somatics, body conscious design, social research methods for architecture and urban design, ethnography, programming, post occupancy evaluation and assessment, sociology of taste, housing for the elderly.
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Trevor Darrell, Professor in Residence. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR), Computer Vision.

Whitney Davis, Professor. History of Art.

Abigail T. De Kosnik, Associate Professor. New media, performance studies, performance theory, performance, media studies, fan studies, digital culture, social networks, film, television, social media, Internet culture, digital humanities.
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Nicholas de Monchaux, Professor. Architecture, urban design and organization, natural and manmade systems.
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J. Bradford Delong, Professor. Economics, globalization, economic growth, convergence, economics of post WWII Europe.
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Paul Duguid, Adjunct Professor. Trademark, information, communities of practice.
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+ Robin L. Einhorn, Professor. Taxation, United States political history, urban history, nineteenth century.
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Laurent El Ghaoui, Professor. Decision-making under uncertainty, convex optimization, robust solutions, semidefinite programming, exhaustive simulation.
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Harrison Fraker, Professor. Urban design, architecture, environmental design, passive solar, daylighting, sustainable design, sustainable systems, urban design principles, transit oriented neighborhoods.
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Michael Franklin, Professor. Operating Systems & Networking (OSNT), AMPLab.

Jacob Gaboury, Assistant Professor.

Dan Garcia, Professor. Education (EDUC), Computational Game Theory, Graphics (GR).

Deniz Gokturk, Associate Professor.
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Ken Goldberg, Professor. Robotics, art, social media, new media, automation.
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Xin Guo, Professor. Financial engineering, industrial engineering and operations, stochastic processes and applications, stochastic control, semi-martingale and filteration expansions, credit risk, (ir)reversible investment.
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Maria-Paz Gutierrez, Assistant Professor. Next-generation building systems, self-regulated facades, biologically inspired technologies, multifunctional materials.
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Bjorn Hartmann, Associate Professor. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Graphics (GR), Programming Systems (PS).

Cori Hayden, Associate Professor. Latin America, Mexico, social and cultural anthropology, kinship, anthropology of science, technology, and medicine, post-colonial science, gender, queer studies.
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Marti A. Hearst, Professor. Information retrieval, human-computer interaction, user interfaces, information visualization, web search, search user interfaces, empirical computational linguistics, natural language processing, text mining, social media.
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Richard Koci Hernandez, Assistant Professor.

James Holston, Professor. Citizenship, Brazil, architecture, law, planning, the United States, cities, democracy, political and social anthropology, urban ethnography, the Americas.
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+ Glynda Hull, Professor. Language, culture, society, education, literacy, writing in and out of schools, multi-media technology, new literacies, adult learning, work, and community, school, university collaborations.
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Lisa M. Iwamoto, Professor. Architecture, design, materials research and fabrication.
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Shannon Jackson, Professor and Associate Vice Chancellor for Arts + Design. Rhetoric, performance studies, American studies, 20th century art movements and critical theory, local culture and intercultural citizenship in turn-of-the-century United States, history and theory of theatre and performance art.
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Rosemary Joyce, Professor. Latin America, anthropology, gender, archaeology, sexuality, museums, cultural heritage, ethics, Central America, feminism.
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Tony Kaes, Professor. Film studies, modern literature, literary and cultural theory, cinema, interdisciplinary and comparative aspects of Weimar culture, contemporary literature and film, literary theory, theory of cultural studies, film history, film theory, history of cinema.
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Philip M. Kaminsky, Professor. Biotechnology, logistics, distribution, algorithms, planning, optimization, control, manufacturing, semiconductors, scheduling, biomanufacturing, probabilistic methods, production scheduling, supply chain management, operations management, logistic.
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Asma Kazmi, Assistant Professor.

Richard G. Kern, Professor. Literacy, second language acquisition, writing, psycholinguistics, reading, French language, French linguistics, technology and education.
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Kurt Keutzer, Professor. Computer Architecture & Engineering (ARC), Design, Modeling and Analysis (DMA), Scientific Computing (SCI).
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Michel Laguerre, Professor. Globalization, information technology, urban studies.
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Niklaus Largier, Professor. Religion, literature, German, history of medieval and early modern German literature, theology, mysticism, secularism, senses, sensuality, history of emotions, passions, asceticism, flagellation, sexuality.
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Ray Larson, Professor. Information Retrieval system design and evaluation, database management.
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Edward A. Lee, Professor. Embedded Software, Real-Time Systems, Cyber-Physical Systems, Concurrency, Design, Modeling and Analysis (DMA), Programming Systems (PS),Signal Processing (SP).
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+ Dennis K. Lieu, Professor. Actuators, magnetics, acoustics, electromechanical devices, rolling elements, spindle motors, structural mechanics.
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Marcia C. Linn, Professor. Cognitive processes, science, computer instruction.
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Rita Lucarelli, Associate Professor. Near Eastern Studies, Egyptology.
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Michael Lucey, Professor. Pragmatics, the novel, sexuality studies, comparative literature, French, French literature, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, British literature and culture, social and literary theory, cultural studies of music, studies of language in use, theories of practice, twentieth-century American literature.
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Jabari Mahiri, Professor. Language, culture, society, literacy, literacy learning of urban youth, African American students in schools, writing development, effective teaching, learning strategies in multicultural urban schools and communities.
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Jitendra Malik, Professor. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biosystems & Computational Biology (BIO), Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR), Graphics (GR), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Signal Processing (SP),.
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Tom McEnaney, Assistant Professor.

Peter S. Menell, Professor. Intellectual property, property law, environmental law and policy, entertainment law.
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Russell L. Merritt, Adjunct Professor.

Minoo Moallem, Professor. Transnational and Postcolonial Feminist Studies, cultural studies, Visual and Material Cultures of Religion, Immigration and Diaspora Studies, Middle East Studies, and Iranian Studies.
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Deirdre Mulligan, Associate Professor.

Daniel Neumark, Professor. Physical chemistry, molecular structure and dynamics, spectroscopy and dynamics of transition states, radicals, and clusters, frequency and time-domain techniques, state-resolved photodissociation, photodetachment of negative ion beams.
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Greg Niemeyer, Associate Professor. Art, film studies, digital media installations, photography.
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Alva Noe, Professor. Cognitive science, phenomenology, consciousness, philosophy, theory of perception, theory of art, Wittgenstein, analytic philosophy origins.
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Geoffrey D. Nunberg, Adjunct Professor.

James O'Brien, Professor. Computer graphics, fluid dynamics, computer simulation, physically based animation, finite element simulation, human perception, image forensics, video forensics, computer animation, special effects for film, video game technology, motion capture.
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Daniel C. O'Neill, Associate Professor. Modern Japanese Literature, East Asian Cinema, Global Modernism, visual studies.
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Tapan Parikh, Associate Professor. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), ICTD.

Eric Paulos, Associate Professor.

Mary E. Power, Professor. Freshwater ecology, food webs, trophic dynamics, northern California rivers, watersheds.
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Leigh Raiford, Associate Professor. Social movements, visual culture, memory, photography, African American history and culture.
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Juana Maria Rodriguez, Professor. Sexual politics, LGBTQ communities, Latino issues, women of color feminisms, ethnic studies, queer activism, transgender studies, queer kinship.
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Stuart Russell, Professor. Artificial intelligence, computational biology, algorithms, machine learning, real-time decision-making, probabilistic reasoning.
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Kimiko Ryokai, Associate Professor.

Pamela Samuelson, Professor. Public policy, intellectual property law, new information technologies, traditional legal regimes, information management, copyright, software protection and cyberlaw.
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Mark Sandberg, Professor. Silent film, late nineteenth-century visual culture, theater history, comedy, Scandinavian design, serial television, film historiography, Scandinavian film history, Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian literature, Nordic literary history.
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S. Shankar Sastry, Professor. Computer science, robotics, arial robots, cybersecurity, cyber defense, homeland defense, nonholonomic systems, control of hybrid systems, sensor networks, interactive visualization, robotic telesurgery, rapid prototyping.
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Alexandra Saum Pascual, Assistant Professor.

Annalee Saxenian, Professor. Innovation, information management, entrepreneurship, Silicon Valley, regional economic development, high skilled immigration, Asian development.
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Lee W. Schruben, Professor. Health care systems, simulation, optimization of simulation system response, foundations of simulation modeling, supply chains, experimental designs, biopharmaceuticals, Production.
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Zuo-Jun Shen, Professor. Logistics, supply chain design and management, inventory management, auction mechanism design.
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Ikhlaq Sidhu, Adjunct Professor. Technology management, industrial engineering and operations, technology commerialization, interdisciplinary engineering.
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George A. Starr, Professor. 18th-century English literary, social and intellectual history, prose style, bibliography and textual criticism, literature of California and the west.
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Claire Tomlin, Professor. Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR), Biosystems & Computational Biology (BIO), Control theory, hybrid and embedded systems, biological cell networks.
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Minh-Ha Trinh, Professor. Gender and sexuality, womens studies, rhetoric, feminist postcolonial theory, film theory and production, music composition, ethnomusicology, contemporary critical theory and the arts.
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Neyran Turan, Professor.

Anne Walsh, Associate Professor. Video, performance, audio, photography, text.

Steven Weber, Professor. Political science, international security, international political economy, information science.
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Kristen Whissel, Professor. Cinema and technological change, computer-generated images and contemporary cinema, digital visual effects, the history and theory of special effects, cinema in transition, American film history, silent American cinema, modernity and early cinema.
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Hertha D. Sweet Wong, Associate Professor. English, American literature, native American literature, autobiography, ethnic American literature.
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Paul K. Wright, Professor. Mechanical and electrical engineering design, 3D-printing, manufacturing, energy systems, wireless sensor networks, sensors/MEMS/NEMS, IT systems, automated manufacturing and inspection.
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Damon R. Young, Assistant Professor.

Avideh Zakhor, Professor. Signal Processing (SP), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR), Graphics (GR).
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John Zysman, Professor. Political science, comparative politics, finance, political economy, manufacturing, European and Japanese policy, corporate strategy, Western European politics, post-industrial economy, governments, the politics of industrial change.
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Lecturers

+ Sara Beckman, Senior Lecturer SOE.

Felipe Gutterriez, Lecturer.

Jean P. Retzinger, Lecturer. Environmental communication, particularly agriculture and food issues in advertising, television, film, and digital media.

Jeremy Rue, Lecturer.

Emeritus Faculty

+ Nezar Alsayyad, Professor Emeritus. Virtual reality, urban history, Architectural history, Middle Eastern Studies, cross-cultural design, cities and cinema, cultural studies of the built environment, environmental design in developing countries, housing and urban development, Islamic architecture and urbanism, traditional dwelling and settlements, urban design and physical planning.
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Penny Dhaemers, Professor Emeritus. Architecture, electronic imaging, 2D and 3D.
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Andrea Disessa, Professor Emeritus. Education, cognition, conceptual development, science education, design of technology for education, computational literacies.
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Jon Else, Professor Emeritus. Directing, history, film, journalism, writing, documentary, producing, cinematography, nuclear weapons.
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Edwin Epstein, Professor Emeritus.

Jerome A. Feldman, Professor Emeritus. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biosystems & Computational Biology (BIO), Security (SEC), cognitive science.
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Tom Goldstein, Professor Emeritus. Journalism, mass communications, writer, reporter, editor.
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Cynthia Gorney, Professor Emeritus. Ethics, law, journalism, writing, reporting the news, profiles.
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+ Ronald Gronsky, Professor Emeritus. Internal structure of materials, engineering applications.
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Gillian P. Hart, Professor Emeritus.

Neil Henry, Professor Emeritus. Race, Africa, urban society, journalism, newspapers, community reporting, journalistic values, foreign reporting, sports, fraud.
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George P. Lakoff, Professor Emeritus. Mathematics, literature, philosophy, cognitive linguistics, the neural theory of language, conceptual systems, conceptual metaphor, syntax-semantics-pragmatics, the application of cognitive linguistics to politics.
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Donlyn Lyndon, Professor Emeritus. Architecture, structure of place, ethical dimensions of design.
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+ Francine R. Masiello, Professor Emeritus. Gender theory, culture, globalization, comparative literature, Spanish, Latin American literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, comparative North and South literatures.
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Donald Mastronarde, Professor Emeritus. Professor of the Graduate School, classics, Greek literature, Greek drama, Greek textual transmission, Greek literary papyrology, Greek palaeography.
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Loren Partridge, Professor Emeritus. Urbanism, architecture, Italian Renaissance painting, sculpture, Rome, Florence, Venice, Italian courts, churches, palaces, villas, fresco decoration.
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David A. Patterson, Professor Emeritus. Computer Architecture & Engineering (ARC), Computer Architecture and Systems: Parallel Computing performance, correctness, productivity,Biosystems & Computational Biology (BIO), Cancer tumor genomics, Operating Systems & Networking (OSNT).
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Jean Pierre Protzen, Professor Emeritus. Architecture, design, planning, the logics of design, and construction principles of ancient civilizations, pre-columbian South America, architecture and construction, Tiwanaku in Bolivia, Tambo Colorado in Peru.
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Zak Sabry, Professor Emeritus. Public health, health and social behavior, health policy and management, public health nutrition.
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Carlo H. Sequin, Professor Emeritus. Geometric modeling, Artistic geometry, Mathematical visualizations., Graphics (GR), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), CAD tools.

Pablo Spiller, Professor Emeritus.

Barrie Thorne, Professor Emeritus. Feminist theory, gender theory, ethnography, qualitative methods, sociology, women, sociology of gender, sociology of age relations.
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Ruth Tringham, Professor Emeritus. Archaeology, Central European, Eastern European, Mediterranean, Anatolian prehistory, early agriculturalists, neolithic, bronze age, prehistoric architecture, household archaeology, feminist practice of archaeology, multimedia (hypermedia).
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Nancy A. Van House, Professor Emeritus. Digital libraries, science, information management, technology studies, knowledge communities, user needs, information tools, artifacts, participation of users.
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+ Linda Williams, Professor Emeritus. New media, film theory, pornography, melodrama, sex in cinema, popular genres, surrealist cinema, serial television.
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