University Deans

Alex Aleinikoff is Dean of The New School for Social Research and University Professor. He has served as Director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility since January 2017. He received a J.D. from the Yale Law School and a B.A. from Swarthmore College.

Alex has written widely in the areas of immigration and refugee law and policy, transnational law, citizenship, race, and constitutional law. His latest book is The Arc of Protection: Reforming the International Refugee Regime (Stanford University Press, 2019), co-authored by Leah Zamore. His book Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship was published by Harvard University Press in 2002. Alex is a co-author of leading legal casebooks on immigration law and forced migration.

Before coming to The New School, Alex served as United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees (2010-15). He served on the faculties of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he also served as Dean and Executive Vice President for Law Center Affairs, and at the University of Michigan Law School. He was co-chair of the Immigration Task Force for President Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008. From 1994 to 1997, he served as the general counsel, and then executive associate commissioner for programs, at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Alex was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014.

Dr. Christoph Cox joined The New School as dean of Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts in August 2022, following more than 25 years in senior leadership and faculty roles at Hampshire College, Bard College, The University of Chicago, and Hamilton College. A philosopher, critic, and curator of visual and sonic art, Christoph teaches and writes on contemporary European philosophy, cultural theory, and aesthetics. He is the author of Sonic Flux: Sound, Art, and Metaphysics and Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation and is a co-editor of Realism Materialism Art and Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. The recipient of an Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation, Christoph is an editor-at-large at Cabinet magazine. His writing has appeared in journals and magazines such as October, Artforum, Journal of the History of Philosophy, The Wire, Journal of Visual Culture, Organised Sound, and the Review of Metaphysics. He has curated numerous exhibitions in venues across the United States, including the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Kitchen, CONTEXT Art Miami, New Langton Arts, and G Fine Art Gallery. Christoph holds a PhD in the History of Consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a BA in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University.

Richard Kessler joined The New School in 2011. Kessler has both undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School in Music Performance.

Florence Leclerc is the dean of Parsons Paris. She is also the senior director of Strategic Academic Partnerships and works on both campuses—New York and Paris—of The New School. Leclerc has spent most of her life abroad and currently lives in the United States and France. She obtained her master's degree in translation from the École de Traduction et d’Interprétation of Geneva, Switzerland, as well as an MBA in Marketing from SUNY New Paltz. For a number of years, she chaired the Foreign Languages Department at The New School in New York, where she taught all levels of French language and culture. In 2013, she moved back to France to relaunch Parsons Paris. Leclerc is also an associate professor of foreign languages and a novelist.

Mary R. Watson was appointed executive dean of the Schools of Public Engagement in 2014. In this capacity, she leads the founding division of The New School with the aim of advancing its innovative approaches to action-oriented, engaged learning. Watson is a key leader worldwide in university networks advancing change in higher education, including the 50+20 management education network and the Ashoka Changemaker campus initiative. She is co-founder of The New School's university-wide Social innovation Initiative, The New Challenge student ideas competition, and The New School Collaboratory, a Rockefeller Foundation–funded initiative on university community partnerships.

Watson's creative practice and her scholarship on the human rights of workers reflect her commitment to a more just and equitable world. She has more than two decades of experience in higher education as a faculty member, chair, associate dean, and interim dean, as well as broad experience in change leadership consulting for organizations and universities. She is a recipient of The New School's Distinguished University Teaching Award. Watson holds a PhD in Organization Studies from Vanderbilt University.

Yvonne Watson was appointed interim executive dean of Parsons School of Design in July 2022. A member of the School of Fashion faculty and leadership since 2010, Yvonne most recently served as Parsons’ dean of Curriculum and Learning and advisor to the Provost’s Office on Curriculum. As a member of the Parsons Deans’ Council, Yvonne has been developing a systematic approach to ensuring that the programs at Parsons are designed within a culture of equity, inclusion, and social justice. Before holding this position, Yvonne was associate dean of Curriculum and Learning, a role in which she oversaw assessment and support for faculty investment and pedagogical growth. She previously served as associate dean of the School of Fashion, where she was instrumental in the development and implementation of the BFA Fashion Design curriculum and articulation of pathways.

Yvonne's career has spanned roles encompassing undergraduate and graduate studies. She holds a master’s in Globalization, Identity and Technology from The School of Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, and is undertaking a doctorate in Education with a focus on questions around the role that community, belonging, and kindness play in the development of inclusive pedagogy. Her praxis involves work in fashion sustainability and the rethinking of the supply chain to create inclusive spaces for global artisans and fashion entrepreneurs from developing and emerging economies.