|
Bard College Catalogue 2009-2010
2009-2010
Specialized Undergraduate Opportunities
Arendt Center for Ethical and Political Thinking at Bardwww.bard.edu/hannaharendtcenter
The Arendt Center, which combines the digitized Hannah Arendt Archive with Bard’s Hannah Arendt Library, is dedicated to pursuing Arendt’s vision of returning thinking to politics. To consider problems and crises with the same kind of insight and independence that Arendt brought to bear on such themes as anti-Semitism, totalitarianism, and consumerism, the Center brings established intellectuals and young Fellows to Bard to try to comprehend the major issues of our time, from terror and torture to dissent and the environment. In the spring of 2009, the Center presented a roundtable discussion, “Hannah Arendt and the Banality of Evil: Reflections on Moral Blindness,” which featured speakers from Denmark, Russia, and several Northeast colleges. Bard undergraduates can serve as research assistants; participate in lectures and workshops; contribute to the Archive website, which includes timelines and discussions of Arendt’s life and works; write accounts of the books in the library collection and the notes Arendt has made in the books; and assist in conferences.
Bard Globalization and International Affairs Programwww.bard.edu/bgia
The Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program (BGIA), located in the heart of New York City, brings together university students and recent graduates from around the world to undertake specialized study with leading practitioners and scholars in international affairs. Topics in the curriculum include political risk analysis, human rights law, civil society development, ethics, humanitarian action, issues in global public health, trends in terrorism and counterterrorism, and writing on international affairs. Students are required to complete highly competitive internships at international organizations throughout New York City. Internships and directed research are tailored to the student’s particular field of study. Students in the program publish a journal, BardPolitik, which examines new ideas about globalization and world politics.
Bard Prison Initiativewww.bard.edu/bpi
The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) is restoring higher education to the prisons of New York State. For more than 20 years, college-in-prison programs had slashed rates of reincarceration from 60 percent to less than 15 percent. They spread higher education among the most isolated communities and were the most cost-effective form of public correctional spending. Despite these facts, funding for prison colleges was eliminated in 1995, when some 350 such programs closed nationwide. Today, BPI runs college programs inside three long-term, maximum-security prisons and two transitional, medium-security prisons. Among these five prison campuses BPI enrolls nearly 200 full-time incarcerated students—women and men—in a rigorous and diverse liberal arts curriculum, offering both associate and bachelor degrees. Since 2005, more than 80 incarcerated students have received A.A. degrees and 10 have received B.A. degrees.
The existence of the Bard Prison Initiative also has a profound effect on the intellectual life of the Bard College campus. Each week, roughly 40 undergraduate students visit regional prisons as volunteers. They facilitate a wide variety of precollege opportunities from GED mentoring to courses in theology and workshops in the arts. These on-campus students can also enroll in a range of classes related to their experiences with BPI. A number of Bard/BPI alumni have gone on to organize similar volunteer programs across the country.
Bard-Rockefeller Programhttp://science.bard.edu/rockefeller
In 2000, Bard College and The Rockefeller University in New York City established a collaborative program in science education. Rockefeller faculty offer courses to Bard students on subjects at the intersection of biology and medicine and reserve places for them in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, which allows college students to work in Rockefeller research laboratories. Bard faculty may obtain adjunct status at Rockefeller, which enables them to participate in research projects in the university’s laboratories. The Bard-Rockefeller Semester in Science began in the spring of 2007. A companion program to BGIA, it centers on competitive internships in Rockefeller research laboratories.
Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artistshttp://achebecenter.bard.edu/
The Achebe Center was established in 2005 to use the legacy of Chinua Achebe, Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor Emeritus of Languages and Literature, to serve the future of global Africana arts. Among its goals are to become a center of excellence for the teaching of African literature; to support a new generation of African writers; and to encourage literary/cultural entrepreneurship. Undergraduate students at Bard may participate in numerous Center projects, including facilitating events featuring visiting writers, artists, and scholars; helping with all aspects of book and chapbook editing and publication; and working with writer/artist residency projects and a new creative writing program. For more information, contact Tom Burke at tburke@bard.edu.
Human Rights Project
www.bard.edu/hrp
The Human Rights Project (HRP) enables students to learn about, and engage in, the contemporary human rights movement. The Project focuses on the philosophical foundations and political mechanisms of human rights and maintains a special interest in freedom of expression, the public sphere, and media. Since 2001 HRP has supported dozens of student internships at human rights and humanitarian organizations, governmental and international agencies, local community groups, hospitals and clinics, and research centers from Peshawar to Albany.
The Human Rights Project also sponsors individual students who are pursuing research abroad and at home. Special initiatives include the Migrant Labor Project, which seeks to improve conditions for migrant laborers and their families in New York State, particularly the Hudson Valley; an extensive lecture and film series on campus; an online video archive and broadcast-quality digital videotape archive of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague; and the Bhopal Memory Project, an online archive and information resource about the chemical disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984.
New Orleans Initiativewww.bard.edu/noi
The New Orleans Initiative refers to Bard’s two New Orleans–based academic programs: Bard Urban Studies in New Orleans and Bard Early College in New Orleans. The Bard Urban Studies summer program pairs rigorous course work in urban geography and public policy with intensive internships in a range of neighborhood-based recovery organizations. Students from colleges and universities around the world learn and apply critical and analytical skills in community development and urban revitalization. The Bard Early College in New Orleans Program is a series of free, college credit–bearing courses in local high schools. The program offers students at low-performing schools a high-quality liberal arts curriculum as well as tools for accessing higher education.
Rift Valley Institutewww.riftvalley.net
The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) is a nonprofit research and training organization that works with communities and institutions in Eastern Africa, including Sudan and the Horn of Africa. RVI programs connect local knowledge to global information systems. They include field-based social research, support for local educational institutions, in-country training courses, and an online digital library. Fellows of the Institute are regional academic specialists and practitioners in the fields of development, conservation, media, and human rights. John Ryle, Legrand Ramsey Professor of Anthropology at the College, is chair of the Institute.
In 2006 RVI established a U.S. office on the Bard College campus. Bard students have opportunities to assist with RVI activities, including the Sudan Open Archive (www.sudanarchive.net), an open-source, open-access database of historical and contemporary documents about the region; field courses on Sudan and the Horn, run by the Institute; research into human rights issues; and editing of video material. RVI also organizes events and lectures on campus.
West Point–Bard Exchangewww.bard.edu/institutes/westpoint
Founded in 2006, the West Point–Bard Exchange (WPBE) provides opportunities for students and faculty from Bard and the United States Military Academy to exchange ideas in the classroom, through public presentations, and in informal settings. Bard students and West Point cadets have participated in several seminars in international relations theory. The classes met separately in Annandale-on-Hudson and at West Point, then came together several times during the term for sessions supervised by faculty from both institutions. West Point faculty have also taught courses at Bard in counterinsurgency, military history, and advanced international relations theory. In 2008, six Bard students attended the Academy’s Projects Day, and presented the findings of their senior theses to West Point faculty and cadets. Bard and West Point faculty, students, and cadets have also held mixed-team debates on issues ranging from relations with Iran to pulling out of Iraq.
|
|
