Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts

Type	Private
Established	1985
Parent institution	The New School
President	David E. Van Zandt
Provost	Tim Marshall[1]
Dean	Stephanie Browner[2]
Academic staff	145 (2009)[3]
Students	1,439 (2009)[4]
Location	New York City , New York , USA [ ⚑ ] : 40°44′06″N 73°59′49″W / 40.735°N 73.997°W / 40.735; -73.997
Campus	Urban
|u}}rs	Parsons Red
Nickname	Lang
Website	www.newschool.edu/lang

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, commonly referred to as Lang, is the seminar-style, undergraduate, liberal arts college of The New School. It is located on-campus in Greenwich Village in New York City on West 11th Street off 6th Avenue.^[5]

History

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts was founded as the Freshman Year Program at The New School in 1972 as a pre-college program for high school graduates. Three years later, in 1975, the program was expanded to a full undergraduate program and renamed The Seminar College. In 1985, following a generous donation by a well-known philanthropist and educational visionary Eugene Lang and his wife Theresa, the school was renamed Eugene Lang College. The college currently has an enrollment of over 1,345 students.^[6]

In 2005, the phrase "The New School" was inserted into the name of each division of The New School as part of a unification strategy initiated by the University's President Bob Kerrey;^[7] thus, Eugene Lang College was renamed Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts. In 2015, The New School rebranded again by renaming the schools to better clarify the relationship between the university and its schools. Eugene Lang College's formal title is The New School's Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.

Curriculum

Academics

The primary academic building for Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.

The only required classes are an introductory course on New York City, taught from the perspective of the relation of philosophy to the physical; two lecture hall courses; and two semesters of Writing the Essay for first-year students. ^[8] These intensive writing classes – part composition class and part linguistics – have titles such as "Going Underground," "What's Love Got to Do With It?," "Comedy as Critique," and "Cruel Shoes: A Trek Through the Absurd." Students are encouraged to tailor the program to their own interests and academic goals.

Eugene Lang College hosts some of The New School's most experimental and avant-garde courses, including: "Heterodox Identities", "NYC: Graphic Gotham", "Mind-Games and Puzzle Films", "The Illusion of Color", "Punk & Noise", "Masculinity in Asia," "Queer Culture", "Theories of Mind", and "Play and Toil in the Digital Sweatshop".^[9]

Majors

Lang offers the following majors, and degree programs as of 2013:^[10]

• Anthropology
• The Arts – encompassing the Arts in Context, Dance, Visual Arts and the option to study any of the aforementioned subjects in its social context
• Contemporary Music
• Culture and Media
• Economics
• Environmental Studies
• Global Studies
• History
• Interdisciplinary Science
• Liberal Arts
• Literary Studies – with concentrations in literature and writing
• Journalism and Design
• Philosophy
• Politics
• Psychology
• Screen Studies
• Sociology
• Theater
• Urban Studies

Minors

Lang offers the following minors:

• Alternative Fashion Strategies
• Anthropology
• Art and Design History
• Capitalism Studies
• Chinese Studies
• Code as a Liberal Art
• Comics and Graphic Narrative
• Communication Design
• Contemporary Music
• Creative Arts and Healing
• Creative Entrepreneurship
• Creative Technologies for Performative Practice (application required)
• Culture and Media
• Dance
• Data Visualization
• Design Studies
• Digital Humanities
• Dramatic Arts
• Economics
• Environmental Studies
• Ethnicity and Race
• Fashion Communication
• Fashion Studies
• Film Production
• Fine Arts
• Food Studies
• French Studies
• Gender Studies
• Global Studies
• Hispanic Studies
• History
• Interdisciplinary Science
• Japanese Studies
• Jewish Culture
• Journalism and Design
• Literature
• Museum and Curatorial Studies
• Music Composition
• Philosophy
• Politics
• Photography
• Politics
• Post-Genre Music: Performance and Creation
• Printmaking
• Psychology
• Religious Studies
• Screenwriting
• Social Practice
• Sociology
• Sustainable Cities
• Temporary Environments
• Theater
• Urban Studies
• Visual Studies
• Writing

The college places emphasis on interdisciplinary learning with a "student-directed" curriculum. All of its courses are seminars. Students at Lang may also cross-register for courses sponsored by other divisions of The New School, especially Parsons School of Design and the School of Drama's new BFA program. Students are allowed to double-major and apply for the university's honors program.

Student publications

Several of The New School's major publications are produced by Lang students. Among these are:

• The New School Free Press, a student-run newspaper published by the journalism concentration of the Writing department, has grown from a DIY zine-style pamphlet to a professionally printed broadsheet in the years since its founding in 2002, when it was known as Inprint. It is published monthly in print and it aims to serve both Lang and the wider New School community. The Free Press operates a blog^[11] and makes digital copies of the newspaper available on the Lang website.^[12]
• 12th Street, nationally distributed literary journal; contains works from undergraduate writers in The New School's Riggio Writing & Democracy Honors Program
• Eleven and a Half, the literary journal of Eugene Lang College
• The Weekly Observer, an online newsletter showcasing major student and alumni achievements, special program announcements, and other university-wide news. Distributed via MyNewSchool web portal.

Notable alumni and faculty

Alumni

• Ani DiFranco, musician
• Elisa Donovan, actress
• Karen Maine, director and screenwriter
• Matisyahu, musician
• Sufjan Stevens, musician
• Jake Shears, musician
• Emily Gould, former co-editor of Gawker
• Mike Doughty, musician
• Jude Ellison Sady Doyle, feminist writer
• Graeme K., musician
• Stacey Farber, actress
• Melissa Febos, writer
• Travis Jeppesen, writer
• Paul Dano, actor
• Robert Schwartzman, musician and actor
• Bethany Cosentino, musician of Best Coast
• Borzou Daragahi, journalist
• Nina Arianda, actress
• Anita Glesta, artist

Faculty

• Jennifer Baumgardner, feminist writer and speaker
• Laurie Collyer, director/actress
• Siddhartha Deb, novelist
• Jill Eisenstadt, novelist, screenwriter, and journalist
• Jennifer Gilmore, novelist
• Mark Greif, co-editor of n+1
• Shelley Jackson, novelist and short story writer
• Margo Jefferson, former theatre critic at The New York Times
• Hettie Jones, poet
• Barrie Karp, artist
• Greil Marcus, music critic
• Dominic Pettman, writer and theorist
• Kristin Prevallet, poet and writer
• Katy Pyle, dancer and choreographer
• Sara Ruddick, feminist philosopher
• Lynda Schor, short story writer and literary editor
• Christopher Sorrentino, novelist, short story writer
• Sekou Sundiata, Grammy-nominated performance artist, poet
• Elizabeth Swados, writer, composer, musician, and theatre director
• McKenzie Wark, virtual media theorist
• Caveh Zahedi, director/actor

Rankings

In some college ranking programs, The New School's eight divisions are ranked separately, since their attributes and standards of admission differ significantly.

The Princeton Review ranks Eugene Lang among "America's 371 Best Colleges" and the "Best Northeastern Colleges.".^[13] Miriam Weinstein also cites the Eugene Lang division in her book, Making a Difference Colleges: Distinctive Colleges to Make a Better World.^[14] Lang has also appeared on The Princeton Review's following national lists:^[15]

• "Dodgeball Targets" (#1)
• "Great College Towns" (#1)
• "Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular Or Nonexistent" (#1)
• "Class Discussions Encouraged" (#1)
• "Long Lines and Red Tape" (#1)
• "Students Most Nostalgic For Bill Clinton Politics" (#2)
• "Least Religious Students" (#2)
• "Nobody Plays Intramural Sports" (#2)
• "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians" (#3)
• "Most Politically Active" (#7)
• "Town-Gown Relations Are Great" (#11)
• "Gay Community Accepted" (#13)
• "Most Liberal Students" (#16)
• "Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid" (#18)
• "Lots of Race/Class Interaction" (#19)

For the past few years, Eugene Lang has consistently ranked at the top of the nation's "Class Discussions Encouraged" list. This can most likely be attributed to its seminar-style academics.

See also

• Education in New York City
• The New York Intellectuals
• The New York Foundation
• Project Pericles
• National Book Award

References

External links

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