Press Release

THE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH LAUNCHES ZOLBERG CENTER ON GLOBAL MIGRATION
Launch Celebrated on March 5 with Address by Kenneth Prewitt: “What is Your Race? And Why Does the State Want to Know?”

NEW YORK, March 4, 2014 – Building on its position as a leader in challenging contemporary thought on the most pressing global issues, The New School for Social Research announces the launch of the Zolberg Center on Global Migration, under co-directors Alexandra Délano (Assistant Professor of Global Studies) and Miriam Ticktin (Associate Professor of Anthropology). The Center will provide a space for research and scholarship, policy debate, and discussion with activists and artists around issues of global migration and mobility, their economic impact, political consequences and their meaning for issues of citizenship and identity.

In addition, starting next fall the Center will form and fund working groups for faculty and students around areas of common interest related to global migration. “The Zolberg Center will put The New School at the forefront of important scholarly, policy and cultural debates around migration,” said William Milberg, dean of The New School for Social Research. “I look forward to the collaboration across academic disciplines, engaging new ideas, and inspiring scholarly debates the formation of this new center will surely bring about.”

Named for the late Ary Zolberg (1931 – 2013), Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research and pioneer in the fields of immigration politics, studies of ethnicity, and practices of integration, the Center will kick off with an emphasis in three areas: migration and mobility within the Global South; intersections of global migration and new forms of media and technology; and the transnational relationships between emigrants and their home countries.

Aristide R Zolberg (1931 – 2013) served as the Walter A. Eberstadt Professor of political science and historical studies at The New School of Social Research

The first opening event features an address by Kenneth Prewitt, the Carnegie Professor of Social Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, on “What is Your Race? And Why the State Wants to Know,” discussing his forthcoming book on racial politics surrounding the United States Census on Wednesday, March 5. Then, on April 10 the center will present Seyla Benhabib (Yale University) on “The Rights of Others and the Critique of Humanitarian Reason.” The final event will be a workshop on Memory and Migration, with a keynote on May 1st by Michael Rothberg and Yasemin Yildiz (University of Illinois) on “Citizens of Memory: Citizenship Between Holocaust Remembrance and Transnational Migration.”  Next Fall we will host the International Rescue Committee president David Miliband for a Q&A with Miriam Ticktin to discuss the question of refugees today. More details can be found on the Zolberg Center’s website. For further information please contact migration@newschool.edu.

The Zolberg Center welcomes participation from faculty and students from across The New School. The Center’s distinguished Advisory Board includes: Jonathan Bach (The New School for Public Engagement), Doris Chang (The New School for Social Research), Michael Cohen (The New School for Public Engagement), Victoria Hattam (The New School for Social Research), Andreas Kalyvas (The New School for Social Research), Laura Liu (Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts), William Milberg (Dean of The New School for Social Research), Christina Moon (Parsons The New School for Design), Fabio Parasecoli (The New School for Public Engagement), Jessica Pisano (The New School for Social Research), Andrew White (The New School for Public Engagement), Radhika Subramaniam (Parsons The New School for Design).

Founded in 1919,The New School was born out of principles of academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. Committed to social engagement, The New School today remains in the vanguard of innovation in higher education, with more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students challenging the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The New School welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and calendar of lectures, screenings, readings, and concerts. Through its online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence. Learn more at http://www.newschool.edu.