Required Courses

For students entering Fall 2020

First Year

4 units          GSD 2482        Art, Design and the Public Domain Proseminar
4 units          GSD 2484        Interdisciplinary Art Practices
24 units        Electives

Second Year

Coursework Track:
16 units Electives

Thesis Track:
16 units Electives
8 units GSD 9304 Independent Thesis for the Degree Master in Design Studies

Recommended Research Methodology Courses
Courses that teach skills of potential relevance to thesis projects

VIS-2129 Spatial Analysis and the Built Environment
VIS-2446 Drawing for Designers: Techniques of Expression, Articulation, and Representation
HIS-4356 Screens: Projecting Media and the Visual Arts
SCI-6141 Ecologies, Techniques, Technologies I
SCI-6317 Material Systems: Digital Design and Fabrication
SCI-6477 Nano Micro Macro: Adaptive Material Laboratory (with SEAS)

At Harvard Kennedy School
DPI-830A Column and Opinion Writing
DPI-831MA Op-Ed Writing
DPI-835MA Speechwriting
DPI-802MA The Arts of Communication
DEV-309 Development Policy Strategy
API-222A Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics

At Harvard Divinity School
2907 / Introduction to Public Preaching*

Suggested Electives

Art, Design, and the Public Domain
VIS-2481 Public Projection: Projection as a Tool for Expression and Communication in Public Space
ADV-9153 Forms of Assembly

Culture, Society and Governance
DES-3333 Culture, Conservation and Design
DES-3358 An Unsentimental Look at Architecture and Social Craft
SES-5330 Healthy Places: COVID-19 and Cities
SES-5486 The Gentrification Debates: Perceptions and Realities of Neighborhood Change
SES-5502 Urban Governance and the Politics of Planning in the Developing World

at Harvard Kennedy School
SUP-150Y Seminar: Social and Urban Policy
SUP-234 Poverty, Race, and Health
SUP-921 Proseminar on Inequality and Social Policy I
DPI-150Y Seminar: Democracy, Politics, and Institutions
DPI-365 Plutocracy, Philanthropy, and the Public Good
DPI-376M Queer Nation: LGBTQ Protest, Politics, and Policy in the United States
MLD-223 Negotiating Across Differences
MLD-224A Behavioral Science of Negotiations
MLD-375 Creating Justice in Real Time: Vision, Strategies and Campaigns
MLD-377 Organizing: People, Power, Change
IGA-147 Civil Resistance: How It Works

Environment
DES-3348 The Idea of Environment
HIS-4395 Environmentalisms

(Required courses for students who entered in Fall 2017.)

(Required courses for students who entered in Fall 2018.)

(Required courses for students who entered in Fall 2019.)

Students contemplating cross-registering for courses at another Harvard school must abide by the dates and policies of the school in which the course is offered. Priority for enrollment may be given to the other school’s students first before cross-registrations are accepted — enrollment is not guaranteed. See https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/resources/cross-registration-policies-procedures/