Chris Gibson Joins Bard College as Hannah Arendt Center Senior Fellow and Professor of Political Practice
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Bard College’s Hannah Arendt Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Gibson as a senior fellow and a professor of political practice. His residency will begin in the spring 2027 academic semester during the pilot program of the Center’s new initiative, “A Republic, If You Can Keep It,” which coincides with the 250th anniversary of the birth of the American republic. The program aims to address the weakening of the social contract between government and citizens, and offer a renewed focus on constitutional citizenship, civic responsibility, public service, and civilian-military relations. Gibson, a former member of Congress and retired US Army colonel, will also participate in the 2026 Arendt Forum in October.“I feel called to the Hannah Arendt Center and Bard College to help this new initiative, which I believe is focused on precisely what our country needs right now,” said Gibson, “and towards our future leaders being educated and prepared at Bard.”
Gibson, together with Malia Du Mont ’95, vice president for strategy and policy at Bard, will lead the new initiative that focuses on the weakening of the American social contract and explores different paths to possible renewal. The initiative intends to promote the intellectual and moral virtues, the value of public service, public goods including national security, and the criticality of functional civil-military relations within a flourishing republic.
“We are honored to welcome Chris Gibson as a senior fellow and professor,” said Roger Berkowitz, founder and academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center. “Gibson's lifelong dedication to public service embodies Hannah Arendt's call for courageous public engagement. By bringing his experience to the Center at Bard College and together with our esteemed colleague Malia Du Mont, we will create programming that is intellectually serious, practically consequential, and nationally replicable.”
“This critical juncture in the history of American democracy is the right time to launch this effort to reinvigorate student engagement with ideals of democratic leadership and public service," said Du Mont. “I'm honored and humbled to work with my colleagues at the Hannah Arendt Center, and especially with Chris Gibson, to bring it to life.”
Chris Gibson is a former US Army Colonel (now retired) whose last assignment was as Commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division. He is also a former three-term member of Congress (departing after term-limiting himself), a scholar of civil-military relations, and a former President of Siena College. Over a 29-year Army career (which started in 1981 as a 17-year old infantry private with the New York Army National Guard before being commissioned through ROTC and serving 24 more years in the Regular Army), Gibson rose to the rank of Colonel, deployed seven times, and received numerous military honors, including four Bronze Stars, two Legions of Merit, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge with Star, the Master Parachutist Badge, and the Ranger Tab. During his time in the Army, Gibson taught American politics for three years at the United States Military Academy at West Point and served as a national security affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution (where he earned War College credit). Gibson represented New York in the US House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017 and served as President of Siena College from 2020 to 2023. He holds a Ph.D. in government from Cornell University and is the author of work on national security, citizenship, and the founding principles of the American republic. His most recent book, The Spirit of Philadelphia: A Call to Recover the Founding Principles, argues for civic renewal grounded in constitutional responsibility, public service, and republican self-government.
Malia K. Du Mont ‘95 is a senior executive and national security professional currently serving as Vice President for Strategy and Policy at Bard College, and as a Senior Fellow at the College’s Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities. Previously, she was Co-President of Amur Equipment Finance and a non-resident fellow at the Stimson Center and the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center on Strategy and Security. She has spent much of her career in the Pentagon, where she held multiple positions including Director of Strategy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In that role, she led the team charged with developing and implementing the National Defense Strategy, represented OSD on two National Security Staff subcommittees, and served as an outside reviewer on the National Intelligence Strategy and Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. Malia helped spearhead the Obama Administration’s Afghanistan Strategy Review, following two years in Kabul and at NATO where she focused on analyzing Afghan politico-military affairs. She was lead author of the Ft. Hood Follow-on Review, coordinating across the defense enterprise on recommendations and interim guidance documents to strengthen the Department’s ability to counter insider threat. An Army Reserve officer and Afghanistan veteran, she chairs Congressman Pat Ryan’s (NY-19) Veterans and Military Families Advisory Board, represents the Mid-Hudson Valley on the New York State Council on the Arts, and serves on the boards of Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, World Affairs Council Mid-Hudson Valley, and Arts Mid-Hudson.
The mission of the Hannah Arendt Center is to create and nurture an institutional space for bold, risky and provocative thinking about our political world in the spirit of Hannah Arendt. The Center’s vision is to empower a plural people to at once (re)discover their unique opinions and political agency and also find common ground to build together a shared world through thinking, listening, and talking with one another. Learn more at hac.bard.edu.
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About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place and Massena properties, Bard’s campus consists of more than 1,200 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; advanced degrees through 14 graduate programs; 10 early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 166-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at the main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place and Massena properties, Bard’s campus consists of more than 1,200 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; advanced degrees through 14 graduate programs; 10 early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 166-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at the main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.
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This event was last updated on 07-15-2026
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