NYC DSA Academy
Fall 2026 Courses & Workshops
“The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated.” —Che Guevara
The chapter’s Academy for Socialist Education has just completed its second year offering courses to DSA members and non-members concerned about the rapidly deteriorating state of the world. Those courses have ranged from examinations of imperialism to the anatomy of strikes, from the relationship between democracy and capitalism to climate change.
Now open for Fall 2026 enrollment:
Red New York: How did New York become America’s “Red City.” Labor historians Steve Fraser and Josh Freeman will explore that phenomenon in light of Zohran’s remarkable victory and the astonishing growth of DSA’s New York chapter.
Frankfurt School on Fascism: One-time Co-Chair of the NYC chapter of DSA, Jeremy Cohan, will direct a course on fascism, examining that urgent subject from the analytical standpoint of the Frankfurt School.
Immigration: Felicia Arriaga, Professor of Sociology at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, will lead a course on the weaponization of immigration policy and how the state has always used the iron fist in dealing with the foreign-born working class.
Course enrollment opening soon:
Labor: Gender, Race, & Class: How the tightly woven web of class, racial, and gender oppression and exploitation undergird capitalism today? Nancy Fraser, Professor at the New School, will explore the “Three Faces of Labor: Gender, Race, & Class.”
Sign up for the Academy mailing list to receive updates.
NYC DSA invites DSA members and the broader NYC community to apply for FALL 2026 workshops.
FALL 2026 COURSES
The Frankfurt School on the Far Right: Critical Theory and Fascism
Instructor: Jeremy Cohan
Dates: Wednesdays, 7–9pm • September 9, 16, 23, 30, 2026
Location: TBA
Course cost: $35 DSA members / $45 nonmembers
Mark Twain said that history does not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. And surely our time rhymes with the early 20th century’s political terrain: the collapse of the free-market capitalist center, the rise of democratic socialist politics and a resurgent left, and the rise and accession to power of the far right—the rise of fascism. With the rise of fascism, a new force entered onto the stage of history: mass movements of the far right, dedicated to dictatorship, exploitation, violence, and mass murder. Understanding and combatting a mass movement for authoritarianism was then, and is now, core to the tasks of a democratic left.
The Frankfurt School—Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Leo Lowenthal, Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Franz Neumann, Otto Kircheimer, and others—were a group of heterodox, mostly Jewish, Marxist scholars, centered around the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. They both saw firsthand the effects of fascism as they fled to the United States to escape persecution, and they were uniquely positioned intellectually to analyze how potentials for freedom and equality created by the modern world turned to hatred and destruction. The question of how fascism works and what the movement provides its mass base became core to the school’s intellectual agenda, and they brought their unique set of interdisciplinary tools from Marxist theory, psychoanalysis, academic sociology, media analysis, aesthetics, and more to the task of solving the puzzle of what makes a fascist tick.
This course will review some of the core writings of the school on the far right, mostly but not exclusively focusing on the writings of Theodor Adorno. It will begin with some of the foundational writings and history of the school, then turn to excerpts from Prophets of Deceit, The Authoritarian Personality, Escape From Freedom, “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” and “Aspects of the New Right-Wing Extremism.” We will explore the analysis in these works of how fascist agitation works, as well as the social psychology of those tempted to follow far right agitators. In what ways does modern capitalism create the basis for the rise of the far right? What does a fascist movement promise its followers? What desires does fascism appeal to? What are fascists looking to find and willing to do? What are some of the core characteristics of the far right that the left needs to understand to fight against it?
Instructor Biography
Jeremy Cohan is a sociologist who studies teachers unions, political economy, philosophy, and Marxist theory. He is a former co-chair of NYC DSA. He has held leadership role’s in the chapter’s work on Palestine solidarity, electoral campaigns, socialists in office, political education, and student organizing.
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RED NEW YORK: A HISTORY OF THE LEFT IN AMERICA’S MOST RADICAL CITY
Instructors: Steve Fraser and Josh Freeman
Dates: Tuesdays, 7–9pm • September 15, 22, October 6, 20, November 3, 2026
Location: West Side YMCA, 5 W. 63rd St., NYC
Course cost: $35 DSA members / $45 nonmembers
New York City has long been known as a hot-bed of radicalism, as America’s “Red City.” Zohran Mamdani’s election is the latest confirmation of that perception. This course will examine the city’s left-wing history, exploring the political and cultural manifestations of its insurgent character and what that might suggest about our current moment.
The course will tackle some large questions: Why has New York been a pre-eminent center of radicalism? What has been the relationship between the city’s immigrant demography and its radical past? How has New York’s history of cultural dissent and inventiveness been linked to its revolutionary political movements? Has the city’s radicalism shifted with respect to the evolution of capitalism? What has been the relationship between socialist revolution and reform in the shaping of Red New York.
Times have changed in many ways between when 19th century radicals electrified the life of New York City and Zohran’s recent victory. But there are lessons to be learned and questions that confronted the left of yesteryear that continue to face us today. Red New York will try to engage the city’s past, in part, in order to bring that wisdom to the prospects and dilemmas we must deal with today.
Red New York will consist of five sessions: The first session will meet for one hour. The subsequent sessions will meet for two hours.
Instructor Biographies
Steve Fraser is an historian of American capitalism and labor and author of The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power.
Joshua Freeman is an historian of labor and of New York City. He is the author of a number of books, including Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II and Garden Apartments: The History of a Low-Rent Utopia.
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IMMIGRATION AND RACIAL CAPITALISM
Instructor: Felicia Arriaga
Dates: THURsdays, 7–9pm • OCTOBER 22, NOVEMBER 5, 19, DECember 3, 2026
Location: TBA
Course cost: $35 DSA members / $45 nonmembers
Felicia Arriaga, Professor of Sociology at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, will lead a course on the weaponization of immigration policy and how the state has always used the iron fist in dealing with the immigrant working class.
The course will address how gendered racial capitalism shapes migration policy in an international comparative framework and how communities have always resisted this oppressive system. It will cover some of the main themes in U.S. based migration policy historically as well how these processes were adopted, merged, and exported to other countries. Other topics will include how nations decide who can and cannot migrate, how citizenship is established, what factors shape policies and their implementation, the increased role of municipalities in making policy towards immigrants, refugees, and immigrant integration and deportation. While our primary focus will be on migration policy and its assorted actors in the context of the contemporary United States, we will begin with theoretical foundations, consider historical examples, and focus on resistance efforts from non-European migrants to better understand the NYC migrant community.
We’ll follow a mostly chronological order beginning with European colonization of the Americas, infrastructure expansion of the 18th century, the Industrial boom of the 19th Century, the impacts of the Civil Rights Act, and the current state of affairs. Along with class readings, participants are expected to listen and/or read immigrant oral histories from across the U.S.
Instructor Biography
Felicia Arriaga is a professor of sociology at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Her research interests are in the areas of race and ethnicity, immigration, and crimmigration (criminalization of immigration policy and procedure).
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An additional Fall 2026 Academy course on Labor will be announced soon.
ACADemy Events
This spring we had the good fortune to welcome historian scholars Greg Grandin and Nikhil Pal Singh to speak on Imperialism & the Homeland. Video now available.
About the Academy
Political education has long been a vital part of the socialist project. NYC DSA’s Academy for Socialist Education offers accessible courses taught by distinguished scholars, thinkers, and organizers on the history and theory of socialist struggles and an analysis of the longstanding structures of capitalist society. Modeled on political education endeavors such as the Communist Party’s Jefferson School and the Socialist Party’s Rand School, the Academy aims to supplement ongoing NYC DSA education with more academically rigorous offerings taught by academics and scholars in the field.
Note: Courses generally consist of four sessions held every other week. Course fee is $35 for DSA members / $45 for nonmembers. Due to space considerations, class size is limited and an application is required. Applicants should be committed to fully participate in classes (attending sessions, doing readings).
For any questions, please contact political.education@socialists.nyc.
Please stay tuned for additional Academy programming in 2026.
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