Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Established	First discipline created 1880
School type	Private
Dean	Henry C. Pinkham
Location	New York, New York, USA
Enrollment	~6,000 students
Homepage	www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University (also known as GSAS) is the branch of the university that grants academic degrees, including M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s., in fields not covered by the university's professional or other schools.

History

GSAS began to take shape in the late 19th century, when Columbia, until then a primarily undergraduate institution with a few professional attachments, began to establish graduate faculties in several fields: Political Science (1880), Philosophy (1890), and Pure Science (1892). The graduate faculties, notably, were open to women at a time when many other Columbia schools were not; Columbia College did not become a coeducational institution until 1983. The first Ph.D. awarded by Columbia was handed out in 1882; the first woman to receive one did so in 1886.

The increasing professionalization of the university brought with it an emphasis on the graduate schools, as presidents such as Seth Low and Nicholas Murray Butler sought to emulate the success of German universities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Indeed, in the effort to produce as many graduate degree-holders as possible, attempts were made to streamline undergraduate life and center academic life in the graduate-focused departments. Such efforts led to resistance among Columbia College administrators and undergraduates, arguably one of the contributing factors in the 1968 protests. Nevertheless, graduate research has flourished at Columbia as a result, and the university has been among the top producers of Ph. Ds in the United States from the inception of the graduate disciplines. In the early 1990s, GSAS and Columbia College faculty were all absorbed into a consolidated Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with familiar complaints among undergraduates and their advocates.

List of Academic Departments

African-American Studies

African Studies Certificate

American Studies (Liberal Studies M.A.)

Anatomy and Cell Biology

Anthropology

Applied Mathematics

Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics

Architecture (History and Theory)

Art History and Archaeology

Astronomy

Atmospheric and Planetary Science

Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics

Biological Sciences

Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical Informatics

Biostatistics

Biotechnology

Buddhist Studies

Business

Cell Biology and Pathobiology

Cellular, Molecular, and Biophysical Studies

Chemical Biology

Chemical Engineering

Chemical Physics

Chemistry

Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

Classical Studies

Classics

Climate and Society

Communications

Comparative Literature and Society

Computer Science

Conservation Biology

Dental Sciences

Earth and Environmental Engineering (Henry Krumb School of Mines)

Earth and Environmental Science Journalism

Earth and Environmental Sciences

East Asia: Regional Studies

East Asian Languages and Cultures

East Asian Studies (Liberal Studies M.A.)

Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology

Economics

Education

Electrical Engineering

English and Comparative Literature

Environmental Health Sciences

Epidemiology

French and Romance Philology

French Cultural Studies in a Global Context

Genetics and Development

Germanic Languages

History

Human Rights

Human Rights Studies

Industrial Engineering & Operations Research

International and World History, Dual Degree M.A./M.Sc.

Islamic Studies (Liberal Studies M.A.)

Italian

J.D./Ph.D. Program

Japanese Pedagogy

Jewish Studies

Jewish Studies (Liberal Studies M.A.)

Journalism

Latin America and Caribbean; Regional Studies

M.D./Ph.D.

Materials Science and Engineering/Solid State Science and Engineering

Mathematical Structures for Environmental & Social Sciences

Mathematics

Mathematics of Finance

Mechanical Engineering

Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Medieval Studies (Liberal Studies M.A.)

Microbiology

Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies

Middle East Studies, Certificate

Modern Art, Critical, and Curatorial Studies

Modern European Studies (Liberal Studies M.A.)

Museum Anthropology

Music

Neurobiology and Behavior

Nutrition

Operations Research

Oral History

Pathology and Cell Biology

Pharmacology

Philosophical Foundations of Physics

Philosophy

Physics

Physiology and Cellular Biophysics

Political Science

Psychology

Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences

Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences, dual degree MA/MPA

Religion

Religion-Journalism Dual MA/MS

Russia, Eurasia and East Europe: Regional Studies M.A. Program

Russian Translation

Slavic Cultures

Slavic Languages

Social Work

Sociology

Sociomedical Sciences

South Asian Studies (Liberal Studies M.A.)

Spanish and Portuguese

Statistics

Sustainable Development

Theatre

Urban Planning

Yiddish Studies

Political Science

Notable alumni

Economists

• Arthur Burns - economist, Ph.D., 1934
• Milton Friedman - economist, Ph.D., 1946
• Kenneth Arrow - economist, Ph.D., 1951

Historians

• Jacques Barzun - historian, Ph.D. 1932
• Charles A. Beard - historian, Ph.D. 1904
• Lawrence Cremin - historian, M.A. 1947, Ph.D. 1949
• Richard Hofstadter - historian, Ph.D. 1942
• Bruce Cumings - historian, Ph.D. 1975
• Stanley Payne -- historian, Ph.D. 1959
• Howard Zinn -- historian, Ph.D. 1958

Literature

• Jacob M. Appel - writer and bioethicist, M.A., 2000
• John Ashbery - poet, 1951
• Isaac Asimov - science fiction writer, M.A. 1941
• Paul Auster - writer, M.A., 1970
• Randolph Bourne - antiwar essayist, M.A. 1913
• Rachel Blau DuPlessis - literary critic, M.A. 1964, Ph.D. 1970
• Jason Epstein - writer, M.A., 1950
• John Erskine - literary scholar, Ph.D. 1903
• James Goldman - writer, 1952
• William Goldman - screenwriter, 1956
• Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal - screenwriter
• Carolyn Heilbrun - writer, M.A. 1951, Ph.D. 1959
• Joseph Heller - writer, 1949
• Zora Neale Hurston - writer, 1935
• Alfred Kazin - literary critic, 1958
• Kenneth Koch - poet, M.A. 1953, Ph.D. 1959
• Joseph Wood Krutch - writer, M.A. 1916, Ph.D. 1929
• David Lehman - poet, Ph.D. 1978
• Peter Straub - writer, 1966
• Lionel Trilling - literary critic, M.A. 1926, Ph.D. 1938
• Anne Tyler - novelist, 1962
• Mark Van Doren - writer, Ph.D. 1920
• Stark Young - critic and writer, 1902

Philosophers

• Mortimer Adler - Ph.D. in psychology, 1928
• Arthur Danto - M.A. 1949, Ph.D. in philosophy, 1952
• Irwin Edman - Ph.D. in philosophy, 1919
• Hu Shih - public intellectual in China, Ph.D. 1917

Natural scientists

• Jacqueline Barton - chemist, 1979
• Niles Eldredge - paleontologist, Ph.D. 1969
• Stephen Jay Gould - paleontologist, Ph.D. 1967

Performing arts

• Kenneth Ascher, DMA – jazz pianist, composer – 1966 CC; 1968 GSAS; 1971 SOA
• Art Garfunkel - musician, 1967
• Will Geer - actor
• Edward Everett Horton - actor, 1909
• John Kander - composer, 1954
• Bernard Malamud - writer, 1942
• Thomas Merton - Catholic writer, 1939

Social scientists

• Ruth Benedict - anthropologist, Ph.D. 1923
• Theos Casimir Bernard - explorer and religionist, M.A. 1936, Ph.D. 1943
• Kenneth B. Clark - educational psychologist, Ph.D. 1940
• Mamie Phipps Clark - educational psychologist, Ph.D. 1943
• Gilberto Freyre — Brazilian sociologist, cultural anthropologist and historian, M.A. 1922
• Margaret Mead - anthropologist, Ph.D. 1929

Statesmen

• B. R. Ambedkar - a founding father of India, M.A. 1915, Ph.D. 1928
• Nicholas Murray Butler - diplomat and President of Columbia University, Ph.D. 1884
• Benjamin Cardozo - jurist, M.A. 1890
• Wellington Koo - Chinese diplomat, Ph.D. 1912
• Robert Moses urban planner, Ph.D. 1914
• Frances Perkins - US Secretary of Labor, M.A. 1910
• Brent Scowcroft - US National Security Advisor, M.A. and Ph.D. in international relations, 1967
• Mark Wyland - California State Senator, M.A. in political science, 1969

Visual arts

• Donald Clarence Judd - sculptor, 1961
• Agnes Martin - painter, M.A. 1952
• Meyer Schapiro - art historian, Ph.D. 1929

Other

• Herman Hollerith - inventor, Ph.D. 1890
• Sam Levenson - comedian, 1938
• John McCaffery - newscaster
• Richard P. Mills - former Commissioner of Education for both Vermont and New York States, M.A. 1967
• Madeleine B. Stern - rare book expert, M.A. 1934

External links

• GSAS website