Now open, the University Center for The New School of Social Research on 14th Street and 5th Avenue. There is still some work to be done, but for that matter there is always work to be done. The center opened with a total of 370,000 square feet, dormitory rooms for 600 students, a cafeteria, teaching and administrative facilities and the John L. Tishman Auditorium, along with the new building’s Chicago Atheneaum Green Good Design Award.
After the opening ceremonies earlier this month, the first presentation in the Tishman Auditorium touched upon one of the university’s most accomplished scholars and one of the most important intellectual figures of the 20th Century, Hannah Arendt.
The presentation opened with a speech by the United States Ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power. Ms. Power praised the University for its past accomplishments in providing residency for scholars. She pointed out that in 1933 with the rise of Nazism and the opening of the University in Exile at The New School, the center of German scholarship dramatically shifted from Leipzig and Berlin to Lower Manhattan. Through the years, the university has continued to provide sanctuary for persecuted and suppressed scholars both foreign and domestic. This tradition continues with the scholar in residence fellowship established in 2008 that currently hosts a scholar from Syria.
The feature of the presentation was a film focusing upon a short period of Hannah Arendt’s life in the early 60’s. The movie depicts the time before she was appointed as a professor at The New School and was covering the trial in Jerusalem of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Her report of the trial gave a more philosophical approach that she developed into what she would describe as the “Banality of Evil.” Through this concept, she broadened the public’s perspective of evil. Typically, evil is associated with aggressive, malicious intent, however it can also arise behind the guise of indifference and the blind obedience to duty. Evil is not simply an act, but also an acquiescence.
Ms. Arendt’s unwillingness to acquiesce or compromise in some issues of her publication on the trial incited some ferocious criticism. This broadened the schism between the palpable realities of existence and the ideals of philosophical abstractions. Although her relentless pursuit to discover the fundamental realities of our intellect may have rendered her insensitive to some, it was also an important quality that made her one of the most insightful philosophers of her time.
After the film a discussion was conducted with the director Margarethe von Trotta, the actor who portrayed Hannah Arendt – Barbara Sukowa and one of the screenwriters – Pamela Katz.
Despite the controversies of this difficult period of Ms. Arendt’s life, she was able to find a position at the New School where she served as a professor from 1967 through the rest of her life. Since its founding in 1919, The New School has been a center for forward thinking. As Ms. Power noted in her opening speech: in addition to providing a place where scholars may work without persecution, the school also strives to “create a world where scholars are not persecuted in the first place.” There is still work to be done, but The New School continues to provide a place where people may think independently, freely and fearlessly.
Photo from left to right, Margarethe von Trotta, Pamela Katz and Barbara Sukowa.
Garrett Buhl Robinson is a poet and novelist living in New York City. www.garrettrobinson.us
