Cultural Studies, Curatorial Practice, Fashion, Spatial Design, Visual Culture Fashion Studies (MA)
What our students, alumni, and faculty are doing in NYC and worldwide
thinkparsonsgrad@newschool.edu
212.229.5150 (U.S. only)
Program Contact
Francesca Granata, Program Director
In the groundbreaking Fashion Studies master’s program, you undertake the cultural analysis of fashion as dress, bodily practice, media, and industry. You hone your research and writing skills as you explore the visual and material dimensions of fashion and investigate their personal and political meanings in various contexts. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, you develop a critical understanding of the histories, theories, and knowledge production around fashion and its role in shaping bodies, identities, and social relations. Graduates work in diverse fields including the fashion industry, media, museums, and academia.
The curriculum challenges students to explore the interdisciplinary theories and methodologies that have shaped fashion studies and to contribute to the advancement of the field. Core and elective courses open up broad perspectives on fashion as a phenomenon, and its connections with design, production, consumption, mediation, imagination, embodiment, identity, history, and politics. Student-led projects,
like the journal BIAS, offer students opportunities to publish work and collaborate with Parsons peers.
As critical thinkers with strong research and writing skills, graduates go on to pursue PhD degrees or careers at fashion magazines and media companies, including Rizzoli, Meredith, Vogue, W, Nylon, I-D, and InStyle.
Some graduates are actively involved in teaching in higher education, while others work in museums, fashion archiving, and curation, or as consultants, researchers, merchandisers, buyers, and PR professionals in major fashion houses and corporations.
Discover what our students, alumni, and faculty are doing in NYC and worldwide.
Research is integral to the Parsons learning experience, and students and faculty work together to challenge existing paradigms and advance emerging scholarship and practice. Explore the thematic research laboratories housed at Parsons and throughout The New School.
Connect to the organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs driving global creativity and commerce. In classes, internships, and extracurricular projects, you gain marketable problem-solving skills in sectors ranging from government and nonprofits to tech and creative industries.
New York City’s thriving creative industry and cultural institutions are part of your Parsons education. Our Career Services Office is enmeshed in the art and design industries and can help you advance your career with industry-oriented internships.
Funds are earmarked for graduate travel, research, and work to support your study. Opportunities include paid teaching assistantships, research fellowships and assistantships (including ones offered throughout The New School), ample student employment, and other grants available to U.S. domestic and international students alike.
Enjoy access to extensive resources including New School libraries, computer labs, archives, and studios, along with Parsons’ state-of-the-art Making Center, facilities offering a broad array of tools to support your creative and academic growth.
The New School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
