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The College of Arts & Sciences
The Department of Performing and Media Arts provides opportunities for students to explore theatre, film and dance as distinct art forms, or to combine these disciplines in exciting ways.
Whether students choose to major, minor or enroll in select classes, they can integrate work in acting and film, theatre and television, dance and light, new media and sound. The major is both flexible and rigorous, giving students multiple options in designing their own program of study. In consultation with a faculty advisor, they also develop a focus in their area of interest. The departmental curriculum offers a robust selection of courses, from introductory to advanced levels and from both creative and critical perspectives.
PMA offers a variety of major and minor opportunities in the performing arts. Students build a solid foundation in a broad spectrum of rubric areas – exploring relationships between dance, movement, live theatre and media arts – while choosing a primary area of interest.
From creating, designing or directing an event to organizing an alumni visit or working and studying in Hollywood and Europe, PMA offers amazing learning opportunities outside a traditional classroom experience.
Our program is focused on preparing students for careers as researchers and professors with concentrations in drama and theatre, theatre history and aesthetics, and performance studies. Students can earn a PhD and the joint MA/PhD.
Students work closely with Cornell's Society for the Humanities and The School for Criticism and Theory, interdisciplinary centers of intellectual exchange that draw scholars and artists from around the world. Cornell PMA also has an active student organization community offering support as graduate students grow.
The ability to see the world critically and then shape what you see into words into various forms, is so powerful. You may not want to be in media but you may have a podcast. You may be doing something else. You may be commenting on something online. Your words are powerful and you can hold people accountable to their words.
Location: Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Kiplinger Theatre
Location: Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Kiplinger Theatre
Location: Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Kiplinger Theatre
Location: Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Kiplinger Theatre
PMA Professor Bruce Levitt will be giving a talk called “The Spaces in Between: Serendipity, Storytelling, and Transformation in the Carceral State” to the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine on May 18.
PMA Podcast Ep. 72 with Emma Alexander: Student Film Screening
PMA Ph.D. Candidate Gina Goico has published an article called “Reveliones Fugitivas:
Unveiling Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous and Black rebellions through art in Santo Domingo's colonial city" in Performance Research Journal’s Issue 7: On Ghosts. “This article,” says Goico, “examines how artistic interventions in Santo Domingo's colonial city (La Zona) produce a site of increased refusal between historical memory and national identity, revealing the ghosts of Afro-Indigenous and Black rebellions.”
PMA Ph.D. Alum Harvey Young ’04 has been awarded a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship in Theatre Arts & Performance Studies. He is part of the 101st clast of fellows, including individuals working across 55 disciplines.