Academics

Building on a long tradition of intellectual innovation, the Department of Art History at UCLA provides a rigorous program of undergraduate and graduate study that endorses an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to art history of all periods and places.

The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (ALC) is dedicated to the study of the civilizations of the Asian region, in all their diversity. The rich cultural heritages of the region are covered in courses ranging from language, to literature, religion, thought, archaeology, and other aspects of culture.

The Center, which administers the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in West Adams, supports research related to the seventeenth and long-eighteenth centuries as well as Oscar Wilde and the fin-de-siècle aesthetics movement. Through its robust program of fellowships, conferences, and institutes, the Center serves as a forum for students, professors, and independent scholars to collaborate and commune.

The Center for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions is an interdisciplinary center created in 2009 as part of the UCLA division of Humanities.

The UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) supports interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies of the period from Late Antiquity to the middle of the seventeenth century through a program of lectures, seminars, conferences, and fellowships for visiting professors, post-doctoral scholars, graduate students, and researchers.  Additionally, we publish the academic journals Viator and Comitatus as well as a book series called Cursor Mundi.

The UCLA Center for the Study of Religion coordinates and promotes the academic study of religion at the University for members of the campus community as well as for a wider public. In addition to housing an undergraduate major, the Center sponsors seminars, lectures, and conferences as well as films and artistic performances that explore the role of religious ideas, practices and institutions within human societies, both historical and contemporary and throughout the regions of the world. 

UCLA’s highly-ranked Department of Classics hosts a diverse faculty of scholars and teachers dedicated to bringing the foundational cultures of ancient Greece and Rome to life for the contemporary student.  Our courses range widely over areas such as Greek and Roman literature, Mediterranean archaeology, Indo-European linguistics, ancient philosophy and political thought, as well as ancient sexuality and gender studies.

Standing at the forefront of innovative literary, theoretical, and cultural studies, comparative literature is one of the most exciting fields in the Humanities. The discipline demands exceptional linguistic ability, advanced critical tools, and high intellectual caliber.  

English at UCLA long has been known for its innovative research and excellence in teaching. Today, the English Department maintains its strong commitment to traditional areas of study, while also supporting groundbreaking research and teaching in new and interdisciplinary approaches to literary studies.

The Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies is a new and innovative program that was established in 2020 and that brings together the former departments of French and Francophone Studies, Germanic Languages, Italian, and Scandinavian. The term “transcultural” in our name emphasizes our shared European roots, and our expanded focus on the perspectives of filmmakers, writers, and theorists from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and elsewhere, allows for a more pointed, rigorous, and comprehensive understanding of history and more accurate contextualization of the “European” experience.

UCLA offers an interdepartmental graduate program in Indo-European Studies (the only such program in the US), leading to the degree of Ph.D. The program’s primary focus is historical linguistics, in particular the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (the ancestor of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, English, and many other languages) as well as the culture of its speakers.

The Law and Philosophy Program is a unique collaboration between the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Philosophy Department.  We offer many academic events, including a workshop series and public lectures, as well as curricula throughout the year that focus on the many intersections between legal and philosophical issues.  We also offer opportunities to earn specializations in law and philosophy to law students and to philosophy graduate students, as well as a joint J.D./PhD.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Studies Program at UCLA is an interdisciplinary program that supports teaching and research on the historical and contemporary experience of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people. It provides an academic home for those who wish to study the intellectual and cultural traditions that have shaped our current understanding of sexuality and gender, as well as for those who wish to challenge such traditions and generate new theoretical paradigms.

The UCLA Linguistics Department is one of the world’s leading centers for the scientific study of language.

In 2016, the first school of music in the UC system was created at UCLA, the Herb Alpert School of Music. The three departments under this school include Music, Ethnomusicology and Musicology. The department of Musicology remains strongly tied to the Division of Humanities with the faculty and student's scholarly work encompassing the core values of humanistic study. The mission of the UCLA Musicology department is to foster transformative critical thinking about music and musical practices. It defines its subject as broadly as possible, and seeks to integrate musical analysis,...

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures has excellent degree programs in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (including Arabic and Islamics, Armenian, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Iranian, Turkish) and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations (including Assyriology and Sumerology, Biblical Studies, Egyptology, Near Eastern Archaeology).

The principal goal of the Department of Philosophy is to produce philosophers of high quality, thinkers informed by the great historical traditions of Western philosophers who can apply the methods of philosophical analysis to a broad range of current philosophical problems.

The Pourdavoud Center intends to be a disciplinary home to stimulating intellectual encounters and exchanges for scholars working on ancient Iran and the ancient world, and will contribute to the development of collaborative research projects in such diverse areas as Assyriology, Biblical Studies, Central Asian studies, Classics, Egyptology, ancient History, Indology, Sinology, and the Study of Religion.

Founded in 1948, the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures is one of the oldest and most prominent programs in its field in the United States. The program, which offers undergraduate and graduate studies, provides students with a comprehensive education in the languages, literatures, cultures, and history of Eastern and Central Europe and Eurasia.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers a rich and diverse program dedicated to the study of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking diasporas of Europe, North, Central and South America. Along with notable traditional strengths in Spanish, Spanish American, and Portuguese literature, departmental offerings include courses in U.S. Latino Studies and language instruction in Quechua and Catalan.

The undergraduate major in the Study of Religion equips students to understand and compare creatively the worldwide varieties of core convictions, stories, texts, rituals, and practices known collectively as religion.

The UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies is dedicated to advancing scholarship in all areas of Jewish culture and history, educating the next generation about the role of Judaism in world civilization, and serving as an exceptional public resource for Jewish life and learning.

The Center promotes interdisciplinary studies of Hellenic Culture, from the ancient world through the modern day. The Center also serves as a vibrant cultural hub for the Southern California Hellenic community, presenting innovative programs, often in collaboration with local Hellenic organizations, and generating interest in Greece’s historical and ongoing contributions to modern culture.

UCLA Writing Center and Writing Programs encourages students to use language as a means of discovery, understanding, analysis, inspiration, community building, and diplomacy.