College of Arts and Sciences

Theresa Lee, Dean
Christine R.B. Boake, Associate Dean for Research, Graduate Studies, and Facilities
Robert J. Hinde, Associate Dean for Academic Programs
Cynthia B. Peterson, Associate Dean for Academic Personnel

http://www.artsci.utk.edu

The University of Tennessee began as a liberal arts institution. Before the turn of the century, less emphasis was placed on the liberal education. However, the liberal arts continued to thrive, emerging as a college in 1904. Thus, the College of Liberal Arts (now known as the College of Arts and Sciences) is one of the oldest established colleges in the university.

The College of Arts and Sciences consists of a wide array of academic disciplines and interdisciplinary programs. The central purposes of a liberal education include the encouragement of intellectual tolerance, a dedication to the quest for knowledge as a worthwhile goal in and of itself, and the cultivation of a responsible, creative individual mind. These qualities enable one to develop an ability to reason and to express oneself clearly, an incentive to absorb emerging knowledge, and a competence to confront the uncertainties of human experience. Faculty research and creative activity is the foundation on which education in this college is built. As a result of that endeavor, the lives of students are enriched and the world’s body of knowledge grows.

The College of Arts and Sciences offers programs in twenty-seven academic disciplines leading to seven advanced degrees: Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Mathematics, Master of Music, Master of Public Policy and Administration, Master of Science.

Facilities for research and service include the Center for Applied and Professional Ethics, the Center for Environmental Biotechnology, the Center for Psychoanalysis and the Humanities, the Center for Quaternary Studies of the Southeastern United States, the Center for the Study of War and Society, the Child Behavior Institute, the Forensic Anthropology Center, the Institute for Applied Microbiology, the Institute for Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy, the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research, the Psychological Clinic, the Science Alliance, and the Social Science Research Institute.
 

INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMS

Robert J. Hinde, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Director

The College of Arts and Sciences offers a series of interdisciplinary undergraduate majors and minors through its interdisciplinary programs. These programs include Africana studies, American studies, Asian studies, cinema studies, comparative literature, global studies, Judaic studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, linguistics, medieval and renaissance studies, neuroscience, sustainability, and women’s studies.

Certain courses within these programs are available for graduate credit as listed below. See the Undergraduate Catalog for program descriptions and directors.