News Archive

Sixty-four incoming students in the BA, Academy Year, and Begin in Berlin Programs will begin their study of the liberal arts in an intensive three-week program that focuses on writing. Taking place before the official start of the Fall semester, the Language and Thinking Program prepares students for the academic experience at Bard College Berlin while introducing them to the cultural and intellectual life of Berlin. Students read across many disciplines, write in small-group workshops, meet one-on-one with faculty members, work on presentations and other collaborative projects, attend lectures, film screenings, and museum visits, and go on excursions in Berlin and its surroundings. These activities aim to examine the relationship between thought and expression, and to shed light on the program's central question, "What does it mean to be human?". Students thus develop skills for reading and discussing texts in an academic context, for articulating their thoughts in writing, and for working successfully with their peers. The Language and Thinking Program was established at Bard College, Annandale in 1981, and has been offered at Bard College Berlin since 2013. Read more about the concept, instructors and activities of the Language and Thinking Program here. The schedule of the Language and Thinking Program 2015 is available here.

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

The TRANSFORmIG project at Humboldt University Berlin and Bard College Berlin are organizing on December 3-4, 2015 the workshop "In/visibility and Difference: A Visual Methods Workshop." International researchers, activists, and artists will share research conducted with visual methodologies and develop new ideas and strategies on how visual methods can enhance our understanding of contemporary social worlds. The workshop comprises of three sessions which will discuss the latest methodological developments in social sciences, innovative visual and participatory research tools, as well as cooperation possibilities between academia, activism, and art. The keynote speaker, Caroline Knowles from Goldsmiths College, will share her expertise on visual methodologies in social sciences and offer her comments on the methodological tools discussed during the workshop. Graduate students and early career researchers are invited to apply for participation in two troubleshooting labs on visual methods and visualization tools in social sciences. The troubleshooting labs will offer selected participants an opportunity to discuss their research projects in a collegial and supportive atmosphere with visual and visualization methods experts and practitioners. You can learn more about the application requirements here.

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

The Theater Devising Intensive Summer Program at Bard College Berlin, which ran from June 13 to July 12, 2015, ended with a round of original theater works created in small groups by the participating students, who have thus demonstrated how the various techniques and artists they came into contact with during the program have prompted and influenced them to search for new directions in their work. Conceived and led by Jonathan Rosenberg, Artist in Residence at Bard College, and Dawn Akemi Saito, Artist in Residence at Fordham University, the program aimed to foster the encounter between students and Berlin-based artists, and to equip the participants with new tools for creating and devising theater. Eighteen students from Bard College, Fordham University and Brown University, with backgrounds in performance, acting, directing, visual arts, or writing participated in the program. "We were looking for very self-motivated, creative and courageous students, independent thinkers, collaborators, who were willing to explore theater in a way they haven't done before," said Dawn Akemi Saito. The program comprised of three broad components: week-long workshops which exposed students to the practice of a particular artist and which were complemented by performance and feedback rounds at the end of each week; specialty workshops which helped students hone their skills in different languages of creation (video, movement, Butoh, sound design, music, choreography, dramaturgy); and outings to performances in Berlin, both at established and at alternative theatres, which immersed the participants in the contemporary Berlin scene and gave them the opportunity to see a wide range of theater. The faculty who taught in the program stem from a variety of artistic fields: Nina Tecklenburg (performer and theater researcher, Interrobang, She She Pop, Gob Squad), David Levine (theater director and video artist, OBIE award winner for Habit), Julia Hart (theater director), Eva Burghardt (dancer and choreographer), Ntare Mwine (actor and playwright), Robyn Orlin (dancer and choreographer), Christina Wheeler (vocalist and composer), Sarah Thom (performer, Gob Squad), Stefan Kaegi (director, Rimini Protokoll), Henrik Kuhlmann (dramaturge), Simon Stockhausen (composer and sound designer), Dagmar Domrös (dramaturge, Theater o.N.), Caitlin Berrigan (video artist). In addition, Bard College Berlin faculty members Aya Soika, Florian Becker, and Matthias Hurst led walking tours of Berlin and held introductory sessions on German theater and cinema. According to George Olesky (Brown University), who served as a graduate assistant, the program's activities "have demystified the technical and interdisciplinary elements that theater devising can present you with. Everything feels more approachable now." "It was an eye-opening experience for adjusting to the collaborative tools of other people," commented Patrick Caldwell, a junior student from Fordham University who majors in Acting and Directing. "The program was constant collaboration, stretching your artistic muscles, seeing how much can you do and how saturated can you become, and still be open to new ideas. We've learned so much in the program that there isn't anything that I can't say isn't going to inform the way I make theatre from now on," added Kendall Allen, also a junior at Fordham University, majoring in Design and Production. "It's been interesting to watch how the students' work has changed as they have been influenced not only by the teachers they worked with, but by each other. Based on the success of this summer, we look forward to running the program again next summer," concluded Jonathan Rosenberg. View some photos from the program here.

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

Bard College is pleased to introduce the new semester program "Arts and Society in Berlin," which offers students interested in the interplay of arts and society the opportunity to spend a semester at Bard College Berlin and gain exposure to artistic practice, art history and theory, and civic engagement, all within the backdrop of the city's rich past and effervescent present. Drawing on Berlin's contemporary role as an exciting confluence of the practices of arts with history and politics, and on Bard College Berlin's cooperation ties with institutions and artistic circles in Berlin, "Arts and Society in Berlin" puts forth an interdisciplinary approach to old and new perspectives and experiments, addressing such issues as artistic identity; the nature of performance; ethics, aesthetics and consumption; visual culture in the digital age; and political identity and urban landscapes. The program starts in the spring semester of the academic year 2015/2016 and is open to students of any nationality in the course of a BA study at another institution. Read more about the course offerings and how to apply here.

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

Bard College Berlin's professors, staff, and students express their thanks to the outgoing leadership of the college at the end of their tenure. Professor Dimitri Papadimitriou of Bard College was Managing Director from 2011 to 2015. Professor Dr. Thomas Rommel was appointed Rector and Provost and Managing Director in 2012 and served until 2015. Under the leadership of Rommel and Papadimitriou, the college raised the profile of liberal arts education in Germany, expanded the academic programs of the institution, especially in the arts and the social sciences, consolidated its links with the global Bard and Higher Education Support Program networks, and strengthened its cooperation with institutions in Berlin, Germany, and around the world. "We are grateful to have had Dimitri Papadimitriou and Thomas Rommel's guidance and expertise over the last three years. They have built on Bard College Berlin's distinctive identity and steered it through a time of growth and development. We are grateful for their contribution to establishing the institution's unique place in the European educational landscape," said Dr. Florian Becker. Thomas Rommel received his Habilitation in English Philology in 2000 and became a professor of literature in 2001. Before joining Bard College Berlin, he held positions at Jacobs University (Germany), Northern Arizona University (USA), and Joensuu University (Finland). He has lectured internationally and published widely on topics related to literature and economics, 18th-century literary theory and the history of ideas. His most recent books include Grundbegriffe der Literatur (Münster: LIT, 2012) and Das Selbstinteresse von Mandeville bis Smith. Ökonomisches Denken in ausgewählten Texten des 18. Jahrhunderts (Heidelberg: Winter, 2006). Dimitri Papadimitriou is the Jerome Levy Professor of Economics at Bard College, New York. From 1977 to 2015, he served as the college's Executive Vice President. He is President of the Levy Economics Institute, where he heads the macroeconomic modeling team studying the U.S. and world economies. He has published numerous articles on fiscal policy, the distribution of wealth and income, financial structure and stability, employment growth, and financial systems, and is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Economic Analysis, Challenge, and the Bulletin of Political Economy.

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

Dr. Florian N. Becker and Taun N. Toay are the new Managing Directors of Bard College Berlin, A Liberal Arts University. Bard College's Board of Trustees approved their appointment as of July 1, 2015. They succeed Professors Thomas Rommel and Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, who stewarded the college from 2011 to 2015. "Becker and Toay have been involved in running Bard College Berlin over the past three years and are familiar with its approach to international liberal arts education. They have the experience and commitment needed to build on past accomplishments and to secure the college's unique educational mission in the future," said Leon Botstein, President of Bard College, Annandale (USA). Dr. Florian N. Becker has been teaching at Bard College Berlin and working in the university leadership since 2012. He is Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Bard College (USA), where he taught from 2005 to 2012. Becker's research focuses on twentieth-century German theater, Anglo-American philosophy and Critical Theory. Taun N. Toay is Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Chief of Staff at Bard College, and Managing Director of the Levy Economics Institute. His main areas of expertise are macroeconomic modeling, gender-aware analysis, and the economy of Greece. In 2005-2006, he was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Piraeus in Greece.

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

Faculty member Prof. Dr. Martin Binder has published a paper examining how volunteering benefits the volunteers' subjective well-being in the journal Applied Economics Letters (Volume 22, Issue 11, 2015). In the paper "Volunteering and life satisfaction: a closer look at the hypothesis that volunteering more strongly benefits the unhappy," Dr. Binder finds that volunteering positively impacts on life satisfaction and mental well-being over the deciles of the distribution for a sample of the British populace from 1996 to 2008. However, this effect is decreasing for those in the upper parts of the well-being distribution. This can be seen as support for the contention that volunteering can play a protective role for individuals and increase their well-being in the face of otherwise unsatisfactory life conditions. Looking at the effect on satisfaction with life domains, there is evidence for a positive impact of volunteering on satisfaction with health, one's social life and amount and use of leisure time. The paper is part of an ongoing effort of Dr. Binder to better understand the motives and rewards of people who volunteer their time for a good cause, be that in the context of private volunteering or social entrepreneurship/social business. Applied Economics Letters is a monthly companion journal to Applied Economics and Applied Financial Economics, that publishes short accounts of new original research and encourages discussion of papers previously published in its two companion journals.

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

Faculty member Prof. Dr. Ewa Atanassow recently published the article "Rollback of Democracy? A Tocquevillean Perspective" in a special issue of the interdisciplinary journal Global Policy (Vol. 6, Supplement 1, June 2015). In the article, Prof. Dr. Atanassow suggests that in order to judge the state of democracy today we need to clarify what we mean by democracy. Democracy's institutional and moral meanings have been historically, and continue to be at present, the subject of intense disagreement. Drawing on Tocqueville's account of modern democracy, Prof. Dr. Atanassow argues that, far from rolling back, democracy defined by the passion for equality is rolling forward; and that the various crises we are observing today issue less from the retreat than from a deepening of inherently democratic tendencies. Mitigating these deep-seated tendencies would require a comprehensive set of remedies, which includes rethinking not only the nature of equality but also, perhaps above all, the meaning of freedom. Global Policy brings together world class academics and leading practitioners to analyse both public and private solutions to global problems and issues.

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

Faculty member Dr. Agata Lisiak gave papers at two interdisciplinary conferences: "Motherhood and Culture - Identity, Diversity, and Values," hosted by Maynooth University, Ireland on June 15-17, and the 12th IMISCOE Annual Conference "Rights, Democracy and Migration - Challenges and Opportunities," which took place in Geneva on June 25-27, 2015. At Maynooth University Dr. Lisiak presented the paper "Performing Immigrant Motherhood in Super-diverse Urban Contexts," which draws on semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and visual ethnography conducted in Berlin, Munich, Birmingham, and London to discuss the everyday practices and encounters in which Polish mothers of small children engage in public and private spaces. The paper inquired how Polish mothers living in English and German cities encounter and perform diversity, how these encounters and performances affect their mothering practices, and how the knowledge and competences acquired by immigrants affect mothering practices in Poland. Read more about the conference here. At the IMISCOE Conference Dr. Lisiak gave the talk "'Later It Comes Back to Me': Transnational Movements of Objects Related to Child Rearing," which focused on how families deal with the financial challenges related to child rearing and how, in doing so, they mobilise their connections to people in various locations. Based on material gathered through narrative interviews, visual ethnography, and collaborative artifact analysis, Dr. Lisiak explored the transnational exchange of children's clothes, accessories, and toys to argue that the connections thus established are meaningful beyond the purely economic rationale. Read more about the conference here.

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