Mission, Vision, and History
Mission
The CUNY Graduate Center is located in the heart of Manhattan and set within the large and multi-campus City University of New York. It fosters advanced graduate education, original research and scholarship, innovative university-wide programs, and vibrant public events that draw upon and contribute to the complex communities of New York City and beyond. Through a broad range of nationally prominent doctoral programs, the Graduate School prepares students to be scholars, teachers, experts, and leaders in the academy, the arts and in the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. Committed to CUNY‘s historic mission of educating the children of the whole people, we work to provide access to graduate education for diverse groups of highly-talented students, including those who have been underrepresented in higher education.
History
The establishment of the CUNY Graduate Center in 1961 by the New York State Legislature, itself, had few precedents. This was to be the first publicly supported doctoral program in New York City.
It was a bold move that grew out of the historic commitment to public higher education in New York City, the need to provide advanced education for the growing post-World War II baby boom population, and the mission that defines the Graduate Center — graduate education for the public good.
Mina Rees, the Graduate Center’s founding dean of graduate studies and later its first president, was tasked with developing the model for the Graduate Center. A distinguished mathematician, Rees was a graduate of Hunter College who had been honored for her work as a strategist during World War II. She came to the Graduate Center after directing the mathematics branch of the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research and serving as Hunter’s dean of the faculty.
To harness the strength of CUNY’s senior colleges, Rees adapted the consortial structure of Oxford University in England with its many colleges. Her goal was to build the centralized Ph.D. programs from the “ablest of our faculty, scattered as they were on four geographically separated campuses.”
The Graduate Center started out with fewer than 90 students in just four disciplines: economics, English, chemistry, and psychology. In 1966, the new graduate school expanded to a building on 42nd Street, across from the New York Public Library, and in 1999 the Graduate Center moved to its present campus at 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, which was once home to the B. Altman Department Store.
In 2017, the Graduate Center expanded to encompass the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (CUNY ASRC), located on the City College campus at 85 St. Nicholas Terrace in Harlem. The state-of-the-art research center, which opened its doors in September 2014, was an outgrowth of CUNY’s “Decade of Science” initiative, a 10-year-long, multibillion-dollar commitment to elevating science research and education. Today, the CUNY ASRC is a thriving research hub for Graduate Center faculty and students as well as scientists throughout CUNY and New York City.
The Graduate Center educates over 3,200 students taught by more than 130 faculty members appointed to the GC and more than 1,700 faculty from throughout CUNY. It is the home of award-winning faculty and students. With more than 30 doctoral programs and the addition of a growing number of master’s programs in cutting-edge fields; its more than 30 centers, institutes, initiatives; and the innovative Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), the Graduate Center is one of the leading Ph.D.-granting institutions in the country, educating students of diverse backgrounds from all over the world. Fostering groundbreaking research and preparing students for creative problem-solving, whether it’s for academic careers or for careers outside of academia, the Graduate Center continues to be a trailblazer in graduate education.
Our Institution
To have become an internationally renowned institution in so brief a period is virtually unprecedented.
— William P. Kelly
Former President
Recent Milestones
2022
→ $3 million National Science Foundation Research Training grant supports nanoscience training for Ph.D. students at the Advanced Science Research Center
→ Distinguished Professor Dennis Parnell Sullivan, Albert Einstein Chair in Science, receives the 2022 Abel Prize for Mathematics
→ $4 million Simons Foundation grant makes Astrophysics master’s program tuition-free for students
2021
→ Distinguished Professor Andrea Alù, founding director of the Photonics Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center, CUNY (CUNY ASRC), named the 2021 Blavatnik National Awards Laureate in Physical Sciences and Engineering.
2020
→ $9.5 million from the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation for scholarship by the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
→ $16 million Simons Foundation grant for photonics research
→ $3.15M Mellon Foundation grant for humanities teaching and learning
→ Robin L. Garrell appointed president of the Graduate Center
2019
→ Record-breaking grants for science research to Professors Patrizia Casaccia and Andrea Alù
2018
→ New master’s programs introduced, bringing the total number of master’s degrees offered to more than 15
→ SUM website launched at the Graduate Center, highlighting research, innovation, and creativity at CUNY
2017
→ ASRC joins the Graduate Center
→ Miranda Fellowship for the Study of Puerto Rican Communities established
Notable Alumni
Academia and Research
Lisa E. Farrington (Ph.D. ’97, Art History) associate dean of the Division of Fine Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University
James Giordano (Ph.D. ’87, Psychology) chief of the neuroethics studies program and scholar-in-residence in the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics; professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center
Perry N. Halkitis (Ph.D. ’95, Educational Psychology) author, Dean of Rutgers School of Public Health. His research examines the links between the HIV epidemic, drug abuse, and mental health within the LGBTQ community.
Katerina Harvati (Ph.D. ’01, Anthropology) professor and director paleoanthropology at the University of Tübingen, winner of the 2021 Leibniz Prize, considered the most important research funding prize in Germany, for her findings on the evolution of humans and their closest relatives
Dennis C. Liotta (Ph.D. ’74, Chemistry) executive director of Emory Institute for Drug Development and professor at Emory University. He helped develop a component of the combination therapy that is the standard for treating patients with HIV and has been credited with saving and extending many lives.
Linda H. Malkas (Ph.D. ’85, Biochemistry) dean and professor in molecular oncology at City of Hope
Carol Oja (Ph.D. ’85, Music) William Powell Mason Professor of Music at Harvard University; leading musicologist, specializing in American composers of the twentieth century
Nandini Sikand (Ph.D. ’10, Anthropology) professor of film and media studies, Guggenheim awardee
Patricia Stapleton (Ph.D. ’12, Political Science) comparative political science and public policy scholar, Rand Corporation
Patricia Chapple Wright (Ph.D. ’85, Anthropology), professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the director of the Ranomafana National Park in Madagascar, renowned conservationist, primatologist, expert on Madagascar lemurs, MacArthur Fellow
Arts and Culture
Carrie Rebora Barratt (Ph.D. ’90, Art History), first woman to lead The New York Botanical Garden
LeRonn P. Brooks (Ph.D. ’09, Art History), associate curator for Modern and Contemporary Collections at the Getty Research Institute, part of the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
Deborah Cullen-Morales (Ph.D. ’02, Art History) program officer in the Arts and Cultural Heritage program of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Nadiah Rivera Fellah (Ph.D ’19, Art History), associate curator of contemporary art at The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Saisha Grayson (Ph.D. ’18, Art History) curator of time-based media at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Heidi Holder (Ph.D. ’11, Urban Education) the Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Chair of Education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lavita McMath Turner (Ph.D. ’18, Urban Education) first chief diversity officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Maggie Nelson (Ph.D. ’04, English) MacArthur Fellow, poet, critic, nonfiction writer; professor of English, University of Southern California
Gregory Pardlo (English) poet and writer, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Jacquelyn Days Serwer (Ph.D. ’81, Art History) chief curator, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Media and Publishing
Andrew Bast (M.A. ’09, Political Science) investigative producer at CBS News, producer at 60 Minutes
LuAnn Walther (Ph.D. ’78, English) senior vice president at Knopf, editorial director for Vintage Books, Anchor Books, and Everyman’s Library
Social Justice, Nonprofit, and Government
Sister Georgianna Glose (Ph.D. ’95, Social Welfare) founder of SNAP, the Strategic Neighborhood Action Partnership; activist nun dedicated to social justice.
Michael P. Jacobson (Ph.D. ’86, Sociology) founder and executive director of the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance, former president of the Vera Institute of Justice, former New York City correction commissioner
Daniel R. Porterfield (Ph.D. ’95, English) President and CEO of the Aspen Institute
J. Phillip Thompson (Ph.D. ’90, Political Science) New York City deputy mayor for strategic planning, associate professor of political science and urban planning at MIT
Business and Industry
Karen C. Altfest (Ph.D. ’79, History) Principal Advisor and Executive VP of Client Relations, Altfest Personal Management
Maggie Johnson (Ph.D. ’91, Computer Science) Vice President of Education and University Programs for Google
Alyssa Loorya (Ph.D. ’18, Anthropology) founder and president of Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants
Tiffany Perkins-Munn (Ph.D. ’03, Psychology) global head of decision sciences at BlackRock
Linnaea Tillett (Ph.D. ’00, Environmental Psychology), founder and principal of Tillett Lighting Design Associates
