New School for Social Research

Attended one day of the Human Rights and Global Economy conference at the New School for Social Research on November 9th, 2011. The New School remains one of the coolest universities in the world. It is one of the few truly left-wing universities in the U.S., and it sees politics in everything. It feels much more like a European university than an American university.

I chose this particular session because one of the speakers was Christian Barry, from the Australian National University. Christian was a visiting undergraduate student in philosophy (from Columbia University) at Trinity College Dublin in 1990-1991, while I was there. I also got to hear Galit Sarfaty, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, for the first time.

While Christian's talk was about the responsibility of those people who have not committed wrongs but who profit from inherited wrongdoing, I confess that it was his expensive-looking leather boots that made a great impression on me. They prompted a shopping trip to Saks Fifth Avenue. Plus ça change.