Welcoming T. Alexander Aleinikoff as the Next Dean of The New School for Social Research
A Message from Dr. Renée T. White, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
I am delighted to announce that Alex Aleinikoff has been appointed the next Dean of The New School for Social Research. He will begin July 15, 2023 at the conclusion of Will Milberg’s term in the role.
Many of you already know Alex, who joined The New School in January 2017. He currently serves as Director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility and is a University Professor at NSSR. Alex has written widely in the areas of immigration and refugee law and policy, transnational law, citizenship, race, and constitutional law. His published works include The Arc of Protection: Reforming the International Refugee Regime (Stanford Univ. Press, 2019), which he co-authored with Leah Zamore, and Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship (Harvard Univ. Press, 2002). Alex is also a co-author of leading legal casebooks on immigration law and forced migration.
Before coming to The New School, Alex held the position of United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees (2010-15). He served on the faculties of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he also served as Dean and Executive Vice President for Law Center Affairs, and at the University of Michigan Law School. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on immigration and refugee law and policy and an interdisciplinary course on “boundaries and belonging.” Alex was Co-Chair of the Immigration Task Force for President Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008. From 1994 to 1997, he served as the general counsel, and then executive associate commissioner for programs, at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Alex was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014. He holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from the Yale Law School.
Alex is a proven leader with a rich scholarly background in the social sciences, who brings with him a deep knowledge of NSSR, The New School, and higher education. He is poised to guide NSSR towards a robust future of continuing excellence in the field of interdisciplinary graduate education. As Alex shared, “I came to NSSR aware of its history, reputation, and commitments to critical scholarship and the pursuit of social justice. My admiration for the faculty, students and staff has continued to grow over these past half dozen years. I now welcome the opportunity to help NSSR navigate through the next several years—carrying forward the strengths of the past while thinking in creative and progressive ways about its role in The New School of the future.”
To effect a smooth transition, Will Milberg has graciously agreed to my request to continue as NSSR Dean through July 15, 2023, and will work closely with Alex as he assumes the role. The university is deeply grateful to Will for his exemplary and steady leadership of NSSR for the past decade. After a well-earned sabbatical next year, he will return to full-time teaching and research in the Department of Economics at NSSR and Lang.
Our thanks go out to everyone who was engaged in the search process, especially the members of the Search Committee (list provided below)—a group of faculty, staff, and students who devoted much time and effort to ensure that the search process was far-reaching, participatory, and rigorous. We are very pleased with the outcome, and look forward to officially welcoming Alex into his new role.
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NSSR Dean Search Committee Members
Christoph Cox, Co-chair, Dean, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts
Alice Crary, Co-chair, University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research
Jay Bernstein, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research
Paulo dos Santos, Associate Professor of Economics, The New School for Social Research
Abou Farman, Associate Professor of Anthropology, The New School for Social Research
Mark W. Frazier, Professor and Chair of Politics, The New School for Social Research
Merida Escandon Gasbarro, Director of Graduate Admission, The New School for Social Research
Robert Kostrzewa, Vice Dean, The New School for Social Research
Desiree LaVecchia, Executive Assistant to the Dean, The New School for Social Research
Brice Lovell, Director of Development, The New School for Social Research
Inessa Medzhibovskaya, Professor of Liberal Studies and Literary Studies, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts
Joan Miller, Professor of Psychology, The New School for Social Research
Vidya Ravilochan, PhD student, Philosophy, The New School for Social Research
Lisa Rubin, Associate Professor of Psychology, The New School for Social Research
Julia Sonnevend, Associate Professor of Sociology, The New School for Social Research
Radhika Subramaniam, Associate Professor of Visual Culture, Parsons School of Design
Jeremy Varon, Professor of History, The New School for Social Research