News

Professor Berkowitz discusses the founding of the Hannah Arendt Center, and the new biopic about the political thinker.

President Leon Botstein sits down with the Vienna Review to talk memoirs, modernism, and the role of music in a polyglot world. (PDF)

"The Flood of Rights" conference will explore the intersection between photography, new media, and human rights. The conference is cosponsored by the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard, the Bard Human Rights Project, and the LUMA Foundation, and will take place in Arles, France, September 19–22, 2013.

History faculty member Richard Aldous marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's historic visit to Ireland with a look at a controversial presidency. "Certainly JFK the man was a contradiction. Yet none of the four presidents who followed ... showed anything approaching his public grace or calibre."

Professor Mead discusses Edward J. Snowden's presence in Russia, and U.S. foreign policy concerns in Middle East.

Experimental Humanities director Maria Cecire and Bard professor Walter Russell Mead spoke with fellows from 16 countries at Bard's U.S. Foreign Policy Institute, cosponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

"Master craftsman" Daniel Mendelsohn's essay collection makes NPR's list of top five nonfiction summer reads.

Bard classicist, critic, and literature professor Daniel Mendelsohn talks with KUOW in Seattle about the role of professional critics in an age of customer reviews and blogs.

Professor Romm reviews Harry Eyres's new book Horace and Me.

Professor Omar Encarnación participates in a discussion on gay rights progress in Latin America in light of the likelihood that Brazil will soon become the third country in the region to legalize same-sex marriage, following Argentina and Uruguay.

Professor Berkowitz participated in a discussion with Pamela Katz, Hannah Arendt screenwriter, and Natan Sznaider, professor of government and society at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo.

"To make a film about a thinker is a challenge; to do so in a way that is accessible and gripping is a triumph," writes Roger Berkowitz.

Hannah Arendt wrote, after moving to the United States, “One feels very lonely in this country; this has to do in particular with the fact that everyone is very busy ... ” Reflecting on Arendt's experience of Americans as isolated by their own absent mindedness, Arendt Center fellow Thomas Wild makes the case for leisure and contemplation in response to a culture of distraction.

Art historian and Bard professor Susan Aberth discusses Matta's painting "Prisoner of Light," which is being seen for the first time on the international art market as part of Christie's Latin American Sale this month.

What can Greek tragedy teach us about the controversy surrounding Tamerlan Tsarnaev's burial? Professor Mendelsohn looks at the reaction in Boston in light of classic texts.

History professor Richard Aldous, author of Reagan and Thatcher, reviews Charles Moore's authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher. Former Daily Telegraph editor Moore is "an inspired choice," writes Aldous.

Bard Graduate Center faculty member Amy Ogata's new book, Designing the Creative Child: Playthings and Places in Midcentury America, looks at how U.S. worries about conformity during the Cold War changed parenting and play.

In conjunction with Zeitgeist Films, the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College presents the official U.S. opening of the film Hannah Arendt on Wednesday, May 29, at Film Forum in New York City. The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Margarethe von Trotta, screenwriter Pam Katz, and actors Barbara Sukowa (Hannah Arendt) and Janet McTeer (Mary McCarthy).

Dance/philosophy double major Samuel Pratt ’14 talks about the interdisciplinary study opportunities at Bard, and how his two chosen fields illuminate each other. "What I knew was that any academic pursuit was going to be integral to my growth and evolution as an artist," he says.

Valerie Doescher '11 was an all-star activist for global human rights while a student at Bard. She is the recipient of the Cooky Heiferman Signet Award and the Clinton R. and Harriette M. Jones Award from the College. These days her work continues as a programs associate at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.

Thai Jones considers the recent bombing in Boston in light of the nation's history of terrorist attacks and government responses.

Faculty members from Bard College and West Point have collaborated on the new book Just War in Religion and Politics, which developed out of a joint project between the two institutions. Bard religion professors Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton have jointly edited the book with West Point faculty member Robert Tully. The book features chapters by several Bard faculty members, including professors Chilton and Neusner, Roger Berkowitz, Richard Davis, Carolyn Dewald, Joel Perlmann, Kristin Scheible, and Mairaj Syed. Faculty members from West Point and other institutions also contributed. The collaboration between Bard and West Point has comprised a joint course; an international conference hosted at Bard; and a public debate on whether war can be just, with Bard students and West Point cadets working together to argue both sides of the issue. The project, which was carried out with the cooperation of the West Point–Bard Exchange, has served as a model for a Mellon Foundation program on cooperation between service academies and liberal arts institutions.

BHSEC-Manhattan political studies professor Steven Mazie examines the Boston Marathon bombing in light of the democratic tradition of the marathon.

Arendt Center director Roger Berkowitz looks at Massive Open Online Courses and the transformative power of teaching.

Bard professor and world-renowned author Norman Manea was well received at the prestigious Salon du Livre in Paris. Manea was an honorary guest at the event in March, which was dedicated to Romanian literature. The French press praised Manea's participation and his new book, The Fifth Impossibility: Essays on Exile and Language. During the Salon du Livre Manea gave interviews, participated in a public debate, and spoke to a large audience about Romanian history and literature. Click here to download PDF.

The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College is presenting a special series of three concerts titled, “Music in the Holocaust, Jewish Identity and Cosmopolitanism,” featuring music composed and performed by Jewish prisoners in Nazi territories during World War II. Part two, “Nationalism, Continuity, and Creativity: Music of Warsaw, Lodz and other Eastern Ghettoes,” will take place on Saturday, April 20. The event will include Robert Cuckson’s 2003 song cycle, “Der Gayst funem Shturem,” with text taken from the poems of Binem Heller. It will be performed in Yiddish by mezzo-soprano Malena Dayen, with piano accompaniment by David Rosenmeyer.

Millennials like Bard sophomore Anna Daniszewski are changing the way we communicate, says Wired magazine.

Nicholas Platt—longtime China specialist, three-time U.S. ambassador (Pakistan, Zambia, and the Philippines), and author of the published memoir China Boys—will share his experiences and insights gained from a long and distinguished career in the diplomatic service and as president of the Asia Society in New York.

A production of The Bakkhai (The Bacchae) by Bard College students takes place at the Fisher Center through April 14. Sunday's events also include a panel discussion, "Euripides' The Bakkhai: Play and Performance" with Daniel Mendelsohn (Bard College), Helene Foley (Barnard), Rachel Kitzinger (Vassar), and Emily Wilson (University of Pennsylvania). The panel is free and open to the public.

Orchestra of Exiles tells the story of how violinist Bronislaw Huberman saved close to 1,000 Jews from the Nazis by moving them to Palestine to form what became the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In this preview, President Botstein discusses why Jews stayed in Europe prior to WWII.

After the death this week of former U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Bard professor Richard Aldous talks about her complex relationship with U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

The Bard College Debate Union continues to expand, and is having a big impact on campus and in the local community. “Bard students tend to be very successful in debate because they think outside of the box,” says Dean Jonathan Becker. In this video, Bard students and coaches discuss building friendships and pushing their intellectual boundaries in competition.

On Monday, April 29, the Hannah Arendt Center of Politics and Humanities at Bard College will host a film screening of the biopic Hannah Arendt. Directed by renowned German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta, the biopic was recently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and has just been nominated for six LOLA awards, Germany's version of the Oscar.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Kristin Lane gave the keynote presentation on unconscious biases at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Diversity Summit.

From April 17 to 19, the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College will gather top policymakers, economists, and analysts at the 22nd Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the U.S. and World Economies. Participants will discuss the progress of the economic recovery from the global financial crisis and address both financial reform and poverty in the context of Minsky’s work. Click here to view the full schedule of events.

More than 85 colleges and community organizations across the country have joined the Bard Center for Environmental Policy and C2C Fellows Network in leading a national conversation on democracy and climate change with a screening of The Island President—the 2011 documentary that chronicles Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed’s efforts to confront climate change and rising sea levels, which threaten to submerge the low-lying island nation. The film will be screened on Wednesday, April 17.

Professor Armstead lectures on her book Freedom’s Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America at Columbia University's Lehman Center for American History on April 24.

Bard College first-year percussion student Chris Gunnell was featured in the annual report of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Chris is pursuing a five-year dual degree at Bard, studying music at the Conservatory as well as philosophy and social policy at the College.

Blackburn writes on local and national history in “The Architect and the Artist: FDR, Olin Dows, and the New Deal Post Office Program.”

A new viral video on the income gap in the United States prompts Steven Mazie's response.

Ian Buruma examines two types of contemporary populist leaders: the wealthy business tycoon and the clown.

Richard Aldous examines this "elegantly written and finely nuanced work on the US in the 1960s," by James T. Patterson.

Ian Buruma is the Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College. Professor Buruma is an award-winning journalist and writer.

He was educated in Holland and Japan, where he studied Chinese literature and Japanese cinema. In the 1980s, he worked as a journalist, and spent much of his early writing career traveling and reporting from all over Asia. Buruma now writes about a broad range of political and cultural subjects for major publications, most frequently for the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the New York Times, Corriere della Sera, and NRC Handelsblad. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The China Lover (2008) and Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents (2010). He is the 2008 recipient of Holland's prestigious Erasmus Prize, as well as the 2008 winner of Stanford University's Shorenstein Journalism Award. Professor Buruma has been at Bard since 2003.

Steven Mazie looks at the impasse in Congress in light of the advice of Machiavelli.

Washington Post writer Michael Lindgren calls Professor Mendelsohn, "elegant and capacious ... a versatile critic."

The Hannah Arendt Center presents this special concert series, featuring music composed and performed by Jewish prisoners in Nazi territories during World War II. Three concerts will feature a brief introduction by a noted scholar in the field, placing the music in social, historical, and political context. The series also includes a screening of the Academy Award–Nominated documentary Orchestra of Exiles, a film about Bronislaw Huberman, the Polish violinist who founded the Israel Philharmonic.

Bard MAT history faculty member Thai Jones explores an early American anarchist and a revolutionary economic system.

This month, the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College launches the inaugural edition of its annual journal, HA: The Journal of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College. “HA offers smart, nonpartisan thinking about politics that is smarter than the debate," says Arendt Center director Roger Berkowitz.