Between Ideals and Realities

An overview of the General Seminar on the legacies of the University in Exile

Last Wednesday, on February 26th, there was a special meeting of The New School for Social Research’s General Seminar, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the University in Exile. Three faculty members and three graduate students were asked to address a foundational question: “What is the meaning of The University in ...

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Between Ideals and Realities

Old School versus New School?

This is the prepared text of a presentation to the General Seminar commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the University in Exile. In his original email to the faculty panelists, Will Milberg asked (and I quote) "what is the significance of the University in Exile for the New School of tomorrow?” (and ...
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Reimagining Our Institution

This is the prepared text of a presentation to the General Seminar commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the University in Exile. Dr. Wagner-Pacifici draws our attention to two states of event: event as particle, and as wave. Event as particle may feel more conceptually intuitive: an event has a “shape” and ...
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The Mission and Structure of NSSR

This is the prepared text of a presentation to the General Seminar commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the University in Exile. The cleavage between the stated mission of NSSR and its structure is gaping. The focus of social research is necessarily on deep, long-term and perennial concepts and challenges. The parsing ...
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Experimentation in Tandem with Exile?

This is the prepared text of a presentation to the General Seminar commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the University in Exile. I’d like to take up Robin’s invitation to think about what exile signifies and to ask, as she does, what are the consequences of having institutionalized the very singular, exceptional, ...
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Exile as Event

This is the prepared text of a presentation to the General Seminar commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the University in Exile. I want to start with the concept of exile itself; exile understood as an event that was produced, one might even say mandated, by an Event with a capital E. ...
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Remembering Eric Hobsbawm on Oct. 25th, 2013

As the current Chair of the Historical Studies Department at the New School, in which Eric Hobsbawm taught for nearly a decade, I approached his memorial with a sense of both excitement and obligation. Institutions define themselves by legacies of excellence, and Hobsbawm embodied, all his own, such a legacy ...

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Remembering Eric Hobsbawm on Oct. 25th, 2013

Hobsbawm’s 20th Century: Closing Comments

Plus remembrances of former New School students of Eric Hobsbawm

I am honored to have been asked to offer closing words for this memorial event celebrating the life and work of Eric Hobsbawm. This is a New School event, and not by coincidence. As Dean of The New School for Social Research, I want first to thank Ira Katznelson, for ...

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Hobsbawm’s 20th Century: Closing Comments