At a time of heightened concern about freedom of speech—both within and outside the academy—New School New Books 2024 serves as a crucial reaffirmation of these rights, for everyone at the university and beyond. As an expansion of New School New Books: A Reading Series, first presented by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics in spring 2023, the second edition introduces the latest publications by New School faculty in a three-part collective reading event, starting at 10:30 with a performance and reading by Ahmed Abdullah, author of A Strange Celestial Road: My Time in the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Organized by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics and co-presented with the Creative Writing Program and the Office of Equity & Belonging, New School New Books celebrates recent publications by university faculty, centers, and institutes, across all five colleges. Curated around thematic clusters, nearly twenty authors assemble for a three-part series of readings and exchanges around a range of topics. Arriving from different fields and programs, they demonstrate the interdisciplinary and public-facing nature of New School scholarship. 

The readings are divided into three sections: Sustaining Environments (11–12:30 pm), Critical Counterpoints (12:30–1:45 pm), and Culture Capture (2:15–3:30 pm), with topics ranging from critiques of modern-day systems—the political, the academic, the medical—to the intersections between cultural production and identity.

The 2024 edition of New School New Books is presented in conjunction with Spitting Image Art Book Fair (March 22–23), a community exhibition and trading event organized by students of Eugene Lang College and Parsons School of Design, demonstrating the proximity between teaching and learning. With a focus on artists’ books, zines, and print ephemera, S.I.A.B.F. honors New York City’s DIY scene through the display of contemporary paperworks. The fair features selections from the VLC Fellows Library as well as other VLC publications.

View the full list of authors and their publications via the Libraries’ New School New Books 2024 guide.

Participants
Ahmed Abdullah, Ujju Aggarwal, T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Alexandra Délano Alonso, Ana Isabel Baptista, Ben Barry, Katayoun Chamany, Camonghne Felix, Alan McGowan, Natalia Mehlman-Petrzela, Marisa Morán Jahn, Kirstin Munro, Dmitri Nikulin, John Reed, Jennifer Rittner, R. Trebor Scholz, Helen Schulman, and Kelly Walters.

Hosts
VLC Assistant Director of Editorial Initiatives Re’al Christian, Senior Director/Chief Curator Carin Kuoni, and Curator and Director of Programs Eriola Pira.

Schedule

10–11 am Prelude

10–10:30 am Breakfast
Join us for coffee and croissants, co-sponsored by the Provost’s Office and The New School Libraries.

10:30–11 am Performance
A performance and conversation between Monique Ngozi Nri and musician Ahmed Abdullah (College of Performing Arts) on his new book A Strange Celestial Road: My Time in the Sun Ra Arkestra.

11–12:30 pm Session 1: Sustaining Environments
On the relationship between people and their built and natural surroundings. Host: Carin Kuoni.

Alexandra Délano Alonso, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, and T. Alexander Aleinikoff, New School for Social Research
New Narratives of the Peopling of America: Immigration, Race, and Dispossession

Ana Isabel Baptista, Schools of Public Engagement
Toxic Heritage: Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice

Katayoun Chamany, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts
“Resurrection Narratives: Seeds, Bodies, and Viruses” in Maria Thereza Alves: Seeds of Change

Alan McGowan, Schools of Public Engagement
The Political Activism of Anthropologist Franz Boas, Citizen Scientist

Kirstin Munro, New School for Social Research
The Production of Everyday Life in Eco-Conscious Households

12:15 Interlude
A brief reception and conversation

12:30–1:45 pm Session 2: Critical Counterpoints
Critiques of modern-day systems—the political, the academic, and the medical. Host: Eriola Pira.

John Reed, Schools of Public Engagement
The Never End: The Other Orwell, the Cold War, the CIA, and the origin of Animal Farm

Camonghne Felix, Schools of Public Engagement
Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation

Ujju Aggarwal, Schools of Public Engagement
Unsettling Choice: Race, Rights, and the Partitioning of Public Education

Ben Barry, Parsons School of Design
Fashion Education: The Systemic Revolution

Dmitri Nikulin, New School for Social Research
Critique of Bored Reason: On the Confinement of the Modern Condition

R. Trebor Scholz, Schools of Public Engagement
Own This!: How Platform Cooperatives Help Workers Build a Democratic Internet

2 pm Interlude
A brief reception and conversation

2:15–3:30 pm Session 3: Culture Capture
On overlaps and intersections between cultural production and identity with an emphasis on making labor within creative industries visible. Host: Re’al Christian.

Marisa Morán Jahn, Parsons School of Design
Design and Solidarity: Conversations on Collective Futures

Helen Schulman, Schools of Public Engagement
Lucky Dogs: A novel

Natalia Mehlman-Petrzela, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts
Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession

Kelly Walters, Parsons School of Design
Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race

Jennifer Rittner, Parsons School of Design
The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Reflection & Expression

3–4:30 pm Artist Book Talk | Spitting Image Art Book Fair
Wollman Hall, 56 W 11th St, New York, NY 10011

Spitting Image Art Book Fair convenes In Conversation with Chuck Magazine and Phase Zero: On the Curatorial & Collaborative Efforts of Creative Publishing. Hosted by Gabriella Acquafredda, BFA Communication Design / BA Writing ’26, Spitting Image Art Book Fair (Founding Member and Chief of Design Affairs); moderated by Camila Pernisco, BA Literature Studies ’25, Spitting Image Art Book Fair (Founder and Committee Chair). Participants include: Achilleas Ambatzidis, Parsons Fine Art ’22, Chuck Magazine (Co-Founder and Co-Editor); Maya Valencia, Parsons Communication Design ’23, Phase Zero (Co-Founder and Co-Editor); and Sydney Maggin, Parsons Communication Design ’23, Phase Zero (Co-Founder and Co-Editor).

3:30 pm Finale
A celebratory reception