Program Director, Code as a Liberal Art
Rory Solomon
Assistant Professor, Code as a Liberal Art
solomonr@newschool.edu
Students may continue to declare this minor through the end of Spring 2026. This minor will no longer be available to be declared beginning Fall 2026. All declared students will be fully supported to complete their minor.
Lang’s Code as a Liberal Art minor enables you to develop skills in code and computational thinking as tools for critical and creative inquiry and for better understanding how computational systems affect different aspects of society. Through discipline-specific projects, you gain coding skills that expand your literacy in computational logic and let you further your own creative practice. You explore algorithmic thinking and consider questions of access, equity, and social justice in relation to technological systems.
Big data and algorithmic processes structure almost all aspects of contemporary life. Students minoring in Code as a Liberal Art critique the effects of these processes. Through hands-on experience, you learn foundational skills in code and use computation as a tool to enhance your liberal arts education—to better analyze, communicate, create, and learn. You are introduced to the theory and practice of computational thinking and learn to code to help answer research questions and to express yourself creatively.
In additional to offering practical coding skills, the minor provides you with a broader understanding of the historical and social factors that have led to the increasing presence of computational systems in our lives. You think critically about the ways humans interact with computation, gaining an understanding of its limits from philosophical, logical, mathematical, and public policy perspectives.
While it offers the atmosphere and intimacy of a small college, Eugene Lang College is part of The New School, a major progressive university in New York City. The Code as a Liberal Art Minor introduces students to a variety of code-based researchers and practitioners through guest speakers and opportunities to participate in coding events around the city, including events sponsored by Data & Society, Processing Community Day NYC, and Babycastles artist’s collective.
In Code as a Liberal Art courses, you learn how to think critically about technology. You gain skills in code and computational thinking that prepare you for a career in a range of areas, including media production, software design/development, data journalism,
advocacy, and nonprofit and community development work, as well as graduate study. Consult our 4-Year Lang Career Pathways Map (PDF) for helpful steps and resources to link your academic journey to your future plans.
If you are planning to go on to graduate study, consider applying to the accelerated BA/MA program, which enables you to earn graduate credits that apply
to both your Lang degree and a master’s degree at The New School.
Aware that journalism is vital to the well-being of democracy, Blake Eskin and his students are seeking a balance between technological advancement and the prevention of abuses of power.
Culture and media assistant professor and Code as a Liberal Art faculty member David Bering-Porter asks: How can we understand race as a technology in our society?
From the Abstract: "When we meet someone, we make all sorts of judgments based on their age. But how is a person's age represented in the mind at all: do we remember someone as younger, or older, than they actually were?"
The New School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.