Description
The doctoral program in Texts and Technology initiates an interdisciplinary field combining scholarly study, creative production, and assessment of digital media texts. Texts include visual, audio, multimedia, and performance, as well as printed and spoken words. The curriculum emphasizes theory and practice in new media supplemented by historical grounding in pre-digital media studies. Both a teaching practicum and professional internship experience are required of all students to familiarize them with textual technologies from both academic and professional perspectives. This unique and innovative program prepares students for research, teaching, and program development. Areas of research and production include web design, multimedia production, distributed education, entertainment, publishing, information architecture, and visualization.
Degrees OfferedDoctor of Philosophy in Texts and Technology Admission
For information on general UCF graduate admissions requirements that apply to all prospective students, please visit the Graduate Catalog. Applicants are encouraged to apply online. Please be sure to submit all requested material by the established deadline(s).
Applicants must hold a master’s degree. Because a degree at the master’s level comparable to Texts and Technology does not exist anywhere, applicants may hold master’s degrees from any accredited field. Fields with a technological and/or textual theory (cultural studies, linguistics) background are especially applicable. As many as 30 credits may be transferred from the student’s master’s program to the Ph.D. program requirements, subject to approval by the program committee.
In addition to the general admission requirements, applicants must provide:
- Official score of at least 1000 (combined) on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), which must have been taken within the last five years
- GPA of 3.0 or higher
- Three letters of recommendation (no older than one year)
- Written statement of professional goals
- Digital portfolio and/or a substantial writing sample
- Resume
- For applicants from countries where English is not the official language, or for an applicant whose bachelor’s degree is not from an accredited U.S. institution, an official score of at least 220 (computer-based test; or equivalent score on the paper-based test) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is required.
Application Due Dates
All students applying for fellowships or assistantships must apply by the Fall Priority deadline date.
U.S. Applicants
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International Applicants
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Doctor of Philosophy in Texts and Technology
Ph.D. Minimum Requirement—93 Credit Hours
The program requires three core courses (3 credit hours each), four restricted elective courses in the English department (3 credit hours each), three interdisciplinary courses (3 credit hours each), a professional internship and a teaching practicum (6 credit hours each), a dissertation prospectus course (3 credit hours), and at least 18 credit hours of dissertation research work. Up to 30 hours may be transferred from the student’s master’s program, and at least 63 credit hours must be taken at UCF.
Any transfer credit must be approved by the university and the department. Normally, these credits must correspond to equivalent requirements and performance levels for the program.
Course Work Transferred from Master’s—30 Semester Hours
(Or courses required and approved by program committee)
Required Core Courses—9 Credit Hours
- ENG 6810 Theories of Texts and Technology (3 credit hours)
- ENG 6801 Texts and Technology History (3 credit hours)
- ENG 6812 Research Methods for Texts and Technology (3 credit hours)
Restricted Elective Courses—12 Credit Hours
Students should contact the Program for approved courses in these areas. The courses below are recommended examples.
- ENC 6428 Rhetoric of Digital Literacy (3 credit hours)
- ENC 6XXX Acoustical Texts and Technology (3 credit hours)
- ENC 6426 Visual Texts and Technology (3 credit hours)
- ENC 6XXX Gender, Texts, and Technology (3 credit hours)
- ENG 6811 Cultural Contexts of Texts and Technology (3 credit hours)
- ENC 5225 Theory and Practice of Document Usability (3 credit hours)
- ENC 6XXX Ethics in Texts and Technology (3 credit hours)
- ENG 6938 Topics in Texts and Technology (3 credit hours)
Interdisciplinary Elective Courses—9 Credit Hours
With the assistance of the Ph.D. program coordinator, students will select three courses outside the English Department or other graduate-level English courses.
These courses will come from an unrestricted range of possibilities though they need to be relevant to the field of Texts and Technology and to the students career goals and must be approved by the Ph.D. program coordinator. Several suggested courses are listed below (3 credit hours each), though students may choose from appropriate courses throughout the university.
- IDS 5XXX Interactive Media Design (3 credit hours)
- IDS 5718 Science and Technology of Dynamic Media (3 credit hours)
- IDS 5709 Autonomous Characters (3 credit hours)
- EXP 5256 Human Factors I (3 credit hours)
- Internship (6 credit hours)
- Teaching Practicum (6 credit hours)
- Dissertation Prospectus (3 credit hours)
Dissertation—18 Credit Hours
- ENC 7980 Doctoral Dissertation
Internship and Teaching Practicum
In addition to meeting course requirements, students must also complete both a professional internship and a teaching practicum, for six credit hours each. The internship will be arranged at appropriate industrial, academic, or governmental sites established and supervised by the department. Internships may also be completed as part of on-campus major research projects. The teaching practicum will be arranged and supervised by the program coordinator for technologically appropriate courses at UCF.
Ph.D. Qualifying Examination
The Ph.D. qualifying examination, which determines whether the student will be allowed to continue in the program, will be taken within the first two regular semesters of doctoral study. It takes the form of a three-hour written exam that will be offered once per academic year and will cover familiarity with the knowledge of the field. Students are allowed two attempts to pass the examination.
Candidacy Examination
The comprehensive candidacy examination consists of an oral examination on a dissertation proposal draft and a reading list. In close consultation with the dissertation advisor and committee, the student will develop a reading list that encompasses and integrates the three areas of theory, history, and application. Students cannot register for dissertation credit (ENC 7980) until the term following passing the candidacy examinamtion. The candidate must receive the dissertation advisor’s approval of the reading list one semester prior to taking the oral examination (not including summer semesters). The candidate will thus submit the reading list to the advisor either in the Spring semester for a Fall exam, or the Fall semester for a Spring exam. No later than one semester after the oral exam, the candidate will submit the final revised dissertation proposal.
Dissertation and Oral Defense
Students choose their dissertation advisor and committee after they have completed course work. Students must write a dissertation on their research that will explain and defend a significant original contribution to the field of Texts and Technology. It may be of a theoretical, historical, or pragmatic nature but must meet conventional academic standards of rigor, scholarship, relevance, and excellence. The research committee administers the candidate’s oral defense of the dissertation, with passing determined by acceptance by a majority of the committee. The dissertation advisor, the research committee, and the Dean of the college or designee must approve the final dissertation. Format approval is required from the Thesis and Dissertation Editor and final approval of satisfaction of degree requirements by the Office of Graduate Studies (Millican Hall 230).
Residence Requirement
Students in the Ph.D. program are usually expected, for at least two consecutive semesters in the regular academic year, to be in residence on the main campus and registered for a minimum of nine credit hours in each of the two terms.
Time Limitation
The full time student has seven years from the beginning of their first semester in the Ph.D. program to complete all requirements for the Ph.D. degree.
Financial Support
Graduate students may receive financial assistance through fellowships, assistantships, tuition support, or loans. For more information, see Financing Grad School, which describes the types of financial assistance available at UCF and provides general guidance in planning your graduate finances. The Financial Information section of the Graduate Catalog is another key resource.
Key points about financial support:
- If you’re interested in financial assistance, you’re strongly encouraged to apply for admission early. A complete application for admission, including all supporting documents, must be received by the priority date listed for your program under "Admissions."
- You must be admitted to a graduate program before the university can consider awarding financial assistance to you.
- If you want to be considered for loans and other need-based financial assistance, review the UCF Student Financial Assistance website at http://finaid.ucf.edu and complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form, which is available online at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov. Apply early and allow up to six weeks for the FAFSA form to be processed.
- UCF Graduate Studies awards university graduate fellowships, with most decisions based on nominations from the colleges and programs. All admitted graduate students are automatically considered in this nomination process. To be eligible for a fellowship, students must be accepted as a graduate student in a degree program and be enrolled full-time. To receive need-based fellowship awards, the student must have demonstrated need as determined by FAFSA. Merit fellowship awards are not affected by FAFSA determination of need.
- Please note that select fellowships do require students to fill out a fellowship application (either a university fellowship application, an external fellowship application, or a college or school fellowship application).
- For information on assistantships (including teaching, research, and general graduate assistantships) or tuition support, contact the graduate program coordinator of your major.
Contact Info
Craig Saper, Ph.D. , Professor
Phone Number: 407-823-5329
englgrad@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
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Graduate Students
