Application deadline: January 1, 2017
Parsons School of Design
School of Art and Design History and Theory
2 West 13 St. Room 609
New York, NY 10011
www.newschool.edu/mads
Parsons School of Design enables students to develop the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing society. As an integral part The New School, a comprehensive university in New York City, Parsons students in the MA Design Studies program have the opportunity take classes not only in design research, design practice, and art history but also in media studies, performing arts, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, history, and psychology. Together we seek out new ways to shape a world that is more just and more beautiful by design.
The MA Design Studies encourages students to explore design in unexpected and emerging forms. In light of the increasing importance of design in the 21st century, we look at designed objects and systems in the contexts in which they operate, with an eye to their consequences and potential. Parsons’ two-year Master of Arts program in Design Studies is for both designers and scholars interested in the impact design has on human behavior and society.
Our curriculum focuses on the critical, analytical, and practical ways of thinking about design. It challenges students to push boundaries with their work by bringing together different perspectives and working closely with faculty who share their enthusiasms and interests.
Learning takes place through seminars and critical studios that offer a variety of creative and critical modes of research. At the culmination of their studies, students produce major capstone papers and projects, such as:
–The Technopolitics of Design-Led Public Innovation
–Building Bodies with Design and Architecture: Order, Ideals, and Indeterminacy
–Design Redress and the Social Urbanism of Medellin, Colombia
–Craft 2.0: Relevance of Craft in Postindustrial and Digital Design Practices
–A Form to Care With: The Politics of Small Things
What do graduates from MA Design Studies do? Ten stories
The program takes on an individualistic approach with each student to develop their capacities to think about design in the studio and beyond, opening up entryways for students interested in design-related work the fields of teaching, journalism, management, product development, and consulting. Here are ten stories of MA Design Studies graduates who demonstrate that creative and critical intelligence can go a long way.
Fellowship opportunities
All applicants are considered for merit scholarships that offer partial tuition-reimbursement, and can apply for research and teaching fellowships.
Our core faculty include:
Professor Clive Dilnot is theeditor of The John Heskett Reader: Design, History, Economics (2016) and Design & the Creation of Value (2017). He is now beginning work on a four-volume series Re-thinking Design (On History, On Ethics, On Knowledge, On Configuration).
Professor Jilly Traganou, is the author of Designing the Olympics: Representation, Participation, Contestation (2016) and is a contributor to The Routledge Companion to Design Studies, and Cartographic Japan: A History in Maps.
Program Director, Professor Susan Yelavich, co-edited Design as Future-Making (2014) and is the author of the forthcoming book Thinking Design Through Literature (2018).
How to apply
Visit the Parsons MA Design Studies website to apply by January 1, 2017, or contact the program director, Susan Yelavich at [email protected].