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!
This year, 27 new faculty have joined the College of Arts & Sciences, enriching 17 departments and programs with their excellence in an impressive range of topics, including moral psychology, gravitational waves, Black contemporary art and more.
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.
The undergraduate minor in Arabic is intended for Cornell students who wish to broaden and deepen their competence in the Arabic language and knowledge of Arab culture. Such linguistic competence and knowledge have helped Cornell students in the past obtain positions in government agencies and think tanks and to enroll in the most competitive Arabic programs in this country.
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The Robert S. Harrison College Scholar Program represents the pinnacle of the liberal arts experience at Cornell. The program is focused on a small group of stellar students whose interests transcend disciplinary boundaries. These students have demonstrated exceptional promise and maturity to plan and carry out a well-designed individualized program of study and research. 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.
College Scholars explore subjects with a broader integration of related disciplines than most students would attempt. They pursue their subjects using advanced, often graduate-level, techniques. As a capstone to their studies, all Scholars undertake an independent senior project, usually culminating in an honors thesis. It is a unique opportunity within the College of Arts & Sciences for engagement and learning, in the classroom and beyond.
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As a performing and media arts major, you’ll benefit from the synergies between the study and practice of theatre and live performance, cinema/media and/or dance. Whether you’re an actor/director, a filmmaker, a scholar-critic, a choreographer or a designer, you’ll be able to take many possible combinations of courses depending on your interest in history/theory/criticism, creative authorship, design or embodied performance and more. Students are also welcome to explore our four minors: Performing and Media Arts, Dance, Film and Theatre.
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The Brittany and Adam J. Levinson Program in China and Asia–Pacific Studies (CAPS) offers a unique and rigorous curriculum in the study of contemporary China, through a set of courses on China’s language, history, politics, economy, society, and international relations, and by providing students with experiential learning opportunities, including one required semester in Beijing and one optional semester in Washington, D.C. Designed as an interdisciplinary program to train future leaders in various domains of U.S.-China relations, the Levinson Program offers both the Major and Minor in China and Asia-Pacific Studies to Cornell undergraduate students.
More information can be found on the Cornell University Registrar site and through the Levinson Program site.
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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.
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With a minor in the History of Capitalism, you’ll be exposed to different perspectives on how capitalism has been defined and how it developed at different times and in different parts of the world, enabling you to critically reflect on economic institutions and ideas, as well as to understand how our global economy has come to be. You’ll gain the basic vocabulary of economics and business, deepened with a longer, critical perspective on the development of capitalism. This minor is offered collaboratively with courses from across the university, coordinated by the Department of History.
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With an international relations minor, you’ll be able to take advantage of the vast resources available across colleges and departments for studying the politics, economics, history, languages and cultures of the countries and regions of the world, adding a global and cross-cultural dimension to your major studies. This interdisciplinary program, offered through the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, is open to undergraduates enrolled in any of the seven Cornell undergraduate colleges.
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As a government major, you’ll learn how to think and write rigorously and creatively about issues of public life. You’ll have the choice of courses in four subfields: American politics (the political behavior, policies and institutions of the U.S.), comparative politics (the institutions and political processes of other nations), political theory and philosophy (normative theories of politics and history of political thought) and international relations (transactions between states, international organizations and transnational actors).
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Media are the technological means through which societies are reflected, tested, challenged, and transformed. Cornell Media Studies is unique for its broad cultural scope and historical reach which fosters collaborative interaction among the disciplines, from Classics to Information Science.
The Media Studies minor presents undergraduates with the opportunity for interdisciplinary engagement with diverse modes of communication, from the hieroglyph to the algorithm, encompassing the myriad technologies, forms, and practices by which information circulates amongst a now digitally-networked global population.
An ancient concept that remains cutting edge in its applications, Media Studies identifies the transformation of every discipline by new formations of knowledge — digital, textual, visual, aural, tactile — and by corresponding requirements for the evaluation, interpretation, critique, and production of media. It is relevant to every college student. The undergraduate minor in Media Studies is open to students enrolled in any college at Cornell.
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As a Spanish major, you’ll have the opportunity to explore in-depth the languages, literatures and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. You’ll be invited to engage with topics as various as medieval sin and modern film, novels from early modern Spain (most famously, Don Quixote) and from modern Latin America. You’ll also be encouraged to study abroad and to reflect critically upon the diversity that characterizes the Hispanic tradition.
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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.
Bloomberg
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Los Angeles Times
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Kate A. Manne
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Reuters
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Allen R. Carlson
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Wall Street Journal
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