+ Eligibility

This funding program is open to principal members of the full-time faculty, including those faculty with the following full-time appointments: tenure, tenure track, extended employment, extended employment track, and renewable term appointment. The program is also open to part-time faculty who are covered by the Local 7902 contract with post-probationary, annual, multi-year, or grandparented status and part-time faculty who are covered by the Local 802 contract with a minimum of 4 semesters of classroom appointments. Parsons Paris full-time faculty are also eligible.

Visiting faculty, faculty in the final year of a fixed-term contract, postdoctoral fellows, and university administrators are ineligible to apply for funding.

What kind of projects are eligible?

Applications to develop or implement a research project, a professional practice, or a creative project that requires travel, training, or other forms of support are eligible for FRF grants. See the full list of previously funded projects below to get a sense of those proposals that have received funding.

Funds are available for individual and for collaborative faculty projects; interdisciplinary proposals from teams of two or more faculty members from different fields, departments, or colleges at The New School are particularly encouraged. The FRF also continues to give priority to proposals from junior faculty and proposals for which external funding is planned or expected. For proposals involving more than one faculty member, at least one of the project investigators must have experience or a track record (demonstrated in the narrative and CV) in obtaining external research or project funding.

What kinds of projects are ineligible?

• Course development, public programs or events, conference attendance, or publishers’ subventions for already completed projects;

• University center and institute projects that already receive core funding from internal sources; Projects that have already received support from the FRF grant program.

Additionally, an applicant can only be the lead project investigator on one application to the FRF annually. Other core faculty listed in a proposal can be listed as part of the team for a separate collaborative proposal, however.

+ Application Process

Access the application form and fill in all required information. Once the form is completed, please submit your application by 5:00 p.m. EST on the second Friday in March each year.

A group of finalists is selected after an initial review of applications received. The finalists may be asked for more detailed information about their projects. For applications submitted by teams of faculty, one person must be identified as the principal contact person.

A blank copy of the FRF application form can be found here.

Application Checklist

• Completed application form
• References (at least one reference must be submitted with your application)

Timeline

• Application deadline: Second Friday in March
• Awards announced: Mid-May
• Earliest start date for funded projects: July 1st each year
• Completion date for funded projects: June 30th following year

+ Selection Criteria

• A group of faculty researchers will be invited to form the selection committee by the Office of Research Support. Faculty participants will typically be selected from the membership of the University Research Council. The proposed composition of the committee in the first round is eight faculty members but additional faculty, staff, and students may be invited if additional project-relevant expertise is needed or if the volume of applications leads to the need for a larger committee.
• Selection criteria may vary in each round depending on the range and number of applications received, but typically all the annual funds will be awarded in the spring semester of each competition.
• Your description of the proposed project/activities should allow a selection committee to evaluate:
  • The project’s goals, including its importance and originality
  • The project’s methods, including its rigor
  • The anticipated outcomes of the project and its potential for broader impact
  • The feasibility that the plan can be carried out in the given time frame and budget as described in this application
  • The extent to which the project advances or is consistent with the university’s mission (https://www.newschool.edu/about/mission-vision/)
• The committee considers the range of fields that any set of awards represents as they make their decisions, and the range of applications from all research, broadly defined.
• There is no cap on the percentage of research projects that can be supported in any one round or per year, nor on which disciplines or colleges the work can represent; these may vary in each round depending on how many applications from which faculty and programs are received.
• But because this is a university-wide competition, the committee will consider the range of fields that any set of awards represents as they make their decisions, and they will consider the range of applications from all TNS researchers.

FRF Reviewer Rating Scheme:

• Goals: I understand what the applicant(s) are proposing to do and the argument behind this project's importance and originality.

• Methods: The applicant has adequately described the methods to be used and conveyed the project’s rigor.

• Feasibility: The project has a feasibly budgeted work plan or anticipated schedule of key project activities or tasks, as well as access to the needed resources (e.g., lab space, performance slot, equipment, etc.)

• Anticipated outcomes: The applicant has articulated the anticipated results or outcomes of this project, and there is potential broader impact and dissemination of results or outcomes to various audiences/stakeholders

• University mission: The project advances or is consistent with the university’s mission (whether or not addressed directly in proposal)

• Overall merit: The project is, overall, worthy of funding through the FRF program.

+ Awards for 2024-2025

Laboratory Lebanon: التالقي طنِوْمَ) Mawtin Al Talaki) Territory is a Meeting Place This research-based creative project takes shape through collaborative storytelling events in Lebanon where individuals experiencing displacement work alongside local artists, activists, and scientists to produce a series of site-specific public artworks centered around the طنِوْمَ) mawtin)—an entwined understanding of home and habitat. We explore cohabitation in ways that are propositional and speculative, questioning the given nature of society while actively pursuing possibilities for change. Under Principal Investigator Barbara Adams, Parsons School of Design.

Graphical Literacy to Navigate Through Misinformation This exploratory study aims to assess young adults' ability to interpret graphs, focusing on their aptitude in identifying deceptive visuals across public platforms. Additionally, it investigates how prior beliefs affect their understanding of graphs related to social and environmental issues, exploring the role of confirmation biases. This research seeks to enhance graph literacy among young adults, fostering critical thinking in navigating complex information landscapes. Under Principal Investigator Debasmita Basu, Eugene Lang College.

Collective Fabulation, Walking With Collective Fabulation, Walking With is participatory research through collaborative activities and exchanges among Indigenous and nonindigenous people for co-creating imaginaries toward greater equity, justice, and planetary health. This research is a series of transnational walks and gatherings that rely on methodologies of expanded ethnography and collective world making through cinematic storytelling. Under Principal Investigator John Bruce, Parsons School of Design.

Bone Valley Bone Valley is an experimental short docufiction film about the environmental and economic consequences of a radioactive strip mine in Central Florida. The story will follow the struggle of a young heiress to divest from her family’s legacy steeped in environmental exploitation and untaxed wealth, and is based on real-world legal proceedings that have unfolded over the past fifteen years. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Mike Crane, Lang College.

The Little Hell The Little Hell is a book of my photographs and ongoing research on colonialism, sexuality, and performance at an ancient site in my native country of Colombia. My project uncovers writings about dance by European missionaries and explorers. This experimental publication will consist of critical texts and images that analyze how racist legacies of the colonial gaze continue to reverberate in the present. Under Principal Investigator Camilo Godoy, Eugene Lang and Parsons School of Design.

Myself When I Am Real Set in the year 2000, MYSELF WHEN I AM REAL is a narrative feature film about a single mother and her teenage daughter who struggle to make friends and find belonging in a small Wisconsin town. The film explores otherness, identity, and assimilation from the contrasting perspectives of childhood and adulthood. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Angeline Gragasin, Parsons School of Design.

The Sound We Make Together The Sound We Make Together is a multichannel sound installation based on recordings of participant’s responses to prompts and questions (as well as archival selections) about gender that centers transgender and non-binary experience. This project will also address the current wave of anti-trans political violence in the United States. Under Principal Investigator Jonah Groeneboer, Parsons School of Design.

COVID-19 and the Geographies of Care: Examining the Transformation of Caregiving Infrastructures in Immigrant Queens The Covid-19 pandemic made visible multiple crises, few more acutely felt in everyday life than the crisis in the infrastructures of caregiving. In this project, we examine how the pandemic changed the spatial dynamics of caregiving in Latino immigrant communities in the four New York City neighborhoods most affected in terms of infection and mortality: Woodside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona. Under Principal Investigator Joseph Heathcott, School of Public Engagement.

Our mothers, our water, our peace Our mothers, our water, our peace reflects upon Atlanta Asian communities’ resilience and love, in response to the escalation of Asian hate crimes during the pandemic, followed by the 2021 Atlanta Spa Shootings. A constellation of 150 glass vessels will be housed amongst the Atlanta Asian communities, intertwining as one installation of echoing and poetic nodes mapping grief and love. Under Principal Investigator Gyun Hur, Parsons School of Design.

New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium This is the 13th year of The New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium, a weekly lecture series for artist/writers working in various text-image forms: comics, picture-stories, animation, etc. at which to present and critique current work open to students and the public. Participants are practitioners, critics and historians from around the world. Lectures and follow-up discussions consider new models for the sustainable creation and distribution of text-image work. The Symposium offers an ongoing place to learn and think about the traditions and future of text-image work. Thousands of viewers participate through live in-person events and videos posted online. Under Principal Investigator Ben Katchor, Parsons School of Design.

How to Live with Solastalgia “Solastalgia” is a term coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht to describe the existential melancholy induced by environmental change. This collaborative project will address the material and psychic dimensions of loss as they pertain to multispecies co-existence and co-dependencies under the effects of climate catastrophe. Under Principal Investigator H Lan Thao Lam, Parsons School of Design.

Alliance on Creatives and AI: Co-Design Research Project This research aims to develop an activist-learning community of creative professionals in the age of generative AI. By evolving the digital community (http://creativitywith.ai), investigators will conduct participatory design research activities that will result in an AI toolkit to address accessibility, diversity, and creative AI tools and processes to be used in interdisciplinary contexts across governance, commercial, and education. Under Principal Investigator Jeongki Lim, Parsons School of Design.

Can a Self-Driving Car Navigate an Apartheid Road? "Can a Self-Driving Car..." is a video essay that explores the employment of photographic media in systems of algorithmic governance, specifically in self-driving cars navigating the segregational Israeli road system in Palestine. As machine learning systems are increasingly trained using biased, flawed, and limited data, this project asks how the knowledge produced by such systems represents the intricate relationship between technology, mobility, and politics. Under Principal Investigator Shabtai Pinchevsky, Parsons School of Design.

An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Bees and Beekeeping in Ghana Through Science and Design For my fall 2024 sabbatical, I am planning a collaboration with Peter Kwapong, Professor of Entomology and Director of the International Stingless Bee Centre at University of Cape Coast in Ghana, Africa. This partnership will unite at the intersection of design and science around project-based research. Under Principal Investigator Mark Randall, Parsons School of Design.

Racialization and Agricultural Work in France: International Action-Research Collaborations to Support Racial Equity and Strengthen Democracy This project examines racialization and agricultural work in France with a goal to inform policy for racial equity and democracy. It includes: literature review of scholarly work in French on agricultural/labor policy and race; international travel/meetings with research collaborators; submission of one journal article and funding proposals for longer-term research. Under Principal Investigator Kristin Reynolds, School of Public Engagement.

Reproducing Justice: Visual Activism in the Era of Roe v. Wade (1973-2022) “Reproducing Justice” is the first book devoted to the visual culture of the fight over reproductive rights in the U.S. This bitter culture war was fought largely on visual terrain, utilizing photographs of fetal remains, billboards of happy babies, coat hangers, images of women who’ve died from illegal abortions, and more. “Reproducing Justice” historicizes these visual strategies, suggesting future directions for activism to secure reproductive rights. Under Principal Investigator Rachel Schreiber, Parsons School of Design.

How To Be a Good Person in a Bad World A Brechtian fiction-documentary hybrid film that explores the impact of social media on contemporary cancel culture through the lens of the life and work of Bertolt Brecht and his Marxist argument that it is impossible to be a good person in a bad (i.e. capitalist) world. Under Principal Investigator Caveh Zahedi, Lang College.

+ Awards for 2023-2024

HOOPS Designed with residents of Chicago’s National Public Housing Museum, HOOPS is a colorful outdoor, multigenerational recreational space celebrating the braided history of public housing and basketball and other games. Imagine imbricated linework of a basketball court, hopscotch, and errant geometries drifting across the plaza, crawling up the museum’s architectural facade. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Marisa Moran Jahn, Parsons School of Design.

Algorithmic Management and National Institutional Mediations in the Global South: Labor Conflict at Amazon Warehouses in Latin America When powerful tech multinationals expand to developing countries, how do their precarious, anti-union work practices “transfer” or “translate” and how are conflicts conditioned through the agency of unions and state institutions of labor regulation? Research will explore struggles over algorithmic management in Amazon’s fast-expanding warehouses in Brazil and Mexico. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Scott B. Martin, Schools of Public Engagement.

Cut Me Summa Dat Noise Cut Me Summa Dat Noise is a short dance film celebrating the rhythms of life through the eyes of a neighborhood matriarch who sets the tone for a new day with the beat of her own heart. As the neighborhood awakens, people unite in a joyous cacophony that illuminates the connections between them as members of a vibrant community in rhythm. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Cara Hagan, College of Performing Arts.

Peace Like a River 강 같은 평화 "Peace Like a River" is a public installation commissioned by Flux Projects, reflecting on Atlanta’s history through water and the potential it holds for the future. Collected by community members, water from the rivers and creeks surrounding Atlanta will be held in glass vessels as a site of communal healing. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Gyun Hur, Parsons School of Design.

Fat/Sew: Making, Identity, and Fatness Fat fashion research has explored the exclusion and marginalization of Fat bodies by the fashion industry. To intervene in this context, some Fat people make clothing. We explore the relationship between making and wearing, by Fat sewers/wearers as they engage with fashion, dress, and identity. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Leila Kelleher, Parsons School of Design.

Attachment Security, Body Representations, and Fashion Practices in People Living with Physical Disabilities This study uses a multi-method approach to explore attachment and body representations in a sample of People with Physical Disabilities (PWPD). The study employs several state of the art measures from both psychology and fashion studies to explore aspects of body esteem, disability identity and fashion practices. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Miriam Steele, The New School for Social Research.

Neither Here, Nor There Neither Here, Nor There is an installation exploring human perception of the natural world from the perspective of several plants – sounds emanate from plants around a meeting table, placing viewers in an unknown conversational context only for them to later realize that plants are in discussion about humans and planetary politics. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Harpreet Sareen, Parsons School of Design.

The Architecture of Rough Crossings: Building Sierra Leone, A Free Black Colony During Slavery, 1791-1804 Sierra Leone was founded by Black British Loyalist refugees following the American Revolution during the still-booming enslavementeconomy. To establish the settlement, they set to work surveying land, constructing buildings, and erecting prefabricated wooden structures shipped from England. The colony’s architectural past conveys a unique perspective on Black Atlantic history. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Jonah Rowen, Parsons School of Design.

Millones de Maneras "Millones de Maneras” is a series of collaborative fashion events in Bogota, Colombia. At the heart is a community of indigenous, Trans Women of Colombia’s Emberá people. The aim, through their direct, ongoing consultation, is to identify innovative and unique fashion design outcomes. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Liliana Sanguino, Parsons School of Design.

Why is Wealth White? Why Wealth is White reveals how racism shaped federal tax policy in the United States, and how federal tax policy has sustained structural racism and remade white privilege, time and again, for over a century. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Julia Ott, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts and The New School for Social Research.

Care Practices, Methods and Infrastructures: A Transdisciplinary Curation The goal of this project is to identify, curate and develop resources and tools that will enhance the capacity of communities and organizations to prioritize care. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Michele Kahane, Schools of Public Engagement.

REMIX: Activating the Archive REMIX: Activating the Archive is a research project that includes two international research trips to Black cultural archives in London, England and Toronto, Canada. The project includes the development of new artistic prints (silkscreen + letterpress) inspired by found archival material. These new prints will be created while in residence at a printmaking studio and including in upcoming exhibitions. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Kelly Walters, Parsons School of Design.

+ Awards for 2022-2023

Will China Make a Difference? Comparative Assessment of Chinese and Global North FDI in the Maghreb Region This project will examine China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Maghreb region, with a view to compare and contrast with Global North circuits of capital and unequal exchange. It will assess whether the Chinese FDI undermines and/or reproduces global hierarchies. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Ying Chen, Economics, NSSR.

Mutual Aid and Migrant Solidarity This project explores the impact of migrant-led mutual aid projects that have emerged or expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. This multi-sited project examines how migrant organizations across the US-Mexico border have developed practices of mutual aid to respond both to the challenges exposed by the pandemic as well as the underlying structural conditions of inequality that affect both migrants and citizens alike. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Alxendra Delano Alonso, Global Studies, Lang.

"Striving to Thrive": Advancing the health and wellbeing of non-binary youth, through dynamic sociocultural, participatory, and publicly engaged research. Sociocultural, participatory, and publicly engaged research will be carried out with a diverse group of non-binary youth, in order to identify determinants of their health and wellbeing. The “push” and “pull” factors associated with daily experiences, identity development, relationships with peers and family, institutional interactions and access to services will be identified, in order to co-produce scholarly work, presentations, and educational resources for adults, schools, and the community. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Pani Farvid, SPE.

Betsy (working title) This project will conduct choreographic research toward the creation and premiere of BETSY, a new performance work that will employ written nonfiction text that situates the dance within the three-pandemic landscape of COVID, AIDS, and the also-ongoing pandemic of anti-blackness and racism. BETSY will thus continue my ongoing investigation of meaning-making. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Neil Greenberg, Arts, Parsons.

Repairing Damaged Worlds: Race, Inequality, and Landscapes of Abandonment This project investigates life in disinvested and deindustrialized landscapes in three metropolitan regions: Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Detroit. The goal is to understand how people engage in community building practices amid decades of racial discrimination, capital flight, and the withdrawal of public Services. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Joseph Heathcott, SPE.

The Ire of the Mountain: Tudja Zemlja This short documentary examines the emergent border-industrial complex in Northwest Bosnia-Herzegovina. Through a poetic and contemplative lens, it looks at how the foreclosure of asylum in the European Union and the ongoing militarization of the EU borders have impacted a small community on the so-called periphery, where thousands of arriving migrants face a dreadful impasse. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Amir Husack, Media Studies, SPE.

Sustainability and the Fashion Media: Spectatorship, Affect and Social Change My proposal is the first step towards a research monograph, which will be published by Routledge in 2025. The project aims to critically evaluate discourses on sustainability in the British fashion media (2015-2025). By tracing patterns of representation, I seek to identify practices of ‘greenwashing’ in the industry, as well as examining journalistic practice that holds more progressive potential, perhaps using fashion’s ‘newness’ to encourage sustainable approaches to styling the self. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Morna Laing, Parsons Paris.

You Can’t Say That: Examining Spaces of Supremacist Discourse This project focuses on performances and interactions of ‘woke’ shaming others’ language use, often expressed as “you can’t say that.” I examine these confrontations against supremacist language as incubators of progressive culture shifts, and will through empirical investigation and aesthetic intervention stage an exhibition that develops a pedagogy of discomfort. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Sam Meijas, Design Strategies, Parsons.

Grave/Grove Grave/Grove is a publication resulting from a series of my solo exhibitions of the same title. By considering the architecture of detention and dispossession, alongside life that thrives on the margins, in this book I propose that the condition of being othered is a radical precondition for political Possibility. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Sreshta Rit Premnath, Art, Medial and Technology, Parsons.

Agnes Heller: Philosopher, Dissident, Activist Documentary feature on the life and ideas of Agnes Heller, one of the most distinguished contemporary philosophers and one of New School’s most eminent professors. In her eventful life she experienced antisemitism and the Holocaust, Stalinist repression, academic freedom in Melbourne and New York, and political activism back in Hungary. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Helio San Miguel, Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons.

Instagram: as seen or as felt? Instagram content and its influence on body dissatisfaction, body image, and objectification in young women. We aim to understand how chronic consumption of Instagram content effects levels of objectification, body-dissatisfaction, and body-image in young women as mediated by parental representations. This project provides necessary insight into the psychological effects of Instagram on perception of body and self through meaningful, innovative, and interdisciplinary research. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Miriam Steele, Psychology, NSSR.

Shocking Red, A Musical Cycle created and performed by Kathleen Supové and Michelle Shocked, based on paintings of Mark Kostabi. Two musicians---one from classical avant garde, one from folk music, country, pop, rockabilly, and blues---together with paintings by downtown NYC icon Mark Kostabi will create an immersive music performance. A dramaturg will be chosen to help shape the work into a theatrical production. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Kathleen Supove, Music, CoPA.

+ Awards for 2021-2022

Imperial Ambiguities: Colonial Pasts in Germany’s Present My research seeks to understand how colonial reckoning is impacting Germany’s role as a global normative model for confronting historical injustice. It examines what it means for memory of colonialism to acquire a central status of “working through the past” alongside ongoing debates over National Socialist and East German pasts. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Jonathan Bach, Global Studies, Lang.

From PPE to UV: Sustainable solutions for safe reopening This project represents a cross-disciplinary collaboration between TNS faculty aimed at developing a sustainable approach to operating our campus safely that is resilient and adaptable to emerging microbial threats while minimizing deleterious effects on our environment such as driving antimicrobial resistance or generating plastic waste. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Craig Bernecker, Lighting, Parsons.

Another Country Five part-time faculty will collaborate on a diverse vision of new musical and societal possibility. This unique ensemble is inspired by its vision for society: a collaborative community in which each member contributes to the whole. The work will proceed remotely and result in a professionally released audio recording. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Dave Douglas, Trumpet, Mannes.

Quantifying the Psychosocial Benefits of Women's Microenterprise Group Membership in Ethiopia Women’s microenterprise groups in Ethiopia ostensibly form around small business development, but approximately half of the women do not start businesses, yet still reap significant benefits. I have qualitative data supporting this, however I want to dig deeper and develop quantitative indicators for surveys to capture this important aspect. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Mark Johnson, International Affairs, SPE.

Political Psychopharmacology: Understanding the Social Effects of Psychedelics In a changing moral and political landscape, this project examines the social effects of psychedelic drugs from an anthropological angle. It explores new approaches to understanding how the interplay of neuropsychopharmacology and sociocultural settings can make the psychotropic effects of psychedelics morally and politically transformative. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Nicolas Langlitz, Anthropology, NSSR.

Consequences of the Trade: An African American Family's Ancestral Journey Blackness in America is not a monolith, but a textured tapestry of displaced peoples’ cultures, forming a community based on shared ancestral experiences. What defines the African American identity? This project makes the case for reparative accountability for the long-standing, systemic violence against African Americans in the United States. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Michelle Materre, Media Studies and Film, SPE.

Response Patterns Response Patterns invents environmentally responsive embellishment methods for textile, including silk screening with photochromic pigment, and the hybridization of materials through 3D printing and molding. We see this use of technology as a natural progression in textile craft - which has historically imbued place into both its materiality and imagination. Under the direction of Principal Investigator, Anette Millington, Design, Parsons.

Coping with multiple forms of racial discrimination and trauma-related reactions in Black and Latinx young adults Growing evidence suggests that racial discrimination may confer risk for traumatic stress, particularly among Black and Latinx groups. This study will examine how coping with multiple forms of racial discrimination, assessed as a multidimensional construct, may cumulatively and differentially associate with trauma-related stress reactions. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Lilian Polanco-Roman, Psychology, NSSR.

+ Awards for 2020-2021

Imagining the Future, Wellbeing, and Student Success: Enhancing Future Thinking to Promote Better Self-Regulation and Educational Outcomes in Students with and without Depression

Future thinking is a key factor underlying decision making, motivation, and overall wellbeing. Building on advances in cognitive neuroscience, this study will be the first to test whether a brief webbased future thinking training (Future Thinking Specificity Training “FeST”) contributes to improvements in wellbeing and positive educational outcomes in depressed students. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Adam Brown, Psychology, NSSR.

Fabulous Phages in the Fight Against Superbugs

This project represents a cross-disciplinary collaboration alongside nature's tiniest warriors, the bacteriophages, in the fight against the rise of superbugs, antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cannot be treated. Our goal is to isolate bacteriophages, viruses that can infect bacteria and kill them, from the unlikeliest of places, NYC superfund sites. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Davida Smyth, Natural Sciences, Lang.

Black Visual Culture in Graphic Design: The Design of Black Entertainment from Jim Crow to Blaxploitation (1896-1979)

Black Visual Culture in Graphic Design is a book project that examines Black entertainment posters produced during the Post-Reconstruction through Blaxploitation era. The primary function of this book is to highlight typographic details, language and editorial design trends that point to shifts in communication styles and cultural representation that formed and reinforced racism. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Kelly Walters, School of Art, Media and Technology, Parsons.

On the margins: Determinants of health and wellbeing among transgender people of color in NYC.

In this project research will be carried out with transmasculine and transfeminine individuals of color in NYC, to examine individual, social and structural determinants of health and wellbeing. Vulnerability, risk and resilience will be investigated in the context of gender identity development, sexuality, sexual health, intimacy, community building, and access to services. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Pani Farvid, Applied Psychology, SPE.

Higher Education

Higher Education is a multi-season reality show about the classroom dynamics in a New School film production class on how to make a webshow. Under the direction of Princpal Investigator Caveh Zahedi, Screen Studies, Lang.

ReLab Plastic

A collaboration of science and design ReLab Plastic will collect, grind, melt, and remold the single-use plastic waste from the university biology labs to produce products for the lab through the Precious Plastic Parsons project, to reduce lab waste and demonstrate potential for a more sustainable practice. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Dave Marin, School of Constructed Environments, Parsons.

The Pandeiro: Brazil's Cultural Portal

Scott Kettner’s research into the Pandeiro, one of Brazil’s most popular percussion instruments, will present this frame drum as a portal for cultural awareness and learning the music of Brazil. Scott’s research will result in an instructional book and an online video course that explores technique, history and approaches for the Pandeiro. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Scott Kettner, Jazz, CoPA.

Resolutions/68mm

Resolutions/68mm, a new project for The EYE Film Institute Netherlands, will result in a large format, profusely photo-illustrated new book. This publication will include essays by noted film scholars and be designed to showcase the 200 newly digitized circa 1900 Mutoscope & Biograph large format 68mm film titles that EYE Film Institute has in their collection. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Jonathon Rosen, School of Art, Media and Technology, Parsons.

+ Awards for 2019-2020

Fashion, Emotion, and the Self

Fashion, Emotion, and the Self explores the intersections of fashion and psychology, creative and clinical practices in order to develop better understanding of the psychosocial elements of everyday dress practices. The aim of the project is to examine possible hybrid-practices of fashion and psychology, such as involving design and craft in therapy, or therapeutic perspectives in design, business and management processes. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Hans Otto von Busch, School of Design Strategies, Parsons.

A Lynching at Port Jervis: Racial Violence, Response and Reform in New York City's Gilded Age

The 1892 spectacle lynching in Port Jervis NY of Robert Lewis, a 28-year old African-American hotel worker accused of a sexual assault, shook the nation. Such mob violence was unprecedented in a quiet upstate burg only 65 miles from Manhattan. The incident changed the national narrative on race, for it spoke unmistakably of the insidiousness and geographic ubiquity of racial intolerance. This project views it as an augury of many fierce injustices with which, in 2019, we still contend. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Philip Dray, History, Eugene Lang.

We the People

Through the use of photography and oral interviews, this project will select ten grassroots activists across America who will describe in their own words their goals, struggles, inspiration, and personal history. Each written interview will accompany a photographic essay that brings the viewer inside of the activist's world. The goal of combining the photographs and words is to inspire future generations to confront the injustices and inequalities we live with as Americans. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Andrew Lichtenstein, Eugene Lang.

Reframing Recovery from Participants’ Perspectives

This project works with people in recovery to document their own stories through photography, audio interviews and text, using community-based participatory research methods. The goal is to highlight the people, places and things that helped them rebuild their lives after addiction, illustrating the many pathways recovery can take. Under the direction of Principal Investigators Graham MacIndoe, Photography, Parsons and Susan Stellin, Journalism + Design, Eugene Lang.

Tolstoy as Philosopher

This project will support the first comprehensive anthology of Tolstoy's thought in 2 volumes and with a companion monograph by the same title covering the following rubrics: Economics; History; Politics; Sociology; Aesthetics; Education and Pedagogy; Philosophy; Religion; Science. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Inesssa Medzhibovskaya, Eugene Lang.

Waterbirds: Environmental Dialogues Through Music

Composer/pianist Diane Moser will create a 50 minute music composition for her Birdsong Trio comprised of bassist Ken Filiano and flutist Anton Denner, incorporating field recordings that focus on coastal and wetlands birds and their disappearing habitats in and around New Jersey and New York. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Diane Moser, Music, College of Performing Arts.

Wealth Over Work: The Origins of Venture Capital, The Return of Inequality, and the Decline of Innovation

Wealth Over Work examines the history of venture capital as an idea, as a form of investment, and as a politically-mobilized industry. In the half- century after start of the Great Depression, beliefs about the centrality of venture capital for innovation, jobs, and growth shaped economic policy and corporate behavior while gradually transforming U.S. financial system. Under the direction of Principal Investigators Julia Ott, Eugene Lang.

Sound the Mound: Reframing our relationship to waste at Freshkills Park

Would standing on a towering mound of trash convince you to consume less? We tackle this question with our partners Freshkills Park, Arable Labs, and Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School, by reframing our relationship to waste and engaging New Yorkers with the ecological impact of our consumer habits. Under the direction of Principal Investigator John Roach, School of Design Strategies, Parsons.

Plantae Agrestis: A Self-Organizing Distributed Garden driven with Plant Signals

In collaboration with Tower Hill Botanical Garden (Boston), ‘Plantae Agrestis’ is an installation wherein the control mechanisms lie with the plants. A number of plants in a conservatory of Botanical Garden are connected to robotic equipment and left to self-organize. Rather than stationary plants, this leads to a constantly rearranging layout of a conservatory controlled by the plants themselves. The installation, a preview of the future technological plant society, is meant to show the capabilities of nature and mechanisms to design with and for it. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Harpreet Sareen, School of Art, Media and Technology, Parsons.

Journalism and Trauma Work Group

This research—co-led by Suzanne Snider (School of Media Studies) and Allison Lichter (Journalism + Design)--supports the continuation of training/collaborative analysis with twelve journalists and documentarians who report on trauma and violence, exploring ethical interview practices that support sources’ agency and journalists’/documentarians’ resilience. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Suzzane Snider, Media Studies, School of Public Engagement.

+ Awards for 2018-2019

Africa Rising

This research investigates how financial innovation is affecting economic livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. How do financial practices, like the securitization of remittances, rely on money transfers to Africa to produce revenue at global financial institutions? And does this new financial landscape alter our understanding of wealth formation in Africa? Under the direction of Principal Investigator Janet Roitman, Anthropology, NSSR.

Culture City: The Arts and Everyday Life in New York

This book examines New York in the postwar period, when the consolidation of a municipal cultural policy shifted the debate about the arts from established institutions to activities on the streets, from buildings to outdoor spaces, and from rehearsed performances and crafted artworks to spectacles of the everyday. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Julia Foulkes, History.

Designing Information

How do art and design serve our knowledge institutions? This focus group/workshop will gather leaders and practitioners from the worlds of art and design and libraries and archives to assess how creative practice can advance our libraries’ and archives’ core missions: preserving, organizing, and facilitating access to information and promoting information literacy. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Shannon Mattern, Media Studies, SPE.

Green Wall Cooling System

This investigation is a collaboration that builds upon previously published research by Dr. Yazdanseta. That research provided a method for designing vining green walls so as to utilize their free transpiration cooling power to reduce the cooling loads of buildings. This study aims to optimize the results of that method by introducing a performative support structure using ceramic 3D printing technology. Under the direction of Principal Investigators Arta Yazdanseta, School of Constructed Environments at Parsons, and Will McHale, the Making Center.

Interactive Clothing Design: Disability and Aging

A research project in which a multi-methodological approach is used in the investigation of the intersection between fashion and technology addressing the needs of people with disabilities and aging people. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Grace Jun, School of Fashion at Parsons.

Local Voting Responses to Economic Shocks: The Case of the Great Recession

Under the direction of Principal Investigator Rachel Meltzer, Milano.

The Gowanus Lighting Atlas

A research and analysis project in which participants conduct an in-depth study of existing electric lighting conditions within the public realm in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Collected data will form part of a communal resource for participation and activism and will inform community planning for re-zoning, infrastructure, and Superfund cleanup. Under the direction of Principal Investigators Francesca Bastiani, Lighting Design, and Alex Pappas-Kalber, Parsons.

The Tar Sands Songbook: Bridging creative practice and research to change the conversation about oil and its climate effects

The Tar Sands Songbook is a multimedia theatrical performance that chronicles the human impacts of oil development and its effects on climate change. I am seeking funding to develop a fully staged production to be premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2018 and to develop an online audience engagement and action plan. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Tanya Kalmanovitch, Mannes, in collaboration with Cecilia Rubino, Jaskiran K. Dhillon, Sarah Montague, and Genevieve Guenther, Lang.

+ Awards for 2017-2018

Designing Garments to Evolve over Time

This project examines the potential of creative fashion design and digital textile printing in upcycling button-down shirts. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Timo Rissanen, School of Fashion at Parsons.

Designing Anne Frank: Spatial, Material, and Virtual Representations

This project is for two research trips to look at archives for a book on History (Anne Frank), and Spatial Design. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Sarah Lichtman, School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons.

Culture Influences on Perceptions of Economic Mobility

Research into the glorification and effects of "the underdog" in North American culture. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Shai Davidai, Psychology, NSSR.

Refugee Stories

A documentary created by New School students to capture, preserve, and share the stories of refugees seeking asylum in the United States and the volunteers helping them, made with the U.S. Department of State and two NGOs. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Deanna Kaimel and Paul Hadart, School of Media Studies, Schools of Public Engagement.

The Cancer Journals Revisited

The Cancer Journals Revisited is an experimental film prompted by the question of what it means to "re-vision" Black feminist poet Audre Lorde's classic 1980 memoir/manifesto, The Cancer Journals, today. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Lana Lin, School of Media Studies, Schools of Public Engagement.

Women to the Right

A photographic research project looking at women of the alt-right, a group neglected in research. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Glenna Gordon, Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs, Schools of Public Engagement.

New Views of Karl Briullov's Last Day of Pompeii

Research on the reception of the painting The Last Day of Pompeii (1830-1833) in St. Petersburg: research, art, history. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Margaret Samu, School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons.

+ Awards for 2016-2017

The Origin and Impact of Fictional Worlds

An interdisciplinary research project to empirically study how representations of fictional characters can shape the way we think about others and our society. Under the direction of Principal Investigators Mark Greif, associate professor of literary studies, Lang, and Howard Steele, professor of psychology, NSSR, and co-director of the Center for Attachment Research.

A Botanical Imaginary: The Plants of Kham

An artist's book and exhibition re-envisioning the plants native to the historical region of Kham, on the border between Tibet and China, using photographs and illustrations to reimagine the area. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Selena Kimball, assistant professor of contemporary art practice, Parsons.

Sculpting the American Self: Wellness Culture in the Postwar United States

An archives-based project exploring the history of fitness and wellness culture in the United States since the 1950s and the related notions of moral, civic, and spiritual value that have accompanied Americans' various "body projects." Under the direction of Principal Investigator Natalia Mehlman-Petrzela, assistant professor of history, Lang.

Farm-to-Fashion NYS Fiber Sourcebook

A project to develop a single-resource fiber sourcebook and online database to help connect fashion brands to fiber farmers and mills in New York State and thereby help in the development of the local farm-to-fashion economy. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Laura Sansone, assistant professor of alternative fashion systems, Parsons.

The Curiosity Cabinet

A feature-length experimental documentary film exploring historical and contemporary "curiosity cabinets," personal micro-museums of unusual objects. These collections range from examples from the Renaissance to modern spaces created to further individuals' pursuit of knowledge. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Joel Schlemowitz, part-time associate teaching professor of media studies, SPE.

What We Talk About When We Talk About the Economy

A research project that employs a multi-methodological approach to investigate democratic discourse and language about the economy within contemporary American society. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Deva Woodly, assistant professor of politics, NSSR, and director of undergraduate studies in politics, Lang.