CURRICULUM and REQUIREMENTS:

*MACT-eligible courses are published and archived here.

Curriculum: Curriculum is decided by the MACT executive committee. Students and instructors can request a course to be counted as eligible toward MACT certificate credit by sending an email to the certificate director. MACT courses must 1) be graduate level seminars; 2) allow students outside the listing department/program to enroll with instructor permission; and 3) use humanistic methods of critical inquiry to engage topics at the intersection of media, art, technology, and culture. 

15- Credit Requirement: The Certificate requires five MACT-eligible courses, or fifteen-credits, which may also be counted toward degree requirements in the student’s home department.  

Interdisciplinary Requirement: Students may count a maximum of three courses listed within their home department/program toward the graduate certificate; at least two of the five courses counted for credit in MACT must be listed outside the graduate student’s home department or program. Also, at least three different departments or programs must be represented among the five courses that are counted for credit toward the MACT certificate. (Cross-listed courses can be counted for any one of the departments/programs designated).

ADMISSION:

The MACT certificate is open to any student enrolled in one of Stony Brook University’s Ph.D., D.M.A., M.A., M.F.A, or M.M. programs, with no pre-requisites. There is no cost to enroll and no penalty if you do not complete the requirements. Admission requires permission from the certificate director, the home department, the graduate school, and Visa/Immigration Services if you are an international student.

Enrollment periods, start dates and retroactive credits: You can enroll at any time by submitting a completed enrollment form to the graduate school. But, you must submit your form within the first week of the semester for your enrollment to be dated for -that- semester. Otherwise you must date your request form for the upcoming semester. (For example, if you wait until November to enroll, you must mark your request form with an enrollment date for Spring.) As of Fall 2023, a maximum of 9 credits (3 courses) taken prior to enrolling in MACT can be credited toward the completion of the certificate. If you enrolled prior to that date a maximum of 6 credits can be counted.

To enroll:

1. Complete this MACT admission form.
2.  Complete the Stony Brook University Graduate School form titled “Permission to Enroll in a Secondary Certificate Program.” Unfortunately this requires two to three letters each uploaded separately as signed pdfs: 
   • You will need to upload a permission letter from your Graduate Program Director, in your home degree program. (If you are an Art History graduate student can use this memo; if you are in another degree you should email your GPD to request a letter from them.)
   • You will also need to upload this memo signed by the MACT Certificate director. Download it as as PDF and complete all the blanks except for the signature; then email it to brooke.belisle@stonybrook and it will be returned to you as a signed PDF that you can upload to the Graduate School’s form. 
   • If you are an International student you also need to request a permission letter from the Office of Visa and Immigration Services.
   • Important Note! Note for the letter templates linked above, please be sure to download as  PDF, and fill out as a PDF. If you make the mistake of clicking “open in google docs” and export as a word document the formatting gets wonky and the form is difficult to digitally sign. If you send a word document requesting a signature you will be asked to re-download and re-send as a PDF.

CONFERRAL:

The certificate can be conferred along with a student’s primary degree if all degree and certificate requirements have been met. (Note, if the primary degree is not completed then the certificate will not be conferred even if its requirements were completed.) You request conferral at the same time you are requesting conferral of your primary degree. Students should take the following steps to request certificate conferral:

1. Complete this form indicating the courses you have completed to fulfill the certificate requirements, providing information needed for degree clearance by the graduate school, and giving feedback used for ongoing assessment of the certificate program.
2. Apply for graduation and choose the MACT Certificate from the appropriate dropdown menu. The graduate school will contact the MACT director to confirm completion of the requirements. (To complete the graduate school paperwork, the MACT director will refer the information you submitted in step #1.)
3. Reach out to the MACT certificate director, Brooke Belisle, at brooke.belisle AT stonybrook.edu, if there are any problems.