The Social Research conference series, initiated in 1988 by Professor Arien Mack, aims to enhance public understanding and influence ongoing debates about current social and political issues and to amplify the public voice of the Social Research journal. Because we present our themes in their broad historical and cultural contexts, speakers at these conferences come from a wide range of disciplines with many different perspectives and kinds of expertise: historians, social scientists, natural scientists, and art historians routinely participate alongside legal theorists, policy makers, and journalists.

Public scholarship includes not only the media, the academy, and political leaders, but all who understand the urgency of an issue and wish to learn more—whether to influence public policy, educate others, or simply be more informed citizens. Therefore, the general public is invited to Social Research conferences to participate in the dialogue on critical and contested issues. The result is a unique atmosphere and a vibrant discussion that reaches beyond the walls of the university.

We also host smaller public events. We sometimes have evening launch events for Social Research issues that feature authors or speakers inspired by the issue theme. We also host an annual Public Voices lecture, which provides a platform for distinguished public persons to address the most pressing issues of the day.

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Speakers

Our distinguished keynote speakers have included philosopher Charles Taylor, Vice President Al Gore, Nobel laureate Arno Penzias, novelist Amitav Ghosh, and investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. The following is a partial list of conference speakers:

Collaborators

For some of our conferences, we initiate multi-institutional collaborations that expand the conference theme by bringing new perspectives from the collaborating institutions' public lectures, tours, and exhibits. Institutions that have collaborated on Social Research conferences include

Attendance and Publication 

Social Research conferences typically draw audiences of 500 to 1,000 people representing a cross-section of the local, national, and sometimes the international community—students, academics, nonprofit leaders, government officials, policy makers, activists, scientists, and the general public. 

To ensure maximum exposure, papers delivered at the conferences are published in special issues of Social Research: An International Quarterly, which reaches approximately 2,000 subscribers in more than 50 countries around the world. Conference issues of Social Research and individual articles are regularly used in university classrooms, and some issues have been republished as books. Audio recordings of some conferences are available on CD, and videos of keynote addresses are sometimes streamed online. 

Funding

Every conference in this series relies on external funding and at times on internal New School funding as well. Outside funders have included