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Bard College students Sana Mustafa and Graham Clark participated this week in the prestigious Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference, held at the academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Established in 1961, the conference brings together more than 150 undergraduate students from the United States and over a dozen foreign countries every year for three days of critical discussions, lectures, informal exchanges, and social events.
This year's theme was "Sustainability and Sovereignty: Global Security in a Resource-Strained World." It is an interactive conference that requires extensive preparation and participation in roundtables. Sana's roundtable was "Natural Security: States vs. the Global Commons." Graham's was "The Eagle v. The Bear: Russian and American Grand Strategy in a Resource Scarce Era." Their participation in the conference was supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

On April 14, The FDR Presidential Library and Museum will host “The Labor Movement and the New Deal—A Legacy Reborn?” a panel discussion and conversation sponsored by the Bard Center for Civic Engagement and the Roosevelt Institute, in association with the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. On Monday, April 20, “Bard Labor Workshop: The State of Labor, New Models of Organizing, and the Future of Work,” a daylong workshop cosponsored by the Levy Institute and SEIU 775, will address three primary themes: the state of the American labor movement, the future of work, and new models of organizing and worker power. An expert panel will focus on each topic, followed by a Q&A session. The workshop is free and open to the public. For registration information, visit www.levyinstitute.org.

Bard College and the United States Military Academy at West Point present a conference entitled “Intolerance—Political Animals and Their Prey,” beginning on Wednesday, April 8 and continuing through Friday, April 10. The conference takes place in Olin Auditorium on the Bard College campus and is presented by Bruce Chilton, Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Bard College, and Robert Tully, professor of philosophy at West Point. The programs are free and open to the public and no reservations are required.

In cooperation with Bard College Berlin, Institute for Cultural Inquiry Berlin, the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, and the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement, this conference will discuss privacy as a place and a possession as well as an abstract right, and the role it plays in a world in which technology permeates all aspects of life, from the everyday to the intimate. This two-day event will examine not only the legal arrangements affecting privacy but privacy as a philosophical concept and a cultural tenet.

Scott McLemee praises Davis’s exploration of the Bhagavad Gita, an Indian sacred text, from its first English publication in 1785 to its 20th-century rebirth as an element of Indian national identity.

Bard College and Simon's Rock faculty member Peter Filkins has received a 2015–2016 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of his research and writing of The Life and Times of H.G. Adler (1910 -1988): Poet, Novelist, and Holocaust Survivor.

James Ketterer, director of international academic initiatives at Bard's Center for Civic Engagement, gave a lecture this week at Future University of Egypt (FUE), where he spoke about the role of education and cultural affairs as a component of diplomacy, especially focusing on U.S.–Egyptian relations. He was hosted at FUE by Dr. Abdul Monen Al Mashat, dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, and his talk was arranged by Professor Yasmine Zein Al-Abedine, who spent last summer at Bard as part of the U.S. Foreign Policy Institute sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. While in Egypt, Ketterer is also meeting with officials at the U.S. Embassy, the U.S. Agency for International Development, educational nongovernmental organizations, and the American University in Cairo.

"How can we understand Brutus, a man who, so soon after stabbing Caesar in the name of stopping tyranny, had so reconciled himself to the ways of tyrants?" asks James Romm.

The weekly collection of civilian and military drone news featured on the website of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard is now a collaboration with Forbes.

Critic, classicist, and Bard professor Daniel Mendelsohn considers the strange cultural history of Sappho and the enduring allure of her poetry.

The Justus and Karin Rosenberg Foundation has announced a gift to Bard College to create a student internship program that begins in the summer of 2015. The Rosenberg internships enable students to gain hands-on experience with nonprofit groups and other organizations that focus on hatred, antisemitism, extremism, and xenophobia. In the context of rising waves of violent religious and ethnic prejudice in Europe and elsewhere, of which the Charlie Hebdo attack and the killing of Jews in France and Denmark are just recent examples, the program will support work on the front lines of the struggle for human rights.

Art History Professor Tom Wolf is co-curating the first comprehensive exhibition about early American modernist Yasuo Kuniyoshi in a U.S. museum since 1948.

Jonathan Brent discusses Stangneth's book on the Nazi Adolf Eichmann, which explores his escape from Europe after World War II, his life in Argentina, his capture, his trial, and his postwar image.

A paper by Bard College Berlin student Dylan Davis (B.A. 2016, USA) on the relationship between hate and equality has won an essay contest across several Bard-affiliated campuses. In the fall of 2014, students at Bard College and its partners at Al-Quds University in the West Bank, the American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, and Bard College Berlin participated in the Academic Initiative on Hate and the Human Condition. Courses that explored and reflected on the problem of hate were offered at participating campuses, and final papers written by students in these classes were eligible for the essay contest. Following the evaluation by a panel of judges from the four institutions, Dylan Davis's paper "Beyond Hate: Exploring the Relationship Between Hate and Equality" was selected as the winner.

Michiel Bot has been awarded the first Witteveen Memorial Fellowship in Law and Humanities for research at Tilburg University in the Netherlands during the summer of 2015.

Bard students Julia Minin '16 and Jared Rabinowitz '16 participated in the 56th Annual U.S. Air Force Academy Assembly, held February 2–4 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The topic for this year's assembly was "U.S.-Russia Relations: Refocus. Rebuild. Reenergize." Convened annually since 1959, the Academy Assembly is a student-planned, undergraduate conference held by the Air Force Academy and cosponsored with Columbia University's American Assembly. This year's conference focused on the current crisis in Ukraine. Student delegates are divided into small roundtables moderated by senior representatives from academia and government. Distinguished speakers provide expert perspective and information on the topic at hand. This year's keynote speaker was Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia. The Bard students' attendance was supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

"At what point," wonders Prose, "did we start expecting films to tell the truth about the past? And won’t we be in trouble if we do?"

In the wake of the election that brought the Syriza party to power in Greece, eyes are turning to Spain's Podemos, which is soon to face its own national election.

The post-9/11 American interrogation system "has never been described more intimately or more convincingly" than in Guantánamo Diary, writes Mark Danner.

Bard Model United Nations team successfully competed in the McGill University Model United Nations Assembly (McMUN) in Montreal, Canada, January 22–25. Bard fielded a team of five delegates who served on committees simulating events in 1930s China, the 1815 Congress of Vienna, Nintendo's business strategy, and the UN’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee. Delegates from Bard were Sophia Foster (BRIDGE student), Jeremy Kaplitt '17, Brian Strigel '15, and Jess Zaccagnino '17. Gabriel Matsakis '15, Bard Model UN president, served as head delegate and James Ketterer attended as faculty adviser. Their next conference will be at Brown University from February 26 to March 1.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging three upcoming executions in Oklahoma, but the prisoners bringing the lawsuit may be put to death while they wait for their day in court.

Professor James Romm is part of a new wave of scholars writing about Seneca, the ancient emperor Nero's teacher and adviser.

The third volume in David Kynaston’s "brilliant and ambitious postwar history" of Great Britain explores a nation caught between tradition and modernity.

Ian Buruma examines the limits of both free speech and tolerance in a democratic society in light of the recent attacks in Paris.

"Without people stirring the pot intelligently and relentlessly, groups are doomed to make poorly informed and sometimes dangerously bad decisions," writes Steven Mazie.

The Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program (BGIA) in New York City provides a unique opportunity for university students and recent graduates from around the world to engage in the study and practice of international affairs. Students take advanced courses with leading foreign affairs experts and participate in substantive internships in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

In fall 2015, the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College will launch a 3+2 program that will enable qualified and highly motivated Bard undergraduate students in economics or a related field to obtain in five years an accelerated bachelor of arts degree and master of science degree in economic theory and policy, along with extensive research experience. The 3+2 M.S. program will prepare students to pursue careers in public and private sectors as analysts, researchers, and consultants, and provide them with advanced knowledge, course work, and research experience to succeed as Ph.D. candidates.

Jonian Rafti came to Bard to broaden his horizons. He’d grown up in New York City and attended Brooklyn Technical High School, where he was immersed in the STEM fields as part of a student body of more than 5,000. He wanted a more intimate setting where he could get to know his peers and his professors. He also decided that it was time to change the focus of his studies. “I came to Bard because I really wanted a different experience and different outlook,” he says. “I was well versed in the sciences because of my high school, but other parts of my education were lacking. Bard’s focus on the liberal arts was definitely a deciding factor.” As a joint major in economics and history, his mathematical background has proven useful: his Senior Project is a study of the 1937 recession in the United States, and incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Jonian has found that the varied backgrounds of Bard students make for interesting and enlightening conversation, both inside and outside the classroom. “Just look at our student clubs—we have so many for a small school,” he observes. “The challenge is learning how to agree or disagree with all your peers since there are so many different beliefs on this campus. That’s an essential life skill: to understand where someone’s coming from and to be able to express your views in a meaningful way.”

Getting to know the student body began early in Jonian’s college career. First-year seminar made an immediate and long-lasting impression. “In FYSEM, first-years were taking the same course and reading the same books. We lived in dorms where everyone was going through the same thing, had the same questions, and had essays to write at the same time,” he says. The shared first-year experience created an immediate sense of community. “It was a grounding and very common experience that we all benefited from, and we all helped each other.”

Getting involved in student activities comes naturally to Jonian. He serves as a peer counselor and as the treasurer of the student government. He works for Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE), where he has organized local outreach events for the annual Citizen Science program. With Citizen Science, first-year students spend the month of January in an intensive science literacy workshop on campus, during which they also participate in numerous volunteer activities in the Hudson Valley.

He has also been instrumental in the success of Election@Bard, the student-led voter registration initiative on campus. Jonian reached out to the Andrew Goodman Foundation and helped forge a partnership between the voting rights organization and CCE. Now the foundation funds voting efforts on campus, including paying a stipend to Jonian and another student as “vote everywhere ambassadors.” Jonian also recently spoke at the foundation’s 6th Annual Hidden Heroes Awards, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Civil Right’s Movement’s Freedom Summer. The Election@Bard team registered more than 400 students to vote between August and October, 2014, and Jonian was moved by the strong support of student volunteers. “The willingness of Bard students to give their time to things that they believe in really contributes to an atmosphere that’s supportive and engaged.”

Jonian’s work in voting rights has helped lead him to the next chapter: law school. He plans to take a gap year for a civic engagement project after graduation in May, and then head back to school in 2016.

Professor Walter Russell Mead assesses the winners and losers of global politics in 2014, and considers what 2015 will likely have in store.

Bard professor and American Interest editor Walter Russell Mead selects the most important books on the United States reviewed during the last year.

James Ketterer, Bard's director of international academic initiatives and senior fellow at the Institute for International Liberal Education, has been elected to the board of directors of the Mid-Hudson Valley World Affairs Council. The organization is a nonpartisan forum for citizen participation in world affairs. Its mission is to raise public awareness of international issues and to stimulate interest in a better understanding of world affairs. The Council presents public lectures, panels and debates, and educational and cultural programs. The council also sponsors programs and collaborative efforts to reach high school and college students and faculty. The Mid-Hudson chapter is one of 94 chapters of the National World Affairs Councils of America, the largest international affairs nonprofit organization in the United States, which works to address the need for more global understanding in America.

Alan Sussman's "Why Human Rights Are Called Human Rights" is among the top 20 Carnegie Council resources for 2014, as the year's most popular article in Ethics & International Affairs.

Daniel Mendelsohn on "plot versus plottiness"—by way of Aristotle, Jerry Seinfeld, Downton Abbey, and Scandal—in his inaugural Harper's column.

Though many Greeks hope that the 4th-century BC tomb near Amphipolis will prove to be the tomb of Alexander the Great, it may actually be his wife Rhoxane's.

Alan Clark, a defense minister in Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s, reveals the Thatcher administration in this outspoken book, says Richard Aldous.

As part of the Hannah Arendt Center's seventh annual fall conference, "The Unmaking of Americans: Are There Still American Values Worth Fighting For?" the Center asked university students in the United States and abroad to answer the question, "What core American ideals can inspire Americans to sacrifice self-interest and fight for justice?" In a large pool of thoughtful and provocative submissions, two entries stood out: those of Rosa Schwartzburg '16 of Bard College and Alix Tate '16 of Waubonsee Community College (Illinois). Read their winning essays here.

How are Bard students and faculty talking about the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases? Bard writer in residence Francine Prose offers a glimpse into her classroom discussion.

Danielle Riou at Bard's Human Rights Project interviews James Ketterer about his years monitoring elections around the world.

Joseph O’Neill's The Dog, Francine Prose's Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, and James Romm's Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero all made the list.

As a sophomore, Carl Amritt has already carved out a distinct place of his own in the Bard community. Carl was involved in student government in middle and high school in his native West Palm Beach, Florida. Now he's brought his passion for politics to his academic work in Political Studies and Environmental and Urban Studies. He's also become a leader in Bard student government, campus sustainability efforts, and the college's voting initiative.

Sean McMeekin, author of July 1914: Countdown to War, talks about the events leading up to World War I.

David Kettler will receive one of the inaugural John Fekete Awards from Trent University in Ontario for outstanding service to the institution's faculty association.

Jenny Uglow's In These Times "is a big, bold work, rich in detail, insight and characterisation, that reminds us how central the Napoleonic era remains to the way we think."

The United States still has a significant role to play on the world stage, says Jonathan Cristol, in spite of a loss of credibility over the past 14 years.

The election of Klaus Johannis is nothing less than an "electoral earthquake" for Romania, writes Professor Manea. (PDF Download)

Arthur Holland Michel, Bard alumnus and codirector of Bard's Center for the Study of the Drone, weighs in on this Google Hangout.

"Richard Davis ... shows us, in subtle and stunning detail, how the text of the Gita has been embedded in one political setting after another, changing its meaning again and again."

On Thursday, November 13, Walter Russell Mead spoke before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence regarding the risk of nation-state conflict in the 21st century.

The recent rise of Spain's left-wing Podemos party is challenging the nation's two leading political parties, which have been plagued by corruption scandals, writes Omar Encarnación.