Current Courses

Please consult the New School Course Catalog for a full course list. Spring 2020 courses include:

• Design and the Future of Publishing: Design and Process—The Practice of Publishing, GPUB 5002
  
  This course is specifically designed to serve as a broad foundation for students from non-design backgrounds to give form to content. This is a hands-on studio course that begins with projects that investigate typography, book and pamphlet design, digital printing, content on the Web, and ideation. Contemporary issues that cross design and publishing are discussed through a series of readings and analysis of contemporary books, magazines, and periodicals across both printed and digital platforms. The course is limited to CPCJ students in the fall. In the spring, half of the class consists of Parsons undergraduate design students, and students work in multidisciplinary teams creating conceptual publishing projects that combine design and publishing through an analysis of contemporary books, magazines, and periodicals from both printed and digital platforms.
  
  
• Political and Cultural Reporting, GPUB 5050
  Natasha Lennard, Part-Time Faculty
  
  Far more than horse-race election coverage, this political reporting course offers students a deep dive into the way news and cultural media handle the sociopolitical issues that define our time. We take a critical look at media coverage of elections, the White House, and the Beltway but focus on issues and stories far beyond this, including race and racism, the far right and left, #MeToo and feminism, immigration, leaks and corruption, the environment, LGBTQ struggles, and more. Students gain a sense of (1) how the media is broken up into a coverage landscape and what this means for the way issues are covered, prioritized, and de-prioritized; (2) how ideas, ideologies, and discourses are established, maintained, and challenged in the news media; and (3) challenges to traditional journalistic forms — reliant on "news events" and "two-sides" objectivity — posed by ongoing structural problems like racism, inequality, and environmental degradation. The class will make site visits to and hear guest speakers from major media institutions both traditional and new.
  
  
• Faith in Modern Literature: Supreme Fictions and Gods That Failed, GPUB 5311
  Melissa Monroe, Part-Time Assistant Professor
  
  Reports of the death of God may or may not be exaggerated, but issues of faith and doubt, both religious and secular, have figured prominently in modern literature, from Samuel Beckett’s God-forsaken seekers to Graham Greene’s tormented whisky priests, and from Flannery O’Connor’s “Christ-haunted South” to Michel Houellebecq's vision of secular contemporary France taken over by a conservative Islamic government. In this course, we look at works of modern fiction, poetry, and drama that address either Judeo-Christian belief or the secular creeds which have been proposed as replacements for conventional religion. We read brief selections from philosophers and theologians (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber, Jaspers, Maritain), but our principal focus is on literary authors such as (in addition to those named above) Franz Kafka, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Albert Camus, James Baldwin, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Paul Celan, Anne Carson, and Cynthia Ozick. We consider not only the religious (or anti-religious) views expressed in the work but also how the literary form of each text contributes to its meaning. Our discussion of style extends to student work; four essays are assigned over the course of the semester, and we look at effective examples of student writing. This class is open to undergraduates with permission from the instructor.
   
  
• Multimedia Publishing Production and Writing Lab: Advanced, GPUB 6002
  Jon Baskin, Associate Director, Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism, and Jesse Seegers, Part-Time Faculty
  
  In this hands-on seminar, students collaborate on an original publication. Early in the course, students apply for roles in the creation of a magazine with a theme and design concept that the class will choose together. Students focus on editorial, marketing, design, or production, although there will be opportunities for them to take on more than one role. Basic design skills (familiarity with Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign) are required, and priority is given to students in CPCJ who have completed the introductory course. Students improve their ability to write and to work with a team in a publishing environment, and they learn about emerging phenomena in creative publishing, establishing themselves as strong entry-level candidates for a variety of careers in contemporary media. The goal of the class is to produce a magazine and a website with a focus on the landscape of creative publishing in New York. In the process, we mimic the operation of a working magazine, with writers, editors, and design teams working in collaboration. Each student emerges from the course with a portfolio-building example of their work, having learned how to connect with a public readership through promotional efforts and events. The lab will take full advantage of New School resources, including the Parsons Design Lab, as well as the university’s location in New York City. This course is open to BA/MA students and other students university-wide, but permission is required; please email the instructors. 
  
  
• Master’s Seminar in Critical and Creative Writing, GPUB 6301
  James E. Miller, Professor of Liberal Studies and Politics, and Melissa Monroe, Part-Time Assistant Professor
  
  An intensive workshop for students working on major writing projects such as an MA thesis, a piece of long-form journalism, or an integrated writing portfolio for professional use. The course is organized as an ongoing process of peer review supervised by the faculty. The aim is to create a collective setting that can help students improve their own writing and hone their critical skills through constructive engagement with others’ work. This course is open to BA/MA students; please email the instructor for permission to register.