ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy (“The Institute”) at The New School was founded in September 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic. 
 
Building relationships beyond the academy, we identify and scale transformative ideas to promote economic inclusion, civic empowerment, and social equity. We provide an intellectual, action oriented and publicly engaged space to cultivate innovative policies, strategies, and investments that break down restrictive hierarchies, empower people, and move society toward greater social equity, civic engagement and economic inclusion. Also, we are working to foster the next generation of scholars, creative practitioners, and justice advocates to bring diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and new thinking to society’s biggest challenges.
 
We conduct research on the causes and consequences, with an emphasis on remedies, of the structures of inequality, particularly as they relate race, power, and social stratification more broadly.  
 
We are in the business of paradigm shift. Our economy should promote human flourishing, innovation and self-determination in peaceful, sustainable, and tranquil environments. Evidenced by both domestic and international structures of growing inequality, environmental vulnerability and political discord, our current political economies are not serving that purpose. The structures of a just and well functioning economy invests and centers people and the environments in which we live, not simply in a charitable sense, but in a productive, dynamic, and empowering sense
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Beginning with a “North Star” conception of justice, The Institute is redefining how economic, political and social structures should work. We are identifying powerful and sustainable investment in human capacity, and propelling collaboration alongside field leaders to advance the realization of economic inclusion, social equity and civic engagement for all people in the US and across the globe.

Who We Are

Founded by renowned economist and university professor, Darrick Hamilton, and housed at The New School, a University founded on the values of economic inclusion and anti-fascism, the Institute hosts a Hub of activities with a reach of nearly 70 active researchers, analysts, and organizers, powering the adoption of transformative ideas and policy solutions, and stewarding economic inclusion.

Our team of top tier talent includes full-time program directors, faculty and external fellows, and graduate student researchers who bring skill sets and backgrounds in everything from community organizing to critical race theorists to feminist economists. Our team has held roles such as the former Senior Economist in the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the former president and CEO at Prosperity Now, the former Vice President of Research at PolicyLink, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet working on narratives, and an award winning documentarian and former Editor at the Washington Post to name a few.

Explore Our Work