Programs, Centers, Institutes and More

In addition to degree programs, Emory graduate students benefit from a wealth of entities dedicated to cross-disciplinary studies of many kinds.  Below is a list of some of them.

African Studies

The Institute of African Studies offers a community of scholars and a lively focus of activity to persons interested in Africa. It has core faculty members drawn from the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law, the School of Public Health and the Institute of Developing Nations. The Institute coordinates graduate training in African Studies at Emory with an on-going seminar in African studies. IAS hosts visiting African scholars, and sponsors conferences, exhibitions, and special events on Africa, encouraging and supporting rich and diverse Africanist teaching, scholarship, and outreach.

Asian Studies

See East Asian Studies and South Asian Studies, both below.

Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry

The Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI) serves both those trained in the humanities as traditionally defined and also others in the University who are interested in humanistic issues; outreach to faculty and students in the social sciences, the sciences, and the professional schools at Emory is an important part of the CHI's work. The CHI is dedicated to providing occasions and spaces for encouraging intellectual community and scholarship across disciplines.

Center for Ethics

The Center for Ethics exists to enrich moral imagination, to deepen knowledge of ethics, and to encourage lives of moral meaning and ethical practice. The Center for Ethics is committed to being a national leader, recognized for excellence in ethical research, education and outreach.

Center for Health, Culture and Society

The Center for Health, Culture and Society provides a forum for interdisciplinary dialogue on issues of public health importance by providing a meeting ground for social and health scientists, humanists and health professionals interested in the interplay of health, culture and society.

Center for Science Education

The Center for Science Education (CSE) promotes access, interest and participation in science careers. CSE programs bolster science literacy and provide hands-on research experiences for students and teachers at the precollege, college and postgraduate levels. Through student and curriculum development activities, the CSE integrates research and education and helps students explore the vast array of careers open to individuals with a solid background in science.

Center for the Study of Law and Religion

The Center for the Study of Law and Religion is dedicated to studying the religious dimensions of law, the legal dimensions of religion, and the interaction of legal and religious ideas and institutions, norms and practices. This study is predicated on the assumptions that religion gives law its spirit and inspires its adherence to ritual and justice.  Law gives religion its structure and encourages its devotion to order and organization. Offerings include four joint degree programs (JD/MDiv, JD/MTS, JD/MA, JD/PhD), eight major research projects with dozens of individual and side research projects, public events, a visiting scholars and fellows program and more. Email cslr@law.emory.edu or call 404-712-8710.

East Asian Studies

The East Asian Studies Program of Emory University, a part of the Institute for Comparative and International Studies. promotes and coordinates events and activities related to China, Japan, Korea and broader East Asia. Associated faculty include specialists in anthropology, literature, philosophy, politics, religion, history, and music.

Emory-Tibet Partnership

The Emory-Tibet Partnership is a university-wide initiative committed to bringing together the best of the Western and Tibetan Buddhist intellectual traditions for their mutual enrichment and the discovery of new knowledge for the benefit of humanity.

Environmental Studies

The Environmental Studies Department at Emory offers an interdisciplinary and integrative program designed to equip students with basic skills, capabilities, and knowledge to confront a suite of environmental issues. As such, it is rooted in relevant disciplines in the natural and social sciences, while modestly engaging the humanities and arts.

European Studies

European Studies is a unique interdisciplinary initiative devoted to fostering new possibilities for collaborative research across the traditional boundaries in the study of Europe, particularly between the humanities and social sciences. Our vision of Europe is expansive: extending from Western Europe across the Mediterranean to the far reaches of Siberia, it encompasses the rich and highly complex history of cultural, economic, and political connections and effects from the ancient to the contemporary post-colonial world. European Studies looks beyond the continent’s borders to analyze the patterns of transnational interactions between European and non-European cultures in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

International Studies

The Institute of Critical International Studies supports and stimulates scholarly understanding within and across a wide range of world regions, nations, and cultures. Its initiatives include international conferences, symposia, workshops, speakers, and theme projects; area studies programs that link academic disciplines and provide place-based expertise about diverse world region; graduate and post-doctoral seminar and fellowship programs, and much more.  ICIS maintains strong collaborations with Emory’s academic departments, the Graduate School, the professional schools, Institute for Developing Nations, and other entities including The Carter Center.

Jewish Studies

The Tam Institute for Jewish Studies brings together faculty and students from a range of departments and disciplines to study Jewish civilization across continents and millennia. Nineteen distinguished core faculty members offer courses and conduct research in Jewish religion and thought, history, archaeology, anthropology, languages, literature, politics, and philosophy. The program’s diversity of methods fosters appreciation for the richness of Jewish civilization by Jews and non-Jews alike, constructing bridges for students across the University to enter into dialogue with Jewish culture and, through those conversations, to reflect on their own disciplines or traditions. TIJS coordinates graduate training in Jewish Studies in various Emory departments, and students in any of the Graduate School’s doctoral programs may affiliate with TIJS and take part in its courses and programs. TIJS runs an ongoing faculty-graduate student seminar, hosts visiting scholars, sponsors conferences, exhibitions, and other events, and lends support to innovative teaching and scholarship. TIJS is also developing a PhD certificate program in Jewish Studies.

Latin American and Carribbean Studies

LACS is an intellectual reference point for faculty, undergraduate and graduate students in many different fields and departments.  Its core faculty of twenty-four Latin Americanists represents one of largest groups of faculty associated with an area studies program at Emory University. LACS sponsors exhibits, lectures, symposia, and performances that reflect the research interests of its affiliated faculty. 

Linguistics

Emory Program in Linguistics represents the contemporary field of linguistics, where the Social Sciences and the Humanities intersect.  Its mission is to train students in the systematic study of human language and communication in a climate of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research.  Its strengths include the causes and consequences of linguistic diversit; linguistic evidence in social science research and in the humanitie; multilingualism and second language acquisition; and language as it affects cognition

Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies

The Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies (MESAS) offers a wide range of courses on the languages, cultures, history and archaeology of the Middle East and South Asia.  MESAS houses five of the sixteen languages taught at Emory University, including Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, and Sanskrit.

Science and Society

The Program in Science and Society promotes a better understanding of the impact of science on society.  The program works with the Science, Social Science, and Humanities disciplines to convey the message that science is vital across disciplines--that science is not merely a collection of facts but is, at its core, a way of thinking and of approaching problems.

Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures

The Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures (REALC) teaches languages and cultures in the geographic sweep from Eastern Europe to the Far East including courses in Russian, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese language. REALC sponsors film series and hosts a number of prominent guest speakers, research symposia, and other events.

Russian and East European Studies

The Center for Russian and East European Studies, a part of the Institute for Comparative & International Studies (ICIS), seeks to broaden knowledge about the former USSR and Eastern Europe through multi- and inter-disciplinary programming for the Emory academic community.

South Asian Studies

The South Asian Studies Program offers a doctoral program in South Asian religions, language training in south Asian language, inlcuding Tibetan, as well as public events including film festivals, music and dance concerts and lectures, photography and art exhibits, and poetry readings.