New School Philosophers

The following list of philosophers from who completed PhDs at the New School is almost certainly incomplete. But it does show that NSSR philosophers are far from inactive. Indeed, the reason I have put together this list and posted it here is to counteract the common notion among NSSR grad students (at one time held by so great a mind as yours truly) that no one hires New School philosophers.

The New School does not, to my knowledge, publish any data of this sort. A good reason might be that the school does not want to play into the hands of the Leiter-Reportesque “professionalization” of the discipline. After all, one would like to believe that an education in the immortal things is not merely a commercial endeavor.

On the other hand, a more cynical explanation of the same phenomenon would be that the New School simply does not maintain such data. This seems likely as the administrative organization of the school is often conducted in the most ad hoc and cursory manner.

I have included only the information from the websites of the relevant academic institutions. For the same reason, the information is often incomplete. If I have omitted anyone or any important information, please let me know at humpj990@newschool.edu and I will make the relevant changes. I can also remove an institution, name, AOS, or year by request.

Bard College:
Adam Rosen-Carole
The nature and status of psychoanalytic knowledge, philosophy and the claims of suffering (pathos, pathology), political philosophy after Adorno and Derrida

Bishop’s University
Don Dombowsky

Boston University
Henry E. Allison
Aaron Garrett

Clemson
Bill Maker
19th and 20th century Continental Philosophy, especially Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche

Concordia
Pablo Gilabert

Gordon College
Lauren S. Barthold

Hobart and William Smith College
John Krummel (Ph.D.1999)
Comparative theology, Phenomenology, Heidegger, Kant, Nishida, Nietzsche, Mishima, Dostoevsky, Buddhist philosophy, Kyoto school philosophy, Existentialism, Post-modern thought, History of philosophy, Philosophy of religion, Death & Dying, Nihilism, Critique of modernity

Marquette University
James P. Flaherty
Classical American pragmatism and contemporary neo-pragmatism

Miami University
William McKenna
Phenomenology, Epistemology, History of Philosophy

Muhlenburg College
Marcia Morgan

Purchase College
Jared Russell
Philosophy, psychology, psychoanalytic studies

Penn State
Christopher Long (Ph.D. 1998)
Ancient Philosophy, Aristotle, Continental Philosophy, Critical Theory

Roanoke College
Monica Vilhauer
Ethics, social-political philosophy, feminist philosophy, ancient philosophy, and 19th and 20th Century European philosophy

Rochester Institute of Technology
Katie Terezakis (Ph.D. 2004)
Aesthetics, German Idealism, Political Philosophy and the history of philosophy

Sarah Lawrence
Roy Brand
Continental philosophy, modern and contemporary aesthetics, philosophy of film and new media, and trauma and popular culture

Seton Hall University
Judith Stark
Augustine of Hippo, feminist theories, and environmental issues

Siena College
John Blanchard (Ph.D. 2001)
Plato, Aristotle, pre-Socratic philosophy, metaphysics, Nietzsche, Heidegger, food and politics

Pablo Muchnik (Ph.D. 2002)
Kant, modern philosophy, and political philosophy

St. Johns Annapolis
William Jon Lenkowski
Matthew S. Linck
Stewart Umphrey
Michael Weinman
John F. White

St. Johns College Santa Fe
Anthony James Carey
Russell Winslow

SUNY Stony Brook
Megan Craig
Eduardo Mendieta

University of Alaska Anchorage
James Liszka

University of Louisville
Osborne P. Wiggins
Philosophy & Psychiatry, Phenomenology

University of Massachusetts Boston
Steven Levine

University of Northern Iowa
William W. Clohesy
Moral and political philosophy, German philosophy, American pragmatism, existential phenomenology

University of Windsor
Radu Neculau.
Social and Political Philosophy and in 19th and 20th Century European Philosophy

University of Wisconsin Green Bay:
Gilbert Null (Emeritus)

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Aaron Vlasak
History of Ancient Philosophy

The Old New School

NSSR students don't have space. They don't have a library. But things used to be really bad. According to John McCumber, who taught philosophy at the New School in the 80s, American philosophy departments in the 70s had largely removed traditional philosophical texts from their curricula as the result of a philosophical culture that had arisen during the McCarthy era.

Indeed, the dismissal of the philosophical canon from American philosphy departments McCumber writes, "provided another, more timely motive for anguish among the people who met in January 1978 in the Manhattan apartment of Charles Sherover, a professor at Hunter College. An accrediting committee of the state of New York - its personnel supplied by the APA - had just visited the philosophy department at the New School for Social Research. The committee had recommended that the program be disaccredited, on the grounds that it was so far removed from he mainstream of American philosophy as to be overspecialized and sectarian." (Time in the Ditch 51)

Jefferson's Private Library

The Library of Congress, the oldest federal institution in the United States (founded in 1800), was destroyed by the British in 1814. The collection was reestablished with the purchase of Thomas Jefferson's private library in January 1815. According to the LOC, "Jefferson's collection contained 6,487 volumes in the fields of politics, history, science, law, literature, fine arts, and philosophy and was recognized as one of the finest private libraries in the United States."

At the time of the purchase, some members of Congress objected that the collection "was too philosophical, had too many books in foreign languages, was too costly, and was too large for the wants of Congress." Contra these opponents of the acquisition, others referred to Jefferson's proposition that "There is, in fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer."

This probably sounded rich coming from Jefferson. His interests included architecture, archeology, natural and speculative philosophy, religion, and of course Politics. His private library reflected this diversity. And as the years have passed, the weight of Jefferson's character have added to the historical importance of the collection. For example, Jefferson's copy of the Qur'an was used in the swearing in of Rep. Keith Ellison, the first muslim elected to Congress. (Washington Post 1/3/07)

On the basis of these considerations, I nominate Jefferson's library as a candidate for the Greatest Private Library in history.

Whistleblower Policy

An email from Bob Kerrey (May 4, 2009)

"Every member of the university community is encouraged to report suspected misconduct to his or her immediate supervisor, or in the case of students, to the office of student rights and responsibilities. However, we understand that this procedure is not always a feasible option and have heard concerns regarding the need for a neutral forum to report wrongdoing. For these reasons, we have implemented a whistleblower policy. "

Hmm... I wonder if we know anyone who has been abusing his power to the detriment of the community...

Thesis

The point of this blog is to provide resources for graduate students in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. I've noticed that after one year at NSSR, I have many pages of Calls for Papers, previous Ph.D.s who have jobs (similar to "placement" records provided by other schools), and places that regularly hire NSSR students as adjuncts. So I'm going to put it all here rather than to abuse my hard drive by saving everything in MS word.

I've noticed that compared to many other schools, NSSR has very few resources for current students. I won't speculate on the reasons for this but I think it is worthwhile to make what I have available to others. If you, dear reader, have something to add, please email me the details at humpj990@newschool.edu and I'll post it.