• Student Life

    Liberal Studies

  • Contact Us

    General Admission Contact
    The New School for Social Research
    Office of Admission
    72 Fifth Avenue, 1st floor
    New York, NY 10011
    212.229.5600 or 800.523.5411
    [email protected]

    Admission Liaison
    Samuel Yelton

    Committee on Liberal Studies
    6 East 16th Street, room 711A
    New York, NY 10003
    Tel: 212.229.2747 x3026
    Fax: 212.229.5473 

    Mailing Address
    79 Fifth Avenue, room 711A
    New York, NY 10003

    Chair
    Paul Kottman

    Senior Secretary
    Aaron Neber

    Student Advisor
    Alessandro Vitelli

    Liberal Studies Student Handbook

  • Admission

  • The Committee on Liberal Studies — those studies worthy of free persons — rests on the notion that our students are best served by engaging broadly and deeply with core issues of modern society and thought in the transdisciplinary context of The New School for Social Research. The MA in Liberal Studies also offers practical writing tools and guided in-depth study in transdisciplinary courses taught by renowned faculty, who emphasize rigorous critical inquiry and thoughtful expression.

    The program's core courses ground students in modern social thought and in the practice of sustained writing, while fostering an intellectual peer community. From there, students take advantage of the rich offerings and distinguished faculty of The New School. Our advising structure opens pathways tailored to individual needs and academic ambitions. We offer a rich selection of courses with world-class professors who can extend your command of critical theory, the history of ideas, aesthetics, philosophy, politics, anthropology, media theory — wherever your curiosity takes you. Courses are available in both the daytime and the evening, to fit into even the busiest schedule.

    The Liberal Studies Student Association and the Institute for Philosophy and the New Humanities serve as vibrant hubs for student activities as well as for international academic collaboration with leading figures in the humanities and social sciences. Both are key platforms for our students to advance and share their work.

  • Curriculum

    The Department of Liberal Studies offers a Master of Arts (MA) degree program.

  • Featured Courses

    Liberal Studies combines the New School's tradition of critical and socially engaged inquiry with an interdisciplinary approach to problems in culture. We offer concentration and elective courses areas including critical media theory, criticism in literature and art, aesthetics, and gender.

    Explore our courses

  • Scholars and Work

    Explore work that helps shape and understand the world in which we live:

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    Even amid a pandemic, NSSR students have envisioned incredibly creative, intellectually rigorous, and community-minded projects and conferences.

     Learn more about research
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    Leila Taylor, a 2018 Liberal Studies MA alumna, explores the history of Afrogoth, the visceral horror and inherent gothicness of Black America, and her own history in the Goth scene

     Graduating student outcomes

  • Take The Next Step

Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.