Developing an Integrated Arts and Media Studies Curriculum: One Model

Abstract

The arts and media studies have received less attention than other disciplines by advocates of integrative pedagogy and learning. This paper examines one attempt to correct this oversight--the development of an integrated arts and media studies curriculum in The Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Rutgers University-Newark. The examination includes a discussion of the soon-to-be instituted interdisciplinary curriculum (Fall 2009) built around varying degrees of engagement with the urban community surrounding the campus, a brief history of how the curriculum was developed, the theoretical rationale supporting it, and a discussion of the curriculum's larger social agenda that was shaped by the ideas of Elliot W. Eisner, Stanford professor of art and education, and Richard Florida, social scientist and economist.