News & Events

The Bard Model United Nations Team finished the 2012-2013 season with a top 50 national ranking—one of only a handful of liberal arts colleges to do so. Team members performed well, winning awards in several tournaments.
http://www.bard.edu/news/news.php?id=70

Bard senior Perry Scheetz is the first Bard student athlete to qualify for the NCAA Championships in track and field. Scheetz is the 22nd and last entry into the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the NCAA Championships, which will be held this Thursday through Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2013/5/19/WTRACK_0519130956.aspx

Conjunctions:60, In Absentia—the latest issue of Bard's innovative literary magazine—gathers a collection of today’s leading contemporary writers to explore the presence of absence, the losses that gain on us, the black holes in our everyday lives. Edited by Conjunctions editor, novelist, and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow, the issue includes work by Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Coover, Frederic Tuten, and many others. Visit their website to read excerpts.
http://www.conjunctions.com/justout.htm

Depending on one’s viewpoint, it would seem either incongruous or quite likely that twins would study the same subjects at the same college. But for Alina and Janeta Marinova ’06, a double major in economics and mathematics at Bard was simply something both of them wanted to pursue. Here, they talk about their time at Bard and where their careers have taken them since then.
http://www.bard.edu/news/news.php?id=69

Biochemist Raed Al-Abbasee ’13 took an unlikely path to Bard. Fleeing the escalating violence in Iraq in the midst of his medical school training, Raed connected with Bard and received a scholarship to continue his studies. Bard chemistry professor Swapan Jain writes about Raed's time at the College as the senior prepares to graduate.
http://www.bard.edu/news/news.php?id=68

The Bard College Department of Athletics and Recreation honored student athletes, teams, and staff at the annual Athletics Awards event on the evening of May 8. Click below for a complete list of award winners.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2013/5/8/GEN_0508134822.aspx

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).
http://annandaleonline.org/s/990/giving/index.aspx?sid=990&pgid=1203&gid=1&cid=2542&ecid=2542&post_id=0

The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, under music director Leon Botstein, returns to Lincoln Center to celebrate the 24th annual Bard Music Festival “Stravinsky and His World” in a program of works by Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev, with violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi, a member of the Bard faculty, as soloist. The program includes Stravinsky’s Fireworks, Op. 4; Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93; and  Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The concert will be performed at Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday, May 22, at 7 p.m.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2436

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.

The Bard SummerScape festival opens on Saturday, July 6 at 8pm, with A Rite, a major new dance-theater piece by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and SITI Company. Co-commissioned by SummerScape and created by Bill T. Jones and Anne Bogart '74, two titans of American performing arts, A Rite commemorates the centenary of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring and its notorious, game-changing Paris premiere.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2435

Bard College's first varsity baseball season in 76 years ended on Friday, May 3. The Raptors split a doubleheader with The City College of New York to close out the season.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2013/5/3/BB_0503132810.aspx

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival has established itself as “a hotbed of intellectual and aesthetic adventure” (New York Times). This year’s exploration of “Stravinsky and His World” is no exception, with performances of Taneyev’s Oresteia (July 26–Aug 4), and three Stravinsky operas: Oedipus Rex and Perséphone (Aug 18) and Mavra (Aug 11).
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2433

The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, conducted by music director Leon Botstein, is back on stage at the Fisher Center for its final concert of the semester on Saturday, May 11. Called a “genuine talent and profoundly gifted” by Vienna Express, violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi will perform Violin Concerto No. 1 by Prokofiev. The program celebrates the theme for this summer’s Bard Music Festival, “Stravinsky and His World,” and proceeds from the concert benefit the Scholarship Fund of The Bard College Conservatory of Music.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2434

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) has awarded Ken Haig, assistant professor of political studies at Bard College, a prestigious Abe Fellowship to support a year of research in Japan and South Korea for his project, “Family, State, and Society: Japanese and Korean Family Welfare Policies in Comparative Perspective.”
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2432

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.
http://bgia.bard.edu/newsdetails.php?id=3&nid=79&ntype=2

Live Arts Bard is a laboratory for new performance at the College in which visiting artists work collaboratively with students on creative projects. In this video, Bard students, Director of Theater Programs Gideon Lester, musician Amanda Palmer, and author Neil Gaiman discuss the program.

Twenty-seven Bard student-athletes have been named to the Liberty League spring All-Academic teams. Each student maintained a grade point average of at least 3.20 in order to qualify. "Liberty League student-athletes have long demonstrated that it is possible to not only compete at the highest levels of Division III, but also to excel academically," said Liberty League Commissioner Tracy King.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2013/4/25/BB_0425134913.aspx

More than 3,000 people from 115 institutions participated in the National Conversation on Democracy and Climate, which was organized by C2C Fellows at Bard and available virtually to organizations across the country. The event featured a coordinated nationwide screening of the film The Island President, followed by an interactive expert panel.
http://www.bard.edu/news/news.php?id=62

The Bard College Student-Athletic Advisory Committee hosted the second annual Special Olympics Day, with guests from Astor Services for Children & Families in Rhinebeck, the Anderson Center for Autism in Staatsburg, and the Devereaux in Red Hook.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2013/4/22/GEN_0422131429.aspx

Judy Pfaff, renowned artist, Richard B. Fisher Professor in the Arts, and codirector of the Studio Arts Program at Bard College, has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Pfaff is among some of the world’s most accomplished leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts who have been elected as the Academy’s 2013 class of members. The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 12, 2013, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2431

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.

Alexis Gambis '03 will be shooting key scenes for his film The Fly Room at Bard in June. Gambis is seeking extras and actors for speaking roles. Auditions will be held on April 25 and 26.
http://www.bard.edu/news/events/event.php?eid=118445&year=2013&month=4&day=25

Arendt Center director Roger Berkowitz looks at Massive Open Online Courses and the transformative power of teaching.
http://www.hannaharendtcenter.org/?p=10261

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.

Bard freshman Tyler Emel earned his first collegiate win on the mound and hit his first home run—for three runs—in Bard's 12-9 win over Lehman College in the Bronx on Sunday.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2013/4/21/BB_0421131015.aspx

The Music Program presents the Bard College Big Band on Wednesday, April 24 at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. The ensemble will perform the music of Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Jerome Kern and Thurman Barker.
http://www.bard.edu/news/events/event.php?eid=118428&year=2013&month=4&day=24

Conjunctions:60, In Absentia—the latest issue of the innovative literary magazine published by Bard College—gathers a collection of today’s leading contemporary writers to explore the presence of absence, the losses that gain on us, the black holes in our everyday lives.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2430

The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College is mounting two new exhibitions through May 26: less like an object more like the weather, which showcases the curatorial work of CCS Bard master’s degree candidates; and Monogamy, with works by Gerard Byrne and Sarah Pierce, curated by Tirdad Zolghadr. On Saturday, April 20, CCS Bard will host several special opening events, including artists' talks, performances, and readings. Click below to view the full schedule.
http://www.bard.edu/ccs/event-listing-for-april-20-2013/

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.
http://bard.edu/hannaharendtcenter/events

Four Bard alumni/ae have been recognized by the Fulbright Commission and the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) for the 2013–2014 award year. Matthew Christian '11 (Simons Rock '07) has won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Senegal. Amith Gupta '12 and Amber Winick BGC '12 have been named as alternates for research awards to Jordan and Hungary, respectively. Bardian Ada Petiwala '12 has won a language fellowship from CASA for the 2013–2014 academic year. She will spend the year in Cairo, where she will hone her language skills and continue her study of Middle Eastern politics and culture.

Chorus Master James Bagwell discusses Mahler's Symphony No. 2, which will be performed at the Fisher Center on April 26 and 27 by members of the American Symphony Orchestra, Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, and Longy Conservatory Orchestra.


http://fishercenter.bard.edu/calendar/event.php?eid=117503#video1

Bard College has received a $5,000 grant from the beauty and fashion boutique mark., as part of its m.powerment by mark. Healthy Relationship Peer Educator Program, which is managed by the Avon Foundation for Women through its Speak Out Against Domestic Violence initiative. The grant will fund preventive education on dating abuse and violence through the College's BRAVE program.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2428

Bard College faculty member Karen Sullivan, Irma Brandeis Professor of Romance Cultures and Literature and director of the Medieval Studies Program, is among the 175 winners of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s 89th annual competition for the United States and Canada. Sullivan has been awarded a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship for her work in Medieval and Romance literature.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2425

Described by the New York Times as “part boot camp for the brain, part spa for the spirit,” the world-renowned Bard Music Festival returns for its 24th annual season, filling the last two weekends of Bard SummerScape 2013 (Aug 9–11 and 16–18) with a compelling and enlightening investigation of “Stravinsky and His World.”
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2424

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.

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.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2426

Members of the campus community recently had the opportunity to reflect on a Buddhist sand mandala in the Reem-Kayden Center, created by the Venerable Lama Tenzin Yignen. The mandala was meticulously and artfully installed, then ritually undone in a lesson of impermanence.
http://www.bard.edu/news/news.php?id=60

Two graduates of the Bard MFA program, Carrie Moyer MFA '02 in Painting and Chris Sollars MFA '07 in Sculpture, have been announced as 2013 Guggenheim Fellows.
http://www.gf.org/news-events/2013-Fellows-in-the-United-States-and-Canada/

In celebration of the tenth anniversary of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, the Fisher Center proudly presents Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2. The program will be performed by the largest group of musicians ever assembled on the Sosnoff Stage. Performances take place on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27 at 8 pm; with a preconcert talk at 7 pm by Christopher Gibbs.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2423

The Bard SummerScape and Bard Music Festival preview concert, Stravinsky in Paris, will take place in Florence Gould Hall at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York City on April 17. The evening will feature a preconcert talk by Leon Botstein and works by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ravel, Poulenc, and Messiaen.
http://www.bard.edu/news/events/event.php?eid=118334&year=2013&month=4&day=17

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.

http://www.bard.edu/admission/discover/videos/

Bard College students have won two 2013 Davis Projects for Peace Awards, which provide $10,000 in funding for proposed projects. Political studies and philosophy major Saim Saeed ’13 won a Davis award for his project, “Living Together—Navigating Common Grounds: A MENA-EU Initiative” in Istanbul, Turkey. Human rights major Lauren Blaxter ’13, computer science major Ameer Shalabi ’16, cultural anthropology major Nadine Tadros ’14, and political studies major Daniel Gettinger ’13 have together won a Davis award in support of the Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2421

The Bard Prison Initiative has received a two-year, $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to support its efforts to provide a rigorous liberal arts education to incarcerated men and women in New York. “The impact of higher education on incarcerated individuals in our society is transformational,” said Jeannie Oakes of the Ford Foundation.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2420

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.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2419

Bard College's women's basketball season is over, but freshman Tytravia Riley picked up yet another postseason honor when she was named to the National Invitation Tournament and Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association All-Met First Team. She is the first Bard College basketball player—men's or women's—to be honored by this organization.
http://www.bardathletics.com/news/2013/4/5/WBB_0405135055.aspx

Perry Scheetz is a multisport athlete at Bard, competing in soccer, track, and cross-country. She's also a star student who has completed research internships in Brazil and Canada, and will pursue a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Dartmouth College after graduation. Her goal is to take part in the creation of a green alternative fuel for the airline industry.
http://www.bardathletics.com/awards.aspx?aow=9

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents the final concert of the 2012–13 season of the popular American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) series, an all-Wagner evening in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The concert will be conducted by Leon Botstein, music director, on Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2418

Bard College senior Jose Agustin Sanchez, from Venezuela, has been awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Foundation 2013–14 Fellowship, which provides for a year of travel and exploration outside the United States. Sanchez is majoring in music composition and conducting. His project, “Sounds of Immortality,” will bring him to China, Vietnam, and India.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2417

Members of the Bard College Farm will host their second annual Farm Fest fundraiser on April 13, featuring local food and musical performances throughout the day.
http://www.bard.edu/news/events/event.php?eid=118329&year=2013&month=4&day=13

On Monday, April 8, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Bard Fiction Prize winner, and New York Times bestselling author Karen Russell will read from her work. Russell’s highly acclaimed 2011 novel Swamplandia was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2011, and a recipient of the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2416