Student Activities

In the Three-Minute Thesis Challenge, participants must present their original research in just 180 seconds in an engaging form that can be understood by an audience with no background in the research area. The challenge is open to all graduating MA students and all PhD students. Participants gain presentation, research, and academic and professional communications skills and have the chance to win up to $1,000.

Watch the 2024 Three-Minute Thesis Challenge video here

Student-run conferences and workshops are organized each academic year and generally take place in the spring semester. Some receive support from the Dean's Conference Fund.

Spring 2024 conferences included:

• Philosophy Graduate Student Conference | Unmasking Objectivity: A Critical Examination of the Nexus Between Universal Truth Claims and Emergent Power Structures
• Political Concepts Graduate Conference: A Critical Lexicon
• Sociology Graduate Conference | Crises, Contingencies, Possibilities: Futures of Sociology in an Uncertain Present
• Transcendence: Anthropology Graduate Student Conference
• Language: What Is It Good For? Graduate Conference

The New School for Social Research Dean's Advisory Council consists of the NSSR Student Senate delegates, departmental student advisors, and other department representatives. The council meets with the dean on a regular basis throughout the academic year to discuss matters related to the quality of student life and the needs of the college in general. At the university level, a similar advisory body with representatives from each of the university's colleges meets regularly with the president of The New School. The members representing The New School for Social Research are chosen by NSSR Student Senate delegates. Elected student representatives are expected to attend meetings and report to their constituents on a regular basis.

The Graduate Faculty Student Senate is the representative body of NSSR as a whole. Student associations are the representative bodies of each department.

Graduate Faculty Student Senate (GFSS)
[email protected]

Anthropology Student Association (ASA)
Organizer: Hannah Barish
[email protected]

Economics Student Union (ESU)
Organizers: Karthik Manickam, Elena Ryan, Durgesh Ajgaonkar
[email protected]

Liberal Studies Student Association (LSSA)
[email protected]

Philosophy Forum
[email protected]

Union of Political Science Students (UPSS)
[email protected]

Psychology Student Government (PSG)
[email protected]

Sociology Student Association (SSA)
Organizer: Luis Meiners
[email protected]

Anthro Workshops is a series of student-led workshops that take place on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Anthropology students host an array of internal and external speakers, postdoctoral fellows, film screenings, back-from-the-field presentations, and more. Students also use the workshops as places to workshop writing for PhD applications, MA exam prep, and grant proposals. Workshops are open to students, alumni, and friends! Pizza and beer are always provided. 

Organizers: Clara Beccaro, Sean Muller, Caroline Risacher, Christopher Thompson
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 

The Feminists in Economics Student Association (FESA) offers a safe space for women and anyone with a marginalized gender (cis women, non-binary people, genderqueer people, trans folk, etc.) to talk about any kind of problem they are facing. It is a group primarily focused on building solidarity among marginalized genders in economics and discussing ways to better support one another. FESA also provides access to tools and theory of feminist economics, emphasizes gender issues in topics broadly discussed in economics, focuses on disparities arising from underrepresentation, and reduces gender disparities in the field by sharing resources and building a network. Open to both graduate and undergraduate students.

Organizers: Lauren Johnston, María Rodríguez Carrió
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

The New School Memory Group is an interdisciplinary network of scholars whose research addresses questions of remembering and forgetting. We bring together New School students, faculty, alumni, and friends. Visit the Facebook group or tweet @NewSchoolMemory.

Organizer: Malkhaz Toria
[email protected]

Theory Collective is a political theory workshop intended to provide valuable feedback and critique on both theoretical work and empirical or historical work informed by a theoretical framework. Meetings convene every other week around the work-in-progress of a presenter. Regular attendance is expected in order to ensure a thorough discussion of each paper.

Organizers: Günce Hafızoğlu, Flavia Nitzlader, Nikola Ksiazek
[email protected]

The Colombian Students Group (CSG) brings together students from New York universities for interdisciplinary dialogue from a critical and progressive inter-American perspective. The CSG facilitates academic collaboration, cultural promotion, citizen pedagogy, and the participation of activists, leaders, and other stakeholders of the diaspora in the city.

NSSR Organizers: Aura Hernandez Cardenas, Jose Castiblanco, Isabel Arciniegas, Julián Gómez-Delgado
[email protected]

Philosophy Pedagogy and Professionalization Workshops are aimed at preparing current graduate students to teach philosophy in an academic setting. In order to supplement the department’s strong scholarship and provide students with practical pedagogical skills, NSSR faculty, alumni, and advanced NSSR PhD students with teaching experience take turns facilitating the workshops, which are constructed around various pedagogical topics including discussion techniques, basic classroom management, preparing and delivering a lecture, designing a syllabus, teaching close-reading skills, and navigating issues of gender and race in the classroom.

Organizer: Lena Nowak-Laird
[email protected]

The Wittgenstein Workshop is a research group that meets a few times a semester and invites scholars and NSSR faculty and students to present work-in-progress. While an interest in Wittgenstein might be helpful in attending, it is by no means necessary.

Organizer: Kyle O'Dowd
[email protected]

The New York German Idealism Group is a joint undertaking of the philosophy departments of Columbia University and The New School that organizes four events per semester, inviting scholars from the New York area and beyond to share their work on Kantian and post-Kantian philosophy in a workshop format.

Organizers: Leksa Zhang, Thomas Cantone, Joe Hamilton, Ethan Jacobs
[email protected]

*ON HIATUS*
People in Support of Women in Philosophy (PSWIP) was a group dedicated to the advancement of women and those who experience marginalization within the field of philosophy. The group met weekly to workshop papers, help members prepare for conference presentations and seminars, host guest speakers, and in general celebrate the work of women and gender-non-conforming colleagues and mentors. Those interested in reviving PSWIP should contact Rose Pelham at [email protected].

Minorities and Philosophy (MaP) is an international organization encompassing a collection of chapters from different philosophy departments that examine and address issues of minority participation in academic philosophy. The NSSR chapter is currently on hiatus; those interested in reviving it should contact Miranda Young at [email protected]