The School of Art and Design History and Theory

Undergrad Experience
- - First Year
    - Students entering Parsons share a common first-year experience. The same course sequence constitutes the first year of every BFA and BBA program, providing a foundational experience that familiarizes students with the tools, methods, and skills of art and design. First-year courses prepare students for life as skilled and socially aware artists and designers. Classes focusing on broadly relevant design concepts, tools, and methods—including studios exploring 2D and 3D processes, drawing, and digital design as well as liberal arts seminars—bring together students who are passionate about all kinds of art and design and who will one day forge new paths in an array of disciplines.
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Design Studies MA
- Drawing on the breadth and depth of expertise in design theory and practice at Parsons, this new Master of Arts program offers students the opportunity to explore design as both a field of scholarly research and an agent of social change.
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Fashion Studies MA
- Launched in fall 2010, this Master of Arts program allows students to engage in the evolving field of fashion studies. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students explore fashion as object, image, text, practice, theory, and concept and develop a critical understanding of fashion and its complex global intersections with identities, histories, and cultures in the contemporary world.
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History of Design and Curatorial Studies MA
- Offered jointly with the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the History of Design and Curatorial Studies program leads to a Master of Arts degree. Graduates go on to careers as historians, curators, and scholars in museums, universities, historic houses, auction houses, and galleries.
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About ADHT

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”...

Working in Fashion / Studies: MAFS Alumni and Career Panel

Working in Fashion / Studies MA Fashion Studies Alumni & Career Panel In recognition of the launch of our MA Fashion Studies program...

The New Literary Review and Theory of Fashion present: Francesca Granata, Experimental Fashion

Credit: Garment designed by Nina Veresova for her “-ology” collection (2017). Photographer: Nadezhda Belova The Russian edition of Prof. Francesca Granata’s book Experimental Fashion: Performance Art,...

Legacy with Sebastian Grant - November 19th, 2020

Scholarship in the history of jewelry making in the 20th Century has often focused on a very narrow discourse based on primarily white European and...

Francesca Granata on the Grotesque Body in Fashion

Fashion Studies Professor Francesca Granata was interviewed about her book Experimental Fashion and the concept of the grotesque body in fashion for Thrive Global. Read the full...

Monthly Archives: June 2016

A John Heskett Reader edited by Clive Dilnot

By adht | Published: June 29, 2016

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…

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

By adht | Published: June 28, 2016

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

Do Drones Have DNA?

By adht | Published: June 23, 2016

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…

Artist Tony Whitfield’s Current Exhibitions Examine Urgent LGBTQ Issues

By adht | Published: June 16, 2016

A window installation piece by artist Tony Whitfield opened June 2nd at Printed Matter in New York City. The exhibition, based on his artist book, Inquiries & Statements,…

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

By adht | Published: June 15, 2016

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…

Francesca Granata Contributes to Exhibition, Native Fashion Now

By adht | Published: June 6, 2016

Dr. Francesca Granata, director of the MA Fashion Studies and Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Design History and Theory, has contributed as…

MA Design Students Exhibit ‘Provocative Products’ at Parsons Festival

By adht | Published: June 1, 2016

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…

The School of Art and Design History and Theory

About ADHT

The School of Art and Design History and Theory offers courses to students in all schools at Parsons. Its curriculum helps student develop the intellectual rigor necessary to become the next generation of art and design leaders.

Insights

The School of Art and Design History and Theory

Designing in Dark Times: an Arendtian Lexicon

Working in Fashion / Studies: MAFS Alumni and Career Panel

The New Literary Review and Theory of Fashion present: Francesca Granata, Experimental Fashion

Legacy with Sebastian Grant - November 19th, 2020

Francesca Granata on the Grotesque Body in Fashion

Monthly Archives: June 2016

A John Heskett Reader edited by Clive Dilnot

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

Do Drones Have DNA?

Artist Tony Whitfield’s Current Exhibitions Examine Urgent LGBTQ Issues

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

Francesca Granata Contributes to Exhibition, Native Fashion Now

MA Design Students Exhibit ‘Provocative Products’ at Parsons Festival

The School of Art and Design History and Theory

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