October 13, 2017

While completing his master’s degree, David Morton found himself at a crossroads. He knew he wanted to continue his education and pursue a doctoral degree, but wasn’t sure which of his many passions he most wanted to pursue. The inevitable question, “What am I going to do with my life,” lingered over his head and choosing among his interests – film, history and teaching – became daunting. Until one day, Morton found a solution in UCF’s College of Arts and Humanities’ Ph.D. program, Texts and Technology.
The Solution
After taking a film studies class in high school, earning a bachelor’s degree in secondary education in history from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, and working for several independent production companies in New York City, Morton came to UCF to pursue a master’s degree in public history and was well versed in each of his interests.
“I had many interests in a broad range of disciplines from history to rhetoric to film studies, and I wanted to find a way to intersect them together.”
Once at UCF he discovered a solution. Texts and Technology’s interdisciplinary philosophy, combining theory and practice, caught Morton’s eye and he soon realized it was the right fit for him.
“What excited me about the program was that it was new,” he said. “It has a firm root in academia theory, but it also has an open-endedness to taking a nontraditional approach in teaching methods.”
Finding His “Thing”
Morton’s decision to enroll in the Texts and Technology program didn’t lead him to picking one interest over another, instead it allowed him to pave a unique path that fit his vision. The journey eventually led him to find a specialty field of his own, Florida Film Studies. Now, he has a deeper understanding of history, a new way of looking at film, and practice in developing unconventional ways of educating others through new tools and technology.
Morton has advice for those who find themselves in the predicament of having multiple interests.
“If you can’t find your one ‘thing’, search for the opportunities to help create that ‘some-thing’ for yourself.”
Texts and Technology
The Ph.D. in Texts and Technology program is part of a growing interdisciplinary field combining scholarly study, creative production, and assessment of digital media texts. The curriculum emphasizes theory and practice in new media supplemented by historical grounding in pre-digital media studies. The innovative program prepares students for research, teaching, and program development.  Areas of research and production include digital archiving and editing, asset management, predictive modeling, information architecture, visualization, web design, distributed education, and game design. Graduates from the Texts and Technology program have gone on to such positions as: Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Professor of Digital Media, Director of Course Design and Production, Dean of Distance Learning and Managing Editor.
Learn more about the Texts and Technology Ph.D. program.
https://cah.ucf.edu/news/1028-2/
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