School of Art and Design History and Theory
ADHT The school's undergraduate courses bring all of Parsons students together to acquire the intellectual depth necessary to become leaders in their chosen fields. The school's unique graduate programs educate the next generation of theorists, writers, critics, historians, curators, and scholars. Fashion Studies (MA)
In this groundbreaking MA program, launching in Fall 2010, students will study fashion as object, image, text, practice, theory, and concept and develop a critical understanding of its complex global intersections with identities, histories, and cultures in the contemporary world. History of Decorative Arts and Design (MA)
Offered jointly with the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, this graduate program features a curriculum that focuses on the stylistic, historical, and theoretical contexts of European and American decorative arts and design from the Renaissance to the present. Art and Design History and Theory
These courses and pathways provide the historical and theoretical underpinnings for all art and design disciplines offered throughout Parsons. Students receive the intellectual grounding to become successful design and art professionals and leaders in their chosen fields of practice. School of Design Strategies
SDS Students and faculty explore relationships between design and social change in the context of cities, services, and ecosystems. The school is an experimental learning environment configured to advance innovative approaches to design and business education. Design and Management (BBA)
Project-based studio and seminar courses integrate business, design, and liberal arts education, promoting interdisciplinary learning through wide-ranging research and collaboration. The four-year curriculum involves entrepreneurial and strategic aspects of design design aspects of business. Environmental Studies (BS)
Looking beyond natural ecology and conservation, this program emphasizes urban ecosystems, sustainable design, and public policy. Students apply design concepts to analyze the impact of systems that sustain city life, including energy, food, water, construction, manufacturing, and transportation. Integrated Design (BFA)
A flexible, inquiry based, student driven program, Integrated Design includes thematic Core Studio courses and Labs in four areas of study (AoS)—sustainability, service design, fashion, and the urban—to focus students’ interests and provide a creative and intellectual foundation. Transdisciplinary Design (MFA)
Graduate students in this experimental design program will work in multidisciplinary teams to explore new models of practice that engage projects whose complexity challenges traditional disciplinary approaches. Foundation
This introductory program immerses students in an exploration of art and design concepts, skills, and critical practices, training them to become flexible thinkers, strong makers, and life-long learners. Urban Design (BS)
Students and faculty embrace New York City as a space of complex urban ecosystems, studying processes of urban transformation, exploring new urban patterns, and imagining daily practices that bring incremental but decisive improvements to our urban life. School of Fashion
A launch pad for numerous careers in global fashion, the school promotes activism as well as innovation, melding fundamental excellence in design, craft, and marketing with civic and environmental engagement. Fashion Design (BFA)
Parsons has trained five generations of designers to lead the U.S. fashion industry. Today its legacy of design education is interwoven with social and environmental imperatives, inspiring students to envision fresh ways to make beautiful, sustainable, responsible, and relevant fashion. Fashion Design (AAS)
This program, for adults considering careers in fashion design or seeking advanced training, offers instruction in the process, skills, and language of fashion design from concept through production: drawing, draping, patternmaking, sewing, tailoring, and haute couture and specialty techniques. Fashion Design and Society (MFA)
This advanced studio-based program in fashion design will encourage students to confront real-world challenges in the fashion industry while developing their capacities not only as outstanding designers, entrepreneurs, and scholars, but also as engaged global citizens. Fashion Marketing (AAS)
Adult students in this intensive program explore the relationships between design, merchandising, and marketing. Working from a solid foundation in textiles, color theory, and fashion history, students engage with all aspects of the fashion business. School of Constructed Environments
SCE Students grapple with key forces shaping the world today-radical shifts in ecological flows, changes in living and working patterns, growing economic disparities, excessive consumption, and increasing ethnic diversity-as they design beautiful and sustainable products, interiors, and buildings. Architectural Design (BFA)
Focusing on collaboration, research, and critical thinking, this four-year pre-professional degree program prepares students for careers in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, exhibition design, interior design, environmental art, and related fields. Architecture (M.Arch)
This three-year, NAAB-accredited graduate program focuses on contemporary issues affecting architecture. Courses in design, history, theory, technology, and representation encourage experimentation with the logics of building within a multifaceted and diverse cultural and environmental milieu. Interior Design (BFA)
A leader in interior design education, this intimate program takes a research-intensive approach to place making and prepares students for a competitive marketplace. Students work in small groups with faculty to develop designs for a range of special building types. Interior Design (MFA)
Challenging students to analyze human behavior, comfort, and the relationship of perception to the built interior, this new graduate program prepares students to play transformative roles in the profession, and to become the teachers of the next generation of practitioners. Interior Design (AAS)
This intensive program is anchored by studios on design for residential, retail, workplace, and hospitality spaces, and that combine interior architecture and decorative arts. Students learn theory and practice through conceptual explorations of space, sustainability, and computer-aided design. Product Design (BFA)
Through an immersion in materials, fabrication processes, aesthetic considerations, and proactive social engagement, students cultivate the essential intellectual habits and technical to explore and responsibly integrate the swiftly expanding roles of a successful professional product designer. Lighting Design (MFA)
With its unique focus on aesthetic design, human physiological and psychological factors, and sustainable practices, Parsons offers the only graduate lighting program to emphasize the values of both design and civic responsibility. Architecture and Lighting Design (M.Arch and MFA LD)
Students may combine graduate studies in lighting design and architecture in the Dual Degree program; a four year program that combines the NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture and the MFA Lighting Design degrees. School of Art, Media, and Technology
AMT Rigorous practice and critical scholarship prepares students to become leading agents of commentary and change. The school offers superb training in the art and design disciplines, expanding these fields beyond their traditional boundaries through interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange. Communication Design (BFA)
Learn the art of persuasion by creating compelling messages, narrating them meaningfully, and developing strategies to broadcast them. This program encompasses typography, print design, data mapping, motion, sound, and spatial and environmental graphics, branding, packaging, and advertising. Fine Arts (BFA)
Exposed to an array of studio practices, ideas, and community and global relationships,  students learn to translate concepts into individual expression by using drawing, color, form, space, and composition and to embrace interdisciplinary approaches to visual culture and making art. Fine Arts (MFA)
This two-year graduate program is committed to expanding the formal, intellectual, and conceptual work of advanced students, encouraging them to create, present, and interpret their work with the intellectual rigor and refined skill required to become a professional artist. Photography (BFA)
Students are challenged both technically and conceptually as they develop their skills through the exploration of analog and digital technology, creating multiple bodies of work influenced by film, design, fine art, video, and sound. Photography (MFA)
A 21st-century think tank that embraces photographys multiple roles and developing position within converging media. Students develop an individual vision in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment, where they learn the language of photography as well as the technology driving it. Design and Technology (BFA)
Building on contemporary design disciplines, this program focuses on new media storytelling and interaction technologies and exposes students to emerging design and art practices such as data programming, computer graphics, animation, game design, motion graphics, and physical computing. Design and Technology (MFA)
Drawing on history, politics, economics, psychology, ergonomics, this program combines study of visual, interactive, and narrative aspects of technology with programming and computation. Projects may involve games, Web and mobile applications, film, video, and audiovisual performance. Illustration (BFA)
This program cultivates each student's vision and prepares them to translate it into a wide range of traditional and emerging media. The curriculum emphasizes visual thinking, originality, art and design history and theory, and awareness of social and cultural concerns. Graphic Design (AAS)
Students investigate industry trends and receive a solid foundation in the traditional practices and concepts of graphic design. Assignments mirror real-world challenges, incorporating Internet and multimedia applications, interactive design, typography, page layout, and publication design. Pre-College and Continuing Studies
SPACE Parsons Summer, Pre-College Academy, and Continuing Education programs are housed together as Parsons SPACE. They offer open enrollment, nondegree study options in art and design for students of all ages and levels for credit or noncredit. Continuing Education
Open admission, nondegree studio, history, and business-oriented courses in art and design for beginner adults and accomplished professionals are offered each semester. Students may enroll for credit or noncredit, or apply courses towards a Parsons SPACE certificate. Pre-College Academy
Age appropriate courses for students in grades 4 - 12 range from fashion, graphic, and interior design to drawing, painting, cartooning, photography, and portfolio development. Classes meet on Saturdays during the school year and for two weeks during the summer. Summer Intensive Studies: NY
This intensive four-week, four-credit program is open to all students who wish to deepen their knowledge of art and design. Courses include five full days a week of studio classes, homework assignments, and degree preparation and career exploration events. Summer Intensive Studies: Paris
Experience Paris from an insider's perspective. Explore the history of European art and design first-hand in Paris' hundreds of museums and design studios. The Parsons summer program at ESRA (École Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle) is open to all students. Summer Studies in Constructed Environments
This rigorous studio-based five-week summer program is for current college students and college graduates of any age interested in investigating and preparing for a career in architecture, interior design, or lighting design. Graduate International Summer Program
Open to students currently enrolled in MA or PhD programs, this two-week, graduate-credit summer seminar in Berlin is offered by Parsons’ Masters Program in the History of Decorative Arts and Design, in collaboration with the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Leadership in the Arts Summer Program
Offered in collaboration with the Bank Street College of Education, this three-summer graduate degree program is designed to meet the needs of arts educators, combining studio courses with a leadership curriculum and leading to an Masters of Science in Education.