News

The Center for the Study of Hate brings together multiple disciplines to examine the history and politics of bigotry and how to combat it.

“The nation needs to have a serious conversation about what it is we’re doing with the troops we’ve deployed in combat areas,” says Ketterer.

“The trajectory from the Palestinian refugee camp where I grew up … to a graduate school in a foreign capital was not quick or easy, but my persistence paid off,” Jawabreh writes.

Since 2009, Bardians and local high school students have worked with anthropology professor Christopher Lindner at the 1746 Parsonage in Germantown, 9 miles north of the College.

McKim was honored by the ASC’s Women and Crime and Critical Criminology and Social Justice divisions for her 2017 book Addicted to Rehab: Race, Gender, and Drugs in the Era of Mass Incarceration, “a compelling and critical ethnography of drug rehabilitation” (CCSJ).

Senator Warren (D-MA) spoke via teleconference to students and faculty from Bard College, Bard College at Simon's Rock, and Bard Microcollege Holyoke on December 1.

Bard students, staff, and faculty gathered for a Commemoration Walk on the afternoon of Monday, December 3, visiting new signage around campus designed to encourage critical reflection on Bard’s history. This is a project of students in Professor Myra Young Armstead’s Inclusion at Bard course, part of a series of Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences courses at Bard, sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement. The new placards on campus engage community practices of public memory, recognition, and forgetting.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at each location, with a historical presentation by students and remarks by a member of the faculty. Professor Armstead kicked off the event at the marker outside Aspinwall Hall highlighting John Lloyd Aspinwall, an early benefactor of St. Stephen’s College, Bard’s first incarnation. Like many antebellum donors to the nation’s colleges and universities, Aspinwall owed a significant portion of his wealth to commercial ventures that profited from slavery in the Americas.
 
A second placard near the library, overlooking Kline with a view of the Catskills, is dedicated to Vine Deloria Sr., Class of 1926. Deloria was an exceptional athlete at St. Stephen’s whose life and work were defined by a proud Native American cross-culturalism. He became the Episcopal archdeacon of Indian parishes in South Dakota and a vocal advocate for tribal governments.
 
A third placard near the Chapel of the Holy Innocents honors Matthew McDuffie, Class of 1889. Born a slave in South Carolina, he was literate by the age of five. Thanks to the efforts of his diligent parents, McDuffie was able to take advantage of opportunities for Black Americans that opened after the Civil War. He was one of a cohort of four African American students to integrate St. Stephen’s in 1884. McDuffie experienced discrimination from his classmates but he persisted in his education without protest, and went on to become the first resident priest of St. James Episcopal Church in Tampa, Florida.
 

On the heels of the Green Book movie, History looks at Professor Armstead's research into how black vacationers during segregation escaped to retreats that catered to them.

The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi makes a review of the U.S. relationship with Saudia Arabia critical, writes Frederic Hof.

The challenge facing any Churchill biographer is how to weigh “a life filled with so much triumph and disaster,” writes Aldous in this review of Andrew Roberts's Churchill.

Dean of International Studies James Ketterer comments that it is not enough to thank veterans for their service; we must ensure that our elected officials deploy the military conscientiously.

Professor Mendelsohn describes how he has experienced the Odyssey at different times in his life, and how he rediscovers the text with each new translation.

“The radically different experiences of Western and Eastern Europe in the years after 1918 explain much about the continent’s political landscape a century late,” McMeekin writes.

“Creative Process in Dialogue: Art and the Public Today” will be held at BHSEC Manhattan on October 31, followed by a lunch hour talk at Bard at Brooklyn Public Library on November 1.

Poet Elizabeth Alexander and Painter Amy Sherald in Conversation

Creative Process in Dialogue: Art and the Public Today with Elizabeth Alexander and Amy Sherald 
Bard High School Early College Manhattan, October 31 at 6:30 p.m.

Lunch Hour Talk with Amy Sherald and Thelma Golden
Bard at Brooklyn Public Library, November 1 at 12:45 p.m.

Watch Live Starting at 6:30 Eastern Time on October 31:



Bard High School Early College Manhattan (BHSEC) hosts a discussion with poet Elizabeth Alexander and painter Amy Sherald about their creative processes and their commitments to the humanities. This public conversation seeks to diversify perspectives on the arts disciplines and to offer models for collective and inclusive community dialogues. The event is free and open to the public. It takes place on Wednesday, October 31, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at BHSEC on 525 East Houston Street in New York City. Preregistration is required. Register here. A live webcast of the event will also be available.

Poet and president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Elizabeth Alexander and painter Amy Sherald have both produced works critical to marking and reflecting on recent periods of political and social change in the United States. Alexander wrote and recited the poem “Praise Song for Our Day” to usher forward the presidency of the first black American president, Barack Obama, and Sherald painted the official portrait of the first lady, Michelle Obama, one of two works to mark the end of the Obama Presidency. Moderators BHSEC literature professor Brittney Edmonds and Bard Associate Professor of History Christian Crouch will ask Alexander and Sherald four contextualizing questions around the process of patronage and collecting in the arts, artistic practice and black feminism, how their work speaks across artistic media, and how their work engages with the image of body.

“This event, the first of a series, is inspired by an ongoing dialogue within Bard’s Africana Studies Program surrounding race and diversity and social engagement in the visual and performative arts. We hope to create the opportunity for public dialogue around creative artistic practice and the humanities, and how artists engage their audience and broader community,” says Director of Africana Studies at Bard and Assistant Professor of Africana and Historical Studies Drew Thompson.

This event is cosponsored by Humanities New York, Bard Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard Center for Civic Engagement, Bard Undergraduate Program in Africana Studies, Bard High School Early College, and Bard American Studies Program.

On Thursday, November 1, from 12:45pm to 2:00pm, Amy Sherald will be in conversation with curator Thelma Golden at Bard at Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), the first New York City Microcollege. In this inaugural Bard at BPL Lunch Hour Talk, Golden and Sherald discuss an understated aspect of the creative process: the relationship between curator and artist. Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, has presided over exhibitions in which painter Amy Sherald’s works were included and was involved in the selection of Sherald to paint the portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The event is free and open to the public. It takes place at BPL Central Library, Dweck Center, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. Preregistration is required. Register here.
 

Kenneth S. Stern ’75 has been named director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate (BCSH). The Center, a new program of Bard’s Human Rights Project, will support faculty and students throughout the Bard network who want to study and combat hatred and its various manifestations. Stern, a recipient of Bard’s John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service, is an attorney and award-winning author, and an internationally known expert on hatred and antisemitism.

“The roots of Bolsonaro’s opposition to LGBT rights, feminism, the environment, and the like is, first and foremost, his fondness for authoritarianism,” writes Encarnación.

The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi could finally push a long-overdue review of American policy in Saudi Arabia, Hof writes.

This collection of unpublished works highlights Arendt’s “desire to revive political freedom and public happiness in a world endlessly defined by wars, revolutions, and violence.”

BGIA has welcomed new staff and faculty, has started a joint program with Central European University, and is finalizing renovations of its space in midtown Manhattan.

Stephen Mucher, director of Bard’s MAT program in LA, asks why the nation is not discussing college education as the surest defense against voter suppression.

The Center will work with faculty and students throughout the Bard network to increase the serious study of hatred, to identify ways to combat hate, and to stimulate public discussion.

The first volume of Arendt’s complete works has been published, with “countless flashes of insight, edited with great care.” Bard faculty member Thomas Wild is an editor of the edition, and Thomas Bartscherer is an editor of a subsequent volume. (In German.)

Poet Layli Long Soldier reflects on the relatively unknown official apology issued to indigenous people on behalf of the U.S. government in 2009.

Nadia Murad will share the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize with Dr. Denis Mukwege. Murad spoke at Bard in 2016 on the Yazidi genocide and sexual slavery. Watch the video from the Hannah Arendt Center.

Bard College announces the appointment of esteemed Ambassador Frederic C. Hof as Bard’s first Diplomat-in-Residence in the Political Studies Program.

Bard College has received two grants from the NEH in support of faculty-led humanities projects, part of the endowment’s third and last round of funding for fiscal year 2018.

Bayrasli, a professor of international affairs at Bard College, says that both presidents are trying to appear strong to their core supporters at home by scoring cheap political points.

The judgment in Weyerhauser Co. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service will be another indication of the court’s view on judicial deference to federal agencies, writes Steven Mazie.

Community Action Awards Spotlight

My name is Eric Raimondi and I am a joint History and Middle Eastern Studies major in my senior year at Bard. This summer I worked with Samos Volunteers in Greece where I helped refugees living in a former military detention center. My work included registering refugees, sorting donated goods, washing clothing, and cleaning bathrooms at the camp. Working in the camp was physically and emotionally exhausting. I often worked in the mid-afternoon—this meant it was unbearably hot; it also meant that the refugees’ tents were practically uninhabitable, as they heated like saunas. Despite these conditions, I found my work to be extremely rewarding and enriching. I was invited into people’s tents and was often treated as a guest. One time during Ramadan, an old woman gifted me the most delicious stuffed zucchini. In front of the backdrop of injustice, some people continue life as normal for as long as they can. For the first time in my life, I felt completely useful. The experience I had with Samos Volunteers cannot be replicated. I don’t imagine I can see the world the same as before.
 

Franco ran Spain with an iron fist for decades, writes Encarnación, and created myths about his rule that are only now starting to come undone.

The political science major and Bard Raptors pitcher is spending the summer doing one of the things he loves best: playing baseball.

With fascist salutes, defenders of Spanish dictator Franco gathered recently to protest the new Socialist government's plan to dig up his remains. Professor Encarnación offers context.

In America Classifies the Immigrants, Professor Perlmann “provides a cogent and compelling analysis of the muddle of meanings” of classification terms used in the Census.

Tivoli’s newly reopened Broadway Bridge has been dedicated to educator, historian, and village trustee Bernard Tieger, who taught sociology at Bard from 1967 to 1988.

“Italy’s new populist government signals a major challenge to the European status quo, but not in the way most observers initially expected.”

Cofounded by BGIA professor Elmira Bayrasli, FPInterrupted (FPI) amplifies female foreign policy voices in the media.

The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis shows the Holocaust as an act of cultural plunder and destruction.

In Blood for Thought, “Balberg has somehow managed to write another path-breaking work on another formidable and arcane section of rabbinic literature—sacrificial law.”

Richard Aldous, Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature, reviews Conservativism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition.

Two Bard College students were awarded a highly competitive Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship by the U.S. Department of State. Dance major Emma Lee ’19 was awarded $3,000 towards her participation in “Black Dances #3: Around Technique Acogny,” a six-week West-African dance program in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal at Ecole des Sables, the school of renowned dancer and choreographer Germaine Acogny.

Sociology major Cindy (Sam) Arroyo ’19 was awarded $2,500 toward her participation in “Development, Environment, and Social Change: Contemporary Issues in Central Asia,” Bard Abroad’s Summer Practicum Program at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Gilman Scholars receive up to $5,000 to apply towards their study abroad or internship program costs with additional funding available for the study of a critical language overseas. The Gilman scholarship supports American undergraduate students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad and, since 2001, has enabled more than 25,000 outstanding Americans of diverse backgrounds to engage in a meaningful educational experience abroad. The program has successfully broadened U.S. participation in study abroad, while emphasizing countries and regions where fewer Americans traditionally study. The late Congressman Gilman, who served in the House of Representatives for 30 years, chaired the House Foreign Relations Committee, and was honored with the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Medal in 2002, commented, “Study abroad is a special experience for every student who participates. Living and learning in a vastly different environment of another nation not only exposes our students to alternate views, but also adds an enriching social and cultural experience. It also provides our students with the opportunity to return home with a deeper understanding of their place in the world, encouraging them to be a contributor, rather than a spectator in the international community.”

Jonathan Chavez is the director of college persistence at Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (CHLDC) in New York City. Jon graduated from Bard in 2012 with a major in sociology.

CHLDC is a community-based organization that offers a range of free support services to residents. Working with the College Success Programs division, Jon and his staff support local college students. "We assist our students in navigating their campuses, troubleshooting issues that impede their success, and technical processes (i.e. completing FAFSA, class registration). I particularly enjoy reaching out to students to develop plans as they start their semesters."

Drawing on his relationships with Bard administrators, Jon graduated from Bard with the opportunity to participate in a weeklong program exploring the field of student affairs in higher education with NASPA. Upon finishing the program, he worked for the Bard Educational Opportunity Programs (BEOP) while conducting his job search over the summer. A fellow alumnus referred him to CHLDC. "They were seeking a college access counselor to help high school seniors apply to college," he recalls. Every year working with the CHLDC, Jon added new projects to his role, which led to several promotions, eventually placing him in the position of director of college persistence.
 
He credits Bard with helping him develop the skills to guide college students in Cypress Hills. "My field of work is still developing, so many times I rely on my ability to anticipate problems and navigate solutions. Thankfully, my various research courses [at Bard] helped me develop a framework for problem solving. In my counseling, I also use a lot of the techniques I learned from various leadership roles I had at Bard, as a peer counselor with ResLife and peer mentor with BEOP." Jon finds that his work study experiences with the Dean of Student Affairs Office and Change in Action workshops also helped him learn how to navigate a professional office environment and promote leadership among members of his team. 

Jon remembers Bard being a challenging environment. "A lot of responsibilities are placed on students: they run some [campus] spaces and lead clubs and activities in addition to maintaining strong grades. ... I am so grateful for the preparation I received at Bard. In my [current] role, I am constantly in positions where I have to learn processes or context very quickly and I have to decipher information to problem solve. My years at Bard helped me find comfort even when I was in uncomfortable situations."

Jon transferred to Bard from community college, and he appreciated the opportunity to devote his time to being a student among other students. "Living on campus is a subtle privilege that is oftentimes taken for granted, but it allowed me to cultivate many valuable relationships that I utilize to this day." His advice for current students? "When you hear about networking, keep in mind that every relationship is a form of networking; the process is easier than people tend to think and a friend or mentor might be your link to a possible job opportunity."

Joseph Kim '19 has watched the summit with special interest, hoping the U.S. and North Korea would commit to improving human rights in the country he fled in 2006.

This new volume “offers an English reader a personal tour through the private quarters of Tchaikovsky to his most informal and intimate zone.”

Union organizer David Rolf ’92 is at the forefront of the shift in the labor movement, from a focus on organizing workers in manufacturing to those in the service sector.

The program was recognized for its commitment to integrating civic learning and social responsibility within each student’s chosen area of specialization.

McClodden will use the annual research and teaching fellowship to continue her exploration of underexamined black artists.

When Catherine Baum started looking at colleges, Bard was on her radar: her older brother, Ben, was already a Bard student. The two siblings grew up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, home of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, about an hour’s drive from Annandale. Their father is a lawyer and their mother is a writer, artist, and teacher; politics and education were frequent topics of discussion as the siblings grew up. When Catherine was still in high school, Ben was telling her about Bard, how he was studying economics and getting involved in political campaigns. She was impressed with what she heard on the news about the Bard Prison Initiative and she loved visiting the campus. She knew she would apply.

Catherine is now a sophomore at Bard studying Human Rights, and plans to become a teacher. She intends to pursue the College’s 4+1 graduate teaching degree through the Bard Master of Arts in Teaching program.

“I wanted human rights to be the lens through which I thought about teaching,” Catherine explains. She sees education as a human right, and an essential component to an educated citizenry and a functional society. Studying human rights gives her new perspective on the classroom, in which she is more aware of the varied backgrounds and struggles of her students, and on her own role as a teacher.

Catherine is a tutor for a long-running Bard TLS project at the Red Hook Residential Center, a low-security juvenile detention center in Red Hook. She visits the location once a week to give students personalized academic attention. “It’s the hardest teaching environment that I’ve been in so far,” she admits. “We read a book with the students and help them with their homework, and also just talk to them and give them some one-on-one time.”

Catherine believes that approaching young students seriously is critical to their sense of worth and their engagement with the learning process. This became apparent to her during her first year at Bard, in a philosophy course taught by Kritika Yegnashankaran. “She was able to make complicated things simple,” Catherine says. “She had high expectations and created an environment where everyone’s contribution was valuable.” Helping her students feel confident and able to access difficult material has become a cornerstone of her approach to teaching.

Catherine has taken advantage of Bard's location to do outdoor environmental education as well. Through a volunteer project during Bard's MLK Day of Engagement last year, she was introduced to the Clearwater. The Clearwater is a replica of a historic Hudson River sloop, an educational vessel that engages people with the life of the river. "Our main thing is bringing school groups on and teaching them. We teach them about the fish, we teach them about the water quality, and we teach them about history." After volunteering on MLK Day, Catherine applied and was accepted as a member of the crew last summer—she lived on the ship for two months.

“She's amazing," Ben Baum says of his sister. "She’s incredible. She’s so much cooler than I am, it’s a problem.” 

When Ben was applying to colleges, he hoped to combine a small classroom environment with the opportunity to compete in college athletics. He visited Bard’s campus and learned about the lacrosse team, and he knew it was “the obvious choice.… I applied to a good number of schools. I realized that Bard offered more of the things that I wanted than any other place.”

Ben, now a senior majoring in economics, attended the Bard Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) Program in New York City the summer after his sophomore year. BGIA students participate in competitive internships while taking Bard courses. While attending BGIA, Ben received an email about an internship opportunity on Zephyr Teachout's congressional campaign. “BGIA was almost over. I had just started as an intern on Zephyr’s campaign in August and then I actually got hired a couple of weeks after that.”

Ben started out at Bard studying politics and economics without a clear idea of where it would lead him. Working on the campaign brought his academic work into the real world, and he loved it. “I can’t really describe how valuable it was,” he observes. “After I started working on the campaign my life took on meaning and intention that I could never have imagined.... I had always wanted to work in politics, but it was being in that world that made it very clear that this was what I wanted to do.”

While working for Teachout, Ben took an academic leave of absence from Bard to commit to the campaign in Washington, D.C. It was through his work on the Teachout Campaign that Ben met his current employer, a New York State congressman.

To keep up with this college credits, Ben has been taking courses at Georgetown University. He will return to Annandale this fall to complete his Senior Project in the Economics Program, which will examine the role of money in politics. The inspiration for his project, Ben says, comes from a Supreme Court case where Justice Louis Brandeis discusses the “curse of bigness.”

“He talks about how the government shouldn’t be larger than corporations and vice versa—that everything has to be proportional in a sense,” says Ben. “That is the inspiration behind this, looking at that proportion, because I think it’s very much out of proportion.”

The flexibility and support system at Bard encouraged Ben to take risks. “Bard requires self-confidence,” he observes. “There isn’t a rigid structure. They’re teaching you, but you have to take initiative to make it your own—Bard is what you make it. I was given an agency that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and that’s allowed me to make some unorthodox decisions, like taking a leave of absence to go work in D.C.”

“It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as it’s something that’s important and meaningful and fulfilling," he adds. "The desire to feel fulfilled in life, in a really deep way, is what the school teaches. And I think that’s what my future holds.”

 

“Slavery still flourishes in many places and not only on the African continent. It exists in different forms on every continent of the world.”

Dimitri B. Papadimitriou is president of the Levy Economics Institute, Jerome Levy Professor of Economics, and executive vice president emeritus of Bard College. He has been a member of the Bard faculty since 1977.

Papadimitriou is the author or coauthor of academic articles relating to Federal Reserve policy, fiscal policy, financial stability, employment growth, and Social Security reform. He has provided expert testimony before U.S. Senate and House committees, is a former vice-chair of the Trade Deficit Review Commission (1999–2001), and was a member of the Competitiveness Policy Council's Subcouncil on Capital Allocation from 1993 to 1998. He served as Minister of Economy and Development for the Hellenic Republic from 2016 to 2018. Papadimitriou was a distinguished scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (PRC) in fall 2002. He has edited and contributed to 13 books published by Palgrave Macmillan, Edward Elgar, and McGraw-Hill, and is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Economic Analysis, Challenge, and the Bulletin of Political Economy. In addition, he has served as executive vice president of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, since 1979; as managing director of Bard College Berlin, Germany (2011–15); and as trustee and treasurer (1992–2013) and chairman (2013– ) of the American Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the graduate faculty of the New School for Social Research from 1975 to 1976. He is a graduate of Columbia University and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the New School.