CCE News

The Center for Civic Engagement celebrates and congratulates Brothers at Bard (BAB) for their ongoing success and achievements. Co-founders Dariel Vasquez '17 and Harry Johnson '17, are building a unique and scalable [email protected] program that is informing the national conversation on education and black male achievement. Dariel and Harry have worked tirelessly over the past two years at CCE to transform their hugely successful and unique TLS project -- through which college men of color support each other on campus and mentor and support high school men of color in Kingston, NY  to a project with national ambitions. 

In well-deserved recognition of their accomplishments, the William R. Kenan Trust has provided a $400,000 grant in support of their vision.  We want to thank the Kenan Trust, along with the many donors that have made BAB possible these last six years, including the Kingston Central School District, the Ascienzo Family Foundation, Helen’s Hope Foundation, Hudson Valley Foundation for Youth Health, Lifetime Learning Institute, The Fellowship Initiative, Ulster Savings Bank, and countless individual donors and supporters.

BAB now plays a critical role, not only in the lives of students on campus and in the local community, but in the life and structure of the College as a whole. BAB has made an incredible contribution to Bard and we look forward to tracking its trajectory as it continues to grow. 

Read Dariel’s open letter to BAB supporters. 
 

The Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities is offering a college-level introduction to the humanities—philosophy, literature, U.S. history, art history, critical thinking, and writing—again this fall in Kingston, New York, to adults living on low incomes. Students attend at no cost. Tuition, books, and childcare will be provided. Transportation is free within the immediate Kingston area. Students who successfully complete the course earn 6 college credits from Bard College. Classes will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., from October 1 through May at the Kingston Library, 55 Franklin Street, Kingston, NY 12401. Prospective applicants are invited to attend the first class on October 1 and can submit applications until October 3.

Applicants must be 17 years of age or older; living in a low-income household; able to read a newspaper in English; highly motivated and committed; and have the time and desire to attend classes regularly, complete assignments outside of class, and participate fully in the course for the entire nine-month term.

“The impact this course has had on the lives of people in the Kingston area—veterans, single mothers, homeless, people in recovery, citizens in search of a community—is a great example of the power of education to change lives,” said Clemente Course Director Marina van Zuylen, stressing that many of the course’s graduates go on to enroll in part- and full-time college programs, while others have been successful in finding new career opportunities and getting their creative work published or exhibited. “The Clemente Course’s supportive and devoted teachers provide a very rare kind of personal and intellectual nurturing. Each year, we’re reaching more people and engaging more partners in the community who are eager to support the course and our students.”

Applications can be picked up from the Kingston Library, by clicking (2019 Application), or by visiting clemente.bard.edu. The application deadline for the 2019 Kingston Clemente Course is October 3. If you miss the deadline, please contact Marina van Zuylen at [email protected]. Once the application is completed, please e-mail it to Marina van Zuylen at [email protected], or drop it off at the front desk of the Kingston Library at 55 Franklin Street, Kingston, NY 12401. For library hours, please call 845-331-0507 or go to kingstonlibrary.org/hours.php. For more information about the Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities being offered in Kingston, please visit clemente.bard.edu or e-mail [email protected].

The Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities, taught by Bard College faculty, provides college-level instruction for college credit to economically disadvantaged individuals. Begun as a pilot project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Clemente Course is currently in its 21st year of operation. Overall, the program has enrolled over 3,000 students. More than 2,000 have completed the course and earned college credit; and more than 1,500 students have transferred to four-year colleges and universities or plan to do so. The Clemente Course was awarded a 2014 National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

The program is based on the belief that by studying the humanities, participants acquire the cultural capital, conceptual skills, and appreciation for reasoned discourse necessary to improve their societal situation. Clemente students receive 110 hours of instruction in five humanistic disciplines and explore the great works of literature, art history, moral philosophy, and American history. Instruction in critical thinking and writing is also offered. The program removes many of the financial barriers to higher education that low-income individuals face: books, carfare, and childcare are provided, and tuition is free. Bard grants a certificate of achievement to any student completing the Clemente Course and 6 college credits to those completing it at a high level of academic performance. For more information, please visit clemente.bard.edu.
 

When Hannah Arendt came to the United States as a stateless refugee, she began writing for small Jewish journals and reflected upon the similarities and differences between racism in American and antisemitism in Europe. Arendt argued that racism is an ideology like antisemitism, thereby offering a pseudo-scientific justification for violence that elevates one group at the expense of another. From The Origins of Totalitarianism to The Crises in Little Rock, Arendt’s thinking on race is controversial and has often led many to quickly dismiss her thoughts on race and antisemitism entirely. The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College’s 12th annual conference, “Racism and Antisemitism,” gathers a diverse group of thinkers to explore these oft shunned concepts in Arendt’s work in the context of our contemporary political moment, which is marked by antisemitic and racist violence.

The two-day conference takes place on Thursday, October 10 and Friday, October 11 in Olin Hall, on Bard’s Annandale-on-Hudson campus. For registration information, please visit hac.bard.edu/conference2019. Speakers will discuss questions such as: What is racism? Is antisemitism a form of racism? What does anti-racism mean today? Is it antisemitic to criticize the state of Israel? Is equality possible in a world where prejudice exists? How can we respond to racist fantasies?

Featured speakers include:
Kenyon Victor Adams, multidisciplinary artist and curator; Peter Baehr, research professor in social theory, Lingnan University, Hong Kong; Étienne Balibar, emeritus professor of philosophy, University of Paris-Nanterre, and anniversary chair of contemporary European philosophy at Kingston University, London; Aliza Becker, associate fellow, Hannah Arendt Center; Kathryn Sophia Belle, associate professor of philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, and author, Hannah Arendt and the Negro Question; Roger Berkowitz, academic director, Hannah Arendt Center; Robert Boyers, editor, Salmagundi, director, New York State Summer Writers Institute, and professor of English, Skidmore College; Ian Buruma, Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism, Bard College; Joy Connolly, president, American Council of Learned Societies; Deirdre d’Albertis, dean of Bard College; Lewis R. Gordon, professor of philosophy, University of Connecticut-Storrs; Nacira Guénif-Souilamas, professor of sociology and anthropology, University Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis; Eric Kaufmann, professor and assistant dean of politics, Birkbeck, University of London; Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning historian, speaker, and author of Stamped From The Beginning; Jennifer Kidwell, performing artist and cocreator of the Obie Award-winning play Underground Railroad Game; Rev. Jacqui Lewis, public theologian and senior minister, Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan; John McWhorter, associate professor of English and comparative literature, Columbia University; Marwan Mohammed, sociologist, research fellow, Centre Maurice Halbwachs in Paris, and visiting scholar, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY); Shany Mor, associate fellow, Hannah Arendt Center, and research fellow, Chaikin Center, Haifa University; Nikita Nelin, writer and winner of 2019 Dogwood Literary Prize; Emilio Rojas, multidisciplinary artist; Peter Rosenblum, professor of international law and human rights, Bard College; Batya Ungar Sargon, journalist and opinion editor, The Forward; Amy Schiller, associate fellow, Hannah Arendt Center; Adam Shatz, contributing editor, London Review of Books, and contributor, to New York Times Magazine, New York Review of Books, New Yorker, and other publications; Scott R. Sheppard, OBIE Award-winning theater artist, codirector, Lightning Rod Special, and cocreator of the Obie Award-winning play Underground Railroad Game; Allison Stanger, Russell Leng ’60 Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, technology and human values senior fellow at Harvard University’s Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics, New America Cybersecurity fellow, and external professor, Santa Fe Institute; Kenneth S. Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, a program of Bard’s Human Rights Project; Mebrak Tareke, writer and a content strategy advisor; Eric K. Ward, executive director, Western States Center; Marc Weitzmann, journalist and author of 12 books, including Hate (2019), which explores the rise of antisemitism in French society; Thomas Chatterton Williams, author, Losing My Cool, and contributing writer, New York Times Magazine; Ruth Wisse, former Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and professor of comparative literature, Harvard University, and distinguished senior fellow, Tikvah Fund.

Arendt Center conferences are attended by nearly a thousand people and reach an international audience via live webcast. Past speakers have included maverick inventor Ray Kurzweil; whistleblower Edward Snowden; irreverent journalist Christopher Hitchens; businessman Hunter Lewis; authors Teju Cole, Zadie Smith, Masha Gessen, and Claudia Rankine; Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead; and political activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Previous conferences have explored citizenship and disobedience, crises of democracy, the intellectual roots of the economic crisis, the future of humanity in an age increasingly dominated by technology, the crisis in American education, and American exceptionalism. The Arendt Center’s 13th annual conference, “Revitalizing Democracy: from Sortition to Federalism,” will take place October 15–16, 2020.

For a full conference schedule and bios of featured speakers, please visit hac.bard.edu/conference2019. For more information or answers to questions about the conference, please contact [email protected].

The halls and classrooms of Olin were bustling last weekend as the Bard Debate Union hosted the Bard IV Debate Tournament. The tournament welcomed over 200 visitors to campus from regional, national, and international debating programs. Among the participating institutions were Cornell, Colgate, Vassar, Middlebury, University of Vermont, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, as well as Bard Network institutions Al-Quds Bard (Abu-Dis, East Jerusalem), Smolny College (St. Petersburg, Russia), and the Bard High School Early Colleges in Queens and Cleveland. Students from the fledgling debate program at Bard College at Simon's Rock also joined as observers on Saturday. 

All participants in the tournament competed in five debates on topics ranging from universal basic income to "cancel culture" to Puerto Rican statehood. Top scoring teams then debated in quarter-final, semi-final, and final rounds. Hobart and William Smith Colleges won the final round, making them the tournament champion. Bard High School Early College Queens won the novice final round, making them the novice champions. 

Bard Debate Union codirectors Ruth Zisman and David Register ran the tournament, together with 20 members of the Bard Debate Union and alumni/ae Eva-Marie Quinones '17 and Clarence Brontë '18. "It was wonderful to see members of the Bard Debate Network from near and far join together in the spirit of competition and collaboration for an exciting weekend of debating," said Ruth Zisman. "We are so proud of our students and the debate leaders throughout the Bard Network for all of the work they put into this event. It is a testament to the value and importance of public discourse and exchange today." 

Upcoming Bard Debate Union events include: the Annual Hannah Arendt Center Conference Public Debate on October 7 (topic: U.S. Prison System: Abolish or Reform) and the Annual Family Weekend Faculty-Student Roundtable on October 26 (topic: Trump and American Foreign Policy). Visit the Bard Debate Union website for a complete list of events.

On Thursday, October 10, Bard College features author Isabella Tree presenting her new work Wilding: returning nature to our farm (New York Review Books, 2019), winner of the 2019 Richard Jefferies prize for nature writing and chosen by Smithsonian as a top 10 science book for 2018. The event takes place at 5 p.m., in Weis Cinema, Bertelsmann Campus Center. Admission is free and no reservations are necessary. Books will be available for purchase at this event courtesy of Oblong Books & Music.

The event is sponsored by the Bard Center for Civic Engagement, Office of Sustainability, Environmental and Urban Studies Program, and Lifetime Learning Institute.

About the Author
Isabella Tree writes for publications such as National Geographic, Granta, and the Guardian, and is the author of five nonfiction books. Her articles have been selected for the Best American Travel Writing and Reader’s Digest Today’s Best Non-Fiction, and she was Overall Winner of the Travelex Travel Writer Awards. Her latest book Wilding: returning nature to our farm charts the story of the pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex where she lives with her husband Charlie Burrell. Forced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy Sussex clay was economically ruinous, they decided to step back and let nature take over. By introducing free-roaming herbivores—proxies of the large animals that once roamed Britain—the Burrells’ degraded agricultural land has become a functioning ecosystem again. In less than 20 years, wildlife has rocketed and numerous endangered species have made Knepp their home. The Knepp experience challenges conventional ideas about our past and present landscapes, and points the way to a wilder, richer future—one that benefits farming, nature, and us.

For more information about the book, visit nyrb.com.

For more information about the author and Knepp Castle Estate, visit isabellatree.com and knepp.co.uk.

The Bard Center for the Study of Hate (BCSH), an initiative of the Human Rights Project at Bard College, has received a $165,000 grant from the GS Humane Corp. to fund five projects over the next two years. The new initiatives will help increase the serious study of hate and will provide research, ideas, and direction for people and groups seeking to combat hate and its manifestations.
 
GS Humane’s funding will allow BCSH to support Bard faculty as they design and teach new hate-focused courses, including multidisciplinary ones; create an “economic cost of hate” index, directed by Bard Assistant Professor of Economics Michael Martell; create a “level of annual hate” index, conceived and directed by Robert Matthew Tynes, Associate Director for Research Bard Prison Initiative; underwrite a consultation on how those opposing hate can use social media more effectively; and underwrite a multiday retreat both for academics who study hate and key NGO staff members working to oppose hate.
 
BCSH Director Kenneth S. Stern ’75 said, “GS Humane’s gift is transformative. It will allow Bard faculty to increase the depth of their teaching and research about hate, and establish a model for other colleges and universities to follow. It will enable academics who are experts in hate and those seeking to combat it, to create new ways, grounded in testable theories, to approach this vexing problem.”
 
Glenn Opell, GS Humane Corp.’s executive director, said, “The increase in antisemitism and white supremacy in the United States warrants far more study and attention than what’s currently allocated. We think Bard is the perfect laboratory for these studies and we’re excited to support the innovative and vital work of BCSH Director Stern and his colleagues.”
  
For more information about BCSH and its programs, visit bcsh.bard.edu.

Bard International Network faculty have developed a new course that brings curricular and co-curricular civic engagement to a new global level. The course, “Engaged Citizenship: Civic Engagement Locally, Nationally, and Globally” includes guest lectures, fieldwork, case studies and community projects; all within the framework of a class offered simultaneously at Bard and three international partner campuses, including Al-Quds Bard (AQB), American University of Central Asia (AUCA), and Bard College Berlin (BCB). The course will be offered at European Humanities University (EHU) in the spring.

A version of the course was first offered on the Bard College campus in fall 2018, where CCE Director Jonathan Becker and Dean of Civic Engagement Erin Cannan co-taught the course. “We created this course for a number of reasons. We think it’s important for students to get a sense of agency; especially in a world where national politics is so divisive and disempowering. There are opportunities, primarily locally, but also nationally and globally, where they can positively impact society. We want them to understand different notions of citizenship and how they can operate in a complex world,” says Becker, who is currently co-teaching the updated and adapted network course with Erin. Other Bard international network courses include: Global Citizenship, Freedom of Expression, Nationalism and the Lexicon of Migration.

Throughout the course, students are exposed to diverse perspectives and intercultural dialogue using blended learning formats, common texts, virtual lectures and class meetings, and shared assignments that link students and faculty across multiple institutions. In addition, the network course offers faculty and scholars the opportunity to collaborate on course design and implementation. While students are considering how they want to be engaged in their community, Cannan notes that it’s a two way street. “I’m continually reminded how each generation's perspective informs my understanding of what it means to be in a democracy and to critically challenge the status quo.”

Colleges are unique venues for civic engagement; serving as long-term investors in human capital that can tap into the idealism and ambition of students and faculty to make a difference locally, nationally and internationally. As stated by UNESCO’s Chief for Higher Education, Peter Wells, in Higher Education in the World, “Perhaps never before in recent history has the role of higher education been so intricately tied to the economic, social and environmental fabric of the modern world. The demands from all stakeholders for quality, robust and diverse systems of higher education to take an active responsibility in addressing the challenges of the world’s pressing issues is likewise unprecedented.” (p31). The network course on Engaged Citizenship is a venue for students and faculty to identify and respond to the needs of local and global communities, including student-led projects and institutional engagement that demonstrate the unique ways network partners participate as civic actors in their own region.

Bard and partner institutions will showcase student final projects across the network, with some students selected to participate in and present at the 7^th Annual Network Get Engaged: Student Action and Youth Leadership Conference in Budapest this spring.
 

Each summer, approximately 50 Bard students receive Community Action Awards (CAA) from the Center for Civic Engagement. CAAs support student efforts to engage with communities locally, nationally, and internationally by providing funding for participation in unpaid or underpaid internships that address issues impacting people around the world.

This year, I interned at the Baan Unrak Thai Animal Sanctuary,  located in Thailand, close to the border of Burma. While it is called an “Animal Sanctuary,” we work mostly with dogs and cats as the only source of veterinary care in a four-hour radius. The sanctuary is relied upon heavily by locals who are able to bring their animals in for free. 

I first came to the sanctuary two years ago as a volunteer when I wanted to experience a new part of the world and work with animals. I have always loved animals, and. the impact the sanctuary has had on the local population through increased accessibility to veterinary care both impresses and inspires me. The sanctuary also runs ‘spay and neuter camps’ in which the vets travel to nearby villages to sterilize dogs and cats to limit their population growth. 

My time at the sanctuary was spent caring for the dogs that live there. I arrived daily at eight in the morning to clean the poop from their enclosures and provide them with fresh water. What followed was the dogs’ favorite time of day: walk time. The dogs went on at least one walk a day, and in order to walk every dog the volunteers had to go on at least two, sometimes three walks with one and four dogs at a time. After the walk we prepared breakfast. Some dogs received a simple bowl of kibble, others were on special diets due to health concerns. The feeding took a while as there were about 40 dogs at the sanctuary, and they had to be supervised to prevent them from stealing each other’s food. Some were also on medication. Despite limited funds, the sanctuary was able to provide specialized care for the dogs that needed it.

In the afternoons, I cleaned, did laundry, bathed the dogs, and fed them for the second time. But not everything went according to routine. I was in Thailand during the rainy season, which makes everything dirtier and more difficult. One day, one of the enclosures was flooded from the heavy rain. So, we dug a small channel to divert the water out of the enclosure. 

My experience in Thailand helped hone my ability to adapt to a lifestyle very different from how I grew up in America. I look forward to applying this adaptability after graduation, when I hope to live and work abroad.
 

The first in a series of panel discussions with alumni/ae, parents, faculty, and members of the Bard Community.

This event took place on September 5 at Bard High School Early College Manhattan.

In this podcast Associate Dean of Civic Engagement Brian Mateo talks about his involvement as a Climate Reality Leader and how it’s shaped his ideas about climate change activism; climate migration in Afghanistan, Central America, and the United States; and how to get through to climate change deniers. “Sometimes I feel like the conversation is only about emissions,” says Mateo, “and there's so much more than that. I want to be able to see politicians and world leaders talk more about the people who are being displaced, talk more about food scarcity, talk about how we’re building communities. Lowering emissions is very important, but that's not the only driving part of the conversation.”

The Greater Hudson Heritage Network (GHHN) has announced Gilsonfest, a project of Bard College and Historic Red Hook, among the winners of its 2019 Awards for Excellence. The awards recognize and commend exceptional efforts among Hudson Valley heritage organizations. Awards are made to projects that exemplify creativity and professional vision resulting in a contribution to the preservation and interpretation of the historic scene, material culture, and diversity of the region. Gilsonfest is one of seven projects receiving awards this year.

Gilsonfest is a Bard College–led collaboration including Historic Red Hook, the Dutchess County Historical Society, and the Red Hook Quilters, funded by the Lumina Foundation, focusing on the life of Alexander Gilson (ca. 1824–1889). Gilson was an African American who labored for 50 years at Montgomery Place, an estate that utilized slave labor, eventually becoming the head gardener. Gilsonfest featured lectures, exhibitions at the Historic Red Hook Annex and Bard’s Montgomery Place Campus, new signage, a commissioned quilt, an artistic digital display, and a brochure. Bard students in Professor Myra Young Armstead’s spring 2019 course The Window at Montgomery Place, an Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences offering, conducted historical research and assisted in developing the exhibition in partnership with local historians and Bard staff. Gilsonfest focused on and interpreted the life of Gilson, which allowed the project to illuminate the contributions of African Americans in 19th-century New York and the Hudson Valley, including the experiences of slaves, indentured servants, and free-born blacks.

The awards will be presented at GHHN’s Experimenting With History Annual Conference on Tuesday, September 24, at the Bear Mountain Inn and Conference Center, in Bear Mountain, N.Y. Awardees will also be featured in a poster session at the conference.