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Engaged Liberal Arts + Sciences

Connecting classroom theory with civic engagement
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. 

View Current ELAS Courses

ELAS Projects

Students collaborate on projects that relate coursework with community action
Students in 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.

Classroom + Community
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

ELAS by the Numbers

In 2019, 705 students participated in 55 courses and collaborated with more than 70 community agencies/organizations.

  • 88%
    of students report greater awareness of community issues
  • 89%
    of students say engagement helped their learning
  • 88%
    of students would take another ELAS course
  • 91%
    of faculty would teach another ELAS course

Benefits

For Faculty
Students in Chris Lindner's Historical Archaeology class working with visiting students from a local middle school to teach and observe archeological field methods at a site located on Bard's campus.

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.

For Students
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.

For the Community
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.

ELAS Course Development

Promoting Active Citizenship

Promoting Active Citizenship

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.

Resources Library

Become an ELAS Fellow
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.

Apply Here

Catch up with ELAS

Read the Fall 2019 ELAS Newsletter

Development Grants

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

Bard College Faculty Application Form

Bard Early College Faculty Application Form

Current ELAS Course Listings

Spring 2020

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.  

HUM T200  EXPLORING HUMAN CONNECTION THROUGH ARGENTINE TANGO II
Supervised by Leon Botstein (Chungin Goodstein)

ANTH 212    Historical Archaeology
Christopher Lindner
Cross-listed: Africana Studies; American Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Historical Studies

ANTH 255    Anthropology of the Institution: Making Change through Social Service and Community Organizing
Gregory Morton
Cross-listed: American Studies; Human Rights

ANTH 323    The Politics of Infrastructure
Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins
Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Human Rights; Science, Technology, Society

ANTH 324    Doing Ethnography
Gregory Morton
Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Human Rights

ART 132    Art and Climate Change
Adriane Colburn
Ellen Driscoll
Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Human Rights

ART 206 ED    Sculpture II:Earth/Air/Water
Ellen Driscoll
Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies

BLC 185    Placemaking:Mission-Center Design
Joshua Livingston

ECON 209    Local Community Currencies
Leanne Ussher
Prerequisite: ECON 100 Principles of Economics or ECON 114 Economics for Planet Earth or permission by the instructor.

EUS 102    Intro:Environmental & Urban Science
Robyn Smyth

EUS 232    (Urban) Oceanography
Elias Dueker

EUS 304    Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration
Robyn Smyth

EUS 311    Climate & Agroecology
Jennifer Phillips

EUS 333    Urban Abandonment
Kwame Holmes

EUS 415    Microbial Remediation (Waste Cluster)
Elias Dueker
Cross-listed: Biology

EUS/SOC 319    Hudson Valley Cities/Environmental (In)Justice
Peter Klein
Cross-listed: American Studies

HIST 2242    US-Russian Relations and the Founding of the UN
David Woolner
Cross-listed: Russian and Eurasian Studies

HR 219    Mapping Police Violence
Kwame Holmes
Cross-listed: American Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Experimental Humanities

LIT 153    Falling in Love
Maria Cecire
Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities; Gender and Sexuality Studies

MATH 116    Mathematics:Puzzles & Games
Silvia Saccon

Learn More >>