Bard College Receives $25 Million Endowment Gift from Gochman Family Foundation Supporting Renamed American and Indigenous Studies Program

Match by Open Society Foundations as Part of Bard’s Endowment Drive Will Create $50 Million Endowment Supporting Native American and Indigenous Studies in Undergraduate and Graduate Academics and the Arts

Bard College is excited to announce a transformational $25 million endowment gift from the Gochman Family Foundation, which will substantially advance its work deepening diversity and equity in American Studies with a Center for Indigenous Studies, faculty appointments and student scholarships, and the appointment of an Indigenous Curatorial Fellow at Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS Bard). An additional $25 million matching commitment by Open Society Foundations as part of Bard’s endowment drive will create a $50 million endowment supporting Native American and Indigenous Studies in undergraduate and graduate academics and the arts. The College’s American Studies Program will be renamed American and Indigenous Studies to more fully reflect continental history and to place Native American and Indigenous Studies at the heart of curricular innovation and development.

Bard Professor Sky Hopinka Named 2022 MacArthur Fellow

Bard College Assistant Professor of Film and Electronic Arts Sky Hopinka has been named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. Hopinka, a filmmaker, video artist, and photographer, is one of this year’s 25 recipients of the prestigious “genius grant” awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In a statement about his work, the MacArthur Foundation says, “Hopinka layers imagery, sound, and text to create an innovative cinematic language. His short and feature-length films traverse both Indigenous histories and contemporary experiences . . . Hopinka is creating a body of work that not only represents the lives of Indigenous peoples but incorporates their worldviews into the strategies of representation itself.”

Bard Alumnus Paul Chan MFA ’03 Named 2022 MacArthur Fellow

Artist, publisher, and Bard College alumnus Paul Chan MFA ’03 has been named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. "He draws on a wealth of cultural touchstones—from classical philosophy to modern literature, critical theory, and hip-hop culture—to produce works that respond to our current political and social realities,” the MacArthur Foundation says, “making those realities more immediately available to the mind for contemplation and critical reflection.” Chan’s work, which “[strives] to express humanity’s complexities and contradictions through an artistic practice that moves across media,” has been exhibited in the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, the Guggenheim Museum, and others. Chan received the Bard College Alumni/ae Association’s Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters in 2021. 

Bard College Secures Fully Functioning On-Campus Polling Site for 2022 General Election

After a fight that has been going on for nearly a quarter century, the Dutchess County Board of Elections has finally relented and Bard College will have a fully functional campus polling site for the 2022 general election, and hopefully beyond. Election Commissioner Hannah Black has informed Bard officials that the polling site at Bard’s Bertelsmann Campus Center would be fully staffed and have the requisite number of polling machines; previously, the site had been in violation of election regulations and a court ordered settlement. The decision occurred after Bard had filed a complaint following years of litigation to secure an on-campus polling location and ensure equal access to the ballot.

Bard College Presents Anthony Hecht Lectures in the Humanities Featuring Renowned Scholars Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips

The Lecture Series, “Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud,” Will Be Held in November

Bard College presents renowned scholars Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips delivering the Anthony Hecht Lectures in the Humanities in honor of preeminent poet, alumnus, and former Bard faculty member Anthony Hecht ’44. Greenblatt, who is the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, and Phillips, who is a visiting professor in the Department of English at the University of York, will present the lecture series, “Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud” with lectures on November 10 and 11 on Bard campus and on November 16 in at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Bard College Hosts Inaugural Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck Conference, October 20–22

“The DRE: Disturbance, Re-Animation, and Emergent Archives” Conference Features Keynote Speakers Elizabeth N. Ellis and Marisa J. Fuentes

Bard College’s inaugural Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck conference features keynote speakers Elizabeth N. Ellis and Marisa J. Fuentes, as well as artist’s talks by Bently Spang and Kite aka Suzanne Kite MFA ’15. This conference, “The DRE: Disturbance, Re-Animation, and Emergent Archives,” considers the topic of archives from a range of humanistic perspectives, with keynotes showcasing methods in Native American and Indigenous Studies and African and African-American Studies, as well as offering the viewpoints of contemporary artists on these topics. The DRE is the first of three annual conferences supported by Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck, part of the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities for All Times initiative.

Bard Professor Jenny Xie Named National Book Award Finalist for Her New Collection of Poetry The Rupture Tense

Bard College Assistant Professor of Written Arts Jenny Xie’s new poetry collection, The Rupture Tense, has been selected as a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for poetry. Beginning with poems inspired by photojournalist Li Zhensheng’s rare images of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Jenny Xie’s The Rupture Tense recovers ancestral history through an investigation of state-sanctioned memory loss and intergenerational trauma. Xie’s debut collection of poems, Eye Level, was also selected as a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for poetry.

Acclaimed Journalists Chris Whipple and Brian Dumaine to Deliver Fifth John J. Curran ’75 Lecture in Journalism at Bard College on Monday, October 24

On Monday, October 24, acclaimed author, political analyst, documentary filmmaker, and Emmy and Peabody Award–winning former 60 Minutes producer Chris Whipple and prize-winning journalist and contributing editor at Fortune magazine Brian Dumaine will present a talk, “From the Oval Office to the Corner Office: What we have learned about presidents and plutocrats,” at Bard College as part of the John J. Curran ’75 Lectures in Journalism Series. Whipple and Dumaine will be introduced by Bard alumnus Ethan Porter ’07, author of The Consumer Citizen and associate professor of media and public affairs and of political science at George Washington University. This lecture is presented by the Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs and the Written Arts Program.

Bard Biologists Elias Dueker, Gabriel Perron, Daniella Azulai ’17, and Mary Reid ’21 Copublish Study on the Impacts of Wastewater Treatment Discharge in Saw Kill River

Associate Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies M. Elias Dueker, Associate Professor of Biology Gabriel G. Perron, and Bard biology graduates Daniella Azulai ’17 and Mary Reid ’21 have copublished a new study, “Bacteria communities and water quality parameters in riverine water and sediments near wastewater discharges,” in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Data. ​​“Our hope is that this database serves as a tool for researchers and communities around the world trying to respond to stewardship challenges in a science-based and community-accessible way,” said Dueker. 

News from the Arboretum 

Fom the Director of Horticulture & Arboretum Amy Parrella '99
This summer the Bard Arboretum hosted the first Horticulture Guild session with eight undergraduate students. Each week students worked 36 hours alongside Bard Horticulture staff, landscaping the Bard campus grounds and also spent 4 hours learning Horticulture 101, inside and outside of the classroom. Topics included: Tools & Safety, Plant Identification & Culture, Landscape Design & Maintenance, Professionalism & Careers, Invasive Plants, Plant Health Care, Plant Research & Conservation, Sustainable Landscape Management, Plant Propagation & Production, Arboriculture, and Education & Interpretation. Field trips included: a campus tree walk, invasive plant walk and sustainability walk, Blithewood Garden, Olin's green demonstration parking lot, Bard Farm, Bard's greenhouse, Montgomery Place, and the Arboretum's exhibit on Frederick Law Olmsted at the Campus Center. Additionally, each week students were treated to a networking opportunity with a new professional at our Lunch & Learn sessions. Each professional gave the students an up-close look at their specific work and how it relates to plants. Many thanks goes out to these folks who helped with this summer's program: Office of Admission, Angela Kozlakowski, Savannah Williams, Taun Toay, Michael Clayton, Parkhurst Dining, Nick Lewis, Kathy McManus, Sal Russo, Melanie Patapis, Caroline Ramaley, Adriane Colburn, Beka Goedde, Erik Kiviat, Felicia Keesing (via podcast), Malia Du Mont '95, Laurie Husted, Stefan Yarabek, Jana Mader, Rebecca Yoshino, Dan McKenna and the entire Horticulture staff. We look forward to holding another session of the Horticulture Guild in the future!

NEW! LANDSCAPE STUDIES: Hudson River Valley HUM 234
For centuries, the land on which the Bard Arboretum now sits has been inhabited and used by diverse societies and cultures. In this course, students learn to critically engage with the existing landscape and vegetation to unfold “the story” of the land now owned by Bard College. By confronting the narratives that shaped these lands from an interdisciplinary perspective, students can build skills to become informed and impactful agents of change. Particular areas of inquiry include the Hudson River Valley in art, literature, music and film; the history of Native Americans, colonialism, and slavery in the region; horticulture, bio-diversity, and native plants of the Hudson River Valley (living collection). We will explore the past, present, and possible future of the Hudson River Valley through a series of primary and secondary sources including fiction and nonfiction works of literature, visual art, film, etc. Meetings will be held in the classroom, and outdoors at the Bard Arboretum, Montgomery Place, and Blithewood; we will observe and study the actual river, our native plants, and learn more about how our current home and what we see in it have changed over time.

News from Athletics

Displaced Afghan student recounts his odyssey

The first night for Mujtaba Naqib '26 on the Bard College campus was January 11, 2022. It was a blustery 15 degrees in Annandale. From bed, he stared at the ceiling in the room in his new home, Cruger Hall, and listened to the wind whipping outside. He couldn't sleep. His mind was racing.

On August 26 of the previous summer, he was forced to flee Afghanistan when the Taliban regained power. He was in the Kabul airport on the day a suicide bombing resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. troops, and he had just the clothes on his back, a laptop and a small backpack. Without notice, he was flown to Qatar and lived under a tent for four days with 700 other people, then flown to Germany, where he lived in an encampment for 45 days with about 1,200 displaced people. Then, again without notice, he was flown to Philadelphia, and bussed to Quantico, VA, on October 15.

News from Career Development

CDO has partnered with the LAUNCH recruiting consortium, which offers students the opportunity to apply and be considered for first-round interviews with employers participating in our Fall LAUNCH (Liberal Arts Undergraduate Network for Careers & Hiring), event and Interview Day on October 21. LAUNCH invites juniors and seniors interested in specific fields to apply for summer 2023 internships and full-time post graduate positions posted by employers. Fields represented in LAUNCH: Education, Arts & Teaching, Science Research, Business, Finance, Consulting, Technology and Communications. The LAUNCH consortium is a partnership with Bard College, Swarthmore College, Brown University, Trinity College and Union College.

In October, CDO will also be offering a two-part series Career Pathways in Law for students interested in law and legal work. On October 19 at 4:30p.m, the Associate Director of Admissions at Brooklyn Law will be visiting campus to speak to students about how to prepare for law school applications. In addition, on October 26 at 7:00 p.m, CDO in collaboration with our Pre-Law Adviser, Rachel Cavell, will be offering a virtual panel of alumni/ae and professionals working in the legal fields of compliance, public interest law. 

In addition, CDO will be offering a Career Pathways in Global Affairs later this fall, where students will have the opportunity to sign up to visit the United Nations in NYC and hear from guests speaking about the work being done in international affairs. 

Questions? Please email us at [email protected]. 

News from the Center for Civic Engagement

On September 30, the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement hosted the third Community Partner Celebration at Blithewood Manor. The community partners being honored at the event were the Red Hook Community Center, Radio Kingston, and the Bard College Counsel that helped secure a polling place on Bard’s campus. Read more here. 

Election@Bard is wondering if you and your student have talked about their voting plan yet. The New York State deadline to register or re-register to vote is THIS Friday (10/14)!  Election@Bard will be hosting two last rounds of voter registration on 10/13 12:30pm - 2:30pm and 10/14 2pm - 4pm at the CCE Ward Manor Gatehouse aka the Castle building on the corner of Cruger Island Road and Annandale Road.  The team is also happy to start walking your Bardian through what their voting plan could look like: voting at the on-campus polling place, voting early at a local early voting polling place, or voting by mail-in ballot -- stop by or email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

News from Bard Wellness

Bard Wellness is working with the Scale Project, which examines the role and impact that socioeconomic status and class has on Bard's campus, policies, and programs and creates sustainable solutions to make each more equitable. We collect institutional data, meet with faculty and staff to propose new initiatives/solutions, relay all crucial information/resources to our peers via our Instagram and email, and continuously brainstorm ways to mediate classism on campus--via our Book Program, Being Not-Rich Google Doc, our Internship Equity Award, and the many other projects we work on simultaneously. This club will collaborate with the faculty/staff group Council for Inclusive Excellence to discuss and plan resolutions as well as with any students that reach out.

How can you help? Many students on campus are in need of personal toiletry items. Check out our amazon wishlist to show your support.