Article by Sarah Rogers Morris MA ’13 Published in the Chronicle of Higher Education

In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bard alumna Sarah Rogers Morris MA ’13 examines how the practice of visual comparison in art allows us to cultivate thinking skills that are vital to public and political life. Drawing on her memories of art history lectures—in which a projector was used to beam two images side by side upon the wall—Morris posits that the learning process of analyzing two visually disparate entities engenders a capacity for a larger search for coherence across disparity and differences in an increasingly polarized world. “Within the classroom, comparing works of art based on formal characteristics encourages students to find meaning in the space where things that do not belong together meet,” Morris writes. “This activity translates beyond the classroom as a lesson in pluralism, a way of engaging in the public sphere where people, who by nature act and think differently from one another, must coexist and work together to build a world in common.” Morris holds an MA in the history of design, decorative arts, and material culture from the Bard Graduate Center. 

Post Date: 08-05-2025