Developing an Integrated Arts and Media Studies Curriculum: One Model

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.