“Shaping the Future” Conference Hosted by TEDxBard College on September 30

Bard College is hosting its first independently organized TEDxBard College conference, “Shaping the Future,” a day-long event featuring insightful talks from students, faculty, alumni/ae, and members of the broader Bard community. The student-run conference considers how the advancements of the modern age have shaped and will continue to influence human progress across various disciplines, including technology, science, art, politics, and culture. The event, organized by Bard students Thanasis Kostikas ’26, Emily O'Rourke ’25, Tom Chitwood ’26, Alex Nguyen ’23, and Luca Heidelberg ’24, under the mentorship of the Bard Center for Civic Engagement, is intended to be the first of many TEDxBard College conferences to be held in the coming years.

“Shaping the Future” will take place on Saturday, September 30 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in Olin Auditorium. To see the full schedule, please visit https://tedx.bard.edu/schedule/. Due to limited space and wide interest, the event has sold out, but a livestream of the conference will be available to view. To register for the livestream link and future TEDxBard College updates, please sign up here.

Speakers include Alejandro Crawford, professor of entrepreneurship at the Bard MBA in Sustainability and global lead for OSUN social entrepreneurship; Anastasia Dzutstsati, a Russian journalist, filmmaker, human rights activist, and Threatened Scholars Integration Fellow at OSUN; Lauren E. Graham, a social entrepreneur, environmentalist, and educator; Jillian Reed ’21 and Masha Zabara ’21, community organizers, educators, and cofounders of the store Thrift2Fight in Tivoli, NY; Stacy Burnett ’21 MBA ’23, who began her education in the Bard Prison Initiative and now manages JSTOR access in prisons in North America and Australia; Joan Tower, renowned composer, performer, conductor, and Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts at Bard College; Tatjana Myoko von Prittwitz und Gaffron, an ordained Zen priest, and visiting assistant professor and Buddhist chaplain at Bard; Michael Sadowski, best-selling author and associate dean of the College at Bard ; Eban Goodstein, vice president for environmental and social leadership at Bard and director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy; Aleksandar “Aleks” Demetriades ’25, a junior studying Politics and Public Health at Bard and senior communications intern for the Open Society University Civic Engagement Initiative; Ahed Festuk, a pioneering activist from Aleppo, Syria; and Hannah Park-Kaufmann ’24, a senior double majoring in mathematics and piano performance at Bard.

Professor Crawford previously hosted "Bringing Ideas to Life in a Short Talk," the first session of a two-part TEDxBard College workshop series that was open to all students. In advance of the conference, the second workshop, open to participants, will provide an exclusive opportunity for  the speakers to hone the introductions and conclusions of their TEDxBard College talks and practice their presentations.

Post Date: 09-05-2023