Bard Faculty

Recent News and Notes

• Catastrophic Flooding Is Mitigated by Biodiversity, Says Study Led by Bard Professor
  
  

  01-19-2015: The impact of catastrophic flooding can be mitigated by protecting biodiversity, suggests a new study led by Bard College biology professor Alexandra Wright and published this week in Nature Communications.
  http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2648
  
• Professor Stuart Levine Delivers Lecture to International Obedience to Authority Conference in Russia
  
  

  01-14-2015: Stuart Levine, Bard professor of psychology and emeritus dean of the college, delivered a lecture last month to the Obedience to Authority Conference in Kolomna, Russia. Professor Levine presented a paper on the continuing development of his Bard College seminar, Milgram—Obedience to Authority, and insights that have emerged in the course over the years. The Bard seminar focuses on Milgram's famous and controversial Yale University experiment on obedience to authority and the subsequent 50 years of further study and critical response it generated. Professor Levine presented at the invitation of Professor Alexander Voronov, of the State Academic University for the Humanities in Moscow, who has visited the Bard seminar in the past. This year Bard celebrates professor Levine's 50th anniversary as a member of the college's faculty. Read More
  
  
• Leading Microbiologist Gautam Dantas and New Yorker Writer Michael Specter to Present January Citizen Science Lectures
  
  

  01-07-2015: The Bard College Citizen Science Program presents two lectures this month. Both lectures take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Richard B. Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater. They are free and open to the public; no reservations are necessary. On Wednesday, January 14, Gautam Dantas, assistant professor at the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, will present “Networks of Exchanging Antibiotic Resistomes in Human and Environmental Microbiota.” On Thursday, January 15, Michael Specter, staff writer at the New Yorker and visiting professor in the Environmental and Urban Studies Program at Bard, presents “Relying on Reality: Separating Fact from Fiction in Daily Life.”
  http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2639
  
• James Ketterer Elected to Board of Directors of the Mid-Hudson Valley World Affairs Council
  

  12-24-2014: James Ketterer, Bard's director of international academic initiatives and senior fellow at the Institute for International Liberal Education, has been elected to the board of directors of the Mid-Hudson Valley World Affairs Council. The organization is a nonpartisan forum for citizen participation in world affairs. Its mission is to raise public awareness of international issues and to stimulate interest in a better understanding of world affairs. The Council presents public lectures, panels and debates, and educational and cultural programs. The council also sponsors programs and collaborative efforts to reach high school and college students and faculty. The Mid-Hudson chapter is one of 94 chapters of the National World Affairs Councils of America, the largest international affairs nonprofit organization in the United States, which works to address the need for more global understanding in America.
  
• Bard Presents Nuruddin Farah in Conversation with Mark Danner on November 17
  
  

  11-11-2014: The Human Rights Project at Bard College presents a public conversation between Nuruddin Farah and Mark Danner to discuss Farah’s new critically acclaimed novel Hiding in Plain Sight. Farah, who just won a Lifetime Achievement Literary Award from the South African Literary Awards, has been hailed as “the most important African novelist to emerge in the past twenty-five years” by The New York Review of Books. This event will take place on Monday, November 17, from 6 pm to 7:30 pm in the Multipurpose Room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College.
  http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2628
  

  Photo by Jeffrey Wilson
• Bard's Model United Nations Team Competes in Northeast Regional Model Arab League
  
  

  11-10-2014: The Bard College Model United Nations team participated in the Northeast Regional Model Arab League tournament at Northeastern University in Boston, November 7–9. The conference—sponsored by the National Council on U.S.–Arab Relations—simulates the structure, proceedings, and committees of the Arab League, based in Egypt and representing 22 countries across the Middle East and North Africa. Bard students represented Egypt, Libya, and Saudi Arabia on topics including defense, environmental and social issues, and Palestinian affairs. Bard Model UN president Gabriel Matsakis '15 served as head delegate at the conference and played the role of a member of the Egyptian cabinet. He was awarded Outstanding Cabinet Member for his excellent work. Alison Brundrett '16 and Erind Disha '16 won Honorable Mention awards for their work representing Egypt on the Palestinian Affairs committee. “This conference takes students beyond the dramatic headlines that dominate the news about the Middle East and allows them to tackle the details of a wide variety of issues in the region,” said faculty adviser James Ketterer. “The students learn about things like water resources, refugees, and education, along with defense and diplomacy—all while having to deeply understand the country they are representing.”
  
  
• History Professor Richard Aldous's Bestselling Biography of Ryanair Founder Tony Ryan Published in United Kingdom
  

  11-03-2014: Bard history professor Richard Aldous's acclaimed account of the life of Tony Ryan, founder of Europe's biggest airline, Ryanair, was published in the United Kingdom on November 3. Originally published in August 2013, the book was lauded as "a masterful job ... with a highly readable and compelling style" (the Independent of Ireland) and was a Sunday Times bestseller. Richard Aldous says, "What made Tony Ryan exceptional was that he turned the dreams he shared with his generation into reality. That came about not because he wanted to make a fortune—although he was happy when he did—but because he had the vision to see where the market was imperfect, the courage to stake his claim, and the tenacity to see the job through. In that regard Tony Ryan was the epitome of what it meant to be an entrepreneur."
  
  Read More:
  
  Tony Ryan: The Incredible Story of Ireland's Gatsby
  
  Up, Up, And Away
  
  The Original Tiger Proves Ireland Can Produce Her Own Cubs