The curriculum developed by the Committee on Liberal Studies offers
graduate training in intellectual history, cultural studies, and the art of fine
writing, bringing together students of social thought, philosophy, the arts,
and current affairs who wish to work on the quality of their prose while
mastering new modes of serious inquiry, both academic and journalistic.
Among the program’s faculty are distinguished writers and accomplished
scholars. Special attention is paid to the main currents in Western thought—
and also to the cutting edge of modern critical and multicultural theorizing.
Our students learn about Plato, Kant, and Marx; Sophocles, Shakespeare,
and Goethe—but also about Milan Kundera and Toni Morrison, Philip
Glass, the structures of mass culture, and the logic of modern politics and
the modern marketplace.
The program is designed to serve the diverse intellectual needs of both
traditional and nontraditional students. Some students wish to enrich their
education through our MA in liberal studies, others plan to seek a career
in writing or journalism, while still others are proceeding toward a PhD
in some discipline in the humanities or social sciences, either at The New
School for Social Research or elsewhere.