Extra opportunities

For students looking for an extra challenge in addition to their Master's, there are several options. 

One of the ways in which you can add to your studies is to take part in some of the following extra-curricular activities:

Research Groups

Within our department, there are several active research groups dealing with new media and digital culture related themes and topics which welcome participating MA students. Here, you can meet research staff, PhD candidates and other students through organized lectures, seminars, expert meetings, and other activities. Have a look at the websites of the groups for more information:

• The Datafied Society 
  This research group presents a platform for the investigation of the algorithmic turn in the humanities and the datafication of everyday life. The goals is to have humanities scholars work in the field alongside practitioners and ‘get their hands dirty’. They should embrace their capacity for critical inquiry and use the new empirical resultant of the unfolding data revolution to provoke questions and generate insights.
• [urban interfaces] 
  A platform for a critical investigation of urban interfaces for creative and participatory engagement at the crossing of academic research and cultural practices. Focusing on mobile and situated media, arts, and performances, the platform brings together and initiates critical reflections on, and actual interventions in, these socio-spatial activities and their shaping and staging of urban culture.
• Center for the Study of Digital Games and Play
  Here, we examine digital games as well as the role of play in our contemporary culture. Due to an increased ludification of culture, we aim to re-evaluate the manner in which we study media and culture. One approach we use for this purpose is the notion of play as a conceptual framework for the analysis of media use. The study of digital games and play therefore enables us to address fundamental changes in the way we create and use media.
• Television in Transition
  The Centre for Television in Transition, or TViT, is a research initiative of television and media scholars and cultural historians. They develop, coordinate, carry out, publish and promote the study of television in transition from its early beginnings. Main research areas are television’s many screens, histories, discourses, and practices. TviT poses that television is a medium that never just is, but constantly is in the state of transition, especially in relation to new media and the digital environment.

Data School

The Data School (DS) is a research project in which students are invited to analyse and visualise data for organisations. As a student of the MA New Media and Digital Culture you can opt to do a research internship with DS. Under the guidance of experienced scientists from DS students actively apply their knowledge to data collection, analysis and visualization of data and the formulation of a comprehensive analysis of their findings in a professional report for external partners. The Utrecht School Data can be summarised as a unique experience for you to reflect on the transformation of society through data-driven practices. 

Utrecht Game Lab

The Utrecht Game Lab (UGL) is a space where scholars and designers meet to design and study games. The UGL pursues several on-going projects and organizes weekly meetings, some with a specific agenda and others dedicated to project work. You will learn to make and remix games using tools like Game Maker: Studio, Unity 3D or paper prototyping and to use them as a means of analysing games; existing programming skills are not required. Rather, students with non-technical backgrounds acquire experimental game creation skills and learn how to productively incorporate practical design activities into their theoretical work on and with games.

Membership of the Curriculum Committee

In order to oversee the educational quality of the programme, each year an independent Curriculum Committee (“Onderwijscommissie” or OC) is assembled, consisting of lecturers and students in the two programmes New Media and Digital Culture (NMDC) and Film and Television Studies (FTV). The Committee evaluates courses and the overall programme by convening four times in a year and organizing informal talks with programme coordinators. The student members of the OC represents the students of the programme and acts as an ‘interface’ between coordinators and students. He/she will receive a financial compensation for this.

Interdisciplinary honours programmes

You can choose from three of the university wide honours programmes below. In these interdisciplinary programmes you will work on varying social and academic issues together with students from other disciplines. By analysing issues from different angles you learn how you can navigate in current complex societies at a broad and connecting level. After completing these honours programmes you will receive an honours certificate during a festive ceremony.

For more information on honours programmes at the UU, go to the Honours College website or Instagram.