A dynamic and diverse city with a rich and complex history, Tulsa offers an abundance of opportunities for NYU students and faculty alike, whether as a destination for a study away semester, a summer internship, a short-term program, or research and creative work.
Made possible by a collaboration with George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), initial programs at NYU Tulsa are planned to include:
- Undergraduate Fall, Spring, and Summer study away (launching Spring 2025)
- Short-term undergraduate and graduate-level courses for NYU students
- Faculty and graduate student research programs
- Alternative Breaks
- Student internships
- Student exchanges with local institutions
- Scholarship and creative events with local institutions
- Research and educational partnerships with local institutions
Please explore our pages and look out for additional information as NYU Tulsa's programs are further developed and launched.
About Tulsa
As the great Oklahoma historian Angie Debo wrote in her 1943 book Tulsa: From Creek Town to Oil Capital, “Tulsa is the most American of American cities. All the forces that have gone into the making of the Republic have been intensified there.”
First established as a permanent settlement in the 1830s by the Lochapoka Band of the Muscogee Nation, whose members were forcibly removed from their homeland in present-day Alabama, the city of Tulsa today sits entirely within the boundaries of the Cherokee, Muscogee, and Osage Nations, whose borders meet just northwest of downtown. The city, like the state of Oklahoma overall, is strongly influenced by its large and diverse Native population.
Tulsa was a small frontier town until the discovery of oil at nearby Red Fork in 1901 created a boom. By the 1920s, Tulsa was known as the "Oil Capital of the World,” and the city remains an important center in the global energy industry today.
Tulsa was also home to “Black Wall Street” — the Greenwood District, one of America’s most prosperous Black communities of the early 1900s and site of the infamous Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921. Reckoning with historical trauma and the pursuit of racial healing and reconciliation are very much a work in progress as the city works to create a more equitable future.
Today, Tulsa is re-emerging as a leader in policy innovation and an engine for cultural, social, and economic progress.
The city’s economy, while still shaped strongly by its oil and gas legacy, continues to diversify, with strengths in aerospace, energy services, transportation, advanced manufacturing, and data services. Named a federal Tech Hub in 2023, Tulsa is rapidly developing a dynamic innovation ecosystem focused around four emerging tech clusters: cybersecurity, advanced air mobility, virtual health, and energy tech. The city also benefits from an exceptional nonprofit sector doing pioneering work in areas from early childhood education to criminal justice reform, neighborhood development, inclusive entrepreneurship, and community health.
Tulsa is also a rising hub for cultural institutions and the arts. It is home to several outstanding museums, including the Philbrook Museum of Art and Gilcrease Museum, the Bob Dylan Center and Woody Guthrie Center (along with both artists’ archives), the Greenwood Rising history center and Greenwood Cultural Center, the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, and the Church Studio. The Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Symphony Orchestra anchor the city’s performing arts scene, while historic Cain’s Ballroom is one of the country’s best and most iconic live music venues. Downtown Tulsa boasts one of the most extensive concentrations of Art Deco architecture in America, and the 100-acre Gathering Place, a public riverfront park opened in 2018, has earned international acclaim for its design.
