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PARSONS APPOINTS NEW DEAN OF ITS
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| Miodrag Mitrasinovic |
NEW YORK, August 26, 2009—Parsons The New School for Design has announced the appointment of Miodrag Mitrasinovic as Dean of the School of Design Strategies at Parsons. One of five thematically organized schools at Parsons, the School of Design Strategies addresses the intersection of cities, services, and ecosystems through undergraduate programs in Integrated Design, Design and Management, and Environmental Studies. The School is also currently developing new graduate programs in Transdisciplinary Design, Design Management, Urban Design Ecologies and Urban Design Studies. The school also houses Parsons first year Foundation program. Mitrasinovic is an architect, author, and was previously Chair of Urban and Transdisciplinary Design in the School of Design Strategies.
"I am deeply confident that in this new position Miodrag will successfully lead the ongoing development of the School of Design Strategies and, together with the other School Deans and Parsons leadership, work to advance our core mission: delivering the highest level art and design education possible for our students and supporting our remarkable faculty in their research and teaching," said Parsons Dean Joel Towers. "Miodrag is highly qualified for this role. He is a significantly accomplished academic, has provided invaluable service to Parsons and The New School, and brings a collaborative, respectful, and visionary personality to the job."
Mitrasinovic has over 15 years of teaching and curriculum development experience in architecture, integrative design education, design studies and transdisciplinary design. Since 2006, he has led the development of urban design and urban studies programs at Parsons as well as across The New School; he currently serves as co-chair of The New School Academic Committee on Urban Programs. He has also led the development of a new, undergraduate transdisciplinary curriculum for the Integrated Design BFA program, which will launch this fall. At the School of Design Strategies, Mitrasinovic seeks to explore new models of practice that engage real-world projects whose complexity challenges traditional disciplinary approaches.
Since 1995, Mitrasinovic has been engaged in an independent and collaborative design and design-research practice focused on architecture, urban knowledge and research, urban design, and design consulting. His work focuses on developing an integrative approach to framing, engaging with, and acting in relation to emerging urban processes, practices, phenomena, forms and conditions. His research and projects include urban research and urban design studies; numerous international urban design and architecture competitions; the design of the first Montessori School in Belgrade, Serbia; and most recently the completion of the House Potparevic in Belgrade, Serbia (with Dva Studio: Vuja Alexandru and Milan Djuric).
His professional and scholarly work has been published internationally, including the Journal of Architecture and Building Science of the Architectural Institute of Japan, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, and Metropolis. He is the author of Total Landscape, Theme Parks, Public Space (Ashgate 2006), and co-editor of Travel, Space, Architecture (Ashgate 2009). Both books are recipients of the prestigious Graham Foundation Grant in 2004 and 2005, respectively. He is a member of the international editorial board of Design and Culture (Berg), and has also served in a variety of scholarly, professional and editorial roles.
Mitrasinovic holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Florida at Gainesville, United States [1998], MArch from The Berlage Institute, the Netherlands [1994], and a Diploma in Architectural Engineering (Dipl. Ing. Arh.) from the University of Belgrade, Serbia [1992]. Before joining The New School in 2005, he held teaching and research appointments at the University of Texas at Austin [1998-2005] and the University of Florida at Gainesville [1995-96 and 1997-98] in the United States, and at Kyoto University in Japan [1996-97].
Mitrasinovic’s term as Dean of the School of Design Strategies will conclude in January 2011.
About Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School for Design has been a pioneer in art and design education for more than a century. Based in New York but active around the world, the school offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the full spectrum of design disciplines. Critical thinking and collaboration are at the heart of a Parsons education. Parsons offers rigorous training that allows for student collaboration across five thematic schools, which were recently created to better facilitate interdisciplinary learning. In addition to the School for Design Strategies, these include the School of Art and Design History and Theory; the School of Art, Media and Technology (Fine Art, Photography, Illustration, Communication Design, and Design and Technology); The School of Constructed Environments (Architecture, Interior Design, Lighting Design, Product Design); and The School of Fashion. An integral part of The New School, Parsons builds on the university’s legacy of progressive ideals, scholarship, and pedagogy. Parsons graduates are leaders in their respective fields, with a shared commitment to creatively and critically addressing the complexities of life in the 21st century. For more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/parsons.
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