SUNY at Purchase College

Acting

The professional actor training program is a four-year sequential course of study in acting - voice, speech, movement, dramatic structure, and history of the theatre - supplemented by stage combat, improvisation, mask work, acting for camera, and audition technique.

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of human differences and commonalities in a world of global and transnational connections, taking the study of culture to be an inherently interdisciplinary practice.

Art History

The MA program in modern and contemporary art, criticism, and theory offers an interdisciplinary program that trains scholars, artists, and museum and gallery professionals in the analytical skills, historical perspective, and theoretical fluency necessary for cultural workers today.

Art History

The art history BA centers engagement with art as a material, critical, and social practice in a curriculum designed to foster students' curiosity and intellectual growth.

Arts Management

The BA program in arts management is designed for students seeking a foundation for further education and for careers in a wide range of creative industries, including dance and theatre companies, orchestras, galleries and museums, and record companies.

Biochemistry

The biochemistry major provides a solid interdisciplinary foundation with advanced courses and research experience in both chemistry and biology for students who plan to continue study in biochemistry, biomedical sciences, or pharmaceutical fields.

Biology (B.A.)

Biology is an area of explosive scientific, intellectual, and technological advances, spanning the origin and evolution of living organisms, the molecular mechanics of heredity, disease and immunity, and the ecological balance among life forms.

Biology (B.S.)

Biology is an area of explosive scientific, intellectual, and technological advances, spanning the origin and evolution of living organisms, the molecular mechanics of heredity, disease and immunity, and the ecological balance among life forms.

Chemistry

Chemistry occupies a key position in the modern sciences, influencing nearly every aspect of human enterprise from agriculture, industry, and medicine to theoretical research on the origin and structure of the universe.

Cinema and Television Studies

The Cinema and Television Studies major offers students an opportunity for intensive study of the art of film and television through a broad range of courses in history, aesthetics, and cultural critique, culminating in the Senior Project.

Communications

This major focuses on crafting messages appropriate to a variety of mediated channels, considering the impact of messages on diverse audiences, and promoting brands, products, and companies.

Composition

Composition

The composition program is committed to fostering the unique gifts of each composer and providing both the technical and artistic tools needed to express their musical personality, centered on the weekly individual composition lesson.

Creative Writing

The Lilly Lieb Port creative writing program is a highly selective and structured BA program that offers motivated, talented, and committed students a dynamic context and community in which to explore all aspects of creative writing.

Dance

The Conservatory of Dance prepares undergraduates to enter the professional dance field and provides them with the tools to create a sustainable and rewarding life in dance, emphasizing creativity, versatility, and individuality.

Early Childhood Development

The certificate program in early childhood development is designed for students who wish to pursue concentrated study in child development and to gain practical experience working with young children; it does not provide teacher licensure.

Economics

The economics program trains students in the economic way of thinking and to use economics as a tool to understand, analyze, and solve problems, giving them a rigorous understanding of economic theory and the ability to apply it to real-world problems.

English and Global Literatures

Students majoring in English and Global Literatures learn to read texts closely and critically and to understand literature in relation to the social and historical conditions in which it is written and read.

Entrepreneurship in the Arts

This affordable, accessible online graduate program is designed for individuals exploring entrepreneurial paths in the arts, with each student working closely with professional faculty to produce a fully formed business plan for a creative enterprise.

Environmental Studies

The environmental studies BA program reflects an interdisciplinary focus on the interactions among the sociopolitical, economic, and ecological dimensions of environmental problems and the search for solutions to preserve natural systems.

Film

The BFA film program provides highly motivated and talented students with intensive conservatory training in all aspects of filmmaking, including directing, cinematography, editing, production, screenwriting, and film analysis.

Gender Studies

The gender studies program offers students the opportunity to study gender across historical periods and geographical areas using academic, political, and feminist perspectives, developing skills to analyze the links among gender, sexuality, identity, power, and social justice.

General Studies

The General Studies program provides an expedient pathway to degree completion for students who have completed 60 or more credits, allowing them to work with faculty and advisers to complete a degree tailored to their personal and professional interests.

Graphic Design

The graphic design area offers a distinctive program in the art and practice of print- and digitally based graphic design and experimental publishing, approaching graphic design as a vital field of professional art practice.

History

The history major provides students with the intellectual foundation of a liberal arts education suitable for a wide variety of professions, fostering a historical perspective on the forces and processes that have shaped our communities, country, and the world.

Instrumental Performance

Instrumental Performance

The instrumental performance program provides intensive conservatory training across the brass, guitar, harp, percussion, piano, string, and woodwind areas, emphasizing solo, chamber, and orchestral performance.

Jazz Studies

Jazz Studies

The jazz studies program is a dynamic, intensive, professional training experience for the aspiring jazz performer, with a performance-driven curriculum and world-class performance and rehearsal facilities.

Journalism

The journalism major is designed to provide students with the intellectual bases and skills to gather, assess, and disseminate information and ideas, preparing them for careers in journalism and a wide variety of other fields.

Language and Culture

The language and culture program offers students the opportunity to acquire fluency in at least one language and to gain familiarity with the society or societies in which that language is used.

Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies

This major is designed as a multidisciplinary immersion experience that prepares students for life in a globalized world, requiring courses in at least two different disciplines drawing on Latin America in the social sciences, humanities, or arts.

Law and Justice Studies

The BA in Law and Justice Studies is an interdisciplinary program that critically engages law's political, historical, economic, and global dimensions and approaches the study of law from an applied perspective.

Liberal Arts

Students who wish to pursue an individualized, interdisciplinary program of study that cannot be accommodated within another major may apply to the Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts program, working closely with two or more faculty sponsors to design a course of study.

Mathematics/Computer Science

The mathematics/computer science program offers a BA that combines mathematics with computer science, introducing students to the principal areas of both with an emphasis on applications.

Media Studies

In the media studies program, students learn how to combine cultural theory, critical cultural production, and do-it-yourself aesthetics to explore the roles that media technologies and the arts play in everyday life.

New Media

The New Media BA program offers an interdisciplinary curriculum at the intersection of art, society, and technology, giving students the tools to study the effects of digital media and to develop their own voice through guided research and hands-on production.

Painting/Drawing

Students in the painting/drawing BFA major benefit from faculty who are all practicing and exhibiting artists, complementing studio work with trips to New York City galleries, museums, and artists' studios.

Philosophy and Critical Thought

The Philosophy and Critical Thought program offers students an intensive engagement with the history of philosophy, ancient and modern, Western and non-Western, with special attention to key 20th- and 21st-century developments in Anglo-American and Continental thought.

Photography

The photography program provides an in-depth curriculum focused specifically on fine art photography through the study of traditional film, nonsilver, and new digital processes.

Pilates Mat Micro-Credential

All students are required to study Pilates mat in their first semester. Those who wish to continue may join the Pilates Mat Micro-Credential, a multi-semester study of Joseph Pilates's Mat exercises culminating in the ability to perform, teach and structure a safe and effective Pilates Mat workout.

Playwriting and Screenwriting

In the playwriting and screenwriting BA program, students learn to write for both the stage and the screen through studies that engage these disciplines from the introductory through advanced level.

Political Science

Political science is the study of laws and governments and much more, examining questions of power, race, gender, globalization, human rights, and international relations.

Printmaking

The printmaking program provides scope and flexibility through its faculty and comprehensive facilities, with students gaining mastery in traditional printmaking processes while pursuing interdisciplinary interests.

Psychology

Psychology is the study of behavior and experience, including emotion, cognition, personality, social processes, psychobiology, psychopathology, and development, with a strong emphasis on scientific methodology.

Sculpture

An inclusive, ever-changing discipline, sculpture engages traditional and new-genre practices with state-of-the-art wood, metal, ceramic, and bronze casting facilities, seeking to produce artists who are socially engaged global citizens.

Sociology

Sociology examines social relationships, culture, and the nature of society, addressing topics such as race, social class, gender, globalization, the environment, education, and social change using many different approaches.

Studio Composition

Studio Composition

The studio composition program provides talented and ambitious writers with intensive preparation in the craft of musical composition, especially in the recorded media, with hands-on studio experience and small-group study.

Studio Production

The undergraduate major in studio production is among the leading programs of its kind in the United States, developing producers and engineers with advanced skills in recording, production, and associated technology.

Theatre and Performance

The BA major in Theatre and Performance provides a solid liberal arts education in the theatre, combining academic scholarship and artistic practice with emphasis on theatre as a forum for collaboration, experimentation, and social engagement.

Theatre Design/Technology

The professional BFA training program in theatre design/technology places major emphasis on studio and classroom training under the guidance of established working professionals, teaching every aspect of theatre design and technology.

Visual Arts

The MFA program in the School of Art+Design is a two-year, interdisciplinary graduate program in the visual arts that fosters the artistic, intellectual, and professional growth of each student through independent studio work and academic studies.

Visual Arts

Distinct from the more specialized BFA programs in the School of Art+Design, the BS major in Visual Arts provides an overview of contemporary art-based research methods and cultural theories, art history, and focused study within a broad liberal arts context.

Visual Arts, Interdisciplinary

Working in close consultation with a faculty advisor, students in this BFA major design a course of study that bridges two or more traditional areas in the visual arts, identifying a primary and secondary area of focus.

Vocal Performance

Vocal Performance

Vocal performance is a small, highly selective program designed to train and mentor serious students in their pursuit of a career in professional classical singing and opera through a disciplined and integrated curriculum.