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Office: Second Floor, Heger Hall
Website
Phone: 516-463-5412

Bernard J. Firestone, Dean
Gail M. Schwab, Senior Associate Dean for Curriculum and Personnel
Terry Godlove, Senior Associate Dean for First-Year Programs
S. Stavros Valenti, Senior Associate Dean for Student Academic Affairs

Graduate education in the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences reflects the college’s commitment to advanced scholarship and professional training that is responsive to the diversity of human experience and constantly expanding boundaries of human knowledge.

Mission Statement

Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is dedicated to the genesis of knowledge and creative works in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, and to the transmission, preservation, analysis and evaluation of knowledge and creative works within the Hofstra University academic community and across larger regional and global communities. The following principles guide the mission of HCLAS:

• The liberal arts are the foundation for all higher education. The main objective of a liberal arts education is to enable students, working with faculty and with one another in an atmosphere of freedom and tolerance, to gain an understanding of how people have attempted throughout history to render the breadth of human experience intelligible. To that end, students explore the various ways in which the human mind has engaged, and continues to engage, its physical and social environment through art, literature, philosophical and historical inquiry, scientific and mathematical reasoning, and social scientific analysis. A liberal arts education develops critical thinking skills and the ability to access and analyze information and ideas in a technologically sophisticated world. Students also master the oral and written communication skills required for active ethical participation in a society characterized by increasing interdependence and diversity. Thus, HCLAS graduates emerge as life-long learners who are intellectually ambitious and adaptable to change. HCLAS is further committed to broadly cultivating the moral judgment, aesthetic sensibilities, and emotional maturity of students to prepare them for lives of social responsibility as members of their local, national and global communities.
• HCLAS faculty are members of two academic communities, one internal to Hofstra University, the other composed of the web of scholars and professionals external to Hofstra University. As members of the former, HCLAS faculty are committed to contributing to the academic environment of Hofstra University through excellence in teaching, mentoring and interdisciplinary engagement. As members of the latter, HCLAS faculty are committed to the production and dissemination of knowledge and creative works beyond the Hofstra campus.
• Within the context of its liberal arts mission, HCLAS is committed to the development and support of selected preprofessional programs, both graduate and undergraduate, that further the career aspirations of students and that meet the needs of society. The purpose of anchoring pre-professional programs to the liberal arts is to awaken and develop the students’ intellectual powers before they enter upon their chosen careers, ensuring that each student brings to his or her profession the greatest possible assets of intelligence, resourcefulness, judgment, and character.
• HCLAS recognizes that academic excellence is nurtured in a community of scholars united in the common goal of mutual enlightenment. To that end, HCLAS is committed to attracting, supporting, and retaining a diverse community of talented students and distinguished faculty.

Graduate Degrees

Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences provides master’s and doctoral degree programs in a wide range of disciplines that afford students the opportunity for professional growth and advanced study. The College offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Psychology, and Doctor of Philosophy. Master’s degree programs in 10 disciplines span the arts and sciences and prepare students for advanced studies in professions, such as biology, research, creative writing, secondary education, engineering management, organizational training and development, speech-language pathology, audiology, and human resource management.

The College offers three doctoral degrees in the Department of Psychology . The Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology  is accredited by the American Psychological Association and prepares professional psychologists for work in mental health centers, hospitals, public schools, special educational facilities, university-based academic departments, and independent private practice. The Psy.D. Program in School-Community Psychology , also accredited by the American Psychological Association, prepares psychologists for service to schools and community health services. The Ph.D. in Applied Organizational Psychology  trains graduates to apply basic scientific knowledge and methodology to the solution of human problems in organizations.

All Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Graduate Program Offerings 

Organization of HCLAS

The College is made up of the Division of the Humanities; the Division of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics; and the Division of the Social Sciences. In addition, Military Science is under the supervision of HCLAS.

Division of the Humanities

The Division of the Humanities has three related objectives that apply to every student who takes courses within this area: first, to strengthen communication skills; second, to develop the capacities of logic, sensibility, imagination, and receptivity within the fields of experience common to all educated persons; and third, to provide specialized preprofessional training that conforms to the preceding objectives and to departmental subject matters.

Division of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics

The Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics prepares students for careers in the sciences and for professional schools, and offers courses to foster an understanding of science and mathematics to students outside the sciences.

Division of the Social Sciences

The Division of the Social Sciences aims to provide its students with a coherent interpretation of human behavior. Reliable social scientific knowledge is attained by careful examination, comparison and testing of rational, communicable hypotheses. Comprehension of this process leads to the student’s own discovery of the historical and philosophical development, sociopsychological structure, economic operations, and political organizations of the cultural environment that molds behavior of a socialized individual.

Departments

• Anthropology 
• Biology   
• Chemistry 
• Comparative Literature and Languages   
• Drama and Dance 
• Economics   
• English 
• Fine Arts, Design, Art History 
• Geology, Environment and Sustainability 
• Global Studies and Geography (no graduate offerings or courses offered)
• History    
• Mathematics   
• Music 
• Philosophy 
• Physics and Astronomy 
• Political Science 
• Psychology 
• Religion (no graduate offerings or courses offered)
• Romance Languages and Literatures    
• Sociology     
• Writing Studies and Composition