Welcome to the Fordham University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences website.  At present, you are likely to be inquiring into a number of graduate schools, searching for the one that holds out the greatest opportunities for your personal and academic growth.  At Fordham, the life of the mind is built on – and enriched by – the very act of reciprocity implied in mentorship.  You will discover that Fordham’s faculty members are approachable, caring and rigorous in their expectations, both of their students and themselves. The professors at Fordham are distinguished scholars who received more than $14 million in grant awards and published more than 472 books, book chapters, and journal articles in the 2006-2007 academic years.  Such accomplished professors have a profound impact upon their students, and their accomplishments overflow into the lives of students.  Fordham graduate students have the opportunity to invest in others in ways such as student-run graduate conferences and teaching undergraduate classes in their respective fields of study.  Such experiences foster the development of skills that cannot be learned in the library alone, skills that find their being in human relationships.

While being collegial, our programs are also rigorous. In the lab or in the seminar classroom, you are encouraged to contribute your fullest to the discipline you have made your own.   Our students make professional presentations in the meetings of scholarly societies, panels and conferences, author learned papers, and assist in the editing of journals alongside their professors.  Similarly, an impressive number of our students have received external funding awards such as the Fulbright Fellowship, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) Graduate Research Grant, the Ford Foundation Diversity Dissertation Fellowship, and the Leonard Marks Prize from the American Academy.  Such achievements contribute to the exceptional placements of our alumni, which in turn give them the opportunity to invest in another generation of students and to lead in a variety of professional roles.

A Fordham graduate education then, while academically challenging, is never merely academic.  Many universities may make that claim, but I think you will see the reality behind it here.  Fordham’s Jesuit tradition informs education that is student-centered, emphasizing the individual and the development of the whole person.  GSAS graduates leave Fordham with professional skills and confidence, ready to put knowledge into action, improve the human condition, and add to our knowledge bases.

I hope that the glimpse of intellectual life at Fordham University offered on this website will convince you that our Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will be a special place for you.

Nancy A. Busch
Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
Chief Research Officer/Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs

Comments concerning the GSAS website may be directed to the web liaison at gsasweb@fordham.edu