Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts has exciting new interdisciplinary programs that help students acquire skills outside of their particular major. My College Guide got in touch with Karen Williams, Director of Admission with The New School, for more info on this unique approach to education!
Courtesy of The New School
First things first, what are interdisciplinary studies?
At Lang, each area of study is approached from several academic perspectives to demonstrate connections between multiple disciplines. At Lang, students combine humanities, social sciences, and math and natural sciences to analyze problems and find sustainable solutions.
We feel that your education and academic interests shouldn’t be limited, that you should have the freedom to explore your academic interests without barriers—to be curious, contrary, and even a little bit off the wall. At Lang, we encourage you to be that person and more to gain a broader context of practical knowledge needed to make sense of our changing world.
Eugene Lang College is more than just a hip and happening liberal arts school. Tell me about your interdisciplinary programs!
One of the most important things to know about Lang is that practically every major and program is interdisciplinary in nature. If you go to our website and check out the curricula for our various majors, you will see that all of the majors allow students to take electives in other disciplines. Some of the majors that encourage interdisciplinary study include the following:
Courtesy of The New School
The Arts, which includes Integrative Arts courses that span multiple disciplines (such as Romanticism in Music and Literature), and also offers a track called Arts in Context, which asks students to complete half of their required courses in an art concentration and half in another non-artistic academic discipline;
Culture and Media, which includes integrative courses in different areas of study, such as cultural studies and film studies;
Education Studies, where students approach the subject from a variety of perspectives such as anthropology, psychology, and history;
Environmental Studies, which combines social studies, design, and humanities courses;
Liberal Arts, allowing students to design their own curriculum and complete it under the supervision of a faculty advisor
Social Inquiry, a purely interdisciplinary major that, depending on the student’s focus, features study in at least two and as many as four different academic departments.
Courtesy of The New School
Recently, Lang added formal cluster options that let students engage in interdisciplinary programs that take advantage of being at The New School, a major university in the middle of New York City with impressive teaching resources, an international faculty, and students who come from every corner of the world.
Current clusters include Chinese Studies, Civic Engagement, Ethnicity and Race, French Studies, Gender Studies, Hispanic Studies, Japanese Studies, and Jewish Studies.
You’ve got quite a variety of interdisciplinary course offerings. What are the most popular choices for Eugene Lang students right now?
Some of our most popular majors include The Arts, Culture and Media, Literary Studies, and Psychology. Many of our interdisciplinary programs have been increasing in popularity and interest recently, such as Environmental Studies and Religious Studies.
Courtesy of The New School
How are students taking advantage of these interdisciplinary courses to get ahead once they are out in the “real world?”
An interdisciplinary course of study at Lang gives students a unique edge. Lang provides its students with two huge benefits: First, Lang gives students a unique skill set within their area of interest that makes them stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Second, the school focuses on internships that offer hands-on, practical experience, which encourages students to apply their education to real-world issues and have a strong résumé the moment they graduate.
Finally, all majors at Lang feature a senior capstone, a final culminating project or substantial piece of work they can draw on when exploring career options and working in their field of interest.
Did we see that Eugene Lang students don’t have a big list of required classes and instead have freedom in choosing their own academic pathways?
Yes, you did! There are required courses that are part of the first-year experience, which include First-Year Writing; a First-Year Workshop taught by a current student that addresses transitional issues often experienced by first-year students; an advising seminar taught by a faculty advisor; and a class called Reading NYC that introduces students to New York City and shows students how to take advantage of the city for their education. But beyond those courses and any requirements in a student’s major, everyone is free to take electives and, as described above, pursue interdisciplinary options along the way.
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