Syrian Higher Education in Crisis: The Road Forward
Panel discussion co-sponsored by the Scholar Rescue Fund and the Institute of International Education (IIE)
Monday, October 7, 2013, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
The New School, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor
After more than 26 months of the war, the education system in Syria has effectively collapsed and intellectual thought and scientific research in Syria is being decimated. There is a need for urgent action at the international level to protect what is left in Syria and to provide havens and temporary academic homes for all academics and students who have fled. By preserving their lives, scholarship, and careers now, and ensuring that a substantial number of university students have access to some type of education, we are investing in their future opportunity to shape a new political system and foster a culture of democracy, trust, and tolerance. A panel of human rights experts and advocates will be listed soon.
Corruption, Accountability, and Transparency
30th Social Research Conference
Thursday and Friday, November 21–22, 2013
The New School (multiple locations)
The decision to organize a public conference and issue of Social Research on this theme seems long overdue, since there is hardly anywhere one can look in public or political life in the United States and elsewhere where one does not find evidence of corruption. The challenge was how to delimit this project. We have chosen to focus on the definition of "corruption" in political and historical contexts. The conference will examine U.S.-specific and global dimensions of the problem, including social and historical dimensions of corruption, systems at risk of corruption (governments, business, labor, and markets), and possibilities for reform. Additional issues will be addressed in the Social Research issue (Volume 80, Number 4, Winter 2014), including case studies of corruption in Kenya, India, Russia, Latin America, and the U.S.
Visit the conference page to view the complete program for all times and locations and to register.
Fifth Public Voices Event: Surveillance in the U.S.
Thursday, December 5, 2013, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
The New School, John Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street, main floor
Experts discuss the surveillance operations being carried out by the US government on American citizens. Speakers include journalist James Bamford, noted for writing about United States intelligence agencies, especially the National Security Agency, and Lawyer Martin Garbus, who has appeared before the United States Supreme Court as well as trial and appellate courts throughout the nation. More details coming soon.
Celebration of the 80th Anniversary of the University in Exile
Thursday, January 30, 2014, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
The New School, (room TBA)
The event will both mark the anniversary and call attention to the unfortunate urgent need to continue rescuing scholars around the world who are being persecuted and silenced.
2:00-5:00pm screening of Hannah Arendt film, followed by a discussion with the director, Margarethe von Trotta, Jerome Kohn, Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at The New School for Social Research, and others
6:00-8:00pm panel with Aryeh Neier, president emeritus of the Open Society Foundation, Jonathan Fanton, emeritus board member and former chair of Human Rights Watch, former president of The New School, and others. More details coming soon.
Speaking for the Humanities
A panel discussion around the publication of Humanities and Public Life (Fordham University Press, 2014)
Thursday, February 20, 2014, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Reception follows
The New School, (room TBA)
Academics from philosophy, American studies, humanities, law, and literature will discuss how to defend and how to even to talk about the humanities without succumbing to the instrumental language of our detractors (measuring outcomes and deliverables) or retreating into an ivory tower, claiming that the humanities don't need justification.
Panelists (all confirmed):
Judith Butler, Hannah Arendt Professor of Philosophy, European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland (book contributor)
Andrew Delbanco, Mendelson Family Chair of American Studies and the Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University
Richard Sennett, Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University
Patricia J. Williams, James L. Dohr Professor of Law, Columbia Law School (book contributor)
Moderator: Peter Brooks, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Scholar, Professor, University Center for Human Values, Department of Comparative Literature, Princeton University (book editor)
Climate Change Demands We Change. Why Aren’t We?
31st Social Research Conference
Thursday and Friday, April 24 and 25, 2014
The New School
There is no more urgent issue than climate change, and yet government, corporations, and the public are reluctant to change. While a great deal of research has been devoted to issues of engineering, architecture, land use, etc. with respect to mitigating the effects of climate change, very little attention has been paid to psychological factors, money and politics, and infrastructures that impede change. This conference will examine these latter, infrequently discussed but extremely important, issues and the difficult choices that must be made to foster urban resilience in the face of climate change. We aim to make clear what we, the public, need to do to overcome these obstacles. Speakers will include experts from social sciences, philosophy, architecture, environmental engineering, city planning, politics, and business. Conference site coming soon.
