The CUNY Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program, launched in 1981, is a unique interdisciplinary thirty-credit degree program that allows students to design and pursue an individual course of study, and to take courses in the Ph.D. programs. The eighteen tracks include:

• Africana Studies (Starting Fall 2012)
• American Studies
• Approaches to Modernity
• Archaeology of the Classical, Late Antique, and Islamic Worlds (Starting Fall 2012)
• Bioethics, Science, and Society
• Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir
• Digital Humanities (Starting Fall 2012)
• Fashion Studies
• Film Studies
• International Studies
• Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies
• Law and Society
• New York Studies
• Psychology of Work and Family (Starting Fall 2012)
• Science and Technology Studies (Starting Fall 2012)
• Urban Education
• Western Intellectual Traditions
• Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Students take an "Introduction to Graduate Liberal Studies" seminar, two “core” courses in a single track, and complete their work for the degree by taking six courses of their choice from courses offered by the various Ph.D. and certificate programs at the Graduate Center. The final requirement is the writing of a master's thesis under the supervision of a faculty member.