Live, study and grow at the nexus of discovery and impact.
Our research activities and academic programs are remarkably broad, but they share one characteristic: all are curiosity-driven. Exploring the unknown is central to our mission to be the nexus of discovery and impact.
Courses offered in A&S of 4000 courses at Cornell.
Majors to choose in A&S. Design your education.
Students in A&S, each with an extraordinary journey to tell.
A&S alumni in our network. Go Big Red!
Twenty new faculty have joined the College of Arts & Sciences this year, strengthening departments and programs with their wide-ranging expertise and filling numerous leadership roles for the College and university. And this election year, the College’s new faculty bring a breadth and depth of expertise on topics important to our democracy.
The innovative undergraduate curriculum at A&S has distribution requirements that range from global citizenship to physical sciences to ethics and the mind. Classes build upon each other and cross the boundaries of traditional academic fields. Extensive work occurs outside of your major and minors, and there are no required core courses. Work closely with inspiring faculty to develop the hallmark skills of a liberal arts and sciences education – the ability to read critically, write persuasively and think broadly.
As a science, technology and society major, you’ll explore the social and cultural aspects of science and technology and be encouraged to ask informed and penetrating questions about the social forces that shape science and technology, the limits of scientific authority and the role of technology in modern life.
Details about Science, Technology and Society
As an Italian major, you’ll have the opportunity to explore in-depth the language, literature and culture of that part of the world, only recently united into a single nation, where Dante wrote his Comedy, Saint Francis roamed the Umbrian hills and directors like Pasolini and Fellini redefined the relationship between cinema and realism. You’ll be encouraged to immerse yourself in Italian literary and cultural history and to question many of the stereotypes that continue to circulate, in America but also in Italy, about that very history.
Details about Italian
As an Environment & Sustainability major, you will receive interdisciplinary training in environmental science and studies, developing integrated approaches to address environmental and sustainability issues.
Choose a concentration from one of the following areas
The E&S major is offered in collaboration with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), where you can explore additional classes.
Take advantage of resources such as the Arnot Teaching and Research Forest, Cornell Biological Field Station at Shackelton Point, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, Cornell Natural Areas and the Shoals Marine Lab.
Details about Environment and Sustainability
The Sanskrit Studies minor is intended for students who wish to broaden and deepen their competence in the Sanskrit language and traditional Indian religious, literary, and philosophical culture.
Details about Sanskrit Studies
As an Asian studies major, you will learn about the languages and literatures, religions, societies and cultures of East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, with courses in most of the disciplines of the social sciences and the humanities.
Details about Asian Studies
With a minor in Crime, Prisons, Education, and Justice, you’ll have an unparalleled opportunity to learn why the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and how race, class, politics, history, gender, inequality, and law relate to mass incarceration in the United States.
Details about Crime, Prisons, Education & Justice
Moral psychology is an interdisciplinary academic area that welcomes students with diverse majors and interests who share a strong curiosity and concern about humankind, and a motivation to apply both humanistic and scientific lenses to age-old questions about human behavior. The minor adds broad academic value across Cornell. It identifies and centralizes relevant coursework; assists students in curating an academic plan for their moral psychology studies that builds on their strengths and interests; and offers unique research and community engagement opportunities that bring moral psychology to life.
Details about Moral Psychology
With a minor in minority, indigenous and third world studies, you’ll learn how the literatures of U.S. minority groups and third world (especially postcolonial) societies share and reflect similar histories of imperial conquest, slavery and colonial rule. You’ll think about literature and culture in a global context, analyzing imaginative responses to history, politics and ideology in a wide range of courses that explore African American, Asian American, American Indian, U.S. Latino/a, South Asian, Pacific, Caribbean and African literatures, as well as other sub-fields in colonial/postcolonial, diaspora and cultural studies.
Details about Minority, Indigenous & Third World Studies
As a European Studies minor, you will have the opportunity to explore Europe’s past, present, and future and to demonstrate a knowledge of European languages, culture, history, politics, and international relations. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum that you can mold to your interests, the minor offers you the chance to take courses across colleges and subjects that exemplify your understanding of a globalizing world, while also providing you with an area of expertise. You will gain invaluable critical thinking skills, language abilities, and helpful frameworks for assessing today’s most pressing issues in Europe and around the world.
This multifaceted minor is provided through the Institute for European Studies at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and is available to all Cornell undergraduates. Sample Courses: Modern European Politics Introduction to Spanish Urban Design, Architecture, and Art in Renaissance and Baroque Rome German in Business Culture
Details about European Studies
As an information science major, you’ll have a home in two colleges: Arts and Sciences (A&S) and the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.
The Information Science major is ideal for A&S students who wish to explore the human-centered aspects of computing and information, as well as technology’s real-world impact, adoption, and integration into everyday life. This includes the study of ethics, law, and policy, particularly related to artificial intelligence (AI), human-AI interaction and human-robot interaction, networks and markets, social computing, user experience and design, and related topics.
Details about Information Science
The pinnacle of the liberal arts experience
Students design their own interdisciplinary major, organized around a question or issue of interest, and pursue a course of study that cannot be found in an established major. Harrison College Scholars explore subjects with a broader integration of related disciplines than most students would attempt.
A deep dive into the humanities
This program offers a signature learning, research and collaboration opportunity for undergraduate students across the university who are interested in the humanities.
Shaping the future
Students in the Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity combine Cornell’s renowned liberal arts and sciences classes in Ithaca with the 21st century tech curriculum at Cornell Tech in NYC.
Funding your summer experience
Summer opportunities are crucial to student career success, but these life-changing experiences frequently offer little to no funding. That’s a critical barrier for many of our students – and one that the College of Arts and Sciences feels is vital to overcome.
The Summer Experiences Grants (SEG) do just that. They support students with living expenses, transportation, and travel so that these essential experiences are available to all of our students, who may otherwise not be able to afford them.
Curiosity is the driver for research in A&S. From the dendrochronology lab where archaeologists analyze tree-ring growth to understand climate change to the linguistics department where students created a new language for a Captain Marvel movie, our students and faculty take full advantage of all that our world-class research university encompasses.
With opportunities spanning the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, research here takes place in laboratories, museums, field sites, libraries, hospitals, greenhouses, performance spaces and archives.
Premier postdocs
This premier postdoctoral fellowship program offers opportunities for early-career scholars of outstanding talent, initiative and promise to devote themselves to frontline, innovative research without being tied to specific outcomes.
Undergraduate research opportunities
The Nexus Scholars Program in the College of Arts & Sciences provides undergraduate students with summer opportunities to work side by side with faculty from all across the college (humanities, social sciences, and STEM) on their research projects.
Open your mind
The College of Arts & Sciences’ Arts Unplugged series brings research and creative works into the public sphere for discussion and inspiration. These outreach events invite a broad audience to explore the work of scholars and faculty from all disciplines, all backgrounds and all time periods and to celebrate the impact that work continues to have on our daily lives.
Engagement for an informed society
The College of Arts & Sciences' Distinguished Visiting Journalist Program brings accomplished journalists to Cornell for extended visits. The program aims to recognize excellence in journalism and to provide opportunities for select journalists and the university community to engage with each other.
USA Today
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Forbes
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