News Archive

The article "When private vice hurts public virtue: of blind men, elephants and the politics of market failure" by Professor of Politics Boris Vormann was recently published in the journal Economy and Society. 

In the article, Vormann contends that, contrary to mainstream economic thought, the various types of market failure (notably externalities, public goods and information asymmetries) are not separate descriptions of distinct empirical phenomena, but simply offer different perspectives on the same problem. Because these types of market failure do not stand in an orthogonal, equidistant relationship to one another, if, when and how a market failure occurs is by no means objectively clear. Using the cases of higher education and the global financial crisis, Vormann argues that the conditions in which markets fail, like markets themselves, are socially embedded, context-specific, and the result of often unrecognized political decision-making. 

Link to article>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

The paper “When Punishment Strikes Late. The Effect of a Delay in Punishment and Punishment Feedback on Cooperation and Efficiency” by BCB faculty member Israel Waichman and Lukas Stenzel was accepted for publication in the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics.

This experimental study centers on the effect of a delay in peer punishment on public good provision. It finds that, even under a delay in the effect and feedback of punishment, peer punishment is very effective in facilitating cooperation. However, peer punishment is only efficient (in terms of the overall group's welfare) when a salient link between received punishment and past contributions is established.

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Latest updates:

December 5, 2018: Sara Mardini Released on Bail
Berlin – Sara Mardini, a first-year student at Bard College Berlin, humanitarian worker and Syrian refugee, was released from Korydallos prison in Athens earlier today.  Bail was set at EUR 5,000. Mardini’s request for release from pre-trial detention was granted yesterday, after 106 days in prison. Sara and Sean Binder, a German citizen who was also released, worked as sea rescue volunteers on Lesbos. They were arrested on August 21, 2018 on accusations of human smuggling, membership in a criminal organization, spying, and money laundering. Sara and Sean still face charges and a possible prison sentence.

Kondylia Gougou, Amnesty International’s Greece Researcher commented: “Whilst we welcome the news that these dedicated humanitarians will be back with their families after more than 100 days behind bars, the fact that they still face absurd charges and potentially long prison sentences is an outrage … People who selfless[ly] act in these ways should be lauded, not imprisoned. These baseless charges should be dropped.”

“We are very happy and look forward to welcoming Sara back home in the next few days,” said Florian Becker, Managing Director of Bard College Berlin. “However, our student’s release came only after the presentation of copious evidence which, in our view, disproves the allegations against her in their entirety. Much damage has already been done. We will continue to press for the charges to be dropped.”

Sara and her sister Yusra Mardini, who participated as one of 10 athletes on the “Refugee Olympic Team” in Rio in 2016, became internationally known because they saved the lives of the other 18 forced migrants in their life raft by swimming their water-logged boat to the Greek coast during their own flight across the Mediterranean in 2015.

Sara Mardini became a student at Bard College Berlin in August 2017 when she was awarded a full scholarship under the Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC), aimed at students from regions of crisis or conflict. Currently there are 32 PIESC students enrolled at Bard College Berlin from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Greece, Eritrea and Brazil.

Sara Mardini Released on Bail (press release)>>
Sara Mardini gegen Kaution freigelassen (Pressemitteilung)>>

Amnesty International: Smuggling charges against humanitarian workers who saved refugees in Greece must be dropped>>
Human Rights Watch: Saving Lives at Sea Should Not Earn Time in Jail>>​​​​​​​
Sara Mardini's case in the international press and in statements from other organizations>>


November 27, 2018: Sara Mardini receives finalist prize of the 2018 MIT Media Lab Disobedience Award
BCB student Sara Mardini, imprisoned in Greece since August 2018 for refugee aid work, and her sister & Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini have recently been selected among the finalists of the 2018 MIT Media Lab Disobedience Award.

The Disobedience Award was created in 2017 and recognizes individuals and groups "who engage in ethical, nonviolent acts of disobedience in service of society."

The award committee praised Sara and Yusra's gesture to rescue their fellow refugees when their boat capsized during their journey to Europe in 2015 as well as their subsequent efforts in helping other refugees. The value of the finalist prize is $10,000.

Read more about the award>>


November 5, 2018: Human Rights Watch issues statement about Sara Mardini and fellow volunteers
In a recent coverage of BCB student Sara Mardini and her fellow volunteers' arrest in Greece for refugee aid work, Human Rights Watch considers the accusations brought against them "entirely unfounded."

Greece: Rescuers at Sea Face Baseless Accusations>>


October 20, Berlin: Demo in solidarity with BCB student Sara Mardini and her fellow volunteers currently detained in Greece
Bard College Berlin in cooperation with Nadja López, the initiative #FreeHumanitarians, Seebrücke - Schafft sichere Häfen! and Seebrücke Berlin held on October 20, 2018 a demonstration in solidarity with Sara Mardini and her fellow volunteers Nassos Karakitsos and Seán Binder, currently held in detention in Greece for their refugee rescue work.

The crowd marched from Alexanderplatz to Brandenburger Tor, where participants held up signs against the criminalization of rescue workers and demanded Sara, Nassos, and Seán's release from prison. Stage performances were offered by musicians Gülina, Monolink, among others, as well as Theater X / JugendtheaterBüro Berlin. 

Videos from the demonstration>>
More information (PDF)>>
Link to the Facebook event>>


August 29, 2018: Syrian Refugee Student from Bard College Berlin Arrested in Greece for Rescuing Refugees from Aegean Waters
Berlin - Sara Mardini, a 23-year-old Syrian refugee student and scholarship recipient of Bard College Berlin, was arrested in Greece last Tuesday, August 21, 2018. She was on her way back from Lesbos to Germany to resume her studies after a period of several months’ service as a volunteer rescuing refugees in Greek waters. Sara and Sean Binder, a German citizen and fellow volunteer, who was also arrested, are in detention and have been accused of human trafficking, membership in a criminal organization, spying, and money laundering.

Sara and her sister Yusra Mardini, who participated as one of 10 athletes on the “Refugee Olympic Team” in Rio in 2016, became internationally known because they saved the lives of the other 18 forced migrants in their life raft by swimming their water-logged boat to the Greek coast during their own flight across the Mediterranean in 2015.

“We are in close contact with Sara’s legal counsel and these charges seem more about halting the operations of the NGO in question than about any actions of Sara or her fellow volunteer,” said Dr. Florian Becker, Managing Director of Bard College Berlin. “A long period of imprisonment in Greece awaiting a potential trial would be devastating for Sara and her life plans. We will leave no stone unturned to get Sara released from prison, so that she can spend this time in Berlin and continue her studies, which she has earned with so much difficulty.”

After their arrival in Germany, Sara and Yusra continued to be engaged as volunteers, demonstrating great personal commitment to the interests of refugees. Sara was invited as a speaker by Harvard University and Dartmouth College; her sister spoke before the UN General Assembly and with personalities like Pope Francis and Barack Obama.

Sara Mardini became a student at Bard College Berlin in August 2017 when she was awarded a full scholarship under the Program for International Education and Social Change (PIE-SC). The PIE-SC scholarship program is aimed at promising students from regions of crisis or conflict. Currently there are 30 PIE-SC students enrolled in the two B.A. degrees at Bard College Berlin – 27 Syrians, one Iraqi, one Afghan and one Greek student.

Link to press release>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On November 30, 2018, a group of Syrian students in BCB’s Program of International Education and Social Change and faculty & staff representatives visited the Bundestag where they had a conversation with Franziska Brantner, the foreign policy speaker of the parliamentary group of the Green Party.

The students presented their own activities working with and for civil society in those areas in Syria that were/are not (yet) controlled by Assad. In light of the current cutting of Western funds for civil society structures in these areas, the students highlighted these structures’ desperate struggle for survival. Brantner and the students also discussed the criminal prosecution of Syrian war criminals in Germany and how to communicate in Germany that an opportunistic “peace“ with Assad will eventually rebound upon Western societies.

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin joins a network of civil society actors and human rights institutions in an open call for the expansion of legal and safe complementary pathways in response to international protection needs. 

The appeal provides statistical data from the UN Refugee Agency to highlight the vulnerability of displaced populations, the growing need for refugee resettlement programs, as well as the shared responsibility of the international community to support the reception and accommodation of displaced people. The expansion of safe and legal pathways is put forth as a fourth durable solution in addition to the three already developed by the UN Refugee Agency. 

Signers of the appeal thus call on national governments “to take steps to expand access and facilitate procedures to implement complementary pathways” through a variety of approaches, such as improving the legal framework, facilitating access to education, encouraging the development of sponsorships and of public engagement, issuing humanitarian visas, or strengthening the labor mobility scheme.

Read the call to action>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB's Professor of Art and Society Dorothea von Hantelmann will participate in the international symposium "Re-Constructing Performance Art. Processes and Practices of Historicisation, Documentation, and Representation (1960s–1970s)" organized by Freie Universität Berlin on November 30 - December 1, 2018. 

From the symposium's description:
The issues of documentation and representation of past performance art have dominated the debate over this art form, both in scholarly and museum-related contexts, for several decades. In recent years, the discussion has undergone a crucial shift, in that no longer is it concerned with whether a performance may or may not be reproduced and documented, but how multiple materialisations and representations in effect re-produce an artist’s work over and over again in the course of its history. The symposium Re-Constructing Performance Art, while upholding this new approach, offers a new and original perspective within it.

In the frame of the symposium, Dorothea von Hantelmann will take part in a roundtable on "Methodologies of Performance Art Research" along other scholars from various research fields. 

Read more about the symposium>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

A chapter co-authored by Professor of Politics Boris Vormann and Christian Lammert (John-F.-Kennedy-Institute, FU Berlin) was recently published in the volume Die USA - eine scheiternde Demokratie? [USA - A Failing Democracy?] edited by Patrick Horst, Frank Decker and Philipp Adorf (2018, Frankfurt/New York: Campus).  

The volume focuses on the changes to the US political establishment brought about by Trump’s election. By looking at the effects of Trump’s methods on the electoral process, governability and social cohesion, the various contributors analyze whether US democratic institutions could still serve their purpose and whether the US might be facing a relapse into authoritarianism.

Vormann and Lammert’s chapter is entitled "The Heavenly Chorus Sings with a Strong Upper-class Accent: Geld und Lobbyismus in der US Politik."

Read more about the volume>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On November 23, 2018, faculty member James Harker gave a lecture at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Smolny College), Saint Petersburg State University in Russia.
 
The lecture, “Unnatural Characters in Contemporary British Fiction,” examined recent approaches to fictionality and character that have borrowed heavily from cognitive science in efforts to explain how authors create characters and how readers understand them as such. The talk focused on how cognitive models for the generation and reception of character account for “unnatural” characters—ones that seem purposely to break with narrative conventions. Looking to examples from Muriel Spark, John Fowles, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro, the talk surveyed a variety of “unnatural” characters in efforts to show both what cognitive approaches to character have to offer and where they find precedents in the theory of the novel.
 
The lecture was part of a multi-format exchange between BCB’s LT102: The Contemporary Novel and Smolny’s course Reading Ian McEwan: An Introduction to Narratology.

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB faculty member Ewa Atanassow was awarded a Fellowship by the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Institute for Human Sciences) in Vienna. She will spend six months in the spring/summer of 2019 at the Institute, working on her research project, a book tentatively titled, Liberal Dilemmas: Tocqueville on the Crisis of Liberal Democracy in the 21st Century.

Engaging with critiques of liberalism from both the left and the right, Liberal Dilemmas argues that global democracy’s liberal prospects depend on how political thinkers and actors tackle three hard-wired modern dilemmas concerning the institutionalization of popular sovereignty, the meaning of nationhood, and the possibility of global governance. As these are significant, if neglected, dimensions of Alexis de Tocqueville’s thought, his writings provide a powerful framework to help understand and address the crisis of liberal democracy in the twenty first century.

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB alumna Maria Khan (2015, Pakistan) worked this year as an affiliate partner for British Council’s UK/Germany 2018 program to stage "Was Jetzt Faust or What now Faust?", two performances of Faust with students from diverse backgrounds (including migratory) in Germany.  

Currently a PhD student at Cambridge University, Maria examined through her project how theater can help teenagers understand their identity. Using the technique of "autobiographical theater," Maria and the high schools students reinterpreted Goethe's Faust and Marlow's Faust in the context of their own lives.  

Watch a short video about the project here>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On November 16, 2018, faculty member Martin Binder gave the keynote lecture at the Workshop on Behavioural Science, Subjective Well-being, and the Environment held at University College Dublin’s Geary Institute for Public Policy (Ireland) and sponsored by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency. 

The workshop’s aim was to discuss potential research collaborations as well as applications of behavioral science research on climate change actions in particular. 

Binder’s keynote was entitled “Peer influences on green behavior and green self-image and their impact on subjective well-being.” 

Read more about the workshop>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On November 10, 2018 the daily newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung published an interview with BCB faculty member Andreas Martin Widmann "Was haben Sie von Grass gelernt?" ["What have you learned from Grass?"].

Among other topics, Widmann discusses the beginnings of his literary career, the success of his most recent novel Messiah, and his teaching at Bard College Berlin. 

Read the full interview (in German) here: https://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/panorama/leben-und-wissen/was-haben-sie-von-grass-gelernt-schriftsteller-andreas-martin-widmann-im-interview_19174661

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Professor of Politics Boris Vormann is a 2018 DAAD Visiting Scholar at NYU Deutsches Haus in New York. His schedule includes the following presentations: 

• November 15, 2018: “Building the Global Economy: Infrastructural Statecraft and American Genesis." EES Colloquium, CUNY Graduate Center
• November 12, 2018: “Logistics and Power: Europe from a Global Perspective." Guest Lecture, Fordham University
• November 12, 2018: “Administering Infrastructural Regimes: The Case of the US." Guest lecture, Urban School at Sciences Po Paris [via skype]
• November 9, 2018: “The Death of Liberalism and its Rebirth: Civil Society and Political Engagement." Panel with Sheri Berman, Claudia Wiesner, Mark Blyth and Boris Vormann. NYU Deutsches Haus
• November 6, 2018: “Part 1: The Crisis of Democracy so Far." Hannah Arendt Center, Bard College

The Deutsches Haus at NYU is New York’s leading institution for culture and language of the German-speaking world.

More information>>
 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Professor of Migration Studies Agata Lisiak contributed a chapter to The Routledge Companion to Urban Imaginaries edited by Christoph Lindner and Mariam Meissner.

In her chapter, entitled "'Like diamonds in the sky': Imaginaries of urban girlhood,” Lisiak discusses how urban girlhood is made, and how it, in turn, makes the city. Drawing on examples from popular culture including Celine Sciamma’s film Girlhood, Lisiak explores the collective nature and shared experiences of girlhood as a site of resistance. 

Image: the poster for Celine Sciamma’s film Girlhood

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On October 13-14, 2018 senior student Clara Canales attended the seminar "Ethics Across the Curriculum" at the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics in Washington DC. The institute is part of the McDonough Business School at Georgetown University. 

The seminar was moderated by criminologist Brendan Dooly and included sessions on ethics in sociology, economics, history, and business. It brought together participants from various disciplines including political economy, philosophy of economics and business, and at various levels of their academic or professional careers, with the majority currently completing their PhD or Master’s theses. In the frame of the seminar, participants also had the opportunity to read a paper on the ethics of establishing a regulated market for kidneys by the Institute’s post-doc fellow Luke Semrau and discuss it with Semrau afterwards. 

Clara Canales is a fourth-year student in the Economics, Politics and Social Thought B.A. Program at BCB, with a concentration in Politics. Her participation in the seminar stems from her interest to explore the ethics behind the construction of the rational actor in economics.
 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Professor of Literature and Dean of Bard College Berlin Catherine Toal published an article on the novel Milkman by Anna Burns, the winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize, in The Irish Times.

Read the article here>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB faculty member Ewa Atanassow and Columbia University professor Ira Katnelson have recently published the article “State of Exception in the Anglo-American Liberal Tradition” in the Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft (Springer Verlag).

From the article’s abstract:
This essay identifies conceptual and institutional approaches within the Anglo-American liberal tradition for meeting security challenges without compromising constitutional and ethical principles. From its seventeenth century beginnings, political liberalism has confronted the problematic of the ‘state of exception,’ and has elaborated a repertoire of ideas and institutions for governing exigencies that remain instructive. […] The solutions proposed by such figures as Carl Joachim Friedrich and Clinton Rossiter no longer seem adequate to present conditions of prolonged emergency. Fresh institutional imagination is needed. The article concludes by offering four broad guidelines for allaying today’s tensions between security and liberty.

Read the article here>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On October 13, 2018 faculty member Aya Soika will deliver the keynote lecture at the international symposium "Why Degenerate? From Nordau to Nolde and Beyond," organized by the Edinburgh College of Art and the National Galleries of Scotland, and held at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. 

From the symposium's program:
"The aim of this international symposium, which features world-leading experts on modern German art, is to consider the inception, reception and reverberations of the notion of ‘Entartung’ (Degeneration), whilst challenging and updating existing orthodoxies in the field." 

In her lecture "Emil Nolde and National Socialism," Soika will focus on German Expressionist Emil Nolde, his prominent role within the 'Degenerate Art' exhibitions and the confiscation of a high number of his works (more than for any other painter). Soika aims to highlight the peculiarity of Nolde's case as both a victim and a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime.

Read more about the symposium>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On October 6, 2018 Professor of Politics Boris Vormann gave an interview to Deutschlandfunk Kultur on the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the future of the US Supreme Court.

In this contribution Vormann discussed the likely outcomes of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court and his overall suitability for this position. Vormann noted the polarization of politicians around this case, reflective of the polarized political system in the US as a whole, and argued that the two-party system also leads to a split media landscape. Vormann further analyzed how the Kavanaugh case may be used by the two parties to mobilize support for the upcoming midterm elections. 

Listen to the interview>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin |

On September 27 Laura Scuriatti and Catherine Toal gave papers on Rebecca West at the conference Writing 1918 at the Großbritannienzenturm at Humboldt University. A novelist and journalist, Rebecca West was one of the most incisive and widely-read writers on the crises of the twentieth century. The papers addressed her monumental 1941 work Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia, and its status as an investigation of the origins of the 1914 war and diagnosis of the emergence of fascism. 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Monday, October 1, faculty member Michael Weinman will make a presentation to the Classical Studies and Mathematics programs at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Drawing on The Parthenon and Liberal Education (published by SUNY Press in March 2018), co-written with Bard College Berlin faculty member Geoff Lehman, the theme of Weinman's talk is: The Pythagorean Harmonics of the Parthenon. In it, he will point to the resonance between the work of Philolaus in number theory, astronomy, and harmonics and central features of the design principles of the Parthenon, in order to show that the Parthenon can be seen as a mediator between the early reception of Ancient Near-Eastern mathematical ideas and their integration into Greek thought as a form of liberal education, as the latter came to be defined by Plato and his followers. 
 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Faculty member Laura Scuriatti recently contributed to the online platform “Mina Loy - Navigating the Avant-garde,” set up by scholars and dedicated to artist, writer & inventor Mina Loy. The platform is an attempt to chart Mina Loy’s navigation of Futurism, Dada & Surrealism, while rethinking the notion of Avant-garde to be more inclusive and to incorporate a feminist point of view.

From the platform’s manifesto:
Rather than attempting to rehabilitate the term “avant-garde,” we offer a new, more inclusive term: en dehors garde. Taking a cue from classical ballet rather than warfare, we propose the term en dehors garde to describe the strategies of writers and artists whose mode of experimentation does not conform to the “martialised,” oppositional stance associated with the historical avant-garde.
“En dehors” means “toward the outside,” implying that artists are turning away from the center or norm, moving in a circular motion, with an eye toward the center. Upon return, the center is transformed, adjusted, and reformed by the arc of the revolution.
Rather than assuming a militant position at the forefront of culture, women, people of color, and queer or disabled artists often came from the outside and circulated on the margins. They rarely enjoyed the power, privilege, or authority derived from membership in the institutions of art. Instead, they worked and moved strategically to transform gendered, racialized literary traditions and visual cultures that excluded or objectified them.
Our proposed feminist theory pivots on the notion of “turning outward,” as we seek to engage YOU—students, scholars, artists, writers, and the general public—in the work of reimagining the avant-garde as a more inclusive en dehors garde. We’re not just proposing a new theory of the en dehors garde; we’re proposing a new method of production.

Scuriatti’s contribution is entitled “Greetings from another side of the avant-garde” and is a visual representation of the exchanges and influences that characterize Loy’s work in the larger context of the European literary avant-garde. The postcard is designed by Irina Stelea. 

You can view Scuriatti’s contribution here>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

The paper "As Innovations Drive Economic Growth, Do They also Raise Well-Being?" co-authored by Martin Binder with Ulrich Witt (Max Planck Institute, Jena) will appear in the forthcoming volume Understanding Economic Change – Contributions to an Evolutionary Paradigm in Economics, edited by Ulrich Witt and Andreas Chai (2018, Cambridge University Press). 

From the paper’s abstract:
While there is little doubt that innovations drive economic growth, their effects on well-being are less clear. One reason for this are ambivalent effects of innovations on well-being that result from pecuniary and technological externalities of innovations, argued to be inevitable. Another major reason lies in the fact that, as a result of innovations, preferences can change over time. Under such conditions, a time-consistent measuring rod for changes in well-being is hard to construct. Existing conceptions of well-being are shown not yet to solve the problem in a way that provides an unambiguous answer to the question in the title.

Read the working paper>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On October 1, 2018, BCB faculty Michael Weinman will give a lunchtime talk entitled “Arendt after Postmodernity: Humanistic Social Research and Contemporary Political Culture” at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College. 

In the presentation Weinman will seek to sketch out two pairs of questions that set out an agenda for research into "life after postmodernity" on the basis of Arendt’s practice of “thinking without banisters.” The first pair is: (A) How, after what Adorno and Arendt identified as 20th-century barbarism, is it possible to articulate a critical assessment of "the Western tradition" that does not amount to rejectionism? (B) Why, can it be argued, is it worthwhile or even necessary to do so? The second pair is: (A) When we do engage the tradition in this way—as did, among others, Kantorowicz and Strauss—how and where do we find the points of continuity between earlier forms and institutions of late-modern civil society not subject to the critique of modern barbarism? (B) On what basis, and through which Weltanschauung, is it possible to offer a robust defense of such forms and such institutions? 

Read more about the talk>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On September 17, 2018 faculty member Seraphine Maerz will participate in a workshop on computational social science (CSS) methods organized by the Center for Advanced Internet Studies in Bochum, Germany. The workshop brings together German and international experts to discuss the interplay between the various theoretical perspectives within CSS, their interface with social science theories, and a resulting methodology.

On September 27, Maerz will give a paper co-authored with Carsten Q. Schneider (Central European University, Budapest) at the conference Frontiers of Democracy, held on September 25-28, 2018 at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Entitled “Out of democratic bounds? An automated text analysis of speeches by European heads of government,” the paper surveys thousands of speeches to argue that the language used by some heads of government inside the EU is more similar to the language used by their authoritarian counterparts. 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On September 19, 2018 BCB's Professor of Art and Society Dorothea von Hantelmann will give a lecture titled "The Exhibition. A Lecture Demonstration" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade.

“We can, and this is the perspective of art history, understand museums and exhibitions as places, as repositories for art objects, which classify and present important treasures of a cultural heritage. Or we can, and this is a more sociological and anthropological approach, see them as institutions that derive their social function from the fact that they carry specific values and concepts into society. My lecture both explores and demonstrates certain aspects of this second perspective. It analyses the cultural format of the museum and the exhibition as a specifically modern ritual in the historical and contemporary context of Western liberalism. Art institutions are deeply connected to core socio-economic parameters of their time, which they symbolically cultivate and ritually enact. Looking at art spaces as a series of decisive moments of transformation, I will pose the question if the transformations of our epoch are asking for a new kind of ritual, after that of the exhibition.” - Dorothea von Hantelmann

The lecture takes place within the series "What Could/Should Curating Do?" which aims to offer new perspectives on the theories and practices of exhibition-making. 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

A new solo show by Egyptian visual artist and BCB visiting faculty Heba Amin opens on September 14, 2018 and runs through November 2, 2018 at the Zilberman Gallery, Berlin. 

Entitled "A Rectilinear Propagation of Thought," the exhibition "addresses the ways in which the colonial imagination has objectified vulnerable bodies, especially women, through the invasive gaze of optical tools. The artworks invoke mechanisms of domination and control through methods of surveying land and systems of surveillance. The exhibition interrogates the politics of technology, particularly on the African continent, and examines the mechanics of observation in relation to technological mediation."

The show is based on a project started by Amin in 2014 which has at its core an 11th century geography text and survey of major trade routes in West Africa - Al-Bakri’s The Book of Roads and Kingdoms. 

Gallery website>> 
Facebook event>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB faculty member Martin Binder recently published the article “Smile or Die: Can Subjective Well-Being Increase Survival in the Face of Substantive Health Impairments?” co-authored with Guido Buenstorf (Universität Kassel, University of Gothenburg) in the journal Economics and Human Biology. 

The article addresses the relationship between subjective well-being and life span from a less common angle: subjective well-being and the impact of concrete diseases on survival. Drawing on empirical data from the British Household Panel Survey, the two authors examine whether subjective well-being predicts longer survival in the case of severe health conditions like cancer or heart problems. Once certain methodological pitfalls are avoided, the authors conclude, the data suggests that subjective well-being does not play a role in how specific illnesses decrease survival and the overall effect of subjective well-being in such cases is at best protective rather than curative. 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On September 7, 2018 Professor of Politics Boris Vormann will give a paper entitled “Who pays? Regimes of State-led Urbanization and their Geographical Costs” at the conference “Successful Cities - Crises of Citizenship” taking place at Potsdam University on September 6-8, 2018. 

From the paper’s abstract:
Discussions on cities and citizenship often focus on the level of neighborhoods, local government, and socio-economic relations within cities. As such, questions of exclusion, of diversity and integration, are often posed with view to interpersonal relations between ethnic communities, citizens and municipal state agents. By contrast, a recent literature in urban political economy has emphasized the importance of understanding urbanization as a set of processes that transcend the local scale. This paper seeks to flesh out how questions of citizenship and difference can be informed by an analysis of the political-institutional dimensions of extended urbanization. I use the United States as a context to explore urbanization in such a broader perspective and to point out that historically specific urban regimes are actively shaped by political actors on multiple scales.

Read more about the conference>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Berlin – Sara Mardini, a 23-year-old Syrian refugee student and scholarship recipient of Bard College Berlin, was arrested in Greece last Tuesday, August 21, 2018. She was on her way back from Lesbos to Germany to resume her studies after a period of several months’ service as a volunteer rescuing refugees in Greek waters. Sara and Sean Binder, a German citizen and fellow volunteer, who was also arrested, are in detention and have been accused of human trafficking, membership in a criminal organization, spying, and money laundering.

Sara and her sister Yusra Mardini, who participated as one of 10 athletes on the “Refugee Olympic Team” in Rio in 2016, became internationally known because they saved the lives of the other 18 forced migrants in their life raft by swimming their water-logged boat to the Greek coast during their own flight across the Mediterranean in 2015.

“We are in close contact with Sara’s legal counsel and these charges seem more about halting the operations of the NGO in question than about any actions of Sara or her fellow volunteer,” said Dr. Florian Becker, Managing Director of Bard College Berlin. “A long period of imprisonment in Greece awaiting a potential trial would be devastating for Sara and her life plans. We will leave no stone unturned to get Sara released from prison, so that she can spend this time in Berlin and continue her studies, which she has earned with so much difficulty.”

After their arrival in Germany, Sara and Yusra continued to be engaged as volunteers, demonstrating great personal commitment to the interests of refugees. Sara was invited as a speaker by Harvard University and Dartmouth College; her sister spoke before the UN General Assembly and with personalities like Pope Francis and Barack Obama.

Sara Mardini became a student at Bard College Berlin in August 2017 when she was awarded a full scholarship under the Program for International Education and Social Change (PIE-SC). The PIE-SC scholarship program is aimed at promising students from regions of crisis or conflict. Currently there are 30 PIE-SC students enrolled in the two B.A. degrees at Bard College Berlin – 27 Syrians, one Iraqi, one Afghan and one Greek student.

Reactions from the international press and other organizations>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Faculty Agata Lisiak published an article titled “Niebo nad Berlinem jest tęczowe” (The sky over Berlin is the color of a rainbow) in the Polish contemporary theater magazine Dialog.

Lisiak was invited by the editors to provide a commentary on the fifteenth anniversary of Berlin’s former mayor Klaus Wowereit’s infamous slogan. In response to the editorial question "Berlin is no longer poor, but is it still sexy?” Lisiak observes that the city remains poor and is now facing several new challenges. Lisiak also unpacks the myth of Berlin's much-hyped “sexiness" and elaborates on the local cultures of resistance and protest.

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On August 29, 2018 Professor of Politics Boris Vormann and Christoph Reaetzsch (Aarhus University) will present their paper "Public Goods and Private Data: A Dialogue on Infrastructures of Publics" at the conference SummerPIT 2018 held at Aarhus University, Denmark. 

From the paper’s abstract:
With more processes of public concern running on private data and proprietary business models, we need to pay more attention to the menial ways in which infrastructures reshape the definition of public goods. What are the new infrastructures of publics and how do they remodel concepts of power, participation and equality? The presentation is a joint exploration of how cities, global networks and digital communication assume infrastructural functions for publics, which are increasingly beyond the control of elected governments and citizens.

SummerPIT 2018 is organized by Aarhus University’s interdisciplinary research centre for Participatory IT, which aims to study how people experience, understand, design, and shape information technology as part of their lived experience.

Read more about the paper>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On August 30, 2018 German instructor Andreas Martin Widmann presents his new novel Messias (published by Rowohlt) at a book launch event at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin.

For his first public reading from the book the author will be joined by fellow Berlin writer Hanna Lemke to talk about the writing process.

The reading will be followed by a drinks reception.

Read more about the event>>

Read more about the novel>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Faculty Agata Lisiak and her colleague Łukasz Krzyżowski have contributed a chapter to a collected volume titled Emotion and the Researcher: Sites, Subjectivities, and Relationships, edited by Tracey Loughran and Dawn Mannay, that has just been published by Emerald Press in their series Studies in Qualitative Methodology. 

Lisiak and Krzyżowski’s chapter “With a Little Help From My Colleagues: Notes on Emotional Support in a Qualitative Longitudinal Research Project” explores the strategies and tactics employed by researchers when dealing with emotionally challenging situations, both in the field and in academia in general. The authors discuss interview situations they found particularly emotionally challenging and the different ways they supported each other during and after fieldwork, for instance, when faced with situations in which research participants say things that are racist, Islamophobic, homophobic, xenophobic, classist or misogynist. They reflect on their use of electronic media, especially email and messenger applications, as tools which not only allow them to unpack the emotions that emerge in fieldwork, but also enable them to collaboratively reflect on their own positionalities in the field.

More information about the volume>>  

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On August 22, 2018 Professor of Politics Boris Vormann was a guest on several news shows on German and Austrian media channels to comment on the conviction of Trump aides Manafort and Cohen. 

For Deutsche Welle and the Austrian public broadcaster ORF, Vormann discussed the consequences of the frauds committed by Manafort and Cohen on Donald Trump and his future as President. Vormann commented that US democrats are hesitant to take the impeachment approach for fear of not mobilizing Trump’s supporters before the upcoming congressional elections. 

Watch the interviews below:

• Deutsche Welle News in English (Source: dw.com)
• Deutsche Welle News in German (Source: dw.com)
• The Day with Brent Goff (Source: dw.com)
• Politologe: Trump in der Ecke - ORF

Vormann further analyzed the reaction of the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas to the convictions, who pleaded that Germany needs to articulate a vision of its strategy towards the USA. 

• Trump unter Druck - Brauchen wir eine neue USA-Strategie? - WDR
• Deutschlands neue USA-Strategie: Was ist von den Plänen von Außenminister Maas zu halten? - RBB 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

With lead co-author Isaac Ariail Reed, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, BCB faculty member Michael Weinman has just published "Agency, power, modernity: A manifesto for social theory" in The European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology.

As the abstract describes: 
 
In this article, we propose a new direction for social theory, based on a distinction between action and agency, a reconsideration of sociological theories of power, and a rereading of the transition to modernity. Drawing on Aristotle, Carole Pateman, Hannah Arendt, and Ernst Kantorowicz, we propose a conceptual model of power centred on the sending and binding of another to be one's agent in the world, and the varying representation of this relation and what it excludes. This approach allows a different understanding of modernity than is offered by accounts of power derived from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. With reference to the French Revolution and twentieth and twenty-first century presidential politics in the USA, we manifest the utility of the framework for the construction of a research programme in historical and political sociology.

For a short time, full access to the article is available here>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On August 20, the students and instructors in BCB's Language and Thinking Program had the pleasure to welcome filmmaker Jennie Livingston for a special session. 

After a screening of her award-winning documentary, Paris is Burning (1991), filmmaker Jennie Livingston talked to students about her current projects, how filmmaking and the funding of filmmaking have changed since the 1980s to the contemporary era of streaming television, and how to tell your story. One of the most influential documentaries of the last fifty years, Paris is Burning “depicts a New York fashion subculture. Shot in the late 1980s, the film examines how a community of Black and Latino gay and transgender New Yorkers build sustenance, creativity, and family. Exploring ballroom culture – and defining and re-defining words like “house,” “mother,” “shade” “voguing” and “Realness” – Paris is Burning draws a series of incisive character portraits. The movie writes a complex essay on class, race, identity, and the transformative powers of dance and performance.”

More about the film and Livingston’s work can be found here>>

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Faculty member Seraphine Maerz will deliver a paper co-authored with Carsten Q. Schneider (Central European University) at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), which will take place on August 22-25, 2018 at Universität Hamburg.

Entitled "Putting the Money Where Your Mouth Is? Comparing the Discourses of (Illiberal) Democrats and Autocrats Using Automated Text Analysis," the paper compares the public (online) speeches of European heads of government with those of leaders from several authoritarian countries, e.g. North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Russia, in order to asses how far some European governments have already moved their discourses towards such autocracies. Based on their data of over 5000 speeches, Maerz and Schneider illustrate that some heads of government inside the EU use language more similar to that of authoritarian rulers than their democratic peers.

Read the paper’s abstract here 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

A reflection on nationalism and patriotism by faculty member Marion Detjen was recently published on the online platform of Die Zeit. 

In the piece, Detjen begins with the observation that current debates (on any topic) often lead to misunderstandings, falsities, and conflict. She therefore suggests to first and foremost work on clarifying the concepts at stake in a debate and to define how these concepts can be used. 

As an example, she tackles the terms “nationalism” and “patriotism”: Detjen points out that, in the attempt to properly define and rethink these terms, “nationalism” should be regarded as being historically determined (especially in relation to the nation state), while “patriotism” should be regarded as a universal concept (in relation to a community where one feels they belong).

Read the piece here

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin faculty and Associate Dean Kerry Bystrom gave a lecture at the summer workshop “Global Timescapes: Entangled Temporalities in the Global South,” organized by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies and held on July 31 - August 3, 2018 at Tübingen University. 

Bystrom’s paper, Temporalities of the "Border War," used South African photographer Jo Ractliffe's trilogy of exhibitions on apartheid South African military involvement in Angola and Namibia as a jumping off point to discuss the lasting impacts of imperial violence on Southern African peoples and landscapes.

Read more about the Tübingen Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies>> 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Between July 14 and August 11, 2018 Bard College Berlin will host for the second year the Berlin Summer Studio, an intensive program drawing on Berlin’s art world and community of artists. The program brings together 14 students from Bard Annandale, Carnegie Mellon, Smith College, The City College of New York, The New School, and Yale University, who will work very closely with the program’s directors, Kenji Fujita (faculty, Bard Annandale) and Hiroshi McDonald Mori (Artist, Berlin). 

Steered by the 2018 theme, “Memory and Material,” students will explore and question how the languages of form, material, and light inform the manifold narratives of Berlin, and will use their observations as inspiration for creating their own works. The activities include weekly field trips, discussion groups, visits to artists’ studios, sculpture, photography and bookmaking workshops, as well as studio work. 

Read more 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Professor of Migration Studies Agata Lisiak is taking part in the XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology in Toronto, on July 15-21, 2018. 

Lisiak’s paper titled "Reflections on a Mixed Methods Approach to Researching Immigrant Mothering” is part of a session on Creative, Collaborative and Participatory Methods for Researching Racism, Migration and Indigeneity organized by Umut Erel of The Open University and chaired by Elena Vacchelli of the University of Greenwich. The session is hosted by the Research Committee on Racism, Nationalism, Indigeneity and Ethnicity. 

View the full session program here.

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Faculty member Ewa Atanassow will participate in the international workshop “Constitutionalism, Dissent, and Resistance,” which will take place on July 6-7, 2018 at Humboldt University, Berlin. The workshop is part of the Humboldt University and Princeton University project “Constitutionalism under Stress” and is co-organized by scholars from both institutions. 

Atanassow will give a presentation titled "Constitutional Ethos? Reflections on Pluralism and Democracy" in the frame of a panel chaired by Felix Petersen from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On June 14, 2018 faculty member Marion Detjen took part in the panel “Fußball-WM - Wieviel Patriotismus darf es sein?” organized and broadcast by the German public radio channel WDR5. The panel participants - scholars, researchers and football professionals - discussed nationalism and history in Germany with respect to the 2018 World Cup football matches. 

In her contribution, Detjen focused not only on patriotism in relation to the World Cup, but also on patriotism in general in Germany. She emphasized that the German Willkommenskultur and the recent taking in of over a million refugees are something Germans could be proud of, as much as the German social system, the Mittelstand industry and some other good things that they have been contributing to lately. Nationhood is always constructed, and whether to be proud of it or not depends on the purposes for which it is being constructed, and on the effectiveness and inclusiveness of the construction process. She noted that being proud of Goethe and Bach has, among other things, against it that emigrant writers and artists like Thomas Mann took care of wrenching them from the encroachment by "Germany" once and for all. 

Watch/listen to a recording here 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

The video & mixed media installation Operation Sunken Sea (The Anti-Control Room) by Egyptian artist and BCB arts instructor Heba Y. Amin was selected for the 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, which takes place from June 9 to September 9, 2018 at various venues in Berlin. 

Amin’s project puts forth an alternative geography, that of a supercontinent which merges Africa and Europe and in which the distribution of goods and money happen very differently compared to our contemporary reality.  The project is based on historical European colonial proposals to drain the Mediterranean Sea; the narratives are flipped and proposed from the opposite perspective.

"The project Operation Sunken Sea (The Anti-Control Room) (2018) blurs the lines between history, the present, and the future; between truth, fiction, and megalomania. Amin leaves us with an uneasy feeling of insecurity about the kind of a world we are currently inhabiting—and the world we might wish (or not wish) to inhabit," notes Yvette Mutumba, a member of the Biennale’s curatorial team. 

The following Bard College Berlin students and alumni were involved in the production of the installation:
Studio assistance and concept development: Isabella Lee
Photography Assistance: Matthew Praley
Set crew: Andrea Riba, Arthur Yongebloed

Operation Sunken Sea is on view at the ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics.

More information 
Artforum article

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On June 20, 2018 at 5:00pm BCB’s Professor of Migration Studies Agata Lisiak will give a talk entitled "Poza girl power: dziewczyńskie formy oporu" ["Beyond girl power: forms of girl resistance"] at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. 

Organized by Fundacja Bec Zmiana, Lisiak’s lecture will be part of Dr. Ewa Majewska’s public seminar on feminist counterpublics held at the Faculty of Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw.

Read more about the event

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On June 12, 2018 Professor of Politics Boris Vormann gave an interview to the radio station SWR2 on Donald Trump's recent meeting with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un.

Noting the divisive G7 summit, Vormann commented that Trump took the meeting with Kim as an opportunity to leave a historic mark and to demonstrate his foreign policy skills in light of the upcoming congressional elections. Vormann further asked to what extent is Trump's North Korea strategy a sustainable one, given that his foreign policy agenda lacks an overall vision for the long run. 

Listen to the interview

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Guest faculty member and artist April Gertler has recently been awarded the 2018 Project Space and Initiative Prize of the Berlin Senate for the arts project Sonntag, co-founded and co-run with artist Adrian Schiesser. 

Initiated in September 2012, Sonntag is a monthly event which gives “an individual artist a platform to share not only their work, but also their memories and experiences.” The artist exhibits their work in a private apartment, with Gertler and Schiesser preparing each time the artist’s favorite cake. This adds a personal component to the Sunday meetings and creates a connection between the viewers and the artist. Sonntag has worked with 56 artists and besides moving nomadically throughout the city of Berlin, the project has also traveled to 5 other countries. 

The Project Space and Initiative Prize of the Berlin Senate is given annually to 20 project spaces and initiatives run by artists and curators as a reward for their contributions to the Berlin art scene. In 2018 the prize consists of a one time monetary amount of €37,000, which will serve to help Gertler and Schiesser produce a book which will be an overview of the last 6 years of Sonntag. 

Sonntag’s webpage

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin faculty member Marion Detjen published on June 1st, 2018 an article titled "Vielfalt lässt sich nicht kapern" ["Diversity cannot be captured"] in the national weekly newspaper Die Zeit. 

In this article, Detjen gives a condensed historical account of how "diversity" as a value system has been part of the liberal tradition and how it has been interpreted and misinterpreted since the Second World War. She warns of certain abuses of diversity in the attempt to implement and recognize it, and calls for those in power and for the existing power relations to properly acknowledge diversity, pointing to daily life as a good example of putting diversity into practice. 

Link to full piece

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

“RELICS,” the first solo exhibition in Dresden by BCB’s Director of Studio Arts, John von Bergen, opens at the Zentralwerk “Kabinett” Dresden on June 15 and will run through July 15, 2018.  

The starting point of the exhibition is Bergen’s direct interaction with various objects made at or around Zentralwerk (a cluster of former factories and industrial buildings), as well as with the site’s architecture.

As noted in the description, "this exhibition differs from those displays one may come to expect from an archive or a museum, as this is not a survey of objects for historical or educational purpose, nor any celebration of paraphernalia. There is, on the one hand, an interest to explore the potentially ambiguous relationship one may have with artifacts – relationships that may provoke sentiment, curiosity, fetish, or disdain. On the other hand, this unique space, and its uncanny history, becomes the catalyst for absurd intervention."

The result is a "group of site-specific projects that echo their historical transience while energizing the space with yet another, new chapter of production."

The show’s production benefited from the support and help of BCB students Lena Kück (BA 2018), Tiana Marsh (Arts & Society, Spring 2018), Magnus Hendersen (Arts & Society, Spring 2018), Zoe Lambez (BA 2020), Anna Zakelj (BA 2020), and Rafat Alkotaini (BA 2021).

Exhibition opening times:
Opening Reception: Friday, June 15th, from 7pm
Opening Times: Thursday - Sunday from 5 - 8pm, or by appointment: kabinett@zentralwerk.de

Address:
Zentralwerk “Kabinett”, Riesaer Str. 32, 01127 Dresden

Read more here 

Meta: Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |