News Archive

Faculty member Dr. Kerry Bystrom received funding from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for a workshop developed together with Dr. Katharina Schramm from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. The workshop is titled "The Claims on Descent: Science, Representation, Race and Redress in 21st Century South Africa" and will take place on June 14-16, 2014 at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. Focusing on the construction of "descendant communities" in the scientific, political and cultural realms - and through practices ranging from DNA sampling to the writing of land claims cases and the narrative production of family trees - the workshop will aim to trouble sometimes easy dismissals of the scientific bases of race by exploring how science and politics co-produce racial and ethnic identities. Moreover, it will add substantially to wider scholarly debates on race, science and global articulations of indigeneity.

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

An article by faculty member Frank Ruda, "The Indignant of the Earth," was recently published in the online journal Crisis and Critique. The article seeks to investigate the link between the affects of indignation in politics and anxiety in psychoanalysis, and it does so through a specific focus, the focus of Hegel. Hegel developed in his theory of objective spirit a refined theory of how indignation has to be conceived of, a theory, which enables, as Frank Ruda explains, to critically examine the widely shared belief about the political dimensions of affects and feelings. The author goes on to argue that indignation is not a political affect, but a pre-political one and it seeks to clarify its structure by pointing to certain analogies with the affect of anxiety, as developed by Freud and Lacan. The article is available for download here. Crisis and Critique is a an international journal of political philosophy, dedicated to exploring and critically developing political and social issues from the Marxist perspective, as well as exploring and addressing the emancipatory potential of Marxist thought and tradition. It also discusses the developments within the contemporary currents in philosophy.

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

On January 30 at 18:30, faculty member Irit Dekel will be launching her new book Mediation at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, at the Zentrum Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg. Mediation at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin was published in the Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies Series 2013 and offers a novel approach to the memorial and its study through the focus on performances. Based on extensive ethnographic research, and drawing on dramaturgic theory, memory studies and theories of the public sphere, the book offers a fresh theorization of memorial experience by analyzing interaction between guides, memorial workers and visitors. Moving away from models of post memory and post trauma approaches, the book recognizes the precariousness and variation of memory work done at the memorial through the ways visitors engage with the act of remembrance rather than with its object, namely the history of Jewish persecution and the Holocaust. This engagement explores how visitors present and perform their "moral career" at the site, whose codes have been shaped by knowledge about and visits in this and other sites of Holocaust remembrance. The book launch will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Michal Bodemann. Zentrum Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg Sophienstr. 22 a, Raum 1.01 10178 Berlin Read a review of Mediation at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin on the platform H-Soz-u-Kult here (in German).

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

WOW, an experimental opera developed by faculty member David Levine in collaboration with the other Fort Greene residents Joe Diebes and Christian Hawkey will be performed in Brooklyn, New York, from January 23 to February 1. Still labeled as work-in-progress, the project was inspired by the German pop duo Milli Vanilli, whose troubled history in the 90s gained worldwide notoriety. The opera features live music (a reworked version of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), and was developed in part during a BRIC House Fireworks Residency. "Using Milli Vanilli's four major videos as cardinal points on, and settings for their journey, Levine's staging of WOW continues his examination of the relation of performance to labor by taking the audience through BRIC's various spaces as they witness Milli Vanilli's rise and fall." (BRIC website) Read more about the opera: The New York Times Spin BRIC website Gallerist The New Inquiry (interview with David Levine)

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

In this lecture, Tracy Colony chronicled Heidegger's earliest references to Nietzsche in the period from 1909-1916 and articulate an initially critical but then wholly positive account of Nietzsche's philosophy. He then turned to Heidegger's early Freiburg lecture courses and demonstrated that the proximity between Nietzsche and Heidegger's understanding of phenomenology in this period was much greater than has traditionally been said. In conclusion, Prof. Colony argued that one of the most important examples of Heidegger's appropriation of Nietzsche in this period can be seen in the concept of destruction which played a central role in Heidegger's account of phenomenological methodology. Tracy Colony received his doctorate in Philosophy in 2001 from Leuven (Belgium). In 2000-01 he held a Flemish Community Fellowship and in 2002-03 a DAAD supported post-doctorate at Bard College Berlin (ECLA at the time), where, since 2003, he has taught. Tracy Colony has published numerous essays and journal articles on Heidegger and Nietzsche, as well as a translation of Heidegger's Phänomenologie der Anschauung und des Ausdrucks [translated as Phenomenology of Intuition and Expression (London: Continuum, 2010)]. The lecture is part of a series in which Bard College Berlin faculty members present their research to the public. Time: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 from 19:30 Venue: Bard College Berlin Main Auditorium Platanenstr. 98a, Berlin - Pankow (map here) Admission free

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

On February 17 at 19:30, Bard College Berlin hosted the screening of the documentary film Admissions: Student Stories from Undocumented America, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers Chloe Smolarski and Tasha Darbes. Admissions is a character driven, feature-length creative nonfiction film exploring the highly personal stories of four undocumented college students: Blanca, Charlie, Viridiana and Jong Min. Trapped at the intersection of education policy and broken immigration systems, the obstacles these students face—financial, legal and psychological—are presented, demonstrating the dehumanizing effects of marginalization and unequal educational access. Featuring experimental sound design, unsynchronized imagery, and a sophisticated metaphorical language, Admissions creates a space in which new forms of struggle and dialogue emerge. About the filmmakers: Chloe Smolarski is a multimedia filmmaker and artist who has worked, studied and exhibited in Europe and America. She teaches media and art at Parsons – New School and the City University of New York . Tasha Darbes is an educator and writer who has worked with immigrant communities for over 15 years. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at NYU and works as a research assistant for the Institute for Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings. Read more about the film here. Time: Monday, February 17, 2014 from 19:30 Venue: Bard College Berlin Main Auditorium Platanenstr. 98a, Berlin - Pankow (map here) Admission free

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