List of New School people

Alumni

World leaders

• Hage Geingob, 3rd President of The Republic of Namibia
• Shimon Peres, President of Israel, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
• Eleanor Roosevelt, political activist; First Lady; United Nations Human Rights Prize recipient

Academics

• Stanley Aronowitz, B.A., 1968, sociologist
• Nelson Barbosa, Ph.D., economist, ex Brazil's Minister of Finance
• Ruth Benedict, psychological anthropologist, author of Patterns of Culture
• Peter L. Berger, sociologist; co-author of The Social Construction of Reality
• Heather Boushey, Ph.D., economist
• Jean L. Cohen, Ph.D., political theorist
• Barbara A. Cornblatt, Ph.D., M.B.A., psychologist
• Uri Davis, M.A. anthropology, 1973
• Eugene Goossen, art critic and historian
• Richard Grathoff, Ph.D. 1969, sociologist
• Eduard Heimann, economist and social scientist
• Mady Hornig, psychiatrist
• Stephen Kinsella Ph.D., economist
• Abraham Maslow, psychologist, a founder of Humanistic Psychology
• Kevin Mattson, historian and political analyst
• George E. McCarthy, M.A., Ph.D., sociologist
• Sidney Mintz, anthropologist
• Franco Modigliani, Soc. Sci. D., economist; 1985 Nobel Prize in Economics winner
• Richard Noll, clinical psychologist and writer
• Ira Progoff, Ph.D. psychology, psychotherapist
• Uri Ram, Ph.D., sociology, the President of the Israeli Sociological Society
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt, III, Ph.D., economist
• Steven Seidman, sociologist
• Michael Wenger, M.A., Zen priest, Dean of Buddhist Studies, San Francisco Zen Center
• Ruth Westheimer, M.A. sociology, 1959, the first famous sex therapist, born Karola Siegel; known as "Dr. Ruth", German-American, also talk show host, author, professor, Holocaust survivor, and former Haganah sniper.
• Nelson Ikon Wu, M.A. art historian, author of ''Song Never to End''

Athletes

• Nate Fish, baseball player and coach
• Nicole Ross, Olympic foil fencer

Businesspeople

• Douglas Cliggott, chief investment strategist, JPMorgan Chase
• Stewart Krentzman, President & CEO Oki Americas, Inc.
• Dolly Lenz, New York real estate agent
• V Pappas, former chief operating officer of TikTok
• Bradford Shellhammer, entrepreneur and designer, founding editor of Queerty
• Brian Willison

Writers

• James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
• Anatole Broyard, writer, literary critic
• Mike Doughty
• Lorraine Hansberry, playwright, A Raisin in the Sun, youngest Drama Desk Award winner in history
• Andrew Hubner, novelist
• Travis Jeppesen
• Jack Kerouac, On the Road, forerunner of the Beat Generation
• Jamaica Kincaid
• Amy Kurzweil, cartoonist and graphic novelist
• Sam Lansky, author of The Gilded Razor and Broken People
• Paul Levinson, author of The Silk Code, Locus Award winner, Best First Novel, 2000, and The Plot to Save Socrates
• Leandra Medine, author of the blog Man Repeller
• Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather, two-time Academy Award Winner, including Best Screenplay
• Brother Sean Sammon, Superior General of the Marist Brothers
• William Styron, Sophie's Choice, The Confessions of Nat Turner
• Tennessee Williams, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
• Sean Wilsey, author of ''Oh the Glory of It All''

Designers

• Hector Luis Bustamante, actor and graphic designer
• Philippe Cramer, furniture designer
• Burton Miller, costume and fashion designer
• Herbert Muschamp, architectural critic
• Paul Rand, art director and graphic designer
• Will Wright, creator of ''The Sims''

Fashion designers

• Gilbert Adrian, costumer designer
• Bill Blass, President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities member; co-founder of Council of Fashion Designers of America
• Donald Brooks
• Angela Gisela Brown, former New York fashion designer, now known as Princess Angela of Liechtenstein
• Doo-Ri Chung, Swarovski's Perry Ellis Award winner
• Tom Ford, filmmaker and founder of the Tom Ford brand
• Prabal Gurung
• Lazaro Hernandez
• Marc Jacobs, fashion designer
• Elois Jenssen, costume designer for I Love Lucy
• Kevin Johnn, appeared on Project Runway
• Donna Karan, creator of the DKNY label
• Reed Krakoff, creative director of Tiffany & Co.
• Derek Lam
• Jillian Lewis, appeared on Project Runway
• Jenna Lyons
• Claire McCardell
• Raul Melgoza, fashion designer, former CE at LUCA LUCA
• Isaac Mizrahi, four-time CDFA award winner
• Zac Posen, fashion designer
• Sarah Phillips
• Patrick Robinson
• Narciso Rodriguez
• Lela Rose
• Behnaz Sarafpour
• Ebony Short, sewing manager for Baltimore Ravens
• Willi Smith, fashion designer
• Peter Som
• Anna Sui
• Kay Unger
• Carmen Marc Valvo
• Alexander Wang, fashion designer for Michelle Obama and Ivana Trump
• Jason Wu, artist and fashion designer

Models

• Gigi Hadid

Fine artists

• Kevin Appel, painter
• Rosemary Cove, sculptor
• Julio Rosado del Valle, painter
• Stephen Edlich, artist, known for his collages, sculptures, and prints
• Dorathy Farr, painter
• Jane Frank, painter, mixed media artist, sculptor, advertising designer, illustrator
• Adolph Gottlieb, painter
• Julie Harvey, painter
• Edward Hopper, painter
• D Hwang, sculptor and painter
• Jasper Johns, forerunner of pop art and minimalism
• Shirley Kaneda, painter, Guggenheim Fellow, National Endowment for the Arts Fellow
• Sol Kjøk, visual artist
• Dan Flavin, lighting artist
• Shigeko Kubota, vice chairman of Fluxus
• George Maciunas, founding member of Fluxus
• Yucef Merhi, visual artist and new media art pioneer
• Rob Pruitt, sculptor
• Norman Rockwell, painter; Presidential Medal of Freedom winner
• Gavin Spielman, painter and musician
• Roman Turovsky, painter and musician
• Julie Umerle, painter
• Storme Webber, interdisciplinary artist
• Ai Weiwei, filmmaker, installation artist and architectural designer
• Janise Yntema, painter

Illustrators and animators

• Peter DeSeve, illustrator and character designer
• Julia Gran, graphic designer and illustrator, children's book writer and illustrator
• Bessie Pease Gutmann, magazine and children's book illustrator in the early 1900s
• Hidekaz Himaruya, manga artist
• Joel Resnicoff, commercial artist and fashion illustrator
• Brian Wood, graphic novelist, illustrator, designer
• Dan Yaccarino, children's book writer and illustrator

Musicians

• Harry Belafonte, singer
• Burt Bacharach, composer
• Michel Camilo, Dominican pianist and composer
• Kelly Chen, Hong Kong singer and actress
• Myung-whun Chung, Korean conductor
• Bethany Cosentino, singer
• Danielle de Niese, Australian-American opera singer
• Ani DiFranco, American-Canadian singer-songwriter
• Mike Doughty, B.A. from Lang in poetry
• Bill Evans, pianist and composer
• Robert Glasper, jazz pianist and Grammy-winning R&B artist
• Larry Goldings, jazz pianist and organist
• Richard Goode, pianist
• Larry Harlow, M.A. in Philosophy, salsa pioneer
• Kakie, Filipino singer-songwriter
• Yonghoon Lee, opera singer
• Matisyahu, 2002, reggae artist, rapper, and beatboxer
• Brad Mehldau, jazz pianist and composer
• Murray Perahia, pianist
• John Popper, singer/harmonica player for Blues Traveler
• Jake Shears, vocalist
• Alex Skolnick, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Testament and the Alex Skolnick Trio
• Sufjan Stevens, MFA, creative writing, 2000
• Marcus Strickland, jazz saxophonist
• Roman Turovsky-Savchuk, composer, lutenist and painter
• Sean Yseult, bassist for White Zombie
• Daniel Zamir, Israeli saxophonist and singer
• Michael Zager, music producer
• Wallice, indie pop musician

Photographers

• David Attie, photographer
• Jill Enfield, photographer
• Ed Feingersh, photojournalist
• Ryan McGinley, photographer
• Steven Meisel, fashion photographer
• Stewart Shining, fashion photographer
• Marion Post Wolcott, photographer

Actors, directors, and producers

• Beatrice Arthur, theater and television actress, Tony Award winner, star of Maude and The Golden Girls
• Sean Baker, director of The Florida Project
• Harry Belafonte
• Richard ("Dick") Bernstein
• Derrick Borte
• Marlon Brando
• Vinnette Justine Carroll, playwright, actress, and theatre director
• T.V. Carpio, actress and singer
• Bradley Cooper, Academy Award-nominated actor
• Jean de Meuron
• Adrian Cronauer
• Tony Curtis
• Paul Dano, Little Miss Sunshine
• Matt Deitsch, film director and freelance photographer
• Deepti Divakar, Indian model, actress, writer, Femina Miss India World 1981
• Elisa Donovan, Clueless and Sabrina the Teenage Witch
• Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
• Peter Falk, B.A. political science, Columbo
• Stacy Farber, actress, former Degrassi: The Next Generation cast member
• Ben Gazzara
• Jillian Hervey
• Jonah Hill, Superbad, Academy Award Nominee Wolf of Wall Street, Moneyball
• Harry Hurwitz, film director and artist
• Adam Jasinski, winner of Big Brother 9
• Sun Lee, Miss Korea 2007
• Karen Maine, director and screenwriter, Yes, God, Yes, Starstruck (2021 TV series)
• Walter Matthau
• Charis Michelsen, actress
• Adam Pally, actor
• Lauren Patten, actress
• Joel Schumacher, film director and producer
• Kevin Smith, Clerks
• Rod Steiger, On The Waterfront
• Elaine Stritch
• Garrison True, actor
• Shih-Ching Tsou
• Rob Weiss, kicked out of film program
• Shelley Winters
• Rob Zombie, musician, writer and director

Politicians

• Medea Benjamin, political activist
• Johanna Contreras, acting executive of Ulster County, New York
• Kevin Parker, New York State Senator
• William Donohue, sociology, Catholic League president
• Millicent Fenwick, editor, politician, diplomat
• Abraham Foxman, director of Anti-Defamation League
• Alice-Mary Higgins, independent senator and member of the Irish Senate
• Janine Jackson, MA sociology, program director of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
• Ellen Johnson, MA political science, president of American Atheists
• Illir Deda, member of parliament of Kosovo and founder of The Alternative party.
• Tinga Seisay, diplomat, pro-democracy activist
• Yossi Sarid, M.A. political science, an Israeli Statesman and left-wing politician
• Vanessa Wruble, co-founder of The Women's March on Washington

Faculty

Past

• Janet Abu-Lughod
• Woody Allen
• Hannah Arendt, German-born American political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor
• W. H. Auden, British-American poet
• Jason Bateman, actor and director
• Seth Benardete
• Eugene Biel-Bienne, Austrian-born American painter
• Franz Boas, German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist
• André Breton
• Nathan Brody
• Laurie Halsey Brown
• William F. Buckley, Jr.
• Judith Butler
• John Cage
• Edmund Snow Carpenter
• Harry Cleaver
• Stanley Coren
• Henry Cowell
• Shai Davidai
• Agnes de Lima, Director of Public Relations
• Jacques Derrida
• John Dewey
• Stanley Diamond
• W. E. B. Du Bois
• John Eatwell
• Fritz Eichenberg, German-American illustrator and arts educator
• Millicent Fenwick
• Sándor Ferenczi
• Joel Fink, Associate Dean of Roosevelt University
• Marvin Frankel
• Betty Friedan
• Erich Fromm, German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist
• Robert Frost, poet
• Donna Gaines
• Alexander Goldenweiser
• David Gordon
• Hermann Grab
• Martha Graham
• Joseph Greenberg
• Aron Gurwitsch
• Jürgen Habermas, German philosopher and social theorist
• Michael Harner
• Marcia Haufrecht, actress, playwright and director, as well as a noted acting teacher and coach
• Robert Heilbroner, economist and historian of economic thought
• Werner Hegemann, German-born city planner, architecture critic, and author
• Ágnes Heller, Hungarian philosopher and lecturer
• Christopher Hitchens
• Eric Hobsbawm
• Karen Horney, German psychoanalyst
• Michael Hudson, economics professor
• Roman Jakobson
• Hans Jonas,, German-born American philosopher, the Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at the New School
• Horace Kallen, German-born American philosopher
• Ira Katznelson
• John Maynard Keynes
• Kenneth Koch
• Julia Kristeva
• Ernesto Laclau
• Emil Lederer, German economist and sociologist
• Emanuel Levenson
• Paul Levinson
• Claude Lévi-Strauss, chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de France, member of the Académie française
• Adolph Lowe, German sociologist and economist
• Ernest Mandel
• Everett Dean Martin
• Bohuslav Martinů
• Margaret Mead
• Jonas Mekas
• N. B. Minkoff, Polish-born American Yiddish poet, newspaper editor, and educator
• Piet Mondrian
• Sidney Morgenbesser
• Lewis Mumford
• David Neiman, Russian-born American scholar in the fields of Biblical Studies and Jewish history
• Reinhold Niebuhr
• Claus Offe, German political sociologist
• Frank O'Hara
• Elsie Clews Parsons
• Cipe Pineles
• Erwin Piscator, German theatre director and producer
• Richard Plant, gay Jewish emigre from Nazi Germany, taught German language and literature
• Rayna Rapp, feminist anthropologist
• Eliezer Rafaeli, Israeli founding President of the University of Haifa
• Adolph L. Reed, Jr., professor emeritus of political science
• Wilhelm Reich, Austrian doctor of medicine and a psychoanalyst
• Herman Rose, the professional pseudonym of Herman Rappaport, painter and artist
• Justus Rosenberg, Free City of Danzig-born literature professor
• Bertrand Russell
• Paul Ryan
• Jeremy D. Safran, Canadian-born American clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, lecturer, and psychotherapy researcher
• Albert Salomon, German-born American sociologist
• Meyer Schapiro, Lithuanian-born American art historian
• Alfred Schutz, Austrian philosopher and social phenomenologist
• Benjamin Shwadran, Mandatory Palestine-born Israeli author and professor of Middle Eastern studies
• Ali Shayegan, Iranian politician
• Leo Strauss, German-American political philosopher and classicist
• Sekou Sundiata
• Paul Sweezy
• G.M. Tamás
• Charles Tilly
• Thorstein Veblen
• Thomas Vietorisz
• Max Wertheimer, Austro-Hungarian psychologist
• Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, designer, writer, and educator
• Abraham Yahuda, Palestinian Jew, polymath, teacher, writer, researcher, linguist, and collector of rare documents
• Michael Zager
• Slavoj Žižek

Present

• Robert Antoni
• Andrew Arato
• Jonathan Bach
• Richard Barone
• Jay Bernstein
• Jane Ira Bloom
• Susan Cheever
• Michael Cohen
• Alice Crary
• Simon Critchley
• Siddhartha Deb
• Faisal Devji
• Robert Dunn
• Federico Finchelstein, Argentine historian and chair of the history department at the New School
• Nancy Fraser
• Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
• Mary Gaitskill
• Paul Goldberger
• Elana Greenfield, playwright and short story writer
• Nina L. Khrushcheva
• Marcel Kinsbourne
• Ron Leibman
• David Levithan
• Arun Luthra
• Vladan Nikolic
• Pippin Parker
• Austin Pendleton
• Frank Pugliese
• John Reed
• Miguel Robles-Durán
• Anwar Shaikh
• Christopher Shinn
• Arthur Storch
• Rory Stuart
• Eugene Thacker
• Scott Thornbury
• McKenzie Wark
• Renée T. White, sociologist
• Maya Wiley
• Reggie Workman
• Lana Lin
• Lani Adeoye, designer

Dorothy H. Hirshon Directors-in-Residence

• 2021: Sam Pollard
• 2020: Mary Harron
• 2019: Raoul Peck
• 2018: Sean Baker
• 2017: Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno
• 2014: Toni Dove
• 2013: Lynn Hershman Leeson and Benh Zeitlin
• 2012: Ramin Bahrani
• 2011: Guy Maddin
• 2010: Haile Gerima
• 2009: Jim Stark
• 2008: Cynthia Wade
• 2007: John Cameron Mitchell
• 2005: Laurie Anderson
• 2004: John Waters
• 2003: D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus