Designing in Dark Times: an Arendtian Lexicon

To celebrate the release of Designing in Dark Times: an Arendtian Lexicon, we are organizing a series of dialogues to further explore what “dark times” means today and design’s recent positioning towards the expanded field of the society within it through an Arendtian lens. Each Dialogue will convene several of the book’s contributors to discuss… Read More

Guy Debord’s Game of War: A Conversation With Emmanuel Guy

Thursday, November 14 6:00 pm Kellen Auditorium 66 5th Avenue We know Guy Debord (1931-1994) as a poet, filmmaker, artist, revolutionary theorist, editor and founder of the Situationist International avant-garde movement. But above all else, he was a strategist: poetry, cinema, theory and the avant-garde were, for Debord, means to be deployed in a struggle… Read More

Plot(s) Call for Editorial Board Members

ADHT Dean, Rhonda Garelick, Joins Bard Graduate Center for BGC Late: Jazz & Conversation in the Gallery

BGC LATE: JAZZ & CONVERSATION IN THE GALLERY: WOMEN DESIGNERS: CHANEL, LANVIN, BOUÉ SŒURS AND JEANNE PAQUIN Bard Graduate Center Gallery 18 West 86th Street New York, NY 10024 Thursday October 10, 2019 6:00  – 8:00 pm *free, registration required Join The Bard Graduate Center for BGC Late: Jazz & Conversation in the Gallery. See the exhibitions and learn… Read More

Playing The Auditorium – Kabir Carter

Playing The Auditorium Kabir Carter October 2, 2019, 5:00 PM to 6:15 PM The Auditorium (Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall) The New School, 66 West 12th Street, New York Register Here: https://sched.co/TsD1 This event celebrates the sonic possibilities of one of The New School’s oldest and most stunning spaces. Designed in the 1930s by legendary architect Joseph… Read More

2019 ADHT Graduate Student Symposium

At Parsons, we celebrate curiosity and critical thinking. Every path taken broadens our perspectives. Welcome to The 2019 Parsons Festival ADHT Graduate Symposium Nexus: An Intersection of Ideas. Graduate students from the School of Art and Design History and Theory including Fashion Studies, Design Studies, and History of Design and Curatorial Studies will present their… Read More

Designing after the Designing is Done

Irem C. Yildiz’s (MA Design Studies 2018) thesis project is selected as a finalist

We are proud to announce that Irem C. Yildiz’s (MA Design Studies 2018) thesis project The Vacant Store Initiative has been selected as one of the finalists in the Student Category of 2019 World Changing Ideas Competition of Fast Company. Irem’s project can be explored here.  

Plot(s) Journal of Design Studies Call for Submissions

Plot(s) Journal of Design Studies will be accepting a second round of submissions with a new deadline of November 30, 2018. Please see below for the original Call For Submissions: Plot(s) Journal of Design Studies is an annual peer-reviewed publication produced and edited by the MA Design Studies program at Parsons School of Design in… Read More

Announcing the 2018 Design History Society Conference: Design and Displacement, September 6-8, 2018

Design and Displacement, the 2018 Design History Society Annual Conference, will take place at Parsons Parsons School of Design September 6th-8th, 2018. The conference examines displacement and attendant issues from a design perspective. In addition to the current displacement of people and populations, sessions will consider the theme more broadly and historically, including connections among… Read More

Parsons Festival 2018: Art and Design History and Theory Graduate Student Symposium

Thursday, May 3 1000 am – 5:00 pm Friday, May 4 10:00 am – 5:00 pm The Bark Room, Room M104 Sheila C. Johnson Design Center 2 West 13th Street New York, NY 1001 The School of Art and Design History and Theory will sponsor a graduate student symposium as a part of the 2018… Read More

Unruly Design: Making, Changing and Breaking Rules

UNRULY DESIGN: MAKING, CHANGING AND BREAKING RULES A colloquium in Design Studies, Fashion Studies, History of Design & Curatorial Studies Friday, March 2, 2018 5:30-7:00pm Opening conversation with Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Design and Architecture, MoMA, and Jamer Hunt, Vice Provost for Transdisciplinary Initiatives, Parsons School of Design, The New School Theresa Lang Center, Arnold Hall  55 West 13th Street, New… Read More

Students Launch Design Studies Wikipedia Page

Graduate students from the Fall 2017 course Writing for the Public Realm, taught by Susan Yelavich, joined forces to give the discipline of Design Studies its very own nook in the world of Wikipedia. The Design Studies Wikipedia page was entirely student written, with Professor Yelavich providing editorial support. In the true spirit of crowd… Read More

Professor Yelavich awarded a 2018 Bogliasco Fellowship

Susan Yelavich, Associate Professor of Design Studies, has been awarded a month’s residency at the Bogliasco Foundation in Bogliasco, Italy, located outside of the city of Genoa. (See: https://www.bfny.org/en/fellows/upcoming-fellows) While she is there in February 2018, Yelavich will be working on the final chapter of her book Thinking Design through Literature (Routledge, 2019). She joins… Read More

Join Parsons Alumni Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler for a talk at the Met

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, founders and designers of Proenza Schouler join journalist Alina Cho for a fast-paced, insightful talk about fashion at the intersection of art and ideas. Pioneers of style and craft since they launched their brand 15 years ago, the fathers of the perennial “It Bag” known as PS1 will chat with… Read More

Stand up for Democracy

By Susan Yelavich The following posts grew out of a Parsons Design Studies workshop on “Design and Political Agency,” which was inspired by “Stand Up For Democracy,” on September 8th, 2017. Each student read the “Open Letter to the Design Community: Stand up for Democracy” and chose an object that fosters (or deters) people’s power to… Read More

Tsai-Hsun (Maggie) Lin ‘15 published in DMI Journal

Congratulations to MA Design Studies alumna Tsai-Hsun (Maggie) Lin on the publication of her article “Redesigning Public Organizational Change with Care” in the Design Management Journal, Vol. 3, 2017. Maggie graduated from the program in 2015 and is currently building her own project, Studio Connectivity, which focuses on organization change and capability building consulting service…. Read More

AIGA Eye on Design honors Adam Ridgeway ‘17

Adam Ridgeway’s cover design for the online publication of the MA Design Studies journal Plot(s) Issue 3 was recently featured on AIGA Eye on Design. The cover for the journal features graphic elements that are echoed throughout the interior. The reductive visual nature of the book is an intentional stark contrast to the complexity of… Read More

Salma Shamel, Class of 2017

Salma Shamel is from Cairo, Egypt. She works with video, print and text and is currently based in New York City. She is now a doctoral student in the department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Salma did her BA in Media Design at the German University in Cairo, and her MA… Read More

Yijia Wang, Class of 2019

One part analyst, one part designer, one part always curious to learn how society works. Graduated from quantitative economics & studio arts background, I am currently a Brand & Media Analyst at a marketing firm. Besides telling stories from data with my day job, I’m also a part-time (self-taught) designer, telling stories from graphics. While… Read More

Polish Protest Poster Goes Viral

By Susan Yelavich This protest poster by designer Luka Rayski has become the identity of the Polish protest movement over plans to put the supreme court and the rest of the judicial system under the political control of the Polish Parliament.  I am proud to say that my colleague and friend Mateusz Halawa, Anthropology PhD candidate at… Read More

Komal Sharma published on Design Observer

The editors of Design Observer have selected Komal Sharma’s contribution to the MA DS Journal Plot(s) Vol IV for publication. To read more about Komal’s inquiry into the relation of design to craft, see: http://designobserver.com/feature/whats-old-is-new-again/39630 Her essay explores an experimental workshop at a design school in India, where she focused on the question, “What does traditional… Read More

Sarah Mazet, Class of 2019

Marrakesh, the red city in Morocco – is where I grew up. The culture I was raised in.  An essential fact since it gave me the opportunity to compare my unique country to any city or country I later visited in Europe – where my parents are from. The warm Moroccan culture, people’s gestures, and… Read More

Nath Romasha, Class of 2019

Entering the world of formal design education, is a life force, élan vital, for me!  With over two decades of a successful corporate and entrepreneurial career, the progression heralds unlearning and rebirth, as much as it embodies my past, making the idea layered and meaningful.  I am drawn to the interdisciplinary breadth of the curriculum,… Read More

Alumni Spotlight: Laura Belik

  Laura Belik graduated from MA Design Studies in 2016 and has since been accepted to the Architecture PhD program at University of California Berkeley. We got the chance to catch up with Laura this summer and asked her to reflect on her time at Parsons.

Behin Forghanifar, Class of 2019

I was born in May 10, 1986, in Tehran, Iran. I graduated with my MSc. in architecture and received my bachelor’s degree in the same field. Since 2010, I have worked both in professional and academic careers. My precious experiences as an architect, interior designer, researcher and instructor in several consulting engineers firms and design studios… Read More

NORDES, Norway, Design (and not in that order)

By Susan Yelavich Oslo looks to be a very different kind of city, even for a reasonably well-traveled New Yorker. It seems largely residential populated by six to eight-story buildings (many in a restrained, neoclassical style others in Scandinavian cottage form) in pinks, blues, yellows, reds, and white, framed with trees and parks of the deepest… Read More

Keiko Nakamura, Class of 2019

I was born and raised in Japan. With B.A. in foreign studies and LL.B., and after some transient jobs, I started my career in advertising and continued for 15 years. During those years, I engaged in a wide range of marketing communications practices in the producer’s capacity, producing advertising, promotions, media contents, events, etc. with… Read More

Komal Sharma, Class of ’15 Launches a Design Special edition of “Lounge”

By Susan Yelavich Komal Sharma Design writing in India beats New York criticism and coverage of design hands down. That was literally my first thought when I opened the pages of the new design edition of “Lounge,” the weekend cultural section of Mint, one of India’s leading business newspaper. Edited by MA Design Studies alumna Komal… Read More

10% of MA Design Studies Grads in PhD Programs

by Susan Yelavich On the fifth anniversary of the inauguration of the MA Design Studies program at Parsons, we are extremely proud to announce that10% of MA Design Studies graduates are matriculating in PhD programs across the U.S. Building on her Masters thesis, Salma Shamel Bakr of the Class of 2017 will pursue her research… Read More

An Open Letter to the Graduating Class of 2017

by Susan Yelavich I’d like to offer some reflections as you embark on new paths, having spent the last two years, preparing for this moment. And I’m sharing them here for those who will follow your footsteps and those friends and colleagues who will miss you greatly. Myself, chief among them. Above all, I want… Read More

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Salem Tsegaye, MA Design Studies ’14

Salem Tsegaye is Assistant Director of the Arts Research Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. There, she supports faculty research development, fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, and facilitates public dialogue about the role of – and potential for – artists and designers in society. Salem previously worked for the New York Community Trust, a… Read More

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Komal Sharma, MA Design Studies ’15

Tell us about your career path from New Delhi to New York? Any advice for prospective Parsons ADHT students planning a move to the United States? Before coming to Parsons, I was working in New Delhi as a journalist, writing for the weekend edition of a paper. I would write stories about people who were… Read More

ADHT Graduate Student Symposium at Parsons Festival 2017

Join Us for the 2017 ADHT Graduate Student Symposium

All are welcome to attend the annual ADHT Graduate Student Symposium, held May 11 and 12th, 2017 from 11am to 4pm. Graduate students from MA Design Studies, MA Fashion Studies, and MA History of Design and Curatorial Studies will be presenting their work from the past academic year in the Bark Orientation Room at 2 W… Read More

A Postcard from The Palace of Culture

Over spring break, I, along with nine other students from Parsons School of Design and The New School for Social Research, had the opportunity to take part in an intensive course offered in Warsaw, which centered around the Palace of Culture and Science. If you’re reading this, you may have read Susan Yelavich’s post “Hacking… Read More

Hacking Warsaw’s Palace of Culture

  by Susan Yelavich To all outward appearances, Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science would seem to be impregnable.  This, despite the fact that is truly a people’s palace and has been since it was completed in 1955. A ‘gift’ from Stalin to the then newly-minted Communist state of Poland, the Palace was conceived as… Read More

Faculty Rally Together for International Women’s Day on March 8

By the People: Designing a Better America Exhibition Review

By Claudia Marina For the past ten years, Cooper Hewitt, National Smithsonian Design Museum has dedicated exhibition space to designed objects that defy the very idea of being displayed in a museum. This is partly a result of the work of Cynthia E. Smith, Curator of Socially Responsible Design, who has travelled across the United… Read More

Making Home in Wounded Spaces featured on Archinect

Making Home in Wounded Spaces, an international symposium co-sponsored by the MA Design Studies program of ADHT, and its keynote speaker Lina Sergie Attar were recently featured on design and architecture blog Archinect! As cities densify and the global population increases, much has been made of reclaiming physical spaces: but how does one reclaim a… Read More

MA Design Studies 2017 Symposium: Making Home in Wounded Places

Reminder: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS open until Dec. 10th for Making Home in Wounded Places: Memory, Design, and the Spatial March 3 – 4, 2017 An international symposium co-sponsored by the MA Design Studies program, Parsons School of Art & Design History & Theory, The Transregional Center for Democratic Studies, New School for Social Research, and… Read More

The Every Day Project Relaunches Post-Inauguration

President Trump’s first 100 days are not easily digestible for many MADS students and alumni. Before Inauguration Day, alumna Mae Wiskin (MA Design Studies, 2016) helped launch The Every Day Project, which aimed to bring achievable everyday acts of activism to subscriber’s inboxes. In light of the current events following January 20, 2017, The Every… Read More

Website live for Making Home in Wounded Places symposium!

Join us on March 3 & 4 for a symposium that looks at the conditions and possibilities for “Making Home in Wounded Spaces: Design, Memory, and the Spatial.” See our new website https://woundedplacessymposium.wordpress.com for details on the conversations and register soon, as space is limited!  

Alumna Mae Wiskin helps start The Every Day Project in response to Trump Presidency

MA Design Studies alumna Mae Wiskin writes to us from her new venture, The Every Day Project, which started a #45to45 social media campaign to make 45 acts of change before Inauguration Day.  Earlier this year I completed my masters in Design Studies from Parsons The New School of Design. Once I left school, I quickly… Read More

Biohacking and the Future of Materials at Biofabricate 2016

Over the weekend, I found myself in a small biohacker space in Brooklyn. Seemingly a far cry from my usual wanderings at museums or Parsons’ Making Center, it felt fitting to be taking a sample of my own DNA to learn the protocol for a space I hope to find myself in more often.

Jilly Traganou Awarded Fulbright Scholarship to Conduct Research on the Olympics and Design in Rio

Jilly Traganou is an architect and Associate Professor in Spatial Design Studies. Her recent publications include a book titled Designing the Olympics: Representation, Participation, Contestation (Routledge, 2016). She is the author of The Tokaido Road: Traveling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), a co-editor with Miodrag Mitrasinovic of Travel, Space, Architecture (Ashgate,… Read More

Claudia Marina, MA Design Studies ’17, Published in The Avery Review

Current MA Design Studies student Claudia Marina is published in Issue 20 of The Avery Review, a project of Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her paper, “Checking in: David Adjaye’s Sugar Hill Project, Two Years Later,” is the result of a research project that began at the beginning of 2016 in Jilly… Read More

Making a Home For Graphic Design Education in the Liberal Arts

As a BFA graduate of Parsons and a practicing graphic designer, I find myself currently exploring the political, philosophical and critical thinking related to design now more than ever as I return to my alma mater for my master’s in Design Studies. Hoping to gain insight into the current realities of design educators, I decided… Read More

Plot(s) Journal of Design Studies Call for Submissions

The call for submissions for Plot(s) Volume IV is now open. Plot(s) Journal of Design Studies is an annual peer-reviewed publication produced and edited by the MA Design Studies program at Parsons School of Design in New York. As a multidisciplinary journal, Plot(s) attempts to articulate the ways in which design practices shape and transform the human experience. Submissions are open… Read More

Alumni Spotlight: Quizayra Gonzalez

Quizayra Gonzalez graduated from the MA Design studies program in the spring of 2016, after completing her thesis “Bodegas: Praxis, Imagery, Concept,” which explores the material culture and networks that shape bodegas and, in turn, positions bodegas as critical forces in shaping neighborhoods. This fall, she joined Parsons Advising staff as a Graduate Student Advisor…. Read More

The Deep “Why” of the 2016 Election Tragedy

by Susan Yelavich By sheer coincidence, my students and I read Clive Dilnot’s 2012 essay “Chris Killip: The Last Photographer of the Working Class”1 on our blackest Tuesday: Election Day, November 8th.  (We were originally meant to discuss it a week earlier.)  Either way, back in August when I was refining the syllabus, it didn’t cross… Read More

Plot(s) Website is Live

This month, the MA Design Studies program proudly launches the online companion to our print journal, Plot(s). Volumes I, II, and III of the journal are now available to read and download on the website.

On Aesthetic Activism: Musings from Yale’s J. Irwin Miller Symposium

Yale Aesthetic Activism

I figured the words “Yale”, “Aesthetic”, “Activism” and “Free” would add up to a worthwhile and day trip to New Haven. It did not disappoint. “Aesthetic Activism” was the title of this year’s J. Irwin Miller Symposium hosted by the Yale School of Architecture. The word aesthetic, here, is central as it has been highly… Read More

MA Design Studies Alumni Contribute to Metropolis Magazine

MA Design Studies alumni Dora Vanette (’13), Estefania Acosta de La Peña (’16) and Misha Volf (’16) published articles in the latest issue of major architecture and design magazine, Metropolis.

MA Design Studies Students connect with and through Things

  At the beginning of this semester, the MA Design Studies Classes of 2017 and 2018 met each other for the first time under the guise of a workshop. The workshop, “Design and Storytelling: Weaving Fragments,” was led by Program Director Susan Yelavich and its premise was simple: bring five to eight fragments from your… Read More

Call For Applications: MA Design Studies

  The deadline to apply to the graduate MA Design Studies program is January 1, 2017. Click here to apply. Click through for more information on the program.

Jilly Traganou Wins Design Incubation Award

Associate Professor of Spatial Design Studies Jilly Traganou won the Design Incubation Communication Design Educators Award in the category of Scholarship for her research in the graphic design histories of the Olympics. The material awarded came from her recent book Designing the Olympics: Representation, Participation, Contestation (Routledge, 2016)—specifically the chapters on graphic design, which deal with issues… Read More

Eating What Your Food Eats: Misha Volf, Design Studies ’16, Connects The Production and Consumption of Meat

On a recent evening, a cadre of foodies crowded into a residential loft in Bushwick, Brooklyn for a four-course farm-to-table feast. Having just gotten off the Myrtle Avenue M stop, though they probably didn’t expect to be this close to the farm. Instead of a table, the diners gathered around a communal feeding trough complete with… Read More

MADS Alumni Quizayra Gonzalez and co-curator Cass Gardiner awarded Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design’s 2017 Curatorial Fellowship

MADS Alumni Quizayra Gonzalez and co-curator Cass Gardiner have been awarded the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design’s 2017 Curatorial Fellowship.  Together they will design a show for Fall 2017.   We extend our congratulations to Quizayra and Cass!  Here is more detail about the show:

Claudia Marina, Class of 2017

My name is Claudia Marina. I moved to New York after completing my undergraduate degree at the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. After working professionally in editorial and online media, I decided to pursue a master’s degree and specialize my writing, which is what brought me to Parsons’ MA Design Studies program…. Read More

Irem Yildiz, Class of 2018

I am Irem from Istanbul, Turkey. I have started to the Architectural Design Master Program right after graduating from Architecture at Istanbul Technical University in 2014. Following my change in major from Urban and Regional Planning to Architecture, my interest of urban texture and cultural networks has been shaped. During my undergrad years, I have… Read More

Mariann Asayan, Class of 2018

I will be joining the MADS family fresh out of my bachelor program at Syracuse University where I pursued a double major in Fashion Design and Psychology. Knowledge for knowledge sake has never rang true to me. Knowledge can never be meaningless as it allows you to open your eyes to the invisible network that… Read More

Addy Fadina, Class of 2018

My name is Adebola Fadina. I am Originally from the Bronx, NY but recently moved update New York. Since I was young, I’ve always held interest in all aspects of art and design. I always used drawing as an outlet to express myself at times where words couldn’t. In middle school I attended a school… Read More

Kayla O’Daniel, Class of 2018

  My name is Kayla O’Daniel and I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. As an undergrad I studied at North Carolina State University where I completed a BS in Business Administration & Marketing and a BA in Design Studies. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the realm of Design Studies early in… Read More

Diana Duque, Class of 2018

  I see myself as an Observer, Communicator, Problem­solver, Editor, Translator, Curator, Creative Thinker and, quite dutifully, a Cultural Diplomat. Growing up in both the US and Colombia, SA, I was given the opportunity to master two languages (sí, dos idiomas!), understand two cultures (dos culturas MUY diferentes), and recognize the many beautiful tones of… Read More

Jilly Traganou to Speak in São Paulo and Rio

Jilly Traganou, Associate Professor of Spatial Design Studies, is giving a talk tomorrow, August 23rd, titled “O design olímpico e o meio (Olympic Design and the Social Environment)” at Curso de Design da FAU USP e LabVisual – Laboratório de Pesquisa em Design Visual da FAU USP in São Paulo. Professor Traganou is also giving a talk in Rio on Wednesday, August 24th at… Read More

Alumni Spotlight: Veronica Uribe del Aguila

Veronica Uribe del Aguila, MA Design Studies ‘15, will begin work on her PhD in Cultural Studies at Stony Brook University this fall. We met with Veronica over the summer as she prepared for the next chapter in her academic career. Read our interview with her below for her thoughts on academia, her memories of… Read More

Alumna Mae Wiskin on the Rise of “Digital Addiction” Rehab

MA Design Studies alumna Mae Wiskin contributed the piece, Can’t Quit the Clicks: The Rise of Social Media Rehab to Broadly, an offshoot of Vice that is “devoted to representing the multiplicity of women’s experiences.” It reads:

Ten Proposals for Tenuous Times

Director and Associate Professor Susan Yelavich participates in the 20th annual HighGround colloquium. Read about her proposals for design and her reflections here: This year at the 20th annual HighGround colloquium organized by designers Katherine and Michael McCoy at their studio/home in Colorado, I proposed a series of design moves (some strategic, some tactical) to shift social… Read More

Kashish Mittal, Class of 2018

Originally from India, I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, specializing in Typography & Editorial Design from Northumbria University in UK. While I was there, I developed a passion for typography and print design. 

Student Publication – Provocative Products: Provotypes and Provoprops

Alongside the exhibition by the same same, Otto von Busch and a of group students in the MA Design Studies program published a text companion to “Provocative Products,” which exhibited during Parsons Festival taking place within NYCxDesign 2016.

Clive Dilnot on Remembering John Heskett

Professor Clive Dilnot of MA Design Studies blogs about his friend, the design historian John Heskett, and assesses Heskett’s contribution to the field of design history. Read the full post here on the Bloomsbury Visual Arts blog.

Rami Saab, Class of 2018

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the American University of Beirut in 2014. Beirut, my city, is an urban manifestation of contradictions and wildly divergent thinking.

Student Publication – Dark Designs: Critical Cases in Design in Dark Times

The Spring 2016 semester at Parsons School of Design welcomed the production of self-published books by MA Design Studies students. Following Acts of Olympic Dissent by students in Jilly Traganou’s Spatial Studies course, students in Otto von Busch’s graduate-level elective “Design in Dark Times” also published their culminated research into Dark Designs: Critical Cases in… Read More

William Perkins, Alum Behind Pharrell’s Fan-Driven Website

May 2016 saw the launch of PharrellWilliams.com, created by MA Design Studies alum William Perkins and the team at boutique workshop Five Hundred, at which Perkins is co-creative director. The fan-driven website showcases Williams’ illustrative, multi-decade career in a number of fields and mediums.

Design Studies Alum Laura Belik’s Summer with Smithsonian’s Latino Museum Studies Program

Laura Belik, MA Design Studies ‘16, spent her summer in Washington, D.C. as a fellow for the Smithsonian Institute’s Latino Museum Studies Program (LMSP).

Student Publication – Acts of Olympic Dissent

The Olympics have had a long history of contestation from their host cities, marginalized groups threatened by gentrification, and even the athletes who perform on the world’s greatest stage. In the wake of the Rio 2016 Games, students in Jilly Traganou’s Spatial Studies course, which focused on Olympic cities, self-published a collection of papers under… Read More

Career Paths of Students Since Graduation: Ten Stories

Since the program’s inception, a new group of design thinkers coming from all backgrounds have gone out into the world. The two-year, 42-credit program will graduate its third class in Spring 2016. Some of the students from the class of 2014, 2015 and 2016 have already begun to establish themselves in various areas of work…. Read More

A John Heskett Reader edited by Clive Dilnot

by David Brody In July, my Parsons colleague, Clive Dilnot, will publish his edited volume A John Heskett Reader. Heskett, who died in 2014, was a remarkable thinker who brought design to life for diverse audiences through his engaging prose. Indeed, Heskett helped bring the field of design history and design criticism to life through… Read More

Jilly Traganou’s Designing the Olympics: Book release and lecture in Rio, Brazil

Jilly Traganou, ADHT Associate Professor of Spatial Design Studies, is releasing her new book Designing the Olympics: Representation, Participation, Contestation.

Do Drones Have DNA?

by Jilly Traganou “Of course, all the students want to see the big drone flying. A loud, unpleasant noise fills the room immediately. The black and white aircraft floats stably in the air and creates a strong draft in the room, which is apt to produce goosebumps. I am impressed by how insecure I felt…. Read More

Susan Yelavich on the ‘Why’ Behind Design, the New Academic Year, & her Latest Book

Susan Yelavich, Associate Professor and Director of the MA Design Studies program, returns this fall after a year-long sabbatical. We catch up with Professor Yelavich as she pauses in writing her new book, Reading Design, and looks toward some exciting developments for the new academic year.

Misha Volf’s Speech at Graduation Ceremony of MA DS 2016 class

Talk by Misha Volf as the student speaker given at the graduation of MA Design Studies, May 19th 2016: Thank you, Faculty, Administration, Friends, Family, Graduates, Two years ago, when I was considering Design Studies, I came in to interview with Susan [Yelavich, Director of the Program]. Among the ways she framed the program, one… Read More

Clive Dilnot’s Speech at Graduation Ceremony of MA Design Studies 2016 class

Clive Dilnot: Introductory talk given at the graduation of MA Design Studies, May 19th 2016: It is an honor today to introduce to you the 3rd cohort of graduates of MA Design Studies, a very special and indeed brave, group of students. They are special because the MA in Design Studies is one of the… Read More

Professor Susan Yelavich Interviewed by Andrea Cuevas, Mexican Design Curator

  Design Studies Professor Susan Yelavich visited Mexico for the first time in 2015. Since then, when she lectured at Centro, she has been fortunate enough to have made many good friends.  In part this led to the request for the interview featured here which explores questions about design’s role in social responsibilities and in shaping the… Read More

MA Design Studies Students Exhibit ‘Provocative Products’ at Parsons Festival

By Claudia Marina Within the design milieu, critical and interrogative design speaks loudly in modern times. It has to, for new ethical and environmental problems arise out of production, consumerism, and globalization on the daily. It is this notion that prompted designers like Krzysztof Wodiczko to claim that “instead of deconstructing itself, design should deconstruct… Read More

Lisa Stenhaug of Design Studies on Andrea Zittel’s Wagon Station Encampment & Challenging “what is”

As research for her capstone, Lisa Stenhaug, MA Design Studies ‘16, stayed at artist Andrea Zittel’s Wagon Station Encampment in Joshua Tree, California for one week in April. Read about her experience at the encampment and her capstone project below!

Lisa Merk of Design Studies reflects on her award-winning project REMIND ME & more

Lisa Merk, MA Design Studies ‘17, was recently the recipient of the New Talent Award from A&W Magazine, a German architecture and lifestyle magazine, for her project REMIND ME. REMIND ME is a sideboard and storage area with a motion-sensor light bulb that glows whenever a user gets close to it, ensuring that he or… Read More

MA Design Studies Students Want You to #SeeRikers

By Claudia Marina   How often do you see Riker’s? For most in New York City, unless you or your loved have worked or lived on the island, the answer is not often. Daily life for inmates and correctional officers is defined by the island, wedged between The Bronx and Queens on the East River,… Read More

New Work & Work-in-Progress by Core Faculty: Clive Dilnot, Jilly Traganou and Susan Yelavich

 

EVENT: MANIFESTO: From Brazil’s Recent Events to a Manifesto on Latin American Democracy

  From Brazil’s Recent Events to a Manifesto on Latin American Democracy May 10th 2016, 16:15 to 18:00 hrs. The New School – Wolff Conference Room 6 East 16th Street, Room D1103 In the need to discuss the current political  debates on Brazil and Latin America, from the impending impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, to… Read More

PLOT(S) Journal of Design Studies, Issue 2

 

Special Issue of The Design Journal: “Visual Communication Design in the Balkans” Co-edited by Associate Professor Jilly Traganou

  Jilly Traganou, Associate Professor in Spatial Design, recently co-edited a special issue of The Design Journal: An International Journal for All Aspects of Design entitled “Visual Communication Design in the Balkans.” The edition, which was released on April 6th, explores the role of visual communication in numerous aspects of life in the Balkans, from… Read More

Latin America Documentary Series: Discussions of Space

Over the month of April, MA Design Studies student Laura Belik, in conjunction with the Design Studies Forum, organized the “Latin America Documentary Screenings: Discussions Of Space,” a series of film screenings and talks focusing on the spatiality and urban environments of the region. Each event highlighted different aspects of the topic of space, with… Read More

MADS Student Salma Shamel Curates Film Festival

This weekly film screening event is to introduce The MENA Working Group, an informal network of graduate students and faculty members working at The New School (NSSR, Parsons, Milano) and concentrating their research on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), broadly construed. Launched in October 2015, the Working Group organizes a graduate student conference… Read More

Matters of Debate: Mapping Research on the Middle East – New School Student Conference

In the World of Medical Apps, Bridging the Divide Between Designers and Clinicians

Melissa Wiskin, Design Studies ’16, completed a stint in the Peace Corps in Zambia, where she learned about the power of mobile technology to dispense health care.

Visualizing The Middle East and North Africa Film Screenings

VISUALIZING THE MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA FILM, DOCUMENTARIES AND EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO SCREENINGS ORGANIZED BY THE MENA WORKING GROUP AT TNS (SPRING 2016) ROOM 1009, 6 EAST 16TH STREET The MENA Working Group is an informal network of graduate students and faculty members working at The New School (NSSR, Parsons, Milano) and concentrating their research on the Middle… Read More

Jilly Traganou to give two talks on counter-Olympic Dissent

Associate Professor of Spatial Design Studies, Jilly Traganou, has a productive February ahead of her.

Speaking about Design in Mexico City

by Susan Yelavich, Associate Professor of Design Studies Last fall, from October 28th to November 1st, I had the good fortune to be a guest of Centro, Mexico City’s premiere design school. During my stay, I gave a lecture to 200 members of the school and its design community in which I explored the ways design… Read More

Program Contact

Caroline Dionne, Program Director

Program Update

Parsons is not currently admitting new students to this master’s degree program. Parsons is now offering a Graduate Minor in Design Studies that is designed to complement the MA History of Design and Curatorial Studies and other graduate programs across the university in design, liberal arts, and social research.