Student Activities

Our students pride themselves on their ability to disrupt business as usual in the academy. They organize academic conferences and workshops and debate, collaborate on projects, and challenge one another. They also join, lead, or establish their own organizations and reading groups around common interests, many of which are open to students across disciplines.
Learn more about New School for Social Research opportunities below, and make sure to check out the full list of New School student organizations. If you are interested in receiving funding for a conference or starting an organization, please email NSSR's Office of Academic Affairs.
- Three-Minute Thesis Challenge
  
  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.
- Student-Run Conferences
  
  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 2022 conferences included:
  Athlete Mental Health & Wellbeing Symposium
  January 28, 2022
  Political Concepts Graduate Student Conference
  March 25-27, 2022
  With/In Environments: Reimagining Frameworks and Practices for Environmental Philosophy
  April 14-16, 2022
  Sex Workers Built the Internet
  April 20, 2022
  Contradictions in Capitalism: Feminist Perspectives
  April 23, 2022
- Dean's Advisory Council
  
  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.
  Current DAC members:
  Aryana Ghazi Hessami, Anthropology
  Radhika Rajkumar, CPCJ
  Emma Kern, Historical Studies
  Brittney Walker, Liberal Studies
  Lena Nowak-Laird, Philosophy
  Vidya Ravilochan, Philosophy
  Connor Smith, Politics
  Sapna Desai, Psychology
  Michael Endrias, Psychology
  Agnes Stachnik, Psychology
  Luis Meiners, Sociology
  Narges Zahedipoor, Sociology
- Departmental and NSSR Student Associations
  
  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]
  President/Speaker: Fania Noel
  Secretary: Sapna Desai
  Treasurer: Niki Gala
  Anthropology Student Association (ASA)
  Organizer: Grace Peacore
  [email protected]
  Economics Student Union (ESU)
  Organizers: Jessica Forden, Lark Lo, Madhav Tipu Ramachandran
  [email protected]
  Liberal Studies Student Association (LSSA)
  [email protected]
  Philosophy Forum
  Organizer: Oliver Golias
  [email protected]
  Union of Political Science Students (UPSS)
  Organizers: Aditi Dey, Esther Franke
  [email protected]
  Psychology Student Government (PSG)
  [email protected]
  Sociology Student Association (SSA)
  Organizers: Adam Brown, Luis Meiners, Narges Zahedipoor
  [email protected]
- Departmental Student Groups
  
  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 to women to talk about any kind of problem they are facing. It 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 increasing awareness, and reduces gender disparities in the field by providing resources and a network.
  Organizers: Jessica Forden, Lorraine Marsh
  [email protected]
- Interdisciplinary Groups
  
  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: Clover Reshad, Jochen Schmon
  [email protected], [email protected]
  New School Policy and Design for Outer Space (NS-PDOS) is focused on exploring the dynamics and distribution of egalitarian models of governance and design in all aspects of space exploration. As a chapter of SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space), an international student organization, we will draft and develop projects for further research into near- and distant-future design problems off-earth. Questions of space settlement governance, economy, existential risk, communications and information theory, and bioastronautics are probable prompts that we will explore as a collective.
  [email protected]
  The Colombian Students Group aims to develop an interdisciplinary dialogue with students, faculty members, and others to the enlightenment of circumstances related to the armed conflict, free trade agreements, human rights issues and the peace dialogues between the Colombian Government, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN), as well as general information about Colombia and its relation to the United States.
  
  Organizers: Aura Hernandez Cardenas, Jose Castiblanco, Isabel Arciniegas, Daniela Garcia Moreno
  [email protected]
  Afro and Indigenous Futures is a long-term project envisioned by the Liberal Studies Student Association and the Black Student Union, and open to all students at The New School. The project aims to center the work of Afro and Indigenous scholars, creatives, and activists to explore answers to the questions: What will a decolonial future look like? How can we cultivate a radically different relationship with the environment in the face of impending disaster? How can art engender liberating ways of knowing, imagining, and ultimately producing the world? And, if science and technology are part of modernity, and if modernity is historically colonial, how do we then think of decolonized relations with technology?
  Organizer: Colton Lee
  [email protected]
- Philosophy Groups and Workshops
  
  Philosophy Pedagogy and Professionalization Workshops aim to prepare 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 to facilitate 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.
  Organizers: Jacqueline Liu, Lena Nowak-Laird
  [email protected], [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]
  People in Support of Women in Philosophy is a group dedicated to the advancement of women and those who experience marginalization within the field of philosophy. Our group meets weekly to workshop papers, help members prepare for conference presentations and seminars, host guest speakers, and in general celebrate the work of our women and gender-non-conforming colleagues and mentors. Men are welcome and encouraged to take part as allies.
  Organizers: Zoe Cable, Rose Pelham
  [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. Through MaP’s network, students can exchange ideas on topics related to minorities and philosophy, meet and support peers, and learn from other philosophy departments.
  Organizer: Miranda Samuels, Rosa Wesley
  [email protected], [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: Agnese Di Riccio, Mithra Len
  [email protected]

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