NYU Shanghai has taken the school’s two most popular majors, Interactive Media Arts and Business, and combined them into one, creating the new Interactive Media + Business major. The idea of the major has been floating around since 2014, but the proposal fully kicked into action fall 2016. It was formally introduced to students just a few weeks ago. Assistant Dean of Emerging Arts Matthew Belanger worked to help make the long-awaited major concrete, alongside Dean of Business Yuxin Chen, Affiliated Associate Art Professor Marianne Petit, Director of the NYU Shanghai Program on Creativity + Innovation Adam Brandenburger, and Adjunct Assistant Arts Professor of Interactive Media Arts Christian Grewell. Belanger believed it was necessary to create a unique program to prepare NYU Shanghai students for the current business climate. “We wanted to prepare students for 21st century business and entrepreneurship, because interactive and emerging media are essential ingredients in the contemporary business context. We wanted to promote interdisciplinary between the two largest programs at NYUSH and among students, by creating new hybrid classes,” Belanger said. The major will also help to ease the burden on the many students who wanted to double major in both Business and IMA. Combining the two into one reduces the number of requirements and creates more flexibility for the students’ directions. Belanger also believes this track will allow for a more intentional track of study. Even though the major was just introduced a couple of weeks ago, Belanger believes its design will allow even some of this year’s seniors to graduate with an IMB major. “Knowing how many students would benefit from IMB, we designed the major to make it possible for students who are already majoring in Business, IMA, or double-majoring to switch in at a late stage. Assuming a current Junior or Senior is on track with both majors currently, the switch should be pretty easy to accomplish. I think it’s realistic that we’ll have some students graduating as IMB this May,” Belanger said. The faculty responsible for the major held an information session on October 17th, if you couldn’t make it, be sure to check your NYU email for the recording of the session. For additional information about the major’s requirements, check out the IMB page on the Academic Advising website. This article was written by Isabel Adler. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Maya Williams