Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

The Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (also known as GSAS) is the graduate school of Columbia University. Founded in 1880, GSAS is responsible for most of Columbia's graduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The school offers MA and PhD degrees in approximately 78 disciplines.

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.

In addition, before 1880, the Master of Arts degree was awarded in the style of Cambridge and Oxford, that is three years after graduation and without further examination. This changed after June 1880, when the trustees implemented an examination for the award of the Master of Arts degree.

The Ph.D was first proposed as a degree in 1873 to be awarded under the auspices of the School of Mines. It was first awarded in 1877. The ability of granting the PhD later expanded to the Faculty of Political Science. 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. Graduate research has flourished at Columbia as a result, and the university has been among the top producers of PhDs 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 (Ph.D in Anthropology & Education - joint degree with Teachers College ) 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 (Former program that is now part of the Columbia Climate School) 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 (Teachers College) 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 Global Thought 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 Studies J.D./Ph.D. Program Japanese Pedagogy Jewish Studies Jewish Studies (Liberal Studies M.A.) Journalism Latin America and Caribbean; Regional Studies Linguistics 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 and Performance Urban Planning Yiddish Studies

Notable alumni

Economists Kenneth Arrow – Ph.D., 1951 Arthur Burns – Ph.D., 1934 Milton Friedman – Ph.D., 1946 Christina Paxson – PhD 1987 - 19th President, Brown University

Historians

Nina Ansary – Ph.D 2013 Jacques Barzun – Ph.D. 1932 Charles A. Beard – Ph.D. 1904 Dominique Collon - Ph.D 1971 Lawrence Cremin – M.A. 1947, Ph.D. 1949 Richard Hofstadter – Ph.D. 1942 Bruce Cumings – Ph.D. 1975 Stanley Payne — Ph.D. 1959 Howard Zinn — 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 Joseph Campbell – literary scholar and philosopher, M.A., 1927 Teju Cole - novelist and critic, M.Phil. art history, 2003 John Eisenhower - military historian and son of Dwight D. Eisenhower, M.A., 1950 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 David G. Hartwell - critic and editor, Ph.D. 1973 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 John Diederich Haseman - zoologist, geologist and explorer, Ph.D. 1911 Neil deGrasse Tyson – astrophysicist, author, science communicator, Ph.D. 1991

Performing arts

Kenneth Ascher, DMA – jazz pianist, composer – 1966 CC; 1968 GSAS; 1971 SOA Alan Heyman, traditional Korean musicologist and composer, 1959 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 Robert A. Leonard — linguist, M.A. and M. Phil. 1973, Ph.D 1982 Margaret Mead — anthropologist, Ph.D. 1929 Lorine Livingston Pruette — psychologist, Ph.D. 1924

Politicians

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 Madeleine Albright - Secretary of State, Ph.D. in public law and governance, 1976

Visual arts Mary Godfrey – art educator Donald Clarence Judd – sculptor, 1961 Agnes Martin – painter, M.A. 1952 Jerome J. Pollitt – art historian, Ph.D. 1963 Meyer Schapiro – art historian, Ph.D. 1929

Other fields

Peter Buck – co-founder of Subway restaurant chain, Ph.D. Wm. Theodore de Bary – American Sinologist and scholar of East Asian philosophy, Ph.D. 1953 Herman Hollerith – inventor, Ph.D. 1890 Pankaj Jain - Professor of Philosophy, Religious Studies, Film Studies, and Sustainability Jose Franklin Jurado-Rodriguez – Moneylaunderer for the Cali Cartel kingpin Jose Santacruz Londono Sam Levenson – comedian, 1938 Ge Li – Chinese American billionaire, co-founder of WuXi AppTec, Ph.D. 1994 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 Judith Rodin – 7th president of the University of Pennsylvania and president of the Rockefeller Foundation, Ph.D. 1970 Sol M. Stroock – lawyer, M.A. 1892 Leonard Tow – Chairman and CEO of Citizens Communications, Ph.D. 1960 James T. Lee - lawyer, banker, real estate developer, and grandfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill, A.M. 1902 Peter Hildebrand Meienberg – Swiss Benedictine missionary based in East Africa

References

External links