NEW SCHOOL HISTORY

This is the hour for the experiment; and New York is the place, because it is the greatest social science laboratory in the world and of its own force attracts scholars and leaders in educational work.”
—proposal for The New School, 1918

In 1919, a few unconventional thinkers, including historian Charles Beard and philosopher John Dewey, imagined an educational venue where they could discuss ideas without censure. They published a brochure listing their lectures and opened The New School to all “intelligent men and women.” America’s first university for adults was formally named The New School for Social Research in 1922 and offered a curriculum that emphasized the social, political, economic, and educational issues of the time. The celebrated scholars who taught in the first few years included Lewis Mumford, Bertrand Russell, and Felix Frankfurter.

The second division of The New School, the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science (now known as The New School for Social Research), was founded in 1934. It was also home to the University in Exile, conceived in 1933 by New School President Alvin Johnson to provide a haven for European intellectuals and artists endangered by Hitler and Mussolini. Notable scholars including Hannah Arendt, Franco Modigliani, and Max Wertheimer spent time here in the years surrounding the war. With the establishment of the Graduate Faculty, The New School became a degree-granting university, and in 1943 it began granting BA degrees to meet the educational needs of returning World War II veterans and other adults. The tradition of adult education, both noncredit and degree, continues today at The New School for General Studies.

In 1964, the J.M. Kaplan Center for New York City Affairs was founded as the first U.S. academic institution devoted to studying a single metropolitan area. The Kaplan Center evolved into the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy (now Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy) in 1975. That same year, a full-time, undergraduate liberal arts program was also established. The division was renamed in 1985 to acknowledge the support of educational philanthropist and New School trustee Eugene M. Lang and is now known as Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts.

The arts have featured significantly in the university’s history. During the 1930s, Martha Graham taught dance; Aaron Copland, music; Berenice Abbot, photography; and Frank Lloyd Wright, architecture. In 1940, exiled stage director Erwin Piscator launched the Dramatic Workshop, which featured faculty members Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler and included students Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando. Today, the university boasts four schools devoted to excellence in the arts:

• Parsons School of Design (now Parsons The New School for Design) became the fourth major academic division of The New School in 1970. Founded in 1896, Parsons has long been one of the nation’s leading colleges of art and design.

• New York City conservatory Mannes College of Music (now Mannes College The New School for Music) attracts students from around the world who wish to study classical music with professional musicians at the top of their fields. Founded in 1916, Mannes joined the university in 1989.

• The legacy of the Dramatic Workshop was revived in 1994 when the university established a graduate school of dramatic arts. The New School for Drama offers training in acting, directing, and playwriting.

• The fruit of the university’s long association with the cultural avant-garde of New York City, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music is the university’s eighth division. Established in 1986, it offers a BFA in jazz performance and a five-year BA/BFA degree in collaboration with Eugene Lang College.

In 2005, the university was officially named The New School—as fresh today as it was in 1919. President Bob Kerrey has ensured that the “new” in the name continues to signify educational innovation as he leads a major transformation and expansion of The New School’s academic programs and global outreach.