(New York, NY - November 4, 2004) New School University announced that it has received two significant gifts towards new initiatives related to the challenging issue of globalization. The Starr Foundation has given a grant of $10 million - the largest foundation gift in the University’s history - to establish the India China Institute (ICI). Bernard L. Schwartz, Chairman and CEO of Loral Space & Communications, Ltd., has made New School University a gift of $3.7 million to establish the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and to endow The Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of Economics and Policy.
“We are very grateful to The Starr Foundation for this $10 million grant and to The Bernard and Irene Schwartz Foundation for its $3.7 million gift,” said New School University President Bob Kerrey. “One of the things I came to recognize as a member of the 9-11 Commission is that: the homeland is the planet. Our safety, success, and well-being in the United States are inextricably linked to the safety, success, and well-being of people around the globe. The Starr Foundation’s funding of the India China Institute is fundamentally important for collaborative work among scholars and policy-makers here at The New School and abroad. And, the Schwartz Center, with its focus on the development of U.S. economic policy in a global context, enhances the breadth and depth of our resources at the University.”
New School University is expanding its international programming, and these two gifts will add significantly to the University’s mission of creating a progressive and multilateral vision of the global forces affecting all of us. These new efforts will build upon the University’s existing programs and initiatives, including the Graduate Program in International Affairs, the World Policy Institute, the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies, and the Center for Immigration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship.
In addition, the University has strong ties to the world community through its students. International students now account for 22% of New School University’s degree seeking students, and they come from 109 countries around the world.
The new India China Institute will focus on the relationship between India, China and the United States. An annual Summer Institute in New York City will bring intellectuals, cultural practitioners, policy experts, politicians, journalists, and entrepreneurs from India and China to meet their counterparts from the United States and other parts of the world, including Latin America, Europe, and Africa. The resulting workshops and roundtables will be on issues at the forefront of the globalization, such as trade and finance; urban policy and real estate development; media and popular culture; the politics of democracy and development; and technology.
The India China Institute will be led by Arjun Appadurai, New School University Provost, and Benjamin Lee, Dean of the New School University’s Graduate Faculty. Both are eminent and well-respected academics who have relationships with scholars, private sector leaders and public figures in China, India and the United States. Drawing upon their experience in building networks in Asia for over two decades, the ICI will be the hub of an international network of institutions and activities that will deepen our understanding of global processes. The ICI will be supported by the latest in communications technology, and will create a circulation of people and information that will yield a variety of products, including up-to-the-minute, on-site cultural briefings and major policy statements. Students and faculty members from New School University will be encouraged to participate in ICI activities.
On announcing the new India China Institute, New School University President Bob Kerrey said, “There is a critical need for a three-way dialogue among the current and future leaders of China, India, and the United States. This very generous gift from The Starr Foundation allows us to begin to address this need in new and creative ways. We intend to use current communications technology to create an environment where political, education and business leaders from China, India and the United States can engage in on-going conversation and creative debate.”
President Kerrey added, “The New School’s Institute will reach beyond the publication of reports and analyses to ensure that there is practical application of its work. It will do so by engaging those who are or will become leading policy and decision makers to influence what is actually happening in China and India. The New School, with its unique traditions and distinctive academic leadership, is a perfect setting for such an institute.”
In recognition of the Schwartz Foundation’s gift, New School University’s Center for Economic Policy Analysis will be renamed the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. The Center will continue to serve as the research arm of the Economics Department of the Graduate Faculty and will continue to sponsor conferences, a regular Economic Policy Workshop series and the prestigious Irene and Bernard Schwartz Lecture. Past Schwartz Lectures were delivered by Amartya Sen on “The Content of Democracy,” Paul Krugman on “What Went Wrong” and Robert Rubin on “Policy Responses to the U.S. Recession.” Lance Taylor, the Arnhold Professor of International Cooperation and Development at the Graduate Faculty, will continue to serve as Director of the research center. Jeff Madrick, who holds this year’s NASDAQ Lectureship at the New School’s Graduate Program in International Affairs, will serve as the Center’s Director of Policy Research. William Milberg, Associate Professor of Economics at the Graduate Faculty, will serve as Program Coordinator.
The invigorated Schwartz Center aims to become a major source for academic research, information and debate on economic issues related to productivity, employment and income distribution. The new Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of Economics and Policy will play a central role in the Schwartz Center. It will concentrate on U.S. economic policy, always with a consideration of the global context in which the U.S. economy is situated. This year the Schwartz Center will focus on the issues of macroeconomic policy, job creation and labor market conditions, international trade, outsourcing and deindustrialization, and the future of the welfare state. The Schwartz Center has a series of working papers and conference proceedings, all available for download on its Web site www.newschool.edu/cepa. The conference proceedings are also published as books, and three such volumes are due out this year.
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About Arjun Appadurai
Arjun Appadurai, a highly regarded anthropologist and an expert on globalization, is Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs for New School University. Mr. Appadurai was born in Bombay, India and educated at the University of Bombay (Intermediate Arts), Brandeis University (B.A.), and the University of Chicago (M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Thought). He has had extensive teaching and research experience. Prior to joining New School University, he was William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Yale University, where he also served as director and chair of the Center on Cities and Globalization. Mr. Appadurai has received numerous academic honors, scholarships, and grants. He has been a distinguished lecturer at many academic conferences in Europe, India and the United States. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in India, South Africa, and the Philippines and is the author or editor of nine books (three additional books are in preparation) and more than 80 scholarly articles. In addition to English, he is fluent in French, Hindi, Marathi, and Tamil. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the boards of many scholarly bodies.
About Benjamin Lee
Anthropologist Benjamin Lee is Dean of the Graduate Faculty and a professor of Anthropology and Philosophy. He earned his B.A. in psychology at Johns Hopkins University, and an M.A. in Human Development and Ph.D. in anthropology, both from the University of Chicago. He has been the director for the Center for Transcultural Studies in Chicago; prior to his appointment at New School University, he was at Rice University where he had been professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies since 1995. He also served as director of the Transnational China Project at the James A. Baker Institute of Policy Studies at Rice University. From 1999-2001, he was a visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong in the Department of Comparative Literature.
About the Starr Foundation
The Starr Foundation was established in 1955 by Cornelius Vander Starr, an insurance entrepreneur who founded the American International family of insurance and financial services companies, now known as American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG). Mr. Starr, a pioneer of globalization, set up his first insurance venture in Shanghai in 1919. He died in 1968 at the age of 76, leaving his estate to the Foundation. The Foundation currently has assets of approximately $3.5 billion, making it one of the largest private foundations in the United States. It makes grants in a number of areas, including education, medicine, and healthcare, human needs, public policy, culture and the environment.
About the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis
Since its establishment in September 2004, the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis has already begun a lively program of research, conferences and workshops. In September, the Center sponsored a conference on the Future of the U.S. Pension System. This month, the Center created five Research Working Groups around the main theme. The Groups will be led by Taylor, Milberg, Madrick, Professor Willi Semmler of the Graduate Faculty, and Professor David Howell of the Milano Graduate School. Each Research Working Group will be supported by graduate student Research Assistants and policy experts from outside the New School. This year’s team of Research Assistants includes Rudi Armin, Ravi Bhagirathan, Giammario Impullito, Melissa Mahoney, Markus Schneider, and Luca Zamparelli. In addition to these new activities, the Center holds a Ford Foundation grant to study the impact of globalization on the macroeconomic conditions and income distribution in developing countries (directed by Lance Taylor). The Global Clearinghouse (directed by Barbara Samuels) provides information on investment conditions and regulations to many developing countries.
About New School University
New School University, with 7,200 matriculated students and 20,000 continuing education students, is a New York City university committed to critical scholarship, artistic integrity, and ethical responsibility in the social sciences, humanities, the arts and design. It is comprised of a liberal arts foundation of three schools: The New School, Eugene Lang College and the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, and five professional schools: Parsons School of Design, Mannes College of Music, Actors Studio Drama School, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and New School University Jazz. New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online courses in the nation. For further information on New School University, call (212) 229-5600 or visit the Web site at http://www.newschool.edu.