Research Matters Turns Two

Believe it or not, Research Matters turns two full years old on July 2, 2017! Spend some time this summer reading stories from the 2016-17 academic year and send us your ideas about what to cover.

Whether you’re interested in radical feminism, heterodox economics, the psychology of voice, the enduring reach of colonialism, the sociology of events, or the philosophy of history (or want to see the latest in faculty publications at our bookshelf), Research Matters presents the best of faculty, student, and alumni work at The New School for Social Research.

What is an Event?” A New Book from Sociologist Robin-Wagner Pacifici

“It’s unusual for sociologists to study events,” says Robin Wagner-Pacifici. When describing her new book What is an Event? (University of Chicago Press), she explains that historians more often think about the implications of eventful, momentous, idiosyncratic, one-off episodes that stand out in narratives about the past.

Events like 9/11, the Great Recession, or the Paris Commune of 1871—all of which Wagner-Pacifici examines in the book—don’t fit neatly into sociology’s attempts to articulate general laws about societies. Indeed, they may look like exceptions to these laws, and Wagner-Pacifici characterizes a resulting “skepticism about the ways in which events reflect something enduring about society.” From this disciplinary perspective, What is an Event? might read like a departure from typical sociological research.

It does not, however, mark a departure from Wagner-Pacifici’s distinctive scholarship and longtime curiosity about how events help shape our understanding of societies more broadly. The University in Exile Professor of Sociology at The New School for Social Research says that she has always studied events, drawing from multiple disciplines in the process, precisely to discern what they might illuminate about social relations.

Wagner-Pacifici describes a growing realization about the usefulness of events during the process of writing her dissertation on the kidnapping and assassination of former Prime Minister of Italy Aldo Moro, subsequently published by the University of Chicago Press as The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social Drama. She says, “It struck me that I could usefully try to apply frameworks from other disciplines and other societies to contemporary events in large-scale modern societies.” In other words, a systematic study of the concept of events—the forms they take, why they feel exceptional, how they evolve, and how they weave themselves into ordinary life—can play a significant role in shaping how we think about the social world.

Pages: 1 2

New NSSR Award Recognizes Graduate Student Teaching

This past Spring term, the New School for Social Research created the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award to recognize the teaching efforts of its graduate students.

Students and faculty nominated 35 students for the award. Seven award winners were chosen from the nominees. The winners were lauded for their ability to connect complex topics to students’ lived experiences, provoke interesting and respectful discussion, while creating a dynamic and inclusive learning environment.

The 2015 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award winners are:

Malgorzata Bakalarz, Sociology
Martin Fagin, Psychology
Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi, Politics
Krista Johansson, Philosophy
Abid Khan, Economics
Hannah Knafo, Psychology
Brandon (Biko) Koenig, Politics

The award will be given annually and the winners recognized at the Dean’s Welcome Reception on Thursday, September 24th.

Institute for Critical Social Inquiry Announces 2016 Faculty Lineup

(text from The New School’s Marketing and Communications, Sep. 1 2015):

ICSI copyright Paulo SaludThis summer, The New School’s Institute for Critical Social Inquiry (ICSI), will launch its second year of Summer Seminars. Housed at The New School for Social Research (NSSR) in New York City, the ICSI, founded and directed by Ann Stoler, offers advanced graduate students and faculty from around the world a weeklong Fellowship in which they work closely with eminent scholars who have shaped how we think today.

The Summer Seminars will run from June 12-18, 2016 and will be led by Jay M. Bernstein (New School for Social Research), who will convene the seminar Of Masters and Slaves: Reading Hegel’s Phenomenology; Judith Butler (University of California, Berkeley), who will convene the seminar Freud to Klein: Death Drive, Pleasure, Ethics; and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Columbia), who will convene the seminar Why Marx Today?.

ICSIStudent_1688_PauloSaludCopyright_webBorn of The New School’s historic focus on exploring pressing contemporary issues, the ICSI is designed to cultivate a style of critical inquiry that applies conceptual care and innovation to real-world problems. ICSI provides a rare opportunity for young and seasoned scholars to re-immerse themselves in intensive graduate-level study with leading theorists in morning Master Classes and to workshop their dissertations and book projects in the afternoon.

“ICSI is founded on the premise that responding to current and emergent problems requires developing our collective capacities to formulate new and better questions, rather than relying on ready-made theories,” said Ann Laura Stoler, the founding director of the ICSI and Willy Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and Historical Studies at The New School for Social Research. Stoler is the author of a range of books on colonialisms, imperial genealogies, sexuality and race, most recently Imperial Debris: On Ruins and Ruination, as well as Duress: Concept-Work for Our Times, forthcoming from Duke University Press.

ICSI_061415_ICSI_Reception_Day1_72dpi_069

The application portal for the 2016 Summer Seminars opens Sept. 1, 2015 and closes Dec. 1, 2015. International scholars, especially those in the Global South, are encouraged to apply; scholarships and travel grants are available.

The 2015 inaugural cohort of fellows included PhD candidates, post-doctoral scholars, and junior and senior faculty from 17 countries who worked intensively in seminars led by Talal Asad (City University of New York), Simon Critchley (NSSR), and Patricia J. Williams (Columbia Law School).