Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography, and Social Thought

Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography, and Social Thought

Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and based in The New School for Social Research, the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography, and Social Thought (GIDEST) incubates transdisciplinary ethnographic research at the intersection of social theory and design and fosters dialogue on related themes across the university. Drawing on the university’s tradition of politically engaged, historically grounded, and theoretically informed social research, as well as its strengths as a center of design thinking and practice, the institute annually supports five faculty and five doctoral fellows and provides members of the campus community with a lively and inventive research environment and an interdisciplinary space in which to develop their ideas.

Housed in The New School’s University Center, the institute was conceived as a university-wide hub for collaborative faculty research, interdisciplinary doctoral dissertations, and innovative scholarly practice that draws substantively on ethnographic methodologies and sensibilities. GIDEST hosts a biweekly seminar to explore works-in-progress presented by scholars and practitioners who share the institute’s commitment to innovative, in-depth exploration of design, ethnography, and social thought.

gidest.org GIDEST@newschool.edu