Master of Fine Arts in Sonic Practice

Dartmouth's M.F.A. in Sonic Practice is a 3-year, fully-funded graduate program for composers, artists, and scholars working expansively with sound. The program draws together a close-knit community of makers and thinkers concerned with the visceral and social force of sound: its capacity to move bodies, shape cultures and stretch perception. Through one-on-one conversation with faculty, seminars, group critiques, and extra-disciplinary classes, students foster critical and technical skills to empower their creative practices and deepen their intersectional grasp of the aesthetics and politics of sounding and listening.

The M.F.A in Sonic Practice is best suited to makers and thinkers with a strong track-record of independent creative work who feel they would benefit from three years of focused mentorship, critical engagement, and community support. We aim to embrace a wide range of aesthetic approaches and creative lineages and see this program as a home for students with hybrid practices that challenge conventional disciplinary boundaries and academic norms. Our curriculum is flexibly designed to support the individualized research goals of each student, and best fits learners who thrive in self-motivated contexts with a high degree of academic independence.  

The MFA in Sonic Practice offers 3 fully-funded academic years (tuition coverage + work stipend) for a small cohort of students. The work stipend is received for 20 hours of work (coursework + research) per week. Students study in person/on campus during Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters, and pursue research and creative expansion off-site during summer terms.

Graduate Seminar

Each term the Graduate Seminar is taught by a member of the Sonic Practice faculty. These seminars focus on technical or critical areas of interest to the cohort, and also serve as a collaborative studio for sharing work, receiving feedback and engaging in critical conversation around shared interests. The Graduate Seminar is the consistent meeting place for the cohort, and it forms the academic spine of the students' three-year course of study. See graduate seminar descriptions here. 

Directed Research

Every term, students have the option to engage one-on-one with individual faculty members at Dartmouth through Directed Research. This may be focused on a particular topic or a specific project. Directed Research is a flexible structure for graduate students in Sonic Practice to build working relationships with mentors that have specific insight into a student's creative and/or academic trajectory. 

Undergraduate Courses

Graduate students can take a wide range of undergraduate courses across the College, including but not limited to those in music, computer science, theater, engineering, studio art, philosophy, psychology, mathematics, languages, and women and gender studies. For a comprehensive list of courses, see Dartmouth's Course Catalog.

In addition to coursework, students are expected to present creative work publicly during the 1st year showcase, the 2nd year festival, and the 3rd year thesis show. 

All MFA students are required to complete a thesis under the supervision of three faculty advisors, one of whom must be appointed in Sonic Practice and one who may be external to Dartmouth. A fourth committee member is allowed but not required. Theses may take the form of a creative portfolio with supporting written and audio-visual documentation; applied research; or academic research.

At graduation, MFA students in Sonic Practice will be able to:

● Critically situate their creative practice in relevant lineages of sound

● Control and deploy tools and techniques central to their sonic practice

● Confidently engage the creative work of others through group critique and peer-to-peer learning

● Write about sound with theoretical, historical and cross-disciplinary competence