New School News Summer 2022
Three years ago, The Special Olympics began a partnership with Parsons to engage BFA Fashion Design students in the creation of new uniforms for their athletes. Since the partnership began, students have developed innovative design ideas together with swimmers, powerlifters, ice skaters, runners, and more that allow them to perform to their fullest potential.
New Faculty Achievements from Across The New School Include Fellowships, Grants, and More
Over the years, professors and faculty members from throughout The New School have been awarded for contributions to their fields with prestigious grants, fellowships, and more. This year’s awards include two Fulbrights, a grant from the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and two Guggenheim Fellowships.
Alumni in the News:
Robert Glasper BFA Performance ’01 Kicks Off 2022 Blue Note Jazz Festival
Each June, Blue Note Jazz Club in Greenwich Village presents an array of renowned artists who have been integral to the history of jazz music across some of the city’s most iconic venues. College of Performing Arts alum Robert Glasper BFA Performance ’01 opened this year’s festival alongside some of his renowned musical peers with a free show in Washington Square Park.
Zuzanna Krzatala MA Liberal Studies ’19 Houses Ukrainian Refugees
The New School for Social Research presented the Robert H. Mundheim Medal to the Living Spirit to alum Zuzanna Krzatala, MA Liberal Studies 2019 during our 2022 Commencement. Zuzanna is a human rights activist living in Warsaw and a Senior Fellow and staff member of Humanity in Action Poland who opened her home to a Ukrainian family of seven this spring. The BBC covered her story in March.
The Legacy of Labor Activist Charles Kernaghan MA Psychology ‘75
For two decades, Charles Kernaghan spearheaded a string of highly publicized campaigns against child labor, corporate greed and sweatshop conditions, taking on companies including Nike, Target and Walmart. Using video footage and worker testimonials, he revealed dismal conditions at factories in Central America, China, Bangladesh and Jordan. Noam Chomsky and other activists have credited Kernaghan as the primary catalyst for the contemporary garment industry’s movement away from sweatshop labor.
At the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, three floors of metal cabinets house more than 550,000 glass plates recording astronomical data. One side bears the print of light from distant stars; the other side is marked with equations, arrows, circles, letters, and other notations by women Harvard hired to interpret the data. Blumenfeld set out to preserve the beauty and meaning of the marks, calling her art “Tracing Luminaries.”
Wes Jackson MA Media Studies ’13 Named President of BRIC
Wes Jackson will lead BRIC’s work shaping Brooklyn’s cultural and media landscape by incubating and presenting established and up-and-coming artists, creators, students, and media makers. Wes’ career began with producing concerts for Nas, The Roots, The Dave Matthews Band, The Fugees, and A Tribe Called Quest. His first venture, Seven Heads Entertainment, was a vanguard for progressive and community based Hip-Hop, launching the careers of Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Talib Kweli, El-P (Run The Jewels), Common, and others.
