We live in an age of near- constant disruption. Innovations in various industries push the creative envelope and advance the social good by offering radically new ways of approaching accepted industry practices. But can such disruption happen within the "ivory tower"? Or does one need to look beyond the traditional campus to find new ways of reaching and best serving today's new and wider audiences? What can traditional education providers learn from non-accredited academic institutions to help reimagine the learning landscape?

As part of the Open Campus launch, join thinkers at the vanguard of discourse - and practice - of education’s rapidly shifting frontier. Panelists will explore innovations in learning modalities, discuss advances in education access, and share insights from The New School's own work to transform the education experience for learners from a diverse range of backgrounds and interests.

Moderator: Cynthia Lawson
Associate Provost for Open Campus
Associate Professor, Parsons School of Design

Lawson joined The New School in 2003 and is now Associate Provost for Open Campus and Associate Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design. Her passion for reimagining higher education lies at the core of her current leadership role, and has also been a constant in recent projects, including co-organizing the yearlong seminar and later unconference "Experiments in Extra-Institutional Education", her 2013 TEDx talk "Universities Without Classrooms", and the co-founding of Occupy University. As a consultant she has worked with international organizations such as CARE and the World Bank, at which projects have investigated how design education methodologies can help organizations improve their own internal training programs. In 2013 Cynthia was honored with a Fulbright Scholarship for the inaugural Higher Education Administrator’s Program in France.

Panelists:

Ajay Singh Chaudhary is the executive director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research [BISR], an independent institute for critical education and research currently operating in New York City, Jersey City, and Philadelphia as well as broader regional and national programming and projects. BISR currently holds over 70 courses a year for well-over 1200 annual students in its core programming alone, alongside initiatives for under-served populations, non-profits and political organizers, commercial organizations, and individualized study. This work in turn is both the base and the support for the scholarly and popular research work of nearly 40 current faculty members. Chaudhary holds a PhD from Columbia University’s Institute for Comparative Literature and Society through the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies and an MSc in Culture and Society from the London School of Economics. His research focuses on comparative philosophy, social and political theory, Frankfurt School critical theory, Iranian and Islamic intellectual history, modern Jewish thought, religion, and media studies. He has written for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Quartz, Social Text, Dialectical Anthropology, The Jewish Daily Forward, Filmmaker Magazine, and 3quarksdaily, among other venues.

Julia Foulkes is a Professor of History at The New School where she researches and teaches about the arts, urban studies, and history. With Mark Larrimore, she leads efforts to research the history of The New School and oversees a website devoted to exploring the unusual history and far reach of this institution. She has also been a lead faculty member of the Humanities Action Lab, an international hub where the humanities and design generate innovative curricula and public engagement about urgent social issues. The first exhibition, States of Incarceration, examines the history of imprisonment in the U.S.

Rob Kingyens is the President and CEO of Qubed Education, an online content and education company that partners with top-tier universities, brands and employers that are highly relevant and recognized globally by the next generation of talent. With a focus on helping youth and millennials discover and pursue career paths that align to their passions, skills and market demand, Qubed's programs include online certificate programs in partnership with top-tier schools such as the The New School's Parsons School of Fashion and Columbia University's globally-ranked Sports Management program, as well as contributions from global brands and employers such as Condé Nast, Vogue, NBA, Google, Facebook, NFL, GILT, Etsy and Nike. Prior to Qubed, Rob has served in various executive-level capacities within online education—leading learning, marketing and technology solutions for global brands and educational organizations, including Cornell University, Global Learning Systems, KeyStone Learning, Discovery Education, Intel, Red Cross, GE, Microsoft, McDonald’s, Goodwill, Boston Consulting Group and others.

This event is part of The New School's Day of Learning, Nth Degree Series and will be Livestreamed.