News and Notes

Bard College student Ava Mazzye ’20 was recognized for her work as part of a team in the fall 2018 semester that registered over 400 students to vote.
https://www.bard.edu/news/details/?id=313&type=feature

From a 2007 student staging to Bard SummerScape 2015, and now to the Tony Award-winning Broadway production, alumnus Patrick Vaill '07 has helped make Daniel Fish's Oklahoma! a Bard legend.
https://www.bard.edu/news/details/?id=312&type=feature

Students from 15 countries met at Blithewood June 16–22 for the 10th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar. Graduate students, recent graduates, and early career professionals participated in seminars on green jobs, guaranteed employment, the international dimensions of financial fragility, economic policy evaluation for Europe and Latin America, and Minsky’s economic counterculture, among other topics. Jan Kregel, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and L. Randall Wray organized this year’s events, with teaching staff that included well-known economists working in the theory and policy tradition of Hyman Minsky and Wynne Godley. 
 
http://www.levyinstitute.org/news/minsky-summer-seminar-2019

Evidence, A Dance Company and its founder, choreographer Ronald K. Brown, make their Bard SummerScape debut with the world premiere of Grace and Mercy. Commissioned for SummerScape 2019, the two-part program opens with Grace, created in 1999 for Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and performed here for the first time to live music, and concludes with the premiere of Mercy, a companion piece set to a score written and performed live by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3152

The Bard Prison Initiative recently celebrated the achievements of its students at graduations on the main Bard campus in Annandale-on-Hudson on May 25 and at Taconic Correctional Facility, a medium security prison for women in Bedford Hills, New York, on May 29. Two students who completed their studies while incarcerated and who had recently returned home from prison were awarded bachelor of arts degrees at the Bard College commencement. At the same ceremony, BPI’s innovative new project, Bard Microcollege Holyoke, celebrated its first full graduating class of 12 students with associate in arts degrees.
https://www.bard.edu/news/details/?id=311&type=feature

For its summer 2019 season, CCS Bard will present the first U.S. solo museum exhibitions of work by Leidy Churchman and Nil Yalter, along with Acting Out, a group show featuring artists in the Marieluise Hessel Collection, including Larry Clark, Lyle Ashton Harris, Nan Goldin, Boris Mikhailov, Lorraine O'Grady, Cindy Sherman, and Jo Spence. The shows will open to the public on June 22, 2019 and will run through the fall. 
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3129

The Bard Summer School on Quantum Gravity takes place from June 9 to June 16. Fifty-two students from more than 20 countries will participate, plus Bard College students on campus for the Summer Research Institute. This program for undergraduate and graduate students features canonical and covariant approaches to quantum gravity and quantum cosmology. 
https://www.bard.edu/news/details/?id=308&type=feature

Sunday night was a big one for Bard at the Tonys. Oklahoma!, which started its revival at Bard SummerScape in 2015 and has roots in a 2007 student staging, won best musical revival. This marks the first competitive Tony win for the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. Ali Stroker won best featured actress in a musical, and became the first wheelchair user to win a Tony. “This award is for every kid who is watching tonight who has a disability, who has a limitation or a challenge, who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena,” Ms. Stroker said. “You are.”
https://www.bard.edu/news/details/?id=309&type=feature

Bard MFA alumnus Fitz Patton won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Play for Choir Boy.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/CHOIR-BOYs-Fitz-Patton-Wins-2019-Tony-Award-for-Best-Sound-Design-of-a-Play-20190609

Bard’s luxurious “tent of mirrors” returns on Saturday, June 29, with a program of cutting-edge cabaret and world-class jazz, plus dining, after-hours dancing, and more throughout the eight-week SummerScape festival (June 29 – August 18).
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3147

Acquanetta, which originally premiered at the 2018 PROTOTYPE Festival, comes to Bard in the same unmissable production by Daniel Fish, whose previous SummerScape staging (a revelatory take on Oklahoma!) is currently “the coolest new show on Broadway” (New York Times).
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3156

Bard College President Leon Botstein delivered the charge to the Class of 2019 at the College’s 159th Commencement on Saturday, May 25, 2019.
https://www.bard.edu/news/features/?id=306

Toumani will teach BGIA’s foundational Writing for International Affairs course this fall. The course explores how journalism intersects with human rights, conflict, economic development, climate change, culture, and current events generally.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3158

The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle series at Bard College presents three chamber music concerts in June: Escher String Quartet, June 1; Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, June 22; and Orion String Quartet, June 29.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3145

The Bard Graduate Center will receive a grant of $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the upcoming exhibition and catalogue Eileen Gray: Designer-Architect, opening in spring 2020.
https://www.bard.edu/news/notes/details/?id=4091

Conjunctions:72, Nocturnals—the latest issue of the innovative literary magazine published by Bard College—gathers fiction, poetry, and essays from leading writers, both emerging and established, on the theme of night, its denizens, and its chronicles.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3154

The study, led by biologist Gabriel Perron in collaboration with microbiologist M. Elias Dueker, both on the faculty of the Bard Center for the Study of Land, Air, and Water, shows that even small concentrations of the synthetic antimicrobial agent triclosan can disrupt freshwater microbial communities in favor of bacteria that are associated with human disease and antibiotic resistance.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3155

On Tuesday, May 14, 2019, Bard College Berlin celebrated the inauguration of its new student residence, Henry Koerner Hall.

Named after the Austrian-born American painter and graphic designer Henry Koerner (1915–1991), the building was designed by the renowned Rotterdam-based Atelier Kempe Thill. 

The festivities began with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that featured short addresses by Leon Botstein, president of Bard College; Peter Baldwin, cofounder of the Arcadia Fund and member of the Board of Governors of Bard College Berlin; André Kempe, cofounder and partner at Atelier Kempe Thill; and Sӧren Benn, mayor of Berlin-Pankow. Two exhibitions were on view at Henry Koerner Hall following the inauguration. The first presented a group of prints by Henry Koerner, including My Parents, based on an iconic painting by the artist. Also on view was a selection of issues of TIME magazine featuring portraits by Koerner on the cover. The second exhibition, The Skin of the Law: European Migration Regimes and their Global Realities, showed works created by students from Bard College Berlin and was curated by professors Dorothea von Hantelmann and Marion Detjen. 

The day continued with a series of discussions at St. Maria Magdalena Church, located near Henry Koerner Hall. Joseph Leo Koerner—Harvard art historian, author, and son of Henry Koerner—gave a presentation on the work and life of his father. The college was delighted to host keynote speeches by Sigmar Gabriel, member of the German Bundestag, and the artist, architect, and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar. The closing event was a panel discussion and open forum with Tracey Emin, artist; Barbara Haskell, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art; Orwa Nyrabia, artistic director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam; and Joseph Koerner, moderated by Leon Botstein. 

Bard College Berlin wishes to thank Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, for making the construction of Henry Koerner Hall possible. 

Booklet on Henry Koerner Hall>>

Press features
Im Geist von Hannah Arendt, Der Tagesspiegel, May 13, 2019
Wiener Emigrant Henry Koerner wird Namenspatron eines Berliner Studentenheims, Der Standard, May 14, 2019

 
https://www.bard.edu/news/notes/details/?id=4090

Bard College senior Evan Tims has won a highly selective Critical Language Scholarship. This is the second summer Tims has been given this competitive award, which will fully fund his study of the Bangla language at the American Institute of Indian Studies in Kolkata.
https://www.bard.edu/news/features/?id=298

On Friday, May 10, the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College welcomed more than 50 community partners to a Thank You Breakfast. Local organizers, school administrators, business owners, and legislators gathered at the historic Blithewood Manor, where President Botstein gave remarks and three organizations were honored for their work with Bard. 
http://www.bard.edu/news/features/?id=300

Bard Fisher Center presents comedian, actor, and former host of The Late Late Show Craig Ferguson, with his new, irreverent memoir Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations, and Observations. Ferguson will appear in conversation with WAMC bureau chief and host of 51% Allison Dunne.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3135

In celebration of National Public Garden Week, the Bard Arboretum is hosting two open house garden tours. Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus Gardens Open House takes place on Saturday, May 11, and the Blithewood Garden Open House will be held on Friday, May 17.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3151

The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded 2019 FilmCraft and FilmWatch grants to Bard College’s Creative Process in Dialogue: Art and the Public program, which will include a master class hosted by leading black American filmmakers Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, and Bradford Young.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3150

The Bard Conservatory Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, will perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 in the Sosnoff Theater on May 10 and 12. The performances feature mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti, the Bard College Chamber Singers, Bard Festival Chorale, and Bard Preparatory Division Chorus.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3146

Bard College student Eric Raimondi ’19 has been awarded a $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace Prize in support of his work with refugees and asylum seekers on the island of Samos, Greece.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3149

On Friday, April 19, the Bard Prison Initiative Debate Union debated the University of Cambridge—the oldest and most competitive debating society in the world—on the topic of whether or not all countries should have a right to nuclear weapons. And they won.
http://www.bard.edu/news/features/?id=283

Ten Bard College students attended the 8th Smolny Student Conference April 18–21 at Smolny College, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. Petersburg State University. The annual conference provides an opportunity for young scholars to present original research in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as to network and collaborate with students in their field from around the world.
https://www.bard.edu/news/notes/details/?id=4039

Bard SummerScape presents the American premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's grand opera The Miracle of Heliane (“Das Wunder der Heliane”), featuring Ausrine Stundyte, Daniel Brenna, Alfred Walker, and the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein’s leadership, in an original staging by German director Christian Räth. 
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3144

On Tuesday, April 23, American Book Award–winning author Valeria Luiselli will read from her work at Bard College. “The novel truly becomes novel again in Luiselli’s hands—electric, elastic, alluring, new. . . . She is a superb chronicler,” writes the New York Times. Luiselli, who was recently appointed as writer in residence in the Division of Languages and Literature at Bard, will be introduced by MacArthur Fellow and Written Arts Program Director Dinaw Mengestu.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3143

Psychologist Simine Vazire will deliver the 2019 Andrew J. Bernstein ’68 Memorial Lecture at Bard Hall on Thursday, April 25, at 6:00 p.m. Vazire, professor of psychology and director of the Personality and Self-Knowledge Lab at UC Davis, will give a talk on “The Credibility Revolution in Psychology.” 
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3140

The Orchestra Now will perform the U.S. premieres of Joachim Raff’s Psalm 130: De Profundis and Lera Auerbach’s De Profundis (Violin Concerto No. 3) at Bard’s Fisher Center on Saturday, May 27, and Sunday, May 28, featuring internationally acclaimed violinist Vadim Repin, and EMI recording artist, soprano Elizabeth de Trejo.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3142

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced that Clemente is among its 2019 grant recipients, awarding two grants totaling $198,930 to expand its work in the NEH Dialogues on the Experience of War initiative. The grants will grow the Clemente Veterans' Initiative to three new sites.
https://clementecourse.org/news/131/155/Clemente-Awarded-Two-NEH-Grants

Simon’s Rock students Eric Yi and Samantha Statter joined professors Eric Kramer and Donald McClelland, and Joseph Carlson of the Joint Genome Institute, as coauthors of an academic research paper published in Plant Direct that provides new insights into one of the big mysteries in forest ecology.
https://simons-rock.edu/news/wood-wide-web.php

The Bard MBA program has announced a new Opportunity Scholarship, which will cover 80% to 100% of tuition for students who are first-generation college graduates. “This new scholarship will help us access a new talent pool,” says MBA Director Eban Goodstein, “and better fulfill our mission of training business leaders focused on solving community challenges.”
https://leadthechange.bard.edu/blog/bard-mba-launches-opportunity-scholars-program

This summer, the Bard Music Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary season with a two-week, in-depth exploration of “Korngold and His World.” In twelve themed concert programs, complemented by pre-concert lectures, a film screening, panel discussions, and expert commentary, Bard examines the life and career of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957), the under-sung yet hugely influential composer whose lush Romanticism would come to define the quintessential Hollywood sound. The festival will take place over two weekends, August 9–11 and 16–18, as the centerpiece of Bard SummerScape 2019.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3138

This month Bard College hosted two conferences on the campus of Bard Network partner Central European University in Budapest, Hungary: the Third Annual Bard Network Debate Conference and the Sixth Annual Get Engaged: Student Action and Youth Leadership Conference. 
http://www.bard.edu/news/features/?id=270

Bard College will hold its 159th Commencement on Saturday, May 25. At the commencement ceremony, Bard President Leon Botstein will confer 385 undergraduate degrees on the Class of 2019 and 182 graduate degrees. 
https://www.bard.edu/news/features/?id=279

Bard College senior Dio Tzortzis wrapped up his collegiate swimming career with a 25th-place finish in the 200-back at the NCAA Championships on Saturday. Tzortzis set a personal best in the event with a time of 1:50.10. The economics major from Athens, Greece will graduate as the most decorated student-athlete in the history of Bard College and the first Bard swimmer ever to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
https://bardathletics.com/news/2019/3/23/mens-swimming-tzortzis-finishes-career-with-25th-in-200-back-prelims-at-ncaa-championships.aspx

Joanna Scott’s work explores subjects ranging from beauty and temptation to the motion of thought and the elusive potential of the imagination.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3136

The US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music convened a group of scholars, music educators, and performers on March 11–12 for its second annual conference, Tradition and Discovery: Teaching Chinese Music in the West.
https://www.barduschinamusic.org/news/tradition-and-discovery

The students’ water samples—collected from nearly 400 sites across the globe—were a main component of this year’s Citizen Science curriculum, which tackled urgent, present-day questions related to water.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3134

On April 17, the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College will gather top policymakers, economists, and analysts at the Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the U.S. and World Economies.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3133

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) continues its season at Bard Fisher Center on April 6 and 7 with Verdi’s celebrated Requiem, led by TŌN’s music director, Leon Botstein. The immense work is set for double choir and orchestra, and will feature soprano Margaret Tigue, mezzo-soprano Chloë Schaaf, and bass Wei Wu.
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3132

Chelsea Mozen MBA ’15 joined the inaugural class of Bard’s MBA in Sustainability program in the fall of 2012 because she wanted to make clean energy a priority in the business world. Now she's heading up a first-of-its kind carbon offset program at Etsy, which she originally conceptualized for her Capstone Project at Bard. 
http://www.bard.edu/news/features/?id=150

This month Bard College will host two conferences on the campus of Bard Network partner Central European University in Budapest, Hungary: the Third Annual Bard Network Debate Conference (March 9–14) and the Sixth Annual Get Engaged: Student Action and Youth Leadership Conference (March 15–22). These events draw dozens of student leaders from institutions in Bard's global network to connect around themes of civic engagement and global citizenship.

Learn more:
cce.bard.edu/civic-action/get-engaged/
debate.bard.edu/internationalconference/
 
http://www.bard.edu/news/notes/details/?id=3964

Peter Filkins’s H. G. Adler: A Life in Many Worlds is one of the first major works to be published about this influential writer. A survivor of Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, Adler published two dozen books of poetry, fiction, social science, history, and religion that detail the story of the Holocaust and analyze its influence on our world today. Filkins taps correspondence, broad historical research, and unpublished manuscripts to tell the story of how Adler lived through his times, and his effort to maintain human dignity amid systematic oppression, political corruption, and insufferable duress.
http://www.bard.edu/news/notes/details/?id=3965

Led by the Boston Globe’s “bona fide b-girl,” Ephrat Asherie makes her Fisher Center debut with Odeon, a high-energy, hybrid hip-hop dance work set to and inspired by the music of early 20th-century Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, played live. Odeon will be performed in the Fisher Center’s LUMA Theater April 13–14. 
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3131

Starting this fall, Dakwar will offer a course on human rights and national security that explores responses to acts and threats of terrorism and the impact of counterterrorism laws, policies, and practices on human rights. 
https://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=3130

In The Struggle for Recognition in International Relations: Status, Revisionism, and Rising Powers, Professor Murray emphasizes the social dimensions of power transitions, challenging traditional explanations for when power transitions end peacefully or in war and offering new policy options for how established powers can manage the peaceful rise of new great powers.

The Bard Debate Union together with the Center for Civic Engagement hosted the 8th Annual Middle and High School Debate Tournament at Bard on Friday, March 1. More than 80 students attended the competition, representing eight schools throughout the Hudson Valley.
http://www.bard.edu/news/features/?id=257