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
- 10/26Tuesday12:30 pm – 1:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Online Event
Photo credit: Berlin Summer 2019, Vera Yung BCB '20Tuesday, October 26, 2021Bard Abroad Peer Advising Drop-In Hour
Online Event 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
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 - 10/28Thursday7:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Olin, Room 102
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Accessing Reproductive Health Panel
Olin, Room 102 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Reproductive health has always been under attack, and more recently with the restrictive laws put in place in Texas, we have every right to be frustrated. Come and learn more about what has brought us to this point decades after Roe v. Wade, and what you can do to stand up for access to reproductive healthcare.
This panel features Rupali Warke (Visiting Assistant Professor of Historial Studies), Allison McKim (Associate Professor of Sociology), and Aura Lopez Zarate (Community Organizer at PPGNY). - 10/29Friday12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Bito Conservatory Rm 106
- 11/02Tuesday6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Campus Center, Weis Cinema
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Antisemitism and Ableism: Refugees and Immigration Policy towards Jews and the Disabled in the Wake of the Holocaust
Katherine Sorrels
University of Cincinnati
Campus Center, Weis Cinema 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
This lecture series, held throughout the 2021-2022 academic year, will explore the ongoing phenomenon of antisemitism by examining its myriad historical contexts and relationships to other forms of prejudice and hatred.
This talk will discuss the Camphill movement, an international network of intentional communities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities that was founded in Scotland during World War II by Austrian Jewish refugees. It will focus on the antisemitism and ableism that forced Camphill’s founders to flee Nazi Central Europe, the antisemitic and ableist immigration policies that they confronted in the US and Britain, and the way their response to these overlapping forms of prejudice informed the mission and identity of the movement they founded. Drawing on her forthcoming book On the Spectrum: Jewish Refugees from Nazi Austria and the Politics of Disability in the Britain and North America, Sorrels will use Camphill to reconstruct the larger story of how Jewish refugees transformed British and North American approaches to disability and, in the process, reshaped the tradition of Viennese curative education.
Katherine Sorrels is Associate Professor of History, Affiliate Faculty in Judaic Studies, and Chair of the Taft Health Humanities Research Group at the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of Cosmopolitan Outsiders: Imperial Inclusion, National Exclusion, and the Pan-European Idea (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). She is the co-editor of two forthcoming volumes, Disability in German-Speaking Europe: History, Memory, and Culture (Camden House, 2022) and Ohio under COVID: Lessons from America's Heartland in Crisis (under review with the University of Michigan Press). Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Fellowship Program, and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
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 - 11/03Wednesday5:30 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Campus Center, Multipurpose Room
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Writing the Self, Reading the Culture
Memoir as Social Critique
Campus Center, Multipurpose Room 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
A conversation with Dax-Devlon Ross, author of Letters to My White Male Friends, and Michael Sadowski, author of Men I've Never Been: A Memoir about how memoir, one of the most intimate of writing genres, can also serve as a form of explicit or implicit social critique, exploring issues such as systemic racism, homophobia, and toxic masculinity through personal narratives.
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.
-
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.