Interdisciplinary Centers, Programs, and Studies

Cornell offers a wide variety of interdisciplinary programs. Interdisciplinary study offers the opportunity for students to take courses across departments that look at cultures and people through various lenses. These views—especially when coupled with elective opportunities—give students a unique experience and exposure to that field of study.

Within the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies  one can find several very popular programs that offer minors, including:

• East Asia Program  
• European Studies Minor  
• International Relations Minor   
• Latin American & Caribbean Studies Program  
• Migration Studies Minor   
• South Asia Program  
• Southeast Asia Program  

Here are a few other popular areas.

• The Center for the Study of Inequality  is devoted to understanding patterns, causes, and consequences of social and economic inequality.
• The mission of the Cornell Botanic Gardens  is to inspire people—through cultivation, conservation, and education—to understand, appreciate, and nurture plants and the cultures they sustain.
• The Cornell Program on Ethics and Public Life  promotes interdisciplinary learning about morally central questions concerning public policies and social, political and economic processes.  

For a full and comprehensive listing of learning programs, research institutes, laboratories, and centers dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge in a particular area, please visit Cornell’s Research Division’s website. Note, some of the listings on this page include centers and programs that are strictly for graduate students or run by Weill Medicine in New York City and may not be accessible to all students.

Beyond declaring a major or a minor in an interdisciplinary field of study, there are other opportunities to increase your exposure to a wider world. 

• All first-year students take a writing seminar through the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines , which teaches writing across the disciplines.
• One can study abroad through the Office of Global Learning .
• You can participate in programming offered by visiting professors in one of these two programs:
  • Program for Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large   
  • Frank H. T. Rhodes Class Of ‘56 University Professorship