Provost Reneé White serves as the chief academic officer at The New School, with oversight of all curricular initiatives and educational programming at the university. Her portfolio encompasses The New School’s colleges as well as the areas of Academic
Planning and Administration; Curriculum, Learning, and Academic Affairs; Faculty Affairs; Enrollment Management; and Student Success and Engagement. Through her work in these broad, interconnected areas, Provost White provides key direction and support
for the university’s academic initiatives, ensuring that we fulfill our commitment to our students while championing the robust research, scholarship, and creative practice that take place across our community.
She represents The New School in many settings both on and off campus, elevating our achievements and building partnerships.
It is essential to Provost White’s work that we live out The New School’s mission through our actions, incorporating our core values into all of our decision making. As a leader, she values purposeful engagement and holistic community building, weaving
the principles of equity, inclusion, and social justice into the fabric of our daily work in ways that foster open dialogue. Provost White is an active listener who is committed to developing new pathways to support the work of our faculty, staff,
and students while continually improving university structures to help everyone flourish. Unity and collaboration between different parts of the university community remain essential to this work.
Provost White’s key initiatives include:
The provost welcomes opportunities to join meetings and events on campus. Visit the Provost Engagement Request Form to
invite her to an upcoming symposium, conversation, or reception.
About Provost White
Dr. Renée T. White is the provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs of The New School and a professor of sociology at The New School for Social Research. With nearly 30 years of experience working in higher education, Dr. White came to
The New School from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where she had served as provost and professor of sociology. Dr. White served as a professor of sociology and Black studies and the academic coordinator for Diversity and Global Citizenship at Fairfield
University.
Dr. White is the editor of four books, including Afrofuturism in "Black Panther": Gender, Identity, and the Re-Making of Blackness (2021), and the author of Putting Risk in Perspective: Black Teenage Lives in the Era of AIDS. She has
also served as editor of the Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention in Children and Youth. Dr. White completed a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in Black film studies. Her current research focuses on representations of Blackness
in popular culture and applications of Black feminist theory to higher education leadership.
Dr. White holds an AB from Brown University and an MA and PhD from Yale University. She is a board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women, a member of the Rachel Carson Council National Advisory Council, an honorary board member of the Synthia SAINT JAMES
Art Legacy Foundation, and a member of the advisory board of Seeds of Fortune. 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.