New York NY 10003
USA
Join the program directors from Parsons School of Design’s MFA in Transdisciplinary Design to learn more about this distinctive two-year graduate degree. The program is offered in New York City at The New School, a university known for fostering academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and experimental approaches to art, design, social research, and performance.
Established fifteen years ago, this Master of Fine Arts program has welcomed practitioners from diverse fields to expand their practice. Rooted in transdisciplinary methodology and expansive intellectual study, the curriculum engages students to work across disciplines, articulating the contributions of their work and exploring future possibilities in evolving fields.
At each virtual session, you’ll meet faculty and admissions staff, have opportunities to ask questions, and gain insight into a program that bridges critical inquiry and transformative practice. RSVP online.
Transdisciplinary Research and Practice at Parsons
The MFA in Transdisciplinary Design is a 60-credit, STEM-designated program centered on critical inquiry and transformative practice. Despite the degree’s title, it is not a traditional fine arts or design program. Rather than focusing on craft or problem-solving, the emphasis is on inquiry and aesthetic experimentation across disciplines.
Guided by its five Program Learning Outcomes—critical praxis, transdisciplinarity, worldmaking, narrative and aesthetic experience, and relational ethics—the program tailors the curriculum and student practice to foster experimentation, ethical engagement, and the exploration of new possibilities for being and knowing.
This distinctive program creates a space where diverse practices coexist, inform one another, and extend beyond the limits of any single medium, format, scale, or methodology. Graduates leave prepared to respond with agility and imagination to a shifting world, carrying intellectually rigorous and engaged practices into civic and humanitarian initiatives, community projects, artistic and curatorial work, design research, health and care systems, public policy, education, consulting, and experimental media.
Studios, seminars, colloquia, and methods courses are integrated with a broad array of electives offered throughout The New School, encouraging students to explore disciplines and deepen and expand their practice. Students, faculty, and partners work together to develop strategic propositions, visual narratives, and aesthetic experimentation informed by situated and traditional knowledge, the land, the self, and one another. To see how this ethos takes shape, visit our research and practice page, which highlights projects, theses, collaborations, and diverse practices in our community. As a STEM-accredited master’s program, graduates are eligible for a 36-month Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa extension, providing valuable opportunities for professional growth and career advancement in the United States.
Request information: Join our mailing list to learn more. Submit your application: Admission applications are live for fall 2026 entry (studies begin in August 2026). Priority application deadline: January 5.
Students join from fields including art, education, design, journalism, policy, and community organizing—some mid-career professionals reorienting their practice, others still discovering theirs. No prior art or design experience is required. Portfolios are reviewed through an expanded lens, and all admitted students are automatically considered for merit scholarships.
