The Division of Social Studies offers academic programs in anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, politics, religion, and sociology. Additional courses of study are available through interdivisional and area studies programs and concentrations. Students are encouraged to take courses from multiple fields in the division in order to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on fundamental questions about the human experience that is historically rooted but geared toward contemporary issues. Students draw on the interpretive strategies and analytic methods of multiple disciplines to develop a critical perspective on various aspects of society, politics, thought, and culture. Although the main emphasis in the division is interdisciplinary, students are encouraged to design programs of study that address particular areas of inquiry that are personally meaningful and can also provide pathways for graduate or professional work or a future career.
Photo by Karl Rabe
Our Programs
The Division of Social Studies includes the following academic programs:
- Anthropology
- Economics
- Economics and Finance
- Historical Studies
- Interdisciplinary Study of Religions
- Philosophy
- Politics
- Sociology
Coursework and Requirements
Typically, courses in the Upper College are seminars, in which the student is expected to participate actively. Advisory conferences, tutorials, fieldwork, and independent research prepare the student for the Senior Project. The Senior Project may take any form appropriate to the student’s field, subject, and methodology; most are research projects, but a project may take the form of a critical review of literature, a close textual analysis, a series of related essays, or even a translation.
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Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization that encourages a diversity of opinion in the examination of economic issues. The Institute offers graduate programs in economic theory and policy, as well as 3+2 and 4+1 dual-degree options for undergraduates. Bard undergraduates also have the opportunity to meet the prominent figures who serve on the Levy Institute’s research staff and attend its conferences. Integrated activities of the Institute and Bard College include the Levy Economics Institute Prize, awarded annually to a graduating senior; annual scholarships for students majoring in economics; and an endowed professorship, the Jerome Levy Professor of Economics.
Social Studies News and Events
Featured News
Sonita Alizada ’23 Begins a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford in Fall 2025
“[Bard] faculty have been incredibly supportive, offering guidance, mentorship, and resources," she said.
Sonita Alizada ’23 Begins a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford in Fall 2025
Sonita Alizada ’23.
Alizada, who double-majored in human rights and music, says Bard played a “crucial” part in her award. “The faculty here have been incredibly supportive, offering guidance, mentorship, and resources that helped me refine my academic and professional goals. They provided encouragement and constructive feedback throughout my application process and helped me navigate each step with confidence.”
She looks forward to continuing her work supporting Afghan women and children by combining “academic research with practical impact.” She looks forward to taking public policy classes at Oxford and focusing specifically on women and children's rights. “I’m deeply honored to receive the Rhodes scholarship, [and] I hope to bring back insights that can further support vulnerable communities,” she said.
Post Date: 08-27-2025
Recent News
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Huiwen Li Receives Award from the American Society of Shufa Calligraphy Education
Huiwen Li Receives Award from the American Society of Shufa Calligraphy Education
Huiwen Li, continuing associate professor at Bard, is the recipient of the 2025 Best Chinese Calligraphy Curriculum Design Award from the American Society of Shufa Calligraphy Education (ASSCE). The award is bestowed in recognition of notable contribution to the advancement of Chinese calligraphy education in North America and beyond. ASSCE is a nonprofit organization that aims to serve the needs of its community of educators, researchers, and students of East Asian calligraphy. Through conferences, workshops, exhibitions, and other venues of academic and social exchange, the organization seeks to advance the professional and personal goals of its members, as well as the general public in the teaching, learning, and understanding of East Asian calligraphy in its traditional and modern forms.Huiwen Li, continuing associate professor at Bard.
The Asian Studies Program at Bard draws from courses in literature, history, art, religion, and other fields, with students selecting a regional and disciplinary focus.
Post Date: 08-19-2025
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Professor Garry L. Hagberg Named the 2025 Monroe Beardsley Lecturer
Professor Garry L. Hagberg Named the 2025 Monroe Beardsley Lecturer
James H. Ottaway Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics Garry L. Hagberg has been named the Monroe Beardsley Lecturer for 2025. The annual lecture series, hosted by the American Society for Aesthetics, honors the memory of Beardsley, a 20th-century American aesthetician who researched the relationship between art and philosophy. Hagberg will deliver his lecture on the philosophical nature of the visual arts at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.Professor Garry L. Hagberg.
Hagberg also received the Peter Kivy Memorial Prize from the American Society for Aesthetics for his article on how counterpoint in instrumental music generates meaning. His most recent book, Living in Words: Literature, Autobiographical Language, and the Composition of Selfhood, was published by Oxford University Press in 2024.
Post Date: 07-07-2025
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Wiháŋble S’a Center at Bard College Receives Wagner Foundation Grant
Wiháŋble S’a Center at Bard College Receives Wagner Foundation Grant
The Wiháŋble S’a Center for Indigenous AI at Bard College has been announced as the recipient of a $93,000 grant from the Wagner Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Boston. The grant will support the project “Cosmologyscape,” a multi-platform, socially engaged public art initiative co-lead by Wiháŋble S’a Center Director Dr. Suzanne Kite, distinguished artist in residence and assistant professor of American and Indigenous Studies at Bard, and artist and producer Alisha B. Wormsley MFA ’19.“Every Wonder in One Spot,” from the project Cosmologyscape by Kite and Alicia B Wormsley. Courtesy the artists and Creative Time
“Cosmologyscape” will launch its next chapter with an exhibition at Wagner in January 2026, and will include features such as Dream Mosaic tiles visualizing collective dreams installed along long gallery walls, a comfortable Dream Office space in which attendees can gather and rest, digital projections showcasing a localized “Boston Dreaming” webpage, and other installations. The project, which solicits dreams from the public that are translated into quilting patterns generated from 26 Black and Lakota symbols, aims to activate rest and dreaming as liberatory acts through sculpture, digital engagement, and community programming.
“This grant affirms that dreaming is a vital, collective act—and that rest, vision, and story are the seeds of real change,” said Dr. Suzanne Kite, director of the Wiháŋble S’a Center. “With support from the Wagner Foundation, ‘Cosmologyscape’ can continue unfolding as a cosmic quilt—each dream a thread, weaving together Black and Indigenous futures across time, land, and memory.”
Wagner Foundation is a Cambridge, MA-based foundation that invests in health equity, economic prosperity, and cultural transformation across the globe. Wagner Foundation prioritizes work that strengthens equitable systems and views artists as leaders and changemakers who are critical voices in interrogating the past, wrestling with the current moment, and envisioning alternative futures. Learn more at wfound.org.
Post Date: 07-01-2025
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James Romm’s Book Plato and the Tyrant Reviewed in the Washington Post
James Romm’s Book Plato and the Tyrant Reviewed in the Washington Post
Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece, a new book by James Romm, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics at Bard College, has been reviewed in the Washington Post. The work is “a deft and engaging work of history, philosophy and biography, as well as a meta-commentary on the perils of regarding canonical thinkers as disembodied minds,” writes Becca Rothfield for the Post. In his book, Romm draws on personal letters of Plato―documents that have long been kept in obscurity―to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era, the opulent city of Syracuse, where Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers and tried to steer them toward philosophy all while writing his masterpiece, Republic. “Romm relates this history—and introduces readers to a colorful cast of sycophantic courtiers, eccentric philosophers and defiant poets—with flair. He is an equally admirable guide to the many controversies in which the affair is mired.”James Romm and his book Plato and the Tyrant.
Post Date: 07-01-2025
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Coralie Kraft ’13 Interviewed by PBS News About Doomsday Preppers
Coralie Kraft ’13 Interviewed by PBS News About Doomsday Preppers
Coralie Kraft ’13, visual editor, writer, and Bard College alumna, was interviewed by PBS News about her New York Times Magazine article “The ‘Panic Industry’ Boom,” for which she was also the contributing photo editor. The article and photo essay explored how some Americans are increasingly spending vast amounts of money prepping for doomsday scenarios by building bunkers, bomb shelters, gun rooms, panic rooms and other means of surviving through a collapse. In conversation with Ali Rogin, Kraft discussed her thoughts on why more people are preparing for disasters, the companies that build the structures meant to safeguard their clients, and the mindsets behind those who are preparing for such scenarios. “I think that as more and more people are impacted by things like pandemics, by civil unrest and demonstrations and activism in their cities, by financial collapse as those factors hit a wider and wider population, it makes sense to me that more of us would be interested in this type of, ‘what can I do in the event of a disaster scenario or a doomsday scenario,’” Kraft told PBS.Bard college alumna Coralie Kraft ’13.
Post Date: 06-20-2025
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Henry Mielarczyk ’25 Joins Stennis Program for Congressional Interns
Henry Mielarczyk ’25 Joins Stennis Program for Congressional Interns
Bard alumnus Henry Mielarczyk ’25, a philosophy and music performance major, has been accepted into the 2025 Stennis Program for Congressional Interns. The internship, given by the Stennis Center for Public Service in Washington, DC, is a competitive bipartisan program designed to provide congressional interns with an opportunity to better understand the role of Congress as an institution and its role in the democracy of the United States. Interns will connect with current and former senior congressional staff through a series of discussion sessions designed to provide an in-depth look at Congress and its operations with other institutions. The Stennis Center is a bipartisan legislative branch agency created by Congress in 1988 to promote and strengthen the highest ideals of public service in the United States. The center aims to develop and deliver a portfolio of unique programs for young people, leaders in local, state, and federal government, and congressional staff.Henry Mielarczyk ’25.
Post Date: 06-18-2025