We embrace plurality, respect divergent viewpoints, and are committed to understanding the rich spectrum of experiences that comprise our community.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Bard seeks to materialize our commitment to plurality, dialogue, and rigorous study. We strive to create a learning environment that upholds the College’s mission to meaningfully include the voices, works, and ideas of communities and cultures historically marginalized in liberal arts and sciences education. DEI at Bard aims to work at the systemic as well as the interpersonal level to address the implicit and explicit ways racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and religious discrimination impact the learning process.Upcoming Events
- 11/29MondayStevenson Library
Monday, November 1, 2021 – Tuesday, November 30, 2021
National Native American Heritage Month Library Display
Stevenson Library Visit the Library during Native American Heritage Month to learn more about the history of the land that Bard College occupies and the development of the Land Acknowledgement. Resources regarding Native American culture and history will also be on display.
Please visit the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion website for a full list of events marking National Native American Heritage Month at Bard College. - 11/29Monday5:30 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Monday, November 29, 2021
"The Enchanted Forest" Video Presentation and Discussion
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Christopher Lindner, Director, Bard Archeology Field School, and Archeologist in ResidenceJoin Bard College's resident archaeologist for a video presentation about the College's Native American archaeological site: The Enchanted Forest. Conducted by students from the Fall 2020 semester, the video explores some of the artifacts uncovered and techniques replicated that help us understand Bard's Indigenous history and how our present and future relationships with those communities should be understood.
Please visit the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion website for a full list of events marking National Native American Heritage Month at Bard College. - 11/30Tuesday6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5 Campus Center, Weis Cinema
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Antisemitism and Christianity: Reckoning with the Christian Roots of Antisemitism and Racism in the Post-World War II World
Magda Teter
Fordham University
Campus Center, Weis Cinema 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5
The twentieth century, as scholar George M. Fredrickson has noted, brought both the “climax and retreat” of racism and antisemitism. The murder of six million Jews during World War II forced a reckoning with ideas that made this unprecedented crime possible and contributed to broader reconsideration of social and religious values dominating western society. It also forced, as the editor of Ebony would later write in the introduction to the special issue on “The White Problem in America” “a re-examination of the Christian faith which brought forth the idea that skin color was not a true measure of a man’s humanity.” This talk will seek to explain the modern rejection of equality of both Jews and Black people in the West by tracing Christianity’s claim to superiority that emerged in a theological context in antiquity but came to be implemented in a legal and political context when Christianity became a political power. I will argue that the Christian sense of superiority developed first in relation to Jews and then transformed to a racialized superiority when Europeans expanded their political reach beyond Europe, establishing slaveholding empires in the early modern period, culminating in the Holocaust and forcing an ongoing reckoning in the post-WWII era.
Magda Teter is Professor of History and the Shvidler Chair of Judaic Studies at Fordham University. She is the author of Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland (Cambridge, 2006); Sinners on Trial (Harvard, 2011), which was a finalist for the Jordan Schnitzer Prize; and Blood Libel: On the Trail of An Antisemitic Myth (Harvard, 2020), which won the 2020 National Jewish Book Award; and the forthcoming Enduring Marks of Servitude: Christianity’s Stamp on Antisemitism and Racism in Law and Culture. She has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. In 2020-2021, Teter was the NEH Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Jewish History.
NOTE: These lectures are open to the public but all visitors to the Bard campus must register in advance and provide proof of vaccination by completing this form.
Co-sponsored by The Hannah Arendt Center and The Center for the Study of Hate - 12/02Thursday2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Online Event
Photo credit: Berlin Summer 2019, Vera Yung BCB '20Thursday, December 2, 2021Bard Abroad Peer Advising Drop-In Hour
Online Event 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Interested in studying abroad on the Bard in Berlin program and want to hear from a current student abroad? Join the Bard Abroad Peer Advising Drop-In Hour with Study Abroad Ambassador, Jourdan Perez '22!
He will be taking questions about the application process, life abroad from a current abroad student, and more. To learn more about Jourdan check out @BardAbroad on Instagram! Join via ZoomMeeting ID: 874 3349 9675
Passcode: abroad
Not able to attend the Drop-In Hour sessions but still have questions for Jourdan? Email him at jp0679@bard.edu! - 12/03Friday12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Bito Conservatory Rm 106
Recent Updates
What We Do
DEI collaborates with faculty, staff, and students on learning, teaching, student development, institutional functioning, and engagement in local and global communities. In an increasingly intertwined and rapidly changing world, we are dedicated to a rigorous examination of the institutions and structures that sustain inequality. Above all, we maintain an ongoing commitment to decreasing the distance between these ideals and our everyday realities.
The Council for Inclusive Excellence (CIE) sponsors and cosponsors campus-wide events such as speakers, panels, and movie screenings that relate to social justice, intercultural communication, equity, and inclusion. The council is committed to making Bard an environment that is supportive of communities historically marginalized in liberal arts and sciences education.
Campus Resources
Excellence in Athletics
This coalition—composed of student-athletes, faculty, and staff—is charged with reviewing Bard’s Office of Athletics and Recreation in areas of accessibility as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion, taking into account existing policies, facilities, and student and staff experiences. As the coalition’s work progresses, the administration of the Department of Athletics and Recreation has undertaken the important work of creating a diversity strategic plan that includes goals for mandatory training for all student-athletes, increasing diversity in the coaching staff, increasing community engagement, and more diversity among student-athletes.
Student Clubs
Student clubs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion at the College include the Bard Christian Fellowship, the Latin American Student Organization, and the Trans Lyfe Collective. For more information about these and other clubs, visit student.bard.edu/clublist.
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Student Government provides leadership for students interested in making Bard College a better place, and is always ready to support students working on issues of diversity and inclusion. -
Housing the Dean of Student Affairs Office, CSLA provides support to students struggling to figure out what diversity means, what they want it to mean, and how to bridge the gap between the two. -
The OSA helps students plan programs, organize events, and lead clubs in an effort to make Bard a more diverse and accepting place, all while keeping students engaged and making sure they have fun.
Gilson Place: Dedicated in Support of Students of Color
Gilson Place, formerly Grey Stone Cottage, is a space dedicated to the advancement of students of color. Bard faculty and student leaders collaborated on its recent renovation and redesign. Gilson Place supports the academic, personal, and social success of members of the Bard community historically underrepresented in liberal arts and sciences education and fosters dialogue about race and culture on campus. The space is named for Alexander Gilson (c. 1824–89), an African American who labored for 50 years at Montgomery Place, now part of the Bard College campus. Gilson became head gardener at Montgomery Place and eventually opened up his own nursery business.
Spotlight on the Posse Program
The Posse Foundation recruits talented public high school students who might have been overlooked by traditional college selection processes, forming them into supportive Posses and connecting them with participating colleges. Every year Bard accepts a Posse of 10 students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential, offering them full-tuition scholarships.