Now accepting applications for Fall 2012
Parsons The New School for Design in New York City has a few spaces remaining for its inaugural Master of Arts in Design Studies class. We seek students for this research-driven master’s degree whose interests coalesce around one or more of these four areas:
⁃ Changing Design Through Practice asks how new design practices are redefining design.
⁃ Bridging History and the Present seeks to understand how design—considered as a longitudinal process—has changed conceptions of being.
⁃ Writing Design aims to expand the critical literature of design through various modes of writing and through media from literature to film.
⁃ Shaping the Future explores how design addresses and shapes social and environmental issues.
Design Studies
This program is the first MA in Design Studies in the US. In it, you will learn to think and write critically about design as a force of social change. We will look at the intellectual and historical conditions that have shaped design; and we will study how the processes and products of design shape and enhance our knowledge of ourselves in relationship to others and the environment at large.
Parsons and The New School
An international school of design, Parsons is part of The New School a leading university located in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. The city and its cultural institutions and museums correspond to the diversity of areas of research expertise — from co-design to film studies to technology to domesticity to luxury to philosophy. Our faculty is complemented by colleagues from other divisions of The New School, including historian Orit Halpern; political scientist Victoria Hattam; and media studies scholar Shannon Mattern. We will also be joined by scholars and practitioners from around the world. Core faculty include:
• Clive Dilnot
• Jilly Traganou
• Susan Yelavich
Applying to the Program
Successful applicants will demonstrate the ability to conceive of design in all its complexity and an interest in gaining the intellectual tools needed to write critically for the academic community and the broader public. An educational background in art or design is not required. In all cases, however, applicants should articulate clearly why a MA in Design Studies is a logical next step in their career of knowledge
Applications should be completed online and will be considered on a rolling basis for fall 2012.
