Overview
The Social Practice minor is offered through Parsons School of Design.
This minor provides a pathway for undergraduate students to pursue socially engaged projects that initiate exchange, envision new social relations, and provoke individual/collective actions. This is an invitation to blur the lines between object making,
performance, political activism, community organizing, guerrilla architecture, environmentalism, and investigative journalism. This approach to art making fosters collaboration between artists and broader publics. Drawing on the strengths of The New
School's history of engagement with social justice, the Social Practice minor taps into our faculty's diverse fieldwork, exposing students to multidisciplinary methodologies for their own research. A progression of lab and studio seminars provides
models for developing media strategies and forms of social cooperation. This minor will prepare students to conceptualize participatory projects, articulate narratives, position themselves ethically, and cultivate networks that support poetic and
political visions.
Examples of social practice include Theaster Gates' Dorchester Projects (winner of The New School's inaugural Vera List Center Prize), Mel Chin's Fundred Dollar Project,
Estudio Teddy Cruz's Casa Familiar: Living Rooms at the Border, and Jeanne van Heeswijk's Freehouse.
Course availability may vary from semester to semester. Some courses may be in development and offered at a later time. Students seeking to pursue alternative coursework to fulfill the minor should consult with their advisors.
Curriculum
Subject Area | Sample Courses | Credits |
---|
Introduction to Main Concepts, History, and Theory | ULEC 2270 Social Practice Concepts and Contexts | 3 |
Studio Practice | PUFY 1005 Critical Studio PUFY 1040 Time PSAM 1050 Intro to Photography PSAM 1070 CD Foundations: Typography PSAM 1800 Exploration in Drawing PSAM 1028 Web Design Basics PSAM 2301 Animation 1 PUFY 1221 Games 101 PUFY 1020 Space/Materiality PUFY 1030 Drawing/Imaging PUFY 1225 Digital Craft PLVS 1060: NYC: Zine Culture PUFY 1100 Sustainable Systems PSDS 2510 Visualizing Urban Change PSDS Community Supported Textiles | 0–3 |
Research Methodologies for Fieldwork | PUFA 2220 Core Studio 1: 2D PUFA 2230 Core Studio 1: 3D PUFA 2240 Core Studio 1: 4D PSAM 4820 Documentary Practices PSDS 2530 Community Supported Textiles PSDS 2115 Creative Team Dynamics: Identity and Change LLSJ 2241 Web Fundamentals ULEC 2220 Worldmaking: Design in Social and Political Contexts ULEC 2221 Worldmaking: Discussion PSAM 2120 CD Studio: Digital Product Design PSAM 3050 Collab PSDS 3705 Open Source Fashion LLSJ 2100 Documentary Photography
| 3 |
Research Skills and Direct Fieldwork Experience | PSAM 3050 Collaborative PSDS 2141 Collaborative: Human Services PSAM 3701 xStudio UURB 3031 City Studio: Action Research for Social Change
| 3 |
Social Justice Issues and Community-Based Practice | PUFA 3230 Topics in 3D PUFA 3240 Topics in 4D PUFA 3200 Core Seminar 3: Site and Context PSAM 3701 xStudio PSAM 3702 xStudio PSAM 3703 xStudio LCST 3060 Borders, Borderlands, and Border Identities LDAN 2920 IHD-Harlem Dance and Education LVIS 3021 Architecture Without Architect: Art and Politics in the Built Environment PLSD 4008 The Archaeology of New York City: From Manahatta to Manhattan NARH 2200 The Arts and Social Engagement NFDS 3220 Food Environments, Health, and Social Justice PLDS 3007 Theories of Value PSAM 4855 Queer Visuality PUDM 2101 Economics and Ethics of Sustainability UENV 4714 Food and the Environment LHIS 2047 African Slavery and Atlantic World LHIS 2210 Gender, Race, and Citizenship LHIS 3000 Political and Social Change LHIS 3090 The Politics of Xenophobia NCOM 3166 Race, Ethnicity, Class NFLM 3008 The F Word: Feminism PLVS 3002 Visual Culture and Tourism NFLM 3492 World Cinema: Bollywood NFDS 3410 Food and Migrations PSOF 2095 Global Artisan PSDS 2141 Collaborative Human Services PSDS 5401 Critical Fashion and Social Justice PSDS 5508 Public Space Lab | 6–9 |
*Students who have already completed one of these courses, or will do so for their major, should instead select another course in the subject area Social Justice Issues and Community-Based Practice.
Learning Outcomes
A student who has completed this minor should be able to demonstrate
- An understanding of basic fine arts, research principles, concepts, media, and formats of a social practice project
- A competent working knowledge of the history, theory, and practice of socially engaged works of art in the global arena
- A strong sense of how to carry out a project, including a range of research methodologies and fieldwork experience, moving a project from research through development and testing to completion and assessment
- Competency in and direct experience with collaborating with a variety of publics through exchange-based practices
- Strength in his or her ability to articulate possible intersections between contemporary art and design discourses, social justice movements and radical pedagogical practices, and community-based practice
Eligibility
Minors are available to all undergraduate students at The New School. For questions regarding this minor's curriculum, including requests for course substitutions, please contact Melanie Crean, professor of visual culture, at [email protected].
How to Declare or Change a Minor
General guidelines for declaring a minor are available here. Current students can declare or change a minor by logging in to my.newschool.edu, clicking on the Academics tab,
and then clicking on the link to Major/Minor Declarations.