Initiative
Many of the major social challenges of our day are international and interconnected: climate-induced migration, public health, the retreat of democracy, white supremacy and legacies of colonialism, the impact of social media on culture and politics.
The Henry H. Arnhold Forum on Global Challenges fosters the interdisciplinary thinking needed to understand the scope of these issues and develop policy solutions for them.
The forum initiates close collaborative research and public programming among New School institutes that work on global challenges. It brings together scholars from different disciplines and sponsors conferences and events on issues such as climate change,
threats to democracy, and global inequality, encouraging an interdisciplinary approach to global challenges and a cross-pollination of ideas in graduate student training.
The forum provides opportunities for collaboration between New School centers, scholars, and researchers, including research assistantships for graduate students engaged with forum topics. In addition, the forum supports individual faculty research projects,
in collaboration with the Provost’s Office of Research Support.
Each year, the forum adopts a special theme on which all activities focus, including the keynote Henry H. Arnhold Lecture and discussion series with leading speakers.
Program Highlights:
- "Ecology and Democracy in a World on Fire," with Jed Purdy, April '25 (livestream)
- "A Conversation on Adam Phillips' Work," with Adam Phillips and Paul Kottman, May '24 (livestream)
- "On Getting The Life You Want: Psychoanalysis with Pragmatism," with Adam Phillips, May '24 (livestream)
- "A Violent Democracy: White Supremacy, Black Resistance, and American Politics," March '23 (details)
- "American Democracy in Crisis: Tocqueville, Douglass, Wells, Dewey, Arendt," October '22 (livestream)
- "Why Is Democracy in Decline?," November '22 (details)
To learn more, contact [email protected].