Faculty

Profile

Dr. Renée T. White is Professor of Sociology at The New School for Social Research and Special Advisor to the President at The New School, where she previously served as the provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs for four years (2021-2025). During her tenure as provost, Dr. White led several campus-wide projects such as the strategic planning process, and introduced new initiatives, including the series The Moment is Now: In Dialogue with Changemakers, the Provost’s Investment Fund, and Spark, an annual event series recognizing faculty, staff, and student scholarly and creative practice. With many years of experience working in higher education, Dr. White came to The New School from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where she served as provost and professor of sociology. Before that, she served as a professor of sociology and Black studies and as academic coordinator for Diversity and Global Citizenship at Fairfield University; as a member of the sociology faculty at Central Connecticut State University, where she also served in leadership roles in Women’s Studies, African Studies, and Urban Studies; and at Purdue University, where she began her career and held a joint appointment in the African American Studies and Research Center.

Dr. White holds an AB from Brown University and an MA and PhD from Yale University, and she completed a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in Black film studies. Her edited books include Spoils of War: Women of Color, Cultures, and Revolution; HIV/AIDS: Global Frontiers in Prevention and Intervention; and Frantz Fanon: A Critical Reader, and she is the author of Putting Risk in Perspective: Black Teenage Lives in the Era of AIDS. Her 2018 critical essay for New Political Science, “I Dream a World: Black Panther and the Re-Making of Blackness,” one of their most downloaded articles, led to her fourth co-edited book Afrofuturism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity, and the Re-Making of Blackness (February 2024 Choice 360 pick for “Reimagining Black Pasts and Futures”). She was a guest editor of a 2022 symposium in New Political Science about the book, was interviewed by music journalist and cultural critic Touré for TheGrio podcast “Afrofuturism: From Black Panther to P-Funk” (2024), and will appear in Jonathan Gayles’ forthcoming documentary Wakanda and the Black Imagination. She has also served as editor of the Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention in Children and Youth and on the editorial review board for the Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education. Dr. White’s research interests also include examinations of the impact of higher education on democratic practice and civic engagement.

She serves on the board of several notable organizations, including Ms. Foundation for Women, the Rachel Carson Council National Advisory Council, and Seeds of Fortune. She is also an active participant in the International Association of Universities, a UNESCO affiliate, and the Global Forum on Higher Education, organized by the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy. In June 2024, Dr. White’s accomplishments in higher education were recognized when she was named to the City & State New York’s 2024 Trailblazers in Higher Education list.