Abstract

This article describes the place of philosophy at the New School for Social Research, one of the few academic institutions in the United States that specializes in continental philosophy, in particular phenomenology. The article traces the discipline’s importance for the institution from the founding of the New School in 1919, to the creation of the University in Exile in 1933, after Hitler rose to power, through the turbulent years of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when political radicals challenged the intellectual legacy represented by the few remaining refugee scholars on the faculty, and finally bringing the story up to the present day.During the 1950s, then again during the late 1970s, the university threatened to close Philosophy down for both administrative and academic reasons. In 1976, outside evaluators criticized the department for being too narrow, insisting that it offer students courses in the Anglo-American and critical theory traditions. Despite vigorous resistance from the old-timers, by the late 1980s the department had expanded its reach, without losing its commitment to phenomenology. Philosophy at the New School has since become one of the strongest graduate programs in the university.