DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRAM:
Robin Nagle

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRAM:
Robert Dimit

The Draper Program offers innovative interdisciplinary study in the humanities and social sciences that is both flexible and rigorous. The program is founded on a belief in the unique value of cross-disciplinary research that brings together methods and materials from historical, cultural, artistic, political, literary, and other fields.

Students choose from a broad range of courses to create individualized programs of study. The flexibility of the Draper curriculum allows students to establish the links among disciplines that best suit their intellectual goals and interests. Students integrate these varied elements with extensive faculty advising and gain a solid methodological foundation from the program's core courses. The program is structured around six areas of inquiry:

Art Worlds
The City
Gender Politics
Global Histories
Literary Cultures
Science Studies

Introductory courses familiarize students with the essential background, the fundamental questions, and the most current theories and scholarship in each area, thoroughly preparing students to participate in larger scholarly conversations.

New York University awards Draper students the Master of Arts degree on completion of 32 points (eight courses) and a supervised master's thesis. A minimum of four Draper courses must be taken; the remaining courses may be taken in other departments and programs of the Graduate School of Arts and Science.

Either full-time or part-time study is possible, with most courses offered in the evening. Average time to complete the degree is between two and three years; full-time students can finish the program in three semesters.

Students in the Draper Program interact with a talented and diverse student body, work with members of the University's outstanding faculty, and enjoy the vibrance of New York City. They also draw on the University's extensive resources, including libraries, galleries, transportation resources, housing help, and athletic facilities.

Faculty

Master teachers in each area of inquiry play an important role in shaping the Draper Program. Senior members of the Faculty of Arts and Science who have strong commitments to interdisciplinary scholarship, master teachers provide curricular guidance and help to maintain connections to the rest of the Graduate School.

The Draper Program also appoints a faculty fellow for each area of inquiry. Faculty fellows are top-ranked junior scholars, selected through national searches, who are in residence at the Draper Program for three years. They teach, advise students, supervise research, and keep the program at the vanguard of current scholarship.

Outstanding faculty from many departments and programs in the Graduate School of Arts and Science participate in the Draper Program. Professors from Africana studies, American studies, anthropology, biology, cinema studies, comparative literature, English, Hebrew and Judaic studies, history, journalism, performance studies, philosophy, physics, politics, and sociology regularly teach in the program, but in any given semester almost any discipline in the Graduate School may be represented by the Draper Program faculty. Additionally, the program invites top visiting scholars to teach courses in particular areas of expertise.

Robert Dimit, Associate Director, John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Humanities and Social Thought. Ph.D. 2000 (comparative literature), M.A. 1992 (comparative literature), New York; B.A. 1972 (music), Macalester College.
Early modern European literature and culture; English Restoration and French neoclassical theatre; history of affect; literature and music.

Laurel George, Assistant Professor, Art Worlds; John W. Draper Faculty Fellow. Ph.D. 2002 (anthropology), M.A. 1997 (anthropology), Rice; B.A. 1989 (anthropology), Wesleyan.
Anthropology of art and performance; organizational anthropology; art patronage; cultural production in complex society.

Andrew Jewett, Assistant Professor, Science Studies; John W. Draper Faculty Fellow. Ph.D. 2002 (history), M.A. 1998 (history), B.A. 1992 (history), California (Berkeley).
Science and political theory; United States and Europe.

Heather Lukes, Assistant Professor, Gender Politics; John W. Draper Faculty Fellow. Ph.D. 2004 (English), M.A. 2000 (English), California (Los Angeles); B.A. 1993 (English), California (Berkeley).
American literature; gender and sexuality; American film; psychoanalysis.

Pedro Machado, Assistant Professor, Global Histories; John W. Draper Faculty Fellow. Ph.D. 2005 (history), London; M.A. 1997 (history), New Hampshire; B.A. 1993 (history), Cape Town.
South Asian merchant networks; comparative diasporas; comparative slave trade and slavery; genealogies of consumption and demand in the Indian Ocean; empire; migration.

Robin Nagle, Director, John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Humanities and Social Thought. Ph.D. 1994 (anthropology), M.Phil. 1991 (anthropology), M.A. 1989 (anthropology), Columbia; B.A. 1987 (anthropology), New York.
Consumption; garbage; material culture; urban studies; cultural geography.

Mrinalini Rajagopalan, Assistant Professor, The City; John W. Draper Faculty Fellow. Ph.D. 2007 (architecture), M.S. 2003 (architecture), California (Berkeley); B.Arch. 1996, Arkansas.
Architectural and urban history; urban theory; postcolonial studies; visual cultures of South Asia.

Nicole Rizzuto, Assistant Professor, Literary Cultures; John W. Draper Faculty Fellow. Ph.D. 2006 (English and comparative literature), M.Phil. 2002 (English and comparative literature), M.A. 1999 (English and comparative literature), Columbia; M.A. 1997 (English and modern culture and media), Brown; B.A. 1995 (English and philosophy), SUNY (Binghamton).
Twentieth-century British and Anglophone literature; European and American modernism and avant-gardes; critical and literary theory; feminist theory; postcolonial studies.

MASTER TEACHERS

Art Worlds: Anna McCarthy, Associate Professor, Cinema Studies. Ph.D. 1995 (television and radio), M.A. 1991 (television and radio), Northwestern; B.A. 1989, Wesleyan.
Television history; media and cultural studies; Marxist theory. .

The City: Harvey Molotch, Professor, Sociology. Ph.D. 1968 (sociology), M.A. 1966 (sociology), Chicago; B.A. 1963 (philosophy), Michigan.
Urban development and political economy; the sociology of architecture, design, and consumption; environmental degradation; mechanisms of interactional inequalities.

Gender Politics: Ann Pellegrini, Associate Professor, Performance Studies, Program in Religious Studies. Ph.D. 1994 (cultural studies), M.A. 1992 (study of religion), Harvard; M.A. 1988 (literae humaniores), Oxford; B.A. 1986 (classics), Harvard.
Religion, sex, and the law; feminist theory; queer theory; psychoanalysis and race; trauma studies; cultures of childhood; Jewish cultural studies; feminism and popular culture.

Global Histories: Mary Nolan, Professor, History. Ph.D. 1975 (history), M.A. 1969 (history), Columbia; B.A. 1966 (history), Smith College.
Modern German history; European women’s history; post-World War II order.

Literary Cultures: Avital Ronell, Professor, German, Comparative Literature. Ph.D. 1979 (Germanic languages and literature), Princeton; B.A. 1974 (German, philosophy, French), Middlebury College.
Feminist philosophy; French and German literature; theory.

Science Studies: Rayna Rapp, Professor, Anthropology. Ph.D. 1973 (anthropology), M.S. 1969 (anthropology), B.A. 1968 (anthropology), Michigan.
Gender; reproduction; health and culture; science and technology; United States and Europe.

ADVISORY BOARD

Thomas Bender, History; Carolyn Dinshaw, Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality; Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Performance Studies; Mary Poovey, Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge; Bambi B. Schieffelin, Anthropology; Marilyn B. Young, History.