Message from the Dean

William Milberg Dean and Professor of Economics

The New School for Social Research has long dared to be different. We are a graduate school with a distinctive intellectual tradition that thrives on public debate and academic rigor, and our small programs encourage close collaboration between students and professors.

This year, we begin our second century as a maverick institution of higher education, deeply committed to academic freedom and to understanding the great issues of the day. In the 1930s, New York City luminaries created the University in Exile here as a refuge for brilliant scholars being silenced, fired, or worse by Hitler, the Nazis, and fascism. This role as a beacon of hope for the excluded became the underpinning of our intellectual life as a graduate school of the social sciences, philosophy, and history.

And what about the present? How does this ethos persist, and how does it continue to define our reputation around the world? Here is where I turn to you and the current historical moment. You come to The New School for Social Research in part because of our legacy of promoting freedom of thought, defending the rights of the oppressed, and critiquing a society rife with inequality and injustice. We offer you the knowledge and expertise of our global network of scholars and practitioners. We expect that in turn, you will commit to expanding your intellectual horizons, challenging and inspiring us, and pressing for change in the world at large.

The New School for Social Research is where psychology students break new ground in the study of empathy, ethnicity, technology, trauma, and gender and work to relieve distress in individuals and communities. This is where deep philosophical discussions of contemporary politics take place. This is where radical rethinking of financial and economic processes is incubated. This is where migration, economic development, and the very notion of crisis are rethought.

This is where leading critical thinkers from around the world—Luc Boltanski, Danielle Allen, Susan Buck-Morss, and Yanis Varoufakis, to name a few— give talks.

I am enormously proud of the work of our students, faculty, and alumni, as well as their commitment to the ideals of what a progressive university—a New School—can and must be. I hope you will consider joining this very special community of scholars.