News Archive

Four Bard College Berlin students participated in the Fourth Smolny Annual International Student Conference "Science and Technology through the Prism of Humanities," which was held on April 17-18, 2015 at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University. The conference brought together students, graduate students, and young scholars from the Bard-affiliated campuses, as well as from other colleges and universities, who presented research papers or creative performances in an attempt to foster exchange between a broad range of academic disciplines: Fine Arts, History of Civilizations, Cognitive Science, Literature, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, Sociology, Philosophy, Gender Studies, Intercultural Education etc. The students who participated on behalf of Bard College Berlin were Inasa Bibic (3rd year BA) with the paper "Relationship between Scientific Knowledge and Political and Religious Power in Francis Bacon's New Atlantis," Lysan Boshuyzen (2nd year BA) with the paper "Art Generating Paradigm Shift," Dylan Davis (3rd year BA) with "Beyond Hate: Exploring the Relationship between Hate and Equality," and Lena Kück (1st year BA), who presented on "Focus in Fractions - The Effect of New Technology on our Ability to Focus in Social Environments." Read more about the conference here.

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

On April 21, 2015 faculty member David Levine gave a talk on Bruce Nauman at the Dia Art Foundation in New York City. The talk was part of the "Artists on Artists Lecture Series" organised by the Dia Art Foundation and supported through public funds from the New York City Department for Cultural Affairs. David Levine is Professor of Art and Director of the Studio Program at Bard College Berlin. In 2015 he will participate in the upcoming exhibitions with Creative Time in New York, REDCAT in Los Angeles, and Gallery TPW in Toronto. He currently lives and works in Berlin and New York. Read more about the talk here.

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

Faculty member Dr. James Harker gave a talk, "Narrative Theory's Origin Stories," at the European Narratology Network Conference in Ghent, Belgium, April 16-18. In the talk, Harker argues that while some theorists have recently seen the significance of narrative in terms of its evolutionary role, there is a much longer history to the approach, which we can see by looking to early theorists of narrative and the novel and their concern with the "natural," the naturally selected, and the unnatural. These concerns were generally woven into origin stories explaining where individual narratives come from, or where the drive toward narrative begins in general. Harker argues that engagement with the "natural" and the "unnatural" proves to be a grounding tension animating not such recent debates but the whole of narrative theory. You can read more about the conference here.

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

On April 23-25, 2015 Bard College Berlin is hosting delegates from the Bard network schools (Smolny College of St. Petersburg State University, European Humanities University in Vilnius, Bard College Annandale, Al-Quds Bard, American University of Central Asia, Bard College Berlin), and from several Russian universities for a workshop on "Human Rights in Comparative Perspective." The workshop starts from the observation that attempts to disregard the particular nuances of time and place in the perception of human rights issues may lead to misunderstandings. While acknowledging the universal character of human rights issues, the workshop participants will aim to develop a framework for placing human rights issues in a cultural context and "embedding" them in the institutions that prevail in a particular country at a particular point in time. They thus hope to emphasize the plurality of forms that the issue of human rights can take, as well as the plurality of mechanisms for their protection. The workshop is organized by the Andrew Gagarin Center for Civil Society and Human Rights at Smolny College. Public event: April 25, 2015 from 10:30 "On Portraying Human Dignity" - Lecture by Christopher McCrudden (Michigan Law) Bard College Berlin Main Auditorium (Platanenstr. 98a, Berlin-Pankow)

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

On May 11 2015, students from the course Space is the Place: Site & Spatial Cinematography in Film & Video, taught by visiting artist Caitlin Berrigan, held a public screening of their video works. The screening consisted of individual works produced during the semester's investigation of site and landscape through video, from the layers of Alexanderplatz to a darkly comic adaptation of Brecht, to the uncanny domestic relationship between cake and Kunst. The course focused on site, landscapes and interiors not just as textures of film—but as central motifs, as investigations of space, and even as a characters of their own. Students visited several sites throughout the city of Berlin to create works in which the place itself is inseparable from the substance of the film. They experimented with formal camera techniques to establish visual and tactile aspects of landscape, as well as with montage and "embodied cinematography" as ways of communicating the feeling of moving through space to the viewer. Time: Monday, May 11, 2015, from 19:30 Place: Bard College Berlin - Main Lecture Hall Platanenstr. 98-a, Berlin - Pankow Admission free No RSVP is necessary

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

On May 11, 2015 students presented final projects from the newly formed sculpture class at Bard College Berlin, "Contemporary Materials and Techniques." As a new course offered for this Spring 2015 semester, it was instructed by Berlin-based American artist John von Bergen, and took place in the Factory building's new workshop. Aside from lectures and off-campus visits involving contemporary sculpture, students this semester had access for the first time to tools and materials in ways that were not possible earlier at Bard College Berlin. This presentation on May 11th was an open studio setting, where final student projects were presented. There was also a special exhibition in the upstairs seminar room (based on one of the class assignments), alongside the refreshments. Time: Monday, May 11, 2015, 17:00-19:00 Venue: Bard College Berlin - The Factory Eichenstrasse 43, Berlin - Pankow Admission free No RSVP is necessary.

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

Faculty member Prof. Dr. Michael Weinman was invited to present at the conference "Aristotelian Solutions to Contemporary Philosophical Problems," which took place at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne on April 25-26, 2015. The conference's goal was to make explicit the Aristotelian concepts preserved in contemporary philosophy, by providing Aristotelian responses to contemporary philosophical issues. Prof. Dr. Weinman presented the paper "Aristotle on deixis, apodeixis, and epideixis: The Pragmatics of Speech and the Exactness of Knowledge." Read more about the conference here.

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

Faculty member Dr. Agata Lisiak presented the paper "Observing everyday diver/cities: comparing Polish migrants' perceptions of urban life in the UK and Germany" at the conference "Polish Migrants' Experience of Life in the UK since 2004" which took place on April 17 and 18, 2015 at University College London. Co-written with Lukasz Krzyzowski and Magdalena Nowicka, the paper draws on ongoing qualitative studies on Polish migrants in London, Birmingham, Berlin, and Munich to inquire how migrants' personal characteristics and their social embeddedness intersect with local urban specificities. The conference "Polish Migrants' Experience of Life in the UK since 2004" aimed to take stock of the current state of knowledge about Polish migration to the UK, by focusing on questions such as: how does living in the UK affect migrants' perceptions of Poland, Poles and Polishness? What is specific about Polish migrants' experiences in different locations? How does recent Polish migration research contribute to migration theory and research methodology? Read more about the conference and the program here.

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

Faculty member Prof. Dr. Matthias Hurst participated in an academic workshop on "Berliner Welträume im 20. Jahrhundert" (Berlin Spaces in the 20th Century), organised on March 30, 2015 by the Emmy Noether Research Group "Europäischer Astrofuturismus" at the Free University, Berlin. The workshop brought together experts from various fields to explore and discuss historical events, dates, and institutions that define the local (Berlin) discourse of research, examination, debate, and public presentation of space and space-related issues. The participants thus focused on the relationship between the turbulent history of this metropolis and the corresponding concepts of space. Among others, they discussed the founding of Urania (a Berlin scientific society) and its scientific theatre that presented visual journeys to the moon at the end of the 19th century (1888-1906); the Berlin Planetarium and its space spectacle; the explorations of early rocket scientists at the Tegel "Raketenflugplatz" (1929-1934), the "Mediale Friedenskreis," a group of people with an interest in the esoteric and parapsychological sciences who believed in contact with spiritual beings from outer space (1955-1970); and the public reception of both American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts in East and West Berlin, and its political repercussions (1960-1990). Read more about the workshop here.

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

Faculty member Dr. Kerry Bystrom participated in the conference "Beyond Bystander: Monitoring Human Rights in Conflict Zones," which took place on March 27, 2015 at the University of Connecticut and was organized in the frame of the Senator Joseph I. Lieberman Conference & Lecture Series on Human Rights Practice. The conference brought together scholars from a variety of disciplines, as well as officials, advocates and journalists, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of monitoring human rights in conflict zones. Three panels of experts examined and debated the current methods and technologies used in investigating, verifying, quantifying, analysing, aggregating, mapping, and disseminating knowledge of human rights violations in conflict-ridden environments. Dr. Bystrom served as a panel chair for the panel "From Citizens to Satellites: Monitoring Human Rights on the Ground," which examined citizen reporting through new technologies, and featured Kelly Matheson (Senior Attorney and Program Manager at WITNESS), Abdel Rahman El-Mahdi (President of Sudan Development Initiative), and Akshaya Kumar (Sudan and South Sudan Policy Analyst, Enough Project). Read more about the conference here.

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