News

Professor Manea is visiting Bard College Berlin and gave a talk at the German Marshall Fund on migration, globalization, and exile.

Language and Thinking faculty member Bruce Watson's Light: A Radiant History from Creation to the Quantum Age is "a delightful journey."

Peter Rosenblum, professor of international law and human rights, spent two years investigating human rights abuses at Indian tea plantations.

The writer and critic reveals his nostalgia for an older Paris, mourns the city's disappearing café culture, and touches on the urban defects of neoliberalism.

On Thursday, February 25, award-winning author Luc Sante, visiting professor of writing and photography at Bard College, will read from his most recent book, The Other Paris. Presented by Bard’s Written Arts Program, the reading takes place at 7:00 p.m. in Bard Hall, and is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Books will be available for sale and signing from Oblong Books & Music. 

Sean McMeekin's book The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East has won the Goodzeit Award from the New York Military Affairs Symposium.

Professor Armstead discusses her NEH-funded fellowship with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as part of a larger Schomburg mixtape of interviews with black intellectuals.

Thatcher historian Richard Aldous explores the newest volume in Moore's biography of the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher: At Her Zenith: In London, Washington and Moscow.

Arthur Holland Michel investigated how a small team of engineers built the first lethal Predator drone and created the basis for modern drone warfare leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Americans are angrier than ever, writes Steven Mazie, and this survey reveals the most heated demographics.

Helen Epstein, Visiting Professor of Human Rights and Global Public Health, examines Uganda's troubled history, its relationship with the United States government, and the upcoming election.

In his book Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War, Bard professor Ian Buruma discusses his Jewish grandparents’ experience in Britain during World War II.

Bard professor Walter Russell Mead, David Rothkopf, Kori Schake, and Lara Jakes debate which country had the best (and worst) 2015, reviewing the year’s big headlines.

Mia Lotan '18, Ava Lindenmaier '16, and Zelda May Bas '16 have been named the winners of the 2015 Student Opinion Contest from the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities at Bard College. Last fall, as part of its eighth annual fall conference, "Why Privacy Matters: What Do We Lose When We Lose Our Privacy?," the Arendt Center challenged undergraduates to answer the following question: "Does Privacy Matter in the 21st century?" After reviewing close to 50 submissions, the Arendt Center staff is pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 contest. The winning entries are: an essay entitled "Community and the Self at the 2015 Hannah Arendt Center Conference," by Mia Lotan '18, and a short film entitled What Does Privacy Feel Like?, by Ava Lindenmaier '16 and Zelda May Bas '16. Matthew Balik '17 and Dina Toubasi '18 earned honorable mention for their essays.

"In Beginning Greek, too, one settles for small victories and accepts huge shortfalls. But giving up is not an option," writes Professor Romm on teaching this difficult course.

Richard Aldous interviews Sean McMeekin about the worsening relations between Turkey and Russia and the broader and longer-term implications for East-West relations.

"The Ottoman Endgame is a marvellous exposition of the historian’s art that will frighten everyone else off the subject for years," writes Christopher de Bellaigue.

"While it's a great idea to consider how introverts are faring in the new educational environment, a reactionary response that pushes right back to outdated models is not the wise course."

"Luc Sante’s fascinating guide to the squalid, disorderly, dank, thrilling, dangerous underside of the Paris of the past makes for a suitably sprawling book."

Thomas Keenan, director of Bard's Human Rights Program, comments on the recently released high-quality drone footage of Islamic State targets in Iraq taken by the Italian Air Force.

A native of Red Hook, New York, Bard senior Julia Jardine hadn’t planned on staying so close to home when she applied for colleges. But as early as her first tour of the campus, Julia loved Bard. She was drawn in by the College’s reputation for intensive reading and writing, as well as its unique interdisciplinary programs. Through her interdivisional major in Bard’s Human Rights Program, Julia has had the option to take classes in many fields, such as Rights and the Image with Professor Susan Merriam, a crosslisted art history/human rights class exploring how the global public interacts with human rights issues through art. This class heightened Julia’s enthusiasm for her major, a field of study that she had in mind before enrolling at Bard. “Human rights is where I get to think critically about what’s happening today and what’s happened in the past,” Julia explained. “I just fell in love with it.”

Growing up in Red Hook, Julia was aware of Bard before she entered the College, but living the experience of a Bard student is different from what she had imagined. Julia described the student community as “extremely smart and usually very modest about it, and engaged in a lot of intellectual conversation outside of class.” In her circle of Human Rights majors, Julia frequently finds herself discussing her studies at all hours. Since coming to Bard, she has been surprised by how much her classes are involved in her nonacademic life, and how applicable what she learns in the classroom can be for her jobs and life in general. After almost three years at Bard, Julia’s way of thinking has changed. She has learned a lot about how to navigate the world, as well as much about herself and her personal outlook on life. She has also learned to focus—to dedicate herself fully to the things that she is most passionate about.

Through Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement, Julia has gotten involved with the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership, a nonprofit organization in the nearby town of Hyde Park, New York. Her work there began as a summer-long unpaid internship and has since turned into a paid position. Julia is collaborating with the partnership to create a summer human rights workshop for students focused on how Eleanor Roosevelt might have approached the human rights issues that women face today. “I have learned research skills for programming, capacity building, and grants. I was able to independently prepare a budget of $30,000.”

“I have seen the inside of a nonprofit at the most important stages, its development and early innovation stages. I have attended cocktails and luncheons in Manhattan with some of the most powerful people in the city; I have spoken with Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of the New York Times, about journalism today; and I have baked blueberry crumble for the Roosevelts and shared it with them over tea,” Julia added.

What Julia’s learned on and off campus will serve her well after graduation. Currently, she is thinking she might apply to physical therapy schools, get a master’s of public health, and go into the Peace Corps. Ultimately, her goal is to go into the health field.

When asked about her favorite places on Bard campus, Julia immediately proposed Kline, the dining hall, where students come together to eat and relax: “I go there sometimes just to get my life organized.” She also loves the library, where she spends a lot of time working, and the grassy area behind Keene, her first-year dorm. Being so close to home, Julia now lives off-campus in Red Hook, with her parents, with whom she shares a close relationship.

How has Bard changed Julia’s life? According to her, she is more independent, confident, and outspoken, not only about issues that matter to her, but also about issues that matter to the people around her. “I also just think differently,” she mused. “Even in everyday ways.” During her time at Bard, Julia has learned to take information from the classroom and apply it to her own life, resulting in a gradual change in her thinking process and views.

“I couldn't have experienced such an unexpected transformation without the opportunities I found at Bard College.”

Meta: Type(s): Student | Subject(s): Division of Social Studies,Student | Institutes(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs,Center for Civic Engagement |