Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences (ELAS) is a non-divisional interdisciplinary program stitched into the fabric of current and new courses taught at Bard College. Students enrolled in ELAS courses work with different geographies, organizations, and programs in local communities, or in the communities where Bard’s national and international partners are based. ELAS courses tap into students' abilities to pull from their various skills and life experiences in an environment that is academically challenging and outwardly resounding. Many students find themselves inadvertently learning new skills or utilizing their strengths in unique ways.
Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences courses are designed to connect classroom theory with engagement activities to promote an enhanced learning experience. ELAS courses are inherently reciprocal and collaborative. Each student works with a partner on a project that shares equal weight between a community organization and the classroom. Courses centered on community engagement share values of respect and reciprocity in their outcomes. Bard students can expect ELAS courses to be challenging, as they work to develop creative and practical projects that address issues relevant to the course and their partners.
Current ELAS Courses ANTH 211 – Ancient Peoples of the Bard Lands: Archaeological Methods and Theory (Christopher Lindner): Th 4:40-6:00pm, F 1:30-4:30pm ART 250 M/H – Extended Media II: This Class is a Podcast (Margaret Hazen and Dave McKenzie): W 1:30-4:30pm Bard Learning Commons – Placemaking Centered-Design (Josh Livingston) T 130-430 BGIA 301 – New York: Center of the World (James Keterrer) BIO 116 – Food Microbiology: Cider Making (Gabriel Perron): T/Th 10:10-11:30am, W 1:30pm-4:30pm BIO 340 – Metagenomics (Gabriel Perron): T/Th 1:30-4:30pm CHEM 123 – Art & Science of Fermentation (Swapan Jain): T 9:30am-11:30am, Lab W 1:30pm-4:30pm EUS 102 – Intro to Environmental & Urban Science (Robyn Smyth): T 8:30am-11:30am, Th 9:00am-11:20am EUS 305 EUS PRACTICUM – Multimedia and Environmental Storytelling (Jon Bowermaster) W 1:30 pm-4:30 pm EUS 412 – The Food Energy Water Nexus (Robyn Smyth): T/Th 3:10pm-4:30pm HIST 2242 – US – Russian Relations and the Founding of The United Nations (David Woolner) F 10:10am - 12:30pm HR 105 – Human Rights Advocacy (Tom Keenan) MW 1010a-1130pm HUM T200 – Exploring Human Connection Through Argentine Tango I (Supervised by Leon Botstein): T/Th 3:40-5:00pm IDEA 125 – Getting Schooled in America (Derek Furr and Erica Kaufman): T/Th 4:40pm-7:00pm IDEA 226 – Writing, Science, and Environmental Issues: The Hudson River (Elias Dueker and Susan Rogers): T 4:40pm-6:00pm, F 9:30am-3:30pm LIT 131 – Women and Leadership (Deirdre d’Albertis and Cammie Jones): F 10:00am-12:00pm MAT ED151 – Pedagogy & Practice in Civic Engagement (Mary Leonard and Michael Murray): T 4:40-6:00pm MATH 116 A – Mathematics of Puzazles & Games (Lauren Rose): T/Th 10:10-11:30am MATH 116 B – Mathematics of Puzzles & Games (Silvia Saccon): M/W 11:50am-1:10pm PS 122 – American Politics: Issues and Institutions (Simon Gilhooley): T/Th 10:10am-11:30am PS/GIS 207 – Global Citizenship (Michelle Murray): T/Th 8:30-9:50am PS 209 – Engaged Citizenship: Civic Engagement Locally, Nationally and Globally (Jonathan Becker and Erin Cannan-Campolong): T/Th 10:10-11:30 am REL/WRIT 328 – The River and the Desert in Writing & Religious Imagination (Dinaw Mengestu and Samuel Secunda): W 9:10-11:30am SST 145 – Pedagogy & Practice (Carol Murray)
ELAS Projects
Students collaborate on projects that relate coursework with community action
Students with Joshua Livingston's class on Placemaking, where students will engage with thoughtful action on how spaces and places are inclusive environments that can occur within institutions, but also operate with their own identities.
Students in Action
A key component of ELAS courses is to think about how to apply classroom theory practically, and often with long-term value. Students come up with their own projects during the semester and then implement them for the benefit of the community and their own learning process. Each new ELAS class opens the opportunity to reimagine spaces, places, and people.
EUS students on the Hudson River at Norrie Point Environmental Center. Part of Eli Dueker and Susan Roger's Writing, Science, and Environmental Issues: The Hudson River. A Big Ideas course where students will directly work in the classroom and on the Hudson River to assess invasive species and environmental concerns.
Classroom + Community
ELAS classes may involve a variety of activities but they emphasize reflective learning. Community engagement is not based on “service” but on respect and reciprocity. Such an emphasis encourages open exchanges, collaboration, and the potential to produce new forms of knowledge.
Impacts
ELAS by the Numbers
During the 2018-2019 academic year, 500 students participated in more than 30 courses and collaborated with more than 70 community agencies/organizations.
88%
report greater awareness of community issues
88%
say community engagement helped their learning
85%
would take another ELAS course
91%
of faculty would teach another ELAS course
Benefits
Students in Jonathan Becker and Erin Cannan's Engaged Citizenship class that is both an ELAS and Networking course. Students will work within their classroom and with the classrooms of international students to address local and global issues while creating a project of their own.
For Faculty
Enriches and enlivens teaching by providing a new understanding of how learning occurs.
Identifies new areas for research and publication, and thus increases opportunities for professional recognition and reward.
Enhances student learning and teaching qualities.
Increases awareness of current social justice issues as they relate to the academic areas of interest.
Provides opportunities for application of professional expertise and research.
Increases diversity in the classroom by accommodating a wide variety of learning styles.
Students from Cammie Jones and Deirdre d'Albertis' Women and Leadership course. This literature course works with a range of perspectives that take students closer engage with stories in ways that only they can tell with a focus on outreach to people and organizations with a focus on gender.
For Students
Increases relevant coursework by bringing academic instruction to life.
Develops meaningful involvement with the local and regional communities.
Prepares individuals to participate in internships and research.
Applies concepts from the classroom to their service.
Provides platforms to analyze and discuss civic values.
Allows exploration of career options.
Develops a sense of community and civic responsibility.
Teaches workforce skills.
Increases a sense of self-efficacy, analytical skills and social development.
Develops connections with people of diverse cultures and lifestyles.
Provides opportunities to accommodate different learning styles.
A moment from the Engaged Citizenship class where students engaged with Speed Networking. Community partners from surrounding towns and the College met with students and listened to their ideas for projects while also talking about the various types of service available to students.
For the Community
Enhances positive relationships with the College.
Provides awareness-building of community issues, agencies and constituents.
Contributes to positive exposure in the community.
Creates ways to expand current services.
Provides opportunities for participating in the educational process.
Develops short and long term solutions to pressing community needs.
Creates ways to expand current services.
Increases human resources for problem solving.
Enriches roles for supervisors.
Current ELAS Fellow, Eric Dougherty, performing for residents from Ferncliff Nursing Home at Bard's Chapel as part of a project for Duff Morton's Action Research class in Spring 2019.
Become an ELAS Fellow
REQUIREMENTS
An Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences Fellow works with students in a specific ELAS course. Fellows use their own experiences to assist and document the progress of students enrolled in the course as they engage with community partners.
Successful completion of the course for which.you wish to be an ELAS fellow.
Approval of the course professor.
Certified as a Bard driver.*
*Note: We highly suggest students who have a license apply, but this is not a strictly decisive factor.
Community Partner Proposal Submission
Are you a local organization interested in working with Bard College ELAS students and faculty developing a project, collaborating on research, or sharing resources? Reach out to us through the link below to submit a proposal where we will fit you with an experienced faculty member, ELAS course, or excited student! You can also ontact Cammie Jones, Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and Civic Engagement (cjones@bard.edu) for assistance or additional information.
Each year, more than 300 Bard students enroll in ELAS courses that challenge them to develop creative and practical approaches to social, cultural, and scientific issues while partnering with community and civic organizations. CCE invites proposals from Bard and Bard Early College faculty to design and support ELAS courses that connect students’ classroom experiences with the community, enhancing learning and promoting active citizenship. Visit our Resources Library for course development tools.
Faculty stipends of up to $750 are available for course development. Creative approaches to community engagement are encouraged, and can include talks with community speakers, activists, and artists whose work focuses on engagement; community interactions through town meetings, relevant site visits, and trainings; project-based coursework or activities related to engagement; interactions with local leaders and community organizers; and volunteering as part of a project or program outside classroom hours. Assigned readings may include primary source material, student reflections on their experiences, and research related to a social issue being addressed through the engagement. Successful applicants will receive logistical support including transportation, community contacts and resources, and a dedicated student fellow.
Spring 2020 Application Deadline: November 8, 2019
ANTH 211 Ancient Peoples on the Bard Lands: Archaeological Methods — Christopher Lindner ANTH 220 Doing Ethnography, Memory — Laura Kunreuther ANTH 220 Doing Ethnography — Jonah Rubin ANTH 323 The Politics of Infrastructure — Sophia Stamatopolou-Robbins ANTH 351 The Interview — John Ryle ANTH/Film 224 Ethnography in Image, Sound and Text — Jackie Goss and Laura Kunreuther ART 100 Digital 1: Digital to Physical — Maggie Mhazen ART 206 ED Sculpture II: Fluid Dynamics — Ellen Driscoll ART 206 Sculpture II: Air, Water, Earth — Ellen Driscoll ARTH 225 Art Through Nature: Landscape, Environment, and Design in America — Julia Rosenbaum ARTH 260 New/Old Amsterdam — Susan Merriam BGIA 301 Core Seminar: NYC — James Ketterer BIO 117 Botany for Herbivores — Emily Pollina BIO 118 Conservation Biology — Cathy Collins BIO 124 Measuring Nature — Gabriel G. Perron BIO 157 Food Microbiology — Gabriel Perron BIO 202 Conservation Biology — Cathy Collins BIO 240 Biostatistics — Gabriel G. Perron BIO 311 Field Ornithology — Bruce Robertson BIO 340 Metagenomics — Gabriel G. Perron BIO 433 Advanced Community Ecology: Diversity — Cathy Collins BLC 215 Essays and Evidence — Jim Keller CHEM 123 Art and Science of Fermentation — Swapan Jain and Gabriel Perron EUS 102 Introduction to Environmental & Urban Science — Eli Dueker EUS 221 Water — Eli Dueker EUS 222 Air — Eli Dueker EUS 305 EUS Practicum: Farm to Bard — Katrina Light EUS Practicum 305 Farm to Institution: Bard’s Current and Future Food System — Katrina Light EUS 308 EUS Practicum: Culture Through Nature: Landscape Environment and Design Into the 21st Century — Margie Ruddick EUS 316 Waste Cluster — Ellen Driscoll, Eli Dueker, Sophia Stamatopolou-Robbins EUS/SOC 319 Hudson Valley Cities and Environmental (In)Justice — Peter Klein GIS/PS 207 Global Citizenship — William Dixon HIST 117 Inclusion at Bard — Myra Armstead HIST 123 The Window at Montgomery Place in the Nineteenth Century — Myra Armstead HR 153 Eleanor Roosevelt — Anya Luscombe HR 218 Free Speech — Roger Berkowitz HIST 230 US-Russian Relations: From Tehran to Yalta — David WoolnerHR 250 Black Lives Matter — Ariana Gonzalez Stokas HR 347 Social Action: Theories and Practice — Paul Marienthal HR 355 Scholars at Risk — Thomas Keenan IDEA 125 (Getting Schooled in America) — Erica Kaufman and Derek Furr LIT 113 Women in Leadership — Deidre D’Albertis LIT 131 Women and Leadership — Deirdre D’Albertis MAT 115 Tutoring Theory and Practice — Rachel Cavell MAT ED 151 Pedagogy and Practice: Social, Cultural, and Educational Issues in Civic Engagement — Mary Leonard, Michael Murray MAT ED 151 Pedagogy and Practice: Social, Cultural, and Educational Issues — Rachel Cavell, Mary Leonard MATH 290 Mathematics and Civic Engagement — Lauren Rose PS 155 Contested Jerusalem — James Ketterer PS 209 Civic Engagement — Jonathan Becker/Erin Cannan PS 257 Nations and Nationalism — Chris McIntosh PS 261 Voting and Elections — Jonathan Becker PS 265 The Campaign 2016 — Simon Gilhooley PS 270 All Politics is Local — Jonathan Becker REL 358 Sanctuary: Theology and Social Action — Bruce Chilton SST 145 Pedagogy and Practice — Carol Murray
