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.
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
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As a comparative literature major, you’ll gain a critical and historical perspective on world literature and cultures, with the choice of two tracks. If you want to emphasize literature in your course work, take the comparative literary studies track; if you’re interested in studying literature and theory by integrating rigorous work in film, video or other arts and media, take the literary, visual and media studies track. The major’s broad range of courses provides a critical and historical perspective on world literature and cultures.
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With a minor in Russian through the Department of Comparative Literature, you can explore Russian language, literature and culture. Translate your interest in politics, books, history or foreign travel (or your Russian heritage) into a broad and satisfying academic program that will introduce you to new ideas and new people across centuries and across campus.
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Research in astronomy is making rapidly increasing use of analysis methods that draw from developments in artificial intelligence, machine learning with a strong basis in Bayesian statistics. The overarching questions raised in astronomical science are attractive to students from a wide range of disciplines and can provide the motivation for learning the fundamentals of data science as they are applied to the astronomical domain.
Researchers in the Astronomy Department are involved with specific projects involving large empirical and simulation data sets: spacecraft imaging data from solar system missions, spacecraft survey data for exoplanets, sky surveys at radio, infrared, and optical wavelengths, data sets from gravitational wave detectors, and cosmological simulations of large scale structure in the universe. These data sets will provide attractive contexts for learning and applying modern analysis methods.
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As a Classics major, you can immerse yourself in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome through four different tracks (Classics, Greek, Latin, Classical Civilization) taking programs in ancient languages, literature, history, archaeology, history of art, science, linguistics and philosophy. Classics majors work closely with individual professors in their areas of expertise, often in small classes, and have many opportunities for independent research and travel. The rigorous analytical training characteristic of a Classics degree helps to develop skills that are valued in a wide variety of careers, as well as giving students a firm foundation for understanding the history of Western culture. With a minor in classics, you’ll conduct your own odyssey through the ancient Mediterranean world by taking any five coherent classics courses (above 1000-level) from one of four different tracks, acquiring proficiency in either Greek or Latin along the way: Classical literature Ancient history (with emphasis on either Greek or Roman) Ancient philosophy Classical art and archaeology
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With a minor in creative writing, you’ll take five courses in creative writing, literature and cultural studies. You can concentrate in a single genre (fiction or poetry), or freely study both.
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As an archaeology major, you’ll benefit from an interdisciplinary approach to a broad range of cultures, with courses in classical archaeology and art, Near Eastern studies, and the archaeology of Eurasia, the Americas and Africa. You’ll gain hands-on experience through lab-based courses in zooarchaeology, ceramics, dendrochronology and in the material cultures of Native Americans and Euro-Americans, and will have opportunities for fieldwork both in the U.S. and abroad. The Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS) is one of the leading archaeology groupings in the U.S. and offers one of the few majors in archaeology in the country.
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With a minor in lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender (LGBT) studies, you’ll study sexuality and its importance to the organization of social relations, political formations, expressive behavior and aesthetic categories. You’ll focus on the representations and lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender subjects, even as these subjects remain stubbornly and productively difficult to define once and for all. LGBT Studies is an interdisciplinary program, and it is likewise open to a variety of perspectives on the stability of the constituent identity categories at its center.
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As a psychology major, you’ll gain familiarity with current knowledge about the important determinants of human behavior and with the methods used to expand that knowledge, while developing critical thinking skills. You can choose to concentrate in behavioral and evolutionary neuroscience; perception, cognition and development; or social and personality psychology.
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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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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.
NBC News
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