Office of University Initiatives: Announcing the Four Thematic Leaders
A Message from Joel Towers, President and University Professor; and Richard Kessler, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Earlier this year, a message to the university community described four cross-cutting, multidisciplinary themes that The New School is uniquely positioned to advance through interdisciplinary research and scholarship. These prioritized, university-wide themes—Democracy and Culture, City Initiatives, Climate and Environmental Justice, and Technology—are driving change in the 21st century, and offer an opportunity for shared ground and convening themes for the university community. These thematic areas are critically important for students today and are areas in which we make important contributions.
As a first step in our work to elevate and integrate these thematic areas, we established an Office of University Initiatives led by Senior Vice President Jennifer Hobbs. The office will use gift and grant funding to develop a space and structure to support the university-wide thematic areas, contribute to the cultivation of internal connections and external partnerships, and strengthen the ways we bring together theory, research, and creative practice on our campus. Our goal is to spotlight the work of colleagues across the university; spark, and sustain connections; and accelerate and catalyze experimentation and critical thinking to address the defining issues of our time.
We have made progress in moving this work forward, and it is our pleasure today to announce the four distinguished faculty members—Panteá Farvid, Lara de S. Penin, Bhawani Venkataraman, and Zed Adams—who will lead the thematic areas. Pani, Lara, Bhawani, and Zed are recognized scholars in their fields who embody the highest standards for teaching and research, advancing our mission and vision through their capacity to inspire critical engagement with ideas and with the world. In their new roles, they are in the early stages of developing strategies to advance these intersecting themes across our university and beyond. They look forward to collaborating with our students, faculty, and staff on a range of projects and opportunities. You can read more about Pani, Lara, Bhawani, and Zed below.
We are excited about the ways that we will engage our campus in addressing these deeply important issues. We hope you will join us in thanking Pani, Lara, Bhawani, and Zed for their service to the university and congratulating them on their new roles. Please be on the lookout for more information about their work and the ways you can get involved.
Panteá Farvid (PhD), Associate Professor of Applied Psychology and Vice President, Democracy and Culture
This prioritized thematic area aims to deepen our capacity to house the robust ecosystem of ideas and diversity of opinions and experiences that make The New School an ideal place to educate the next generation of leaders for an increasingly urbanized and culturally diverse world, as well as a 21st-century democracy.
Pani is an Associate Professor of Applied Psychology at Eugene Lang College, in the Bachelor’s Program for Adults and Transfer Students (BPATS), and also teaches at The New School for Social Research in Graduate Psychology and Gender and Sexuality Studies. Trained as a social psychologist, she focuses on how power intersects with social, cultural, and political structures to shape the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational. Her research explores complex questions regarding identity, power, culture, and the future of intimacy, with a focus on mobilizing empirically driven social and political change. She is widely published in peer-reviewed journals, including a recent edited volume titled Sexual Racism and Social Justice (Oxford University Press). She has held numerous leadership roles at The New School (director of The Gender and Sexualities Institute, Chair of The Graduate Certificate in Gender and Sexualities Studies, Chair of Psychology in BPATS). She is the founder and Director of The SexTech Lab, a TEDx speaker, and a frequent media writer and commentator. She holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Lara de S. Penin (PhD), Professor of Transdisciplinary Design and Vice President, City Initiatives
This prioritized thematic area aims to consider urban centers, studies, policies, technology, and design, and will support initiatives that engage with the complexities of urban life, understand the city as place, and foster the connections that lead to learning, collaboration, and future-making.
Lara is a Professor of Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons School of Design. She served as Director of the Transdisciplinary Design MFA, Chair of the Faculty Senate, co-chair of the university’s strategic planning process, and co-founder of the Parsons DESIS Lab, leading collaborations and initiatives across institutions and sectors, locally and internationally. Trained as an architect, urbanist, and designer, her research and practice bring a critical perspective to dominant city models that reproduce exclusion and inequality, examining how the service economy, labor, and infrastructures of daily life shape the city as an arena for spatial, social, and environmental justice. Her current work addresses housing justice, access to services, participatory practices, and the precarity and dignity of urban service workers. She is the author of An Introduction to Service Design (2018; 2026), editor of The Disobedience of Design (2021), and co-editor of the Service Design Handbook (2026). She holds a PhD in Design from Politecnico di Milano University, Italy.
Bhawani Venkataraman (PhD), Associate Professor of Chemistry and Vice President, Climate and Environmental Justice
This prioritized thematic area aims to connect innovative design, science, policy, technology, and knowledge solutions to create a just transition to a climate resilient future.
Bhawani is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Eugene Lang College. Her research centers on chemical education and science communication, with a focus on environmental issues. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and is the author of the book, Paradox of Water: The Science and Policy of Safe Drinking Water. Her current projects include developing educational modules for the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute, working on a climate communication initiative for the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, and serving on the Higher Education Working Group of the National Collaborative on Food-Energy-Water Nexus Education. She has served on college and university committees, was Chair of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics department and Lang’s Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and co-led The New School’s proposal for a Center for Climate Solutions on Governors Island. In her teaching, she aims to make the invisible scale of chemistry visible through social and environmental issues. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from Columbia University.
Zed Adams (PhD), Associate Professor of Philosophy and Vice President, Technology
This prioritized thematic area aims to expand our understanding of digital tools, communication platforms, and industrial technologies, and consider the learning and knowledge that is required to direct the transformative capacities of tools and technologies toward social and environmental good.
Zed is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research. He works on issues at the intersection of philosophy of technology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of art. In 2020, he co-founded the Institute for Philosophy and the New Humanities (IPNH), an interdisciplinary collaboration between The New School, the University of Bonn, and the Kyoto Institute of Philosophy. The IPNH organizes seminars and talks that draw upon the humanities as a resource for thinking critically about the transformative effects of technology on society. He is currently working on a book on the aesthetics and politics of sampling in early 90s hip hop. He is the author of On the Genealogy of Color: A Case Study in Historicized Conceptual Analysis and the co-editor of Giving a Damn: Essays in Dialogue with John Haugeland. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago.