PSAM
3702

xStudio

Parsons School of Design: School of Art, Media, and Tech

Non-Liberal Arts
Undergraduate Course
Degree Students
xStudio: TBD
Fall 2026
Taught By: Avery Z. Nelson
Section: A

CRN: 3405

Credits: 3

Description Coming Soon

Open to: All University undergraduate students. Some seats have been reserved for BFA Fine Arts students
Prerequisites: No Prerequisites
Co-Requisites: No Co-requisites

College: Parsons School of Design (PS)

Department: School of Art, Media, and Tech (AMT)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Studio (S)

Modality: In-Person

Max Enrollment: 15

Repeat Limit: 8

Add/Drop Deadline: September 8, 2026 (Tuesday)

Online Withdrawal Deadline: November 16, 2026 (Monday)

Seats Available: Yes

Status: Open*

* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 7:04pm EDT 3/14/2026

Meeting Info:
Days: Wednesday
Times: 12:10pm - 2:50pm
Building: TBD
Room: TBD
Date Range: 8/26/2026 - 12/14/2026
xStudio: Social Reproduction
Spring 2026
Taught By: Thomas Donovan
Section: B

CRN: 15521

Credits: 3

In this studio-based course we will look at a set of discourses around “social reproduction,” which refers to the various labors, by and large unwaged if not unpaid, which contribute to the reproduction of historically male-gendered workforces (“living labor”) and proletariat. Among the inquiries we might pursue is both how we ourselves labor for social reproduction but also how our lives are sustained by those who socially reproduce ourselves through provisions of care, sex, and other historically feminized and racialized forms of work. Our point of departure will be a Marxist tradition beginning with Frederick Engels’ critique of the patriarchal family form in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. From here we will take up Marxist Feminism, with special attention to the theorization performed by Wages for Housework and fellow travelers (Silvia Federici, Leopoldina Fortunati, Selma James, and Mariarosa Dalla Costa), as well as Black and Third World Feminisms, with special attention to works by Hortense Spillers, Audre Lorde, and the Welfare Rights Movement in the US. Followed by this we will look at a broad range of thinkers who extend and problematize the work of their predecessors, including Family Abolitionists such as Michelle O’Brien, Eman Abdelhadi, Sophie Lewis, and Madeline Lane-McKinley, Trans Marxist Feminists such as Nat Raha, Xenofeminists (after Donna Haraway), and Disability activists such as Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. One of the key questions we may ask ourselves with regards to art practice is to what extent cultural production can assistance in the autonomization and communization of those populations most exploited by social reproduction as it is facilitated by the liberal democratic state in conjunction with racial capital, late fascisms, and settler-coloniality. Our discussions of readings will be supplemented by excursions in art, film, and literary discourse, as well as of course by the creation of original art and writing by course participants.

Open to: All University undergraduate students. Some seats have been reserved for BFA Fine Arts students.
Prerequisites: No Prerequisites
Co-Requisites: No Co-requisites

College: Parsons School of Design (PS)

Department: School of Art, Media, and Tech (AMT)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Studio (S)

Modality: In-Person

Max Enrollment: 15

Repeat Limit: 8

Add/Drop Deadline: February 3, 2026 (Tuesday)

Online Withdrawal Deadline: April 14, 2026 (Tuesday)

Seats Available: Yes

Status: Closed*

* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 7:04pm EDT 3/14/2026

Meeting Info:
Days: Tuesday
Times: 4:00pm - 6:40pm
Building: Parsons 2 W 13th
Room: 401
Date Range: 1/21/2026 - 5/12/2026