The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 students from the United States, as well as students from other countries.

History

Founding the New School for Social Research (1919–1933)

The New School for Social Research was founded in 1919 by a group of progressive intellectuals (mostly from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'') who had grown dissatisfied with the growing bureaucracy and fragmentation of higher education in the United States. These included, among others, Charles Beard,

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...

James Harvey Robinson James Harvey Robinson (June 29, 1863 – February 16, 1936) was an American scholar of history who, with Charles Austin Beard, founded New History, a disciplinary approach that attempts to use history to understand contemporary problems, which ...

, and

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (; July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American Economics, economist and Sociology, sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known Criticism of capitalism, critic of capitalism. In his best-known book ...

. In its earliest manifestation, the New School was an adult education institution that gave night lectures to fee-paying students. There were no admissions requirements and the New School did not confer degrees. The first set of lectures included courses by economists Thorstein Veblen,

Wesley Clair Mitchell Wesley Clair Mitchell (August 5, 1874 – October 29, 1948) was an American economist known for his empirical work on business cycles and for guiding the National Bureau of Economic Research in its first decades. Mitchell was referred to as Thor ...

, and

Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...

, though these economists did not remain on the faculty long. In the ensuing decade, the New School hosted courses by a diverse array of economists, including

Leo Wolman Leo Wolman (February 24, 1890 – October 2, 1961) was a noted American economist whose work focused on labor economics. He also served on a number of important boards and commissions for the federal government. Early life Wolman was born in Ba ...

, a labor statistician with the

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Indus ...

, and

Frederick Macaulay Frederick Robertson Macaulay (August 12, 1882 – March 1970) was a Canadian economist of the Institutionalist School. He is known for introducing the concept of bond duration. Macaulay's contributions also include a mammoth empirical study ...

, who later formalized the financial concept

bond duration In finance, the duration of a financial asset that consists of fixed cash flows, such as a Bond (finance), bond, is the weighted average of the times until those fixed cash flows are received. When the price of an asset is considered as a functio ...

. During this period,

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist and philosopher whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originall ...

and

Benjamin Graham Benjamin Graham (; Given name, né Grossbaum; May 9, 1894 – September 21, 1976) was a British-born American financial analyst, economist, accountant, investor and professor. He is widely known as the "father of value investing", and wrote two ...

also gave multiple guest lectures at The New School. One lasting presence at the New School was the economist-turned-administrator

Alvin Saunders Johnson Alvin Saunders Johnson (December 18, 1874 – June 7, 1971) was an American economist and a co-founder and first director of The New School. Biography Alvin Johnson was born near Homer, Nebraska. He was educated at the University of Nebraska an ...

, who was the school's first president.

University in Exile and Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science (1933–1960)

In response to the Nazi Germany's 1933

Civil Service Restoration Act The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (, shortened to ''Berufsbeamtengesetz''), also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-establish the Civil Service, was enacted by the Nazi regime in ...

, an act that dismissed over 1,200 Jewish or radical academics from German state-run institutions, Alvin Johnson raised $120,000 from

Hiram Halle Hiram J. Halle (1867–1944) was an American businessman, inventor, and philanthropist. He was also part owner of Gulf Oil company. Halle was dedicated to Jewish causes during World War II. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he dropped out of high school ...

to create a "University in Exile" at The New School consisting of the dismissed European academics."CPI Inflation Calculator". ''www.bls.gov''. Retrieved 2023-11-26. Financial contributions were also obtained from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

. The initial group included

Emil Lederer Emil Lederer (22 July 1882 – 29 May 1939) was a Bohemian-born German economist and sociologist. Purged from his position at Humboldt University of Berlin in 1933 for being Jewish, Lederer fled into exile. He helped establish the "University ...

Frieda Wunderlich Frieda Wunderlich (8 November 1884 – 9 December 1965) was a German sociologist, economist and politician of the German Democratic Party. She was actively involved in the women's movement fighting for gender equality. Life and education Frie ...

Hans Staudinger Hans Staudinger (born 16 August 1889 in Worms, Germany; died 25 February 1980 in New York City, NY) was a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and an economist, as well as a state secretary in the Prussian trade ministry from ...

Eduard Heimann Eduard Magnus Mortier Heimann (11 July 1889 – 31 May 1967) was a German economist and social scientist who advocated ethical socialist programs in Germany in the 1920s and later in the United States. He was hostile to capitalism but thought it ...

Karl Brandt Karl Brandt (8 January 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a German physician and ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler's escort doctor in August 1934. A member of ...

Hans Simons Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...

and Gerhard Colm. A second wave of academics fleeing Europe after France fell to the Nazis in 1939 included

Adolph Lowe Adolph Lowe (born ''Adolf Löwe''; 4 March 1893 – 3 June 1995) was a German sociologist and economist. His best known student was Robert Heilbroner. He was born in Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, ...

Jacob Marschak Jacob Marschak (23 July 1898 – 27 July 1977) was an American economist. Life Born in a Jewish family of Kyiv, Jacob Marschak (until 1933 ''Jakob'') was the son of a jeweler. During his studies, he joined the social democratic Menshevik P ...

Abba Lerner Abraham "Abba" Ptachya Lerner (also Abba Psachia Lerner; 28 October 1903 – 27 October 1982) was a Russian-born American-British economist. Biography Born in Novoselytsia, Bessarabia, Russian Empire, Lerner grew up in a Jewish family, which e ...

Franco Modigliani Franco Modigliani (; ; 18 June 1918 – 25 September 2003) was an Italian-American economist and the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. He was a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Carnegie Mellon Uni ...

, Hans Neisser, and Emil J. Gumbel. Notable scholars associated with the University in Exile include psychologists

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and set ...

and

Max Wertheimer Max Wertheimer (; April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) was a psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. He is known for his book ''Productive Thinking'' and for conceiving the ...

, political philosophers

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...

and

Leo Strauss Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was an American scholar of political philosophy. He spent much of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students an ...

, social psychologist

Everett Dean Martin Everett Dean Martin (July 5, 1880 – May 10, 1941) was an American minister, writer, journalist, instructor, lecturer, social psychologist, social philosopher, and an advocate of adult education. He was an instructor and lecturer at The New Scho ...

, philosophers

Aron Gurwitsch Aron Gurwitsch (; 17 January 1901 – 25 June 1973) was a Lithuanian-born German-American phenomenologist. Life Gurwitsch was born in Vilna, Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire, on 17 January 1901 to a Lithuanian Jewish family. His family moved ...

Hans Jonas Hans Jonas (; ; 10 May 1903 – 5 February 1993) was a German-born American philosopher. From 1955 to 1976 he was the Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Biography Jonas was born in M ...

, and

Reiner Schürmann Reiner Schürmann (February 4, 1941 – August 20, 1993) was a philosopher and professor. From 1975 to his death, he was Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York City. He wrote all his major published work in ...

, sociologists

Alfred Schutz Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlu ...

Peter L. Berger Peter Ludwig Berger (17 March 1929 – 27 June 2017) was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, study of modernization, and contr ...

, and Arthur Vidich, economists

and

Robert Heilbroner Robert L. Heilbroner (March 24, 1919 – January 4, 2005) was an American economist and historian of economic thought. The author of some two dozen books, Heilbroner was best known for ''The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of th ...

, and historians

Charles Tilly Charles Tilly (May 27, 1929 – April 29, 2008) was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was a professor of history, sociology, and social science at the Uni ...

and Louise Tilly. In 1934, the émigré faculty received a provisional charter from the State of New York to grant graduate degrees. With the charter, the faculty changed their name from the University in Exile to the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science. The faculty taught night classes in English to New Yorkers. In 1935, there were 150 registered graduate students; in 1940, this had grown to 520 students. Prior to 1960, the Graduate Faculty was not split into academic departments. Many faculty had interests that crossed disciplinary boundaries, from economics into sociology or philosophy. Accordingly, students (like

) received

M.Sc. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

's and

D.Sc. A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

's in the

Social Sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

rather than in Economics, Psychology, or Sociology. In 1964, John R. Everett became the President of the New School for Social Research, which position he held until he retired in 1982. Harry Gideonse was Chancellor of the New School for Social Research from 1966 until 1975, when he retired.

Department of Economics

The Department of Economics is an

academic department An academic department is a division of a university or school Faculty (division), faculty devoted to a particular academic discipline. In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, universities tend to use the t ...

within The New School for Social Research. The faculty has contributed to economic theories such as,

Post-Keynesian Post-Keynesian economics is a school of economic thought with its origins in '' The General Theory'' of John Maynard Keynes, with subsequent development influenced to a large degree by Michał Kalecki, Joan Robinson, Nicholas Kaldor, Sidney ...

, Marxian,

Institutional An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...

Structuralist Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns tha ...

, and

Political economics Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Widely-studie ...

History of the Department of Economics (1960–present)

From 1958 to 1963, The New School suffered from another budgetary crisis. The school was running a deficit that it could not repay. Economists and administrators Alvin Johnson and Hans Staudinger led a "Save the School" fundraising campaign that narrowly saved the school from bankruptcy. In order to make the school more conventional and fundable, the administration reorganized the Graduate Faculty into five departments: Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, and Political Science. This reorganization began in the late 1950's, but was only solidified in the 1960 course catalogs. As the German émigrés retired, the Economics department began to appoint new economists, beginning with David Schwartzman, an industrial organization economist who had studied with

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and ...

and

George Stigler George Joseph Stigler (; January 17, 1911 – December 1, 1991) was an American economist. He was the 1982 laureate in Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is considered a key leader of the Chicago school of economics. Early life and e ...

, and Thomas Vietorisz, a specialist in the economics of

planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...

. In 1968,

(Ph.D., 1963) was appointed assistant Professor of Economics. Heilbroner had, while a graduate student at The New School, published ''The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Great Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers''. ''The Worldly Philosophers'' was inspired by a class on Adam Smith taught by Heilbroner's teacher, Adolph Lowe. In the book, Heilbroner discusses the evolution of economic thought using of the lives and times of the great economists. This focus on the

history of economic thought The history of economic thought is the study of the philosophies of the different thinkers and theories in the subjects that later became political economy and economics, from the ancient world to the present day. This field encompasses many d ...

permeated Heilbroner's teaching and writing. In 1969 and 1970, Edward Nell and

Stephen Hymer Stephen Herbert Hymer (15 November 1934 – 2 February 1974) was a Canadian economist. His research focused on the activities of multinational firms, which was the subject of his PhD dissertation ''The International Operations of National Firms: ...

were appointed to the faculty. Nell's work focused on economic methodology and

Post-Keynesian Economics Post-Keynesian economics is a Schools of economic thought, school of economic thought with its origins in ''The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, The General Theory'' of John Maynard Keynes, with subsequent development influence ...

while Hymer was a

Marxian economist Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian ...

whose Ph.D. supervisor was

Charles Kindleberger Charles Poor Kindleberger (October 12, 1910 – July 7, 2003) was an American economic historian and author of over 30 books. His 1978 book ''Manias, Panics, and Crashes'', about speculative stock market bubbles, was reprinted in 2000 after the ...

. Together, the faculty launched a graduate program in Political Economy in 1971. In the May 1971 press release, Heilbroner emphasized that the goal of the faculty was to give students training in a variety of traditions of economic analysis. In 1972 and 1973, the faculty hired Anwar Shaikh and David Gordon, two young and radical economists with divergent approaches to economics: Shaikh initially focused on international trade and Marxian economic theory while Gordon focused on labor research and econometric models.Friedlander, Judith (2019-02-05). ''A Light in Dark Times: The New School for Social Research and Its University in Exile''. Columbia University Press. p. 270. . In 1974,

Heidi Hartmann Heidi Irmgard Victoria Hartmann (born August 14, 1945) is an American Feminist economics, feminist economist who is founder and president emerita of the Washington-based Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), a research organization create ...

joined the faculty to develop a gender and economics program. In 1975,

Paul Sweezy Paul Marlor Sweezy (April 10, 1910 – February 27, 2004) was a Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and founding editor of the long-running magazine ''Monthly Review''. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory ...

taught a course on Karl Marx. In the late 1970's,

Gita Sen Gita Sen is an Indian feminist scholar. She is a Distinguished Professor & Director at the Ramalingaswami Centre on Equity & Social Determinants of Health, at the Public Health Foundation of India. She is also an adjunct professor at Harvard ...

, Ross Thomson, and

Willi Semmler Willi Semmler is a German born American economist who currently teaches at The New School in New York. Academic career Willi Semmler studied at the University of Munich, Technische Universität Berlin and Free University of Berlin. He has a P ...

joined the faculty. In 1982,

John Eatwell John Leonard Eatwell, Baron Eatwell, (born 2 February 1945) is a British economist who was President of Queens' College, Cambridge, from 1996 to 2020. A former senior advisor to the Labour Party, Lord Eatwell sat in the House of Lords as a non- ...

joined the Department on a part-time arrangement. During the 1980's and 1990's, the faculty had many shorter-term appointments and visitors, including

Nancy Folbre Nancy Folbre (19 July 1952) is an American feminist economist who focuses on economics and the family (or family economics), non-market work and the economics of care. She is professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. ...

, Heinz Kurz, Rhonda Williams,

Alice Amsden Alice Hoffenberg Amsden (June 27, 1943 – March 14, 2012) was a political economist and scholar of state-led economic development. For the last two decades of her career, she was the Barton L. Weller Professor of Political Economy at the Massach ...

, and

Thomas Palley Thomas Palley (born March 17, 1956) is an American economist who was the chief economist for the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Career Palley received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Oxford University in 1976. H ...

. In the 1990's, the economics department hired a number of faculty who would remain for decades: William Milberg, Lance Taylor, and Duncan Foley. In 1995, David Gordon, John Eatwell, and Bill Janeway together founded the Center for Economic Policy Analysis (CEPA), though Gordon died soon after founding CEPA. In 1997, the school was renamed New School University. It was renamed the "New School for Social Research" in 2005, returning to the original name of the university. Its various colleges were regrouped under various names such as College of Performing Arts (taking on the existing music, jazz, and drama schools),

Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, commonly referred to as Lang, is the seminar-style, undergraduate, liberal arts college of The New School. It is located on-campus in Greenwich Village in New York City on West 11th Street off 6th Avenue. ...

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

and The New School for Public Engagement (taking on Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, plus media studies, language studies and other programs). The university also continued with a separate new institution The New School for Social Research under the general banner of The New School. In 2004, the student union founded The New School Economic Review, a student run peer-reviewed journal.

History

Founding the New School for Social Research (1919–1933)

University in Exile and Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science (1933–1960)

Department of Economics

History of the Department of Economics (1960–present)

References

Further reading