Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies
School of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Pratt Institute
200 Willoughby Ave.
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11205
Critical and Visual Studies is a B.A. program for the imaginative student who wants to combine the rigor of the liberal arts with the openness and experimentation of the creative arts. The student's academic program combines the core curriculum with a generous variety of electives in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as in architecture, art history, art and design, and planning. Students build a foundation in many classic and innovative texts of philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities, and in the writings of contemporary thinkers who are of special importance to Critical and Visual Studies. They study world civilizations and literatures, effective writing and scientific thinking, as well as social and political thought.
Pratt's Critical and Visual Studies program teaches students to be critical, articulate, well read, intellectually flexible, and culturally savvy. The program provides students with:
* A critical and historically informed understanding of how culture is made and lived within neighborhoods, cities, and across national borders.
* Competency in a range of techniques for research, analysis, and communication.
* The ability to develop and integrate written, oral, visual, and spatial expression through student-initiated projects.
* Opportunities to extend the integration of theory and practice and make links between academic work and the working world through internships in cultural institutions, especially nonprofit arts and public service agencies.
