The New School for Social Research

The New School for Social Research, also known by the abbreviation NSSR, is an educational institution that is part of The New School. The school's dedication to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry reaches back to the university’s founding in 1919 as a home for progressive thinkers. The New School for Social Research explores and promotes global peace and justice as more than theoretical ideals. The New School for Social Research enrolls more than 1,000 students from all regions of the United States and from more than 70 countries.HistoryThe program was founded with the start of the college in 1919. In 1933, what became known as the University in Exile, had become a haven for scholars who had been dismissed from teaching positions by the Italian fascists or had to flee Nazi Germany. The University in Exile was initially founded by the director of the New School, Alvin Johnson, through the generous financial contributions of Hiram Halle and the Rockefeller Foundation. The University in Exile and its subsequent incarnations have been the intellectual heart of the New School. Notable scholars associated with the University in Exile include psychologists Erich Fromm, Max Wertheimer and Aron Gurwitsch, political philosophers Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss, social psychologist Everett Dean Martin, and philosopher Hans Jonas.