• Politics Portraits

    Politics

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        General Admission Contact
        The New School for Social Research
        Office of Admission
        79 Fifth Avenue, 5th floor
        New York, NY 10003
        212.229.5600 or 800.523.5411
        [email protected]

        Admission Liaison
        Lygia Giorgiou

        Department of Politics
        6 East 16th Street, room 711A
        New York, NY 10003
        Phone: 212.229.5747 x3090
        Fax: 212.229.5473

        Mailing Address
        79 Fifth Avenue, room 711A
        New York, NY 10003 

        Chair
        Mark Frazier

        Senior Secretary
        Aaron Neber

        Student Advisor
        Dion Nania

        Politics Student Handbook

        Admission Links

    • The Department of Politics specializes in critical, historical, and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of politics. Faculty and students bring the leading edge of scholarly debate and analysis into conversation with pressing issues of our time. Together, we engage in political and intellectual life at the university, throughout New York City, and as a part of extensive global research networks.

      The Department of Politics curriculum represents five major fields of study: political theory, American politics, comparative politics, global politics, and political economy. Faculty and students pursue projects across fields in courses that reflect our faculty’s main areas of research in contemporary and historical context, including:

      • Democracies in theory and practice
      • History of political thought
      • Political economy and capitalism
      • Mobility and migration
      • Social movements
      • The Anthropocene and political ecology
      • Laws, rights, and constitutions

      The MA is an immersive two-year experience that leads students to both top doctoral programs as well as careers in policy, government, and NGOs. The selective PhD program is home to award-winning students whose scholarship, public writing, and activism often go hand in hand.

      Workshops and events are an important and regular part of departmental intellectual life. They include the Politics Speaker Series, the Theory Collective, the Global Politics Workshop, and the Comparative Politics Initiative. Faculty also help lead interdisciplinary institutes, including the India China Institute; the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography, and Social Thought; and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, which provide important venues for students to engage with intellectual currents around the university. The Union of Political Science Students helps organize graduate intellectual exchanges and graduate student social life.

      Distinguished visiting scholars regularly join our faculty to assist with dissertation supervision and other student work. Faculty members and closely affiliated faculty have included Hannah Arendt, E. J. Hobsbawm, Ira Katznelson, Charles Tilly, and Aristide Zolberg. Learn more (PDF) about becoming a visiting scholar.

      Politics Degrees

      The Department of Politics offers an MA and a PhD degree.

      Featured Courses

      Courses in Politics combine a deep theoretical framework of political ideas with real-world implications and applications on personal, national, and global scales. An interdisciplinary approach helps shape a better and more complete understanding of how politics work, why policies work, and where cutting-edge approaches might take us next.



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Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

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