News

If passed, a Senate resolution introduced in mid-June would apologize to LGBTQ federal workers for historical acts of discrimination. Real reparations demand far more.

“Based on the experience of nations like Spain, Britain, and Germany, gay reparations are best understood as policies intended to make amends for a history of systemic anti-gay discrimination,” writes Professor of Political Studies Omar G. Encarnación in the Nation. “But the movement is not one-size-fits-all; nor is it driven by gay people demanding financial compensation simply for claiming an LGBTQ identity, as some foes of the gay community have contended. Instead, the gay reparations movement encompasses a small but eclectic constellation of approaches to repairing the damage done by state-sponsored anti-gay discrimination and violence, with each approach entailing its own policies and philosophical emphases for how to repair that damage.”

John Ryle, Legrand Ramsey Professor of Anthropology at Bard College and cofounder of the Rift Valley Institute, has been awarded an OBE, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, “for services to research and education in Sudan, South Sudan and the Horn of Africa.” The educational work that Ryle does in Eastern Africa—in collaboration with Tom Odhiambo, a colleague at the University of Nairobi—takes place largely under the auspices of the Open Society University Network and Bard.

“The award of the OBE recognizes the growing importance of the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) over the past two decades,” said Ryle, thanking RVI staff, interns, consultants, fellows and board members, past and present, for their contributions to the development of the Institute, in particular current Executive Director Mark Bradbury. “I would also like to thank Bard College, where I teach, which for many years has given the Institute a home in the United States. I am grateful for the professional and personal support I have had from the President, Leon Botstein, and from colleagues in the Anthropology and Human Rights Programs. I am happy that the Open Society University Network—led by Bard and the Central European University—now includes the Rift Valley Institute as one of its core partners.”

“Bard is very proud of the high honor bestowed on our esteemed colleague, John Ryle, a wonderful teacher and mentor,” said Bard President Leon Botstein.

About John Ryle
John Ryle is a writer, teacher, filmmaker, publisher, and social activist, specializing in Eastern Africa and Brazil. He was born in England and educated at Shrewsbury School and Oxford University. Ryle has been Legrand Ramsey Professor of Anthropology at Bard College since 2007, and currently is leading the Open Society University Network’s (OSUN) Oral History and Literature graduate-level seminar with Dr. Tom Odhiambo of the University of Nairobi. Ryle also serves as director of studies for OSUN’s Eastern Africa Hub for Connected Learning Initiatives.

In 2000, with Jok Madut Jok and Philip Winter, Ryle founded the Rift Valley Institute, a research, training and public information organization operating in Eastern Africa. He was executive director of the Institute from 2001 to 2017 and currently leads an RVI research project on the role of customary authorities in South Sudan. He has been an activist in the international landmines ban campaign, anti-slavery movement, LGBTQI rights, and open access publishing. He was a board member of the Open Society Landmines project and a member of the International Eminent Persons Group, which reported on slavery and abduction in Sudan.

From 1995 to 2000, Ryle was a weekly columnist for the Guardian, and he has been a contributor to the New Yorker, New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, Granta, and Times Literary Supplement. He has served on the boards of the Media Development Investment Fund, Human Rights Watch Africa, and the journal African Affairs. In 1996–97, he was a research fellow of Nuffield College Oxford; and, in 2015–16, a fellow at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library.

In the late 1980s, Ryle was a project officer for the Ford Foundation in Brazil and subsequently lived in an Afro-Brazllian religious community in Salvador da Bahia. In the 1990s, he was a consultant to relief and development organizations in Sudan and the Horn of Africa. Previously, he worked as a doorman at the Embassy Club in London, as a roustabout for the Royal American Shows and the Canadian Pacific Railway, and as a ghostwriter for Mick Jagger.

Ryle’s publications include: Warriors of the White Nile, 1984, an account of the Dinka people of South Sudan; The Sudan Handbook, 2011, coedited with Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut; Peace is the Name of my Cattle Camp: Local responses to conflict in Eastern Lakes State, 2018 (with Machot Amuom); and What Happened at Wunlit? An oral history of the 1999 Wunlit peace agreement in South Sudan (editor; 2021).

Ryle was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours for services to research and education in Sudan, South Sudan, and the Horn of Africa.


About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.(6/21/21)

As the cover story for this week's issue of the Times Literary Supplement, Professor of Political Studies Omar G. Encarnación reviews Sarah Schulman’s Let the Record Show: A political history of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993. The audacious, controversial, and highly effective ACT UP was led by the artist and activist Larry Kramer, whom Anthony Fauci described as “unique in that he totally transformed the relationship between activism and the scientific, regulatory and government community.” In his review, Professor Encarnación considers ACT UP’s impact on alleviating the AIDS crisis, how it paved the way for the work of advocacy groups around other diseases, and how its waning influence reflects on the state of gay rights in the U.S. and abroad.

Grace Molinaro ’24, a dual degree Bard Conservatory and Middle Eastern Studies major at Bard College, has been awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic during the summer of 2021. The U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. CLS scholars gain critical language and cultural skills that enable them to contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. Molinaro is one of nearly 700 competitively selected American students at U.S. colleges and universities who received a CLS award in 2021.

“I feel extremely lucky to have received this scholarship because it will help me develop my ability to better express my thoughts in Arabic and communicate across borders—linguistic, national, cultural, and others,” said Molinaro. “I am hoping it will help me get to know the community in my home area better, since a lot of people speak Arabic, and I especially hope that this experience will give me the skills and tools to communicate, negotiate, and foster understanding through language.”

About the Critical Language Scholarship Program
The Critical Language Scholarship Program provides opportunities to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to spend eight to ten weeks studying one of 15 critical languages: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, or Urdu. The program includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains. The CLS Program is developed in partnership with local institutions in countries where these languages are commonly spoken. CLS scholars are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future careers. Since 2006, CLS has awarded scholarships to more than 8,000 American students to learn critical languages around the world. CLS scholars are among the more than 50,000 academic and professional exchange program participants supported annually by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. These exchange programs build respect and positive relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The CLS Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State and is supported in its administration by American Councils for International Education. For more information, visit clscholarship.org.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.(6/15/21)

Language has been at the heart of political debate in Assam since the formation of the British colonial province of Assam in 1874, then through the turbulent decades leading to Indian Independence, the separation of the Sylhet district during Partition, and into our times. Professor of Political Studies Sanjib Baruah examines the history and politics of the region in the India Forum.

Tyler Williams ’19 MAT ’21 has completed his third Bard College degree. Williams is a graduate of Bard High School Early College Baltimore, the Bard College undergraduate program, and now the Bard MAT program. He graduated from Bard High School Early College in Baltimore, Maryland in 2017 with his associate’s degree. He then enrolled as an undergraduate at Bard College, graduating in 2019 with his BA in religion. In 2020 he joined the Bard MAT program in literature and graduated on May 29, 2021 with his Master of Arts in Teaching degree in literature and a New York State secondary English Language Arts teacher certification.

Bard College is pleased to announce that Yarran Hominh will join the faculty of the Philosophy Program as assistant professor of philosophy, effective fall 2022. Hominh’s research sits at the intersection of moral psychology and social and political philosophy, drawing on the global pragmatist tradition in John Dewey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and B.R. Ambedkar, among others. His work examines how modern social and political institutions shape human agency, and how human agency can in turn be used to change those institutions. He also has research interests in philosophy of law, ethics, colonialism, early modern philosophy, and the philosophy of the social sciences.

About Yarran Hominh
Yarran Hominh’s dissertation is entitled The Problem of Unfreedom. It examines the question of whether people who are unfree can make themselves free, given that their agency is constrained and limited by the social institutions in which they live. Through examining key modern institutions of unfreedom, Hominh argues that the unfree can make themselves free. The problem of unfreedom is a vicious cycle. Social conditions constrain agency, which in turn further entrenches the social conditions. A virtuous cycle is possible. Agents can change their conditions, reducing the constraint on their agency, in turn enabling greater change. Hominh is working on a new project on the moral psychology of ongoing structural injustices. The project examines the role that emotions and attitudes like anger, blame, hope, trust, and distrust play in continuing and in addressing structural injustices. His work has been published in The Pluralist, Res Publica, and the Australasian Journal of Legal Philosophy, among other venues.

He is the associate editor of the American Philosophical Association’s APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies, and has been an organizer with the Graduate Workers of Columbia UAW Local-2110 and with the Minorities and Philosophy initiative. Before taking his PhD at Columbia University, where, among other things, he served as a lead teaching fellow and senior lead teaching fellow with the Center for Teaching and Learning, Hominh completed undergraduate and master’s degrees in philosophy and law from the University of Sydney. Before joining Bard in fall 2022, he will spend the 2021-2022 academic year as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Leslie Center for the Humanities at Dartmouth College.

About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.(6/2/21)

The American Historical Association and John W. Kluge Center at the Library Of Congress has awarded Bard College History professor Jeannette Estruth the J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History. The annual award is offered annually to support significant scholarly research in the collections of the Library of Congress by scholars at an early stage in their careers in history. The fellowship is named in honor of J. Franklin Jameson, a founder of the American Historical Association, longtime managing editor of the American Historical Review, formerly chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, and the first incumbent of the library’s chair of American history.

Jeannette Alden Estruth is an assistant professor of American History at Bard College, and a faculty associate at the Harvard University Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She received her doctorate in history, with honors, from New York University in 2018. In 2019, Estruth’s book project was a finalist for the Herman E. Krooss Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History. Her research has been supported by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Huntington Library, the University of Virginia Miller Center, and the Berkshire Conference. Estruth’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Business Insider, Public Seminar, and Enterprise and Society, among others. Prior to her doctoral work, she worked at Harvard University Press and the Radical History Review. She is currently working on a book manuscript, The New Utopia: A Political History of the Silicon Valley, which explores the history of social movements, the technology industry, and economic culture in the United States.(6/2/21)