About the Division of Humanities and the Arts

The Division of Humanities and the Arts instructs the largest number of students across the City College of New York (CCNY).The Division awards a wide range of undergraduate and graduate degrees in liberal arts and in professional disciplines. We provide skills and knowledge that are essential to all disciplines across the College and to all professional pursuits. Our liberal arts education teaches informed reasoning and debate, creative expression, independent and collaborative thinking, responsible leadership, and the ability to appreciate diverse perspectives. We teach students to analyze, think and create in sound, image and words. Our students bridge worlds. They enter professions they believe in where they make a difference.

Mission

The Division of Humanities and the Arts promotes humanistic knowledge and creative expression. We examine, celebrate, and shape cultures from across the globe. We are committed to curiosity, imagination, empathy, innovation, and informed action. We teach the humanities and the arts in engagement with one another, and we provide professional curricula that are as intellectually as they are vocationally rigorous. Through our teaching of research, analysis, persuasive speaking, imaginative thinking, and expressive creation, we elevate all the disciplines across campus. We fuel our students’ professional success and enable them to effect social and political change. The Division engages substantively with Harlem, New York City, and the world. We are deeply committed to the legacy of CCNY’s public education, which is renowned the world over for promoting social mobility through educational attainment and for inspiring students to take the lead in service to society.

Our Core Values

As an academic community, we in the Division of Humanities and the Arts are committed to:

• The centrality of humanities and the arts in all personal and professional pursuits;
• Social purposiveness and civic engagement;
• The understanding of and appreciation for difference;
• Social mobility and personal fulfillment through education;
• Questioning principles and accepted authority;
• Advocating for our students;
• Challenging our students;
• Fostering an enduring sense of academic community.