Justus Rosenberg

Justus Rosenberg (1921-) was born in the Free City of Danzig (present day Gdańsk, Poland) to Polish-Jewish immigrants. In 1937, he moved to Paris for studies. After the Nazi invasion of France during World War II, Rosenberg joined the French Resistance and assumed the name Jean-Paul Guiton. Rosenberg immigrated to the United States and began working in the University of Dayton's French department in the late 1940s. Interested in linguistics from an early age, Rosenberg used this opportunity to study Russian at the university.

He received his doctorate in comparative language and linguistics from the University of Cincinnati in 1950. Rosenberg became an American citizen in 1952, and taught French and German literature at Swarthmore College from 1956-1962. In 1962, he began teaching at Bard College in upstate New York.

His decades long career teaching various courses at The New School began in 1960 with a class titled, Russia: Past and Present, which was advertised in course catalogs through 1980. The majority of his courses up through 1991 covered Russian/Soviet politics and literature, although he also developed courses examining China under Communist rule. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Rosenberg devoted more of his classes to literature. Rosenberg's courses in the 2000s were eclectic and reflect a range of interests and concerns, such as Conflict and Reconciliation in Modern Africa: A Historical Perspective (2003), Lost Jewish Cultures: Lives of the Shtetl (2012), and his reported personal favorite, Ten Plays that Shook the World, taught from 2008 until his retirement in 2012. Rosenberg taught in a number of departments, reflecting an interdisciplinary outlook. His courses were listed under Cultural Studies, History, Humanities, Social Sciences, and East European, Russian and Chinese Area Studies, a department that existed in the 1960s at The New School. All of these departments would, in 2021, be under the umbrella of The New School's Schools of Public Engagement.

In 2020, Rosenberg published a memoir, The Art of Resistance: My Four Years in the French Underground (William Morrow). As of 2021, he is professor emeritus of language and literature at Bard College.

Sources:

The bulk of the biographical information is this note is taken from oral hisory interviews comprising the collection and New School course catalogs.

"Justus Rosenberg faculty profile." Bard College website. Accessed April 9, 20201 at https://www.bard.edu/faculty/details/?id=757

Scott B. Ritner

Scott B. Ritner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor's degree in government and international relations from Clark University in 2005, a master's degree in Russian studies from European University at Saint Petersburg in 2006, two additional master's degrees from the New School for Social Research (NSSR) in politics in 2011 and 2016, and a doctorate in politics from NSSR in 2018. That year, he joined the faculty of Temple University and, as of 2021, is assistant professor of political science. His dissertation focused on Simone Weil, and he has written and presented extensively on Weil's writings.

Sources:

Scott B. Ritner faculty biography. Temple University College of Liberal Arts website. Accessed April 1, 2021 at https://liberalarts.temple.edu/academics/faculty/ritner-scott-b