The College

Emerson College’s mission is to educate and elevate extraordinary artists, communicators, scholars, and professionals for the betterment of humanity. We pursue this mission through world-class teaching, practice, performance, and discovery that are experiential, innovative, and inclusive.

Emerson College graduates are socially responsible citizens, clear communicators, creative thinkers, and informed inquirers.

Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson, noted preacher, orator, and teacher, Emerson College has grown into a comprehensive college enrolling about 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 50 states and several dozen countries. The original concentration on oratory has evolved into specialization in the fields of communication, arts, and media. 

Since Emerson’s founding, the elements of human communication - the spoken word, the written word, the gesture - have changed in both form and substance, and the media through which they flow have evolved and multiplied. Radio, motion pictures, television, and the sciences of speech pathology and audiology have all developed during the past century.

Throughout its history, Emerson College has shown the capacity to respond to and meet the needs of education in communication and the arts. Emerson was the first college in New England to establish an educational FM radio station (WERS in 1949), one of the first colleges in the nation to establish a program in children’s theater (1919), and one of the first colleges in the nation to offer undergraduate programs in broadcasting (1937). Among its other pioneering achievements, Emerson offered professional-level training in speech pathology and audiology (1935); established a closed-circuit television broadcast facility, WERS-TV (1954); and created a Bachelor of Fine Arts in film (1972).

Today, Emerson continues this tradition of innovation in communication and the arts. For example, since 2016, the College has offered a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Comedic Arts, the first such program in the nation specifically designed to integrate comedic writing, performance, literature, media, and production across all comedic formats. The College is organized into three schools: School of the Arts, School of Communication, and School of Film, Television, and Media.

Concurrent with programmatic evolutions and academic reorganizations, Emerson has continued to upgrade the technology and the facilities necessary to support the curriculum. Emerson’s radio and television stations both offer webcasts in addition to traditional broadcasts, and the state-of-the-art Tufte Performance and Production Center opened in Fall 2003. In Spring 2010, the College opened the multi-use Paramount Center, which includes a 596-seat live performance theater, performance development facilities, the Bright Family Screening Room, and a residence hall.

In March 2014, Emerson College Los Angeles celebrated the opening of its new facility in Hollywood. Designed by award-winning architect Thom Mayne, the sustainable 10-story structure can house approximately 200 students and includes wired classrooms, an open-air screening and live-performance space, a Dolby Surround 7.1 audio post-production suite, a 4K screening room, computer labs, and mixing suites.

In Summer 2017, the College opened a new Dining Center and a new residence hall at Boylston Place. At more than 18,000 square feet, the multipurpose Dining Center has seating for 530 and provides much needed social spaces for the urban campus, including a performance stage area and a meeting space for faculty and staff. In 2019, the College opened the renovated Little Building residence hall that now houses 1,035 students and provides them with 16 lounges and 6 kitchenettes.

Emerson’s expansion into Boston’s cultural district has brought it within a few city blocks of the site where the College was first located in 1880. This return to the College’s roots has been accompanied by a renewal of its commitment to foster innovation and excellence in communication and the arts.

In 2020, Emerson and Marlboro College completed their planned alliance, through which Marlboro moved its academic programs to Emerson. Emerson welcomed a number of Marlboro undergraduates to matriculate and a number of Marlboro tenured, tenure-track, and emeritae faculty to teach starting in the Fall 2020 semester.

Emerson College is fully accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education and is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools.

Emerson’s Commitment to Equity, Access, and Social Justice 

Equity, Access, and Social Justice are core values and commitments of Emerson College. We strive to create an institutional culture of belonging that is inspiring and exuberant. We believe student success requires active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with equity, access, and social justice practices. Emerson fosters the skills necessary for meaningful engagement with diverse and complex global societies. We believe in co-creating a learning and working environment that is equity-centered and inclusive, where people can find authentic community, engage in authentic growth, and be their authentic selves as learners, creatives, scholars, and professionals.