News Archive

On June 3rd, 2017 faculty member Martin Binder will present a paper in the workshop "Entrepreneurship and Well-Being" organized by the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University and by the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, and taking place on June 1-4, 2017 in Sweden. Titled "Are Muppets Happy? Worries About the Business Mediate One's Well-Being Loss from Self-Employment," the paper focuses on a type of entrepreneurship that is prevalent but often disregarded: "muppets" or "marginal, undersized, poor performance enterprises" (a term coined by Alex Coad and Paul Nightingale). By discussing the case of these individuals who chose self-employment out of necessity or who have a poor performance as self-employed, Binder aims to explain why some self-employed report lower life satisfaction (in contrast with the fact that the self-employed often report higher job satisfaction). With the help of German panel data, Binder demonstrates that the negative effect is a result of worries about one's financial situation and job security. Read the full paper here.

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

Faculty member Martin Binder will participate in the workshop "New Directions in Well-Being Research, Take Two" organized by the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution on May 25-26, 2017 in Washington, DC. Binder will speak on well-being and environment, drawing on his paper "Green lifestyles and subjective well-being: More about self-image than actual behavior?" co-written with Ann-Kathrin Blankenberg (University of Göttingen), which was recently published in the May 2017 issues of Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. Read more about the paper here.

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

Faculty Michael Weinman recently published the article "Arendt and the Legitimate Expectation for Hospitality and Membership Today" in the journal Moral Philosophy and Politics. From the article's abstract: What does the growing tide of displaced persons today teach us about the ongoing paradoxes of human rights regimes, which rely on the particular sovereignty of nation-states for their constitution and application but are framed and normatively justified as universal? Working with Arendt's defense of 'the right to have rights' in response to the problem of statelessness which is the practical lynchpin of these historical and theoretical tensions, I specify that and why any person on earth, regardless of their legal status as a national or resident or non-resident alien, can legitimately expect two things from the political community in which they reside: hospitality and membership. Moral Philosophy and Politics (MOPP) is an international, peer-reviewed journal which publishes original philosophical articles on issues of public relevance. Link to article

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

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

The paper "Green lifestyles and subjective well-being: More about self-image than actual behavior?" co-authored by faculty member Martin Binder and Ann-Kathrin Blankenberg (University of Göttingen) was published in the May 2017 issue of the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. While research has generally shown that green behavior and sustainable consumption are positively related to life satisfaction, Binder and Blankenberg set out to identify to what extent specific pro-environmental behaviors are related to subjective well-being. By analyzing data sets from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (the world's largest panel survey), they come to the conclusion that the boost in life satisfaction is mostly due to self-image (i.e. one's own assessment of how environmentally-friendly one's behavior is), but not due to concrete pro-environmental behaviors such as conserving water, recycling and so on. Additionally, Binder and Blankenberg demonstrate that green self-image increases the extent and intensity of green behavior yet even the greenest (self-identified) individuals do not consistently exhibit all pro-environmental behaviors. Link to paper

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

An essay by faculty Matthias Hurst was recently published in the volume "Literatur und Ökologie. Neue literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven", edited by Claudia Schmitt and Christiane Solte-Gresser (Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag, 2017) and dedicated to new approaches to literature and culture under the umbrella of ecocriticism. Titled "Diesseits und jenseits der Frontier: Natur und Gesellschaft im amerikanischen Westernfilm" ("This Side of and Beyond the Frontier: Nature and Society in the American Western Film"), the essay presents an ecocritical reading of the popular genre of American Western films as both historical but also symbolical encounters between culture and civilization on one hand, and nature and wilderness on the other hand, with the frontier—first a geographical term, then an ideological term—as ever changing setting of this far-reaching encounter. In the fictional accounts of the history of the American west the frontier figures as the mythical location where the best and the worst of nature and civilization unfolds in dialectical ways, establishing a field of tension that permeates and informs conceptions of nature and the human condition in the modern world. Link to publisher's website

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

On May 12, 2017 faculty Dr. Agata Lisiak will give a talk at Amnesty International in London, in the frame of the launch of a special issue on "Families and Relationships across Crises" of Discover Society, in which Lisiak recently published a contribution. Discover Society is an online platform for sharing academic research with wider audiences, coordinated by the not-for-profit Social Research Publications. Lisiak's contribution to the Special Issue is titled "Migrant Mothers in Austere Times: Finding Love in a Hopeless Place?" and focuses on Polish mothers living in the UK in the aftermath of David Cameron's austerity-driven reforms. Read more here. More info about the event

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

On May 20, 2017, the students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of Bard College Berlin will celebrate the conclusion of the academic year 2016-2017. The ceremony will take place at the Ballhaus Pankow, a neighborhood landmark which was built during the Belle Époque (1880) as an elegant recreation venue for Berliners and is now a historical monument. The Commencement address will be delivered by Stephan Detjen, German journalist and Head of Deutschlandradio's Berlin office. The ceremony will feature a musical introduction by Syrian performers Ghaithaa Alshaar (oud) and George Saade (percussion). The Class of 2017 consists of seventeen students from Sweden, USA, Hungary, the Republic of Macedonia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Russia, Germany, India, and Georgia.

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

A reflection by Michael Weinman titled "Ordnance as Ordinance. The MOAB bomb and the Biblical Roots of Our Endless War" was recently published on Public Seminar. In the piece, Weinman analyzes the deeper message which lies behind calling the largest non-nuclear weapon—deployed by the US over Afghanistan on April 13, 2017—by its acronym MOAB. He argues: "It seems clear to me that those who gave this weapon this name were definitely thinking Biblically enough to suggest that MOAB is meant to deliver the message that the angels of the Lord delivered to the men of Sodom: change your ways or be destroyed to the very dust from which I made you. But while I doubt that they were thinking about it, we know that ancient Israel's entanglement with Moab was always much more complicated than that. If I persuade, then we shall remember there is another way: Ruth's." Link to full article

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

Faculty members Ewa Atanassow and Geoff Lehman, and alumnus David Kretz (BA 2016) have contributed essays to the recently published volume Back to the Core: Rethinking Core Texts in Liberal Arts & Sciences Education in Europe, edited by Emma Cohen de Lara (Amsterdam University College) and Hanke Drop (University of Applied Sciences Utrecht), and published by Vernon Press. Based on a selection of papers presented at a conference in September 2015 in Amsterdam, the volume brings together faculty, university leaders, and students from both sides of the Atlantic to reflect on the recent developments in Europe with regard to higher education in the liberal arts and sciences. In the aftermath of the Bologna process, Europe is currently witnessing a proliferation of liberal arts and sciences colleges and broad bachelor degrees, and the contributors discuss the way in which the liberal arts tradition takes shape or should take shape in European institutions, focusing on teaching methods, core texts, and personal experiences with various curricula. The essay authored by Atanassow and Kretz, titled "Thinkeries Ancient and Modern: Aristophanes and Democracy's Challenges for Liberal Arts Education," revisits Aristophanes' The Clouds and its democratic context to argue that the play is equally critical of Socratic education as it is of democracy's narrowly utilitarian approach to learning. The tension between these two critical directions, the authors contend, is at the heart of the play. Atanassow and Kretz move on to discuss that Aristophanes' challenge merits to be taken seriously by defenders of liberal education today. Looking at how Bard College Berlin responded to that challenge, they conclude that, if it is to be useful for modern democracy, liberal education needs to address the heterogeneity of values, and that a core-text based curriculum is uniquely fit to do so. Geoff Lehman's contribution, "Bruegel's Via Crucis: (Visual) Experience and the Problem of Interpretation," is published in a section which addresses how specific core texts promote the goals of liberal arts and sciences education. Starting from a close reading of the Via Crucis, Lehman argues that sustained engagement with a single work of art over the course of one or several class sessions in a seminar, or even as the basis for an entire course, poses similar challenges and has a similar pedagogical value as the close reading of texts. The multiple vantage points depicted in the Via Crucis not only relate to one other in a measurable, geometric way, they also indicate a diverse but coordinated range of bodily experiences, of states of attention and of interpretive horizons. Lehman suggests that through this perspectival structure of diverse but commensurable viewpoints, the painting articulates an interpretive problem and simultaneously encourages a type of engagement that are both highly relevant for the values of a liberal arts education. Link to the book

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

John von Bergen has been appointed Director of Studio Arts at Bard College Berlin. Since spring 2015, von Bergen has offered various studio arts courses at BCB. In spring 2016 he took on the role of Practicing Arts Coordinator alongside his lecturing. In 2017 he was invited by both Bard Annandale as well as Berlin to discuss his artwork to those communities. Von Bergen's work has been exhibited in various international museums, galleries, and institutions, including Halle 14 (Leipzig), Wilhelm-Hack Museum (Ludwigshafen), Pera Museum (Istanbul), Smack Mellon (New York), and Galeria Pilar (São Paulo). He has received numerous prizes, grants and awards, such as The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant as well as Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie (towards his acquisition for Berlinische Galerie, Berlin). Von Bergen's studio recently submitted a "Kunst am Bau" closed-competition proposal for The German Bundestag – a new building that had formerly been used as a US Consulate to East Germany. His studio is currently in production for a large art commission that was awarded by The City of Berlin – Kopernikus-Oberschule in Steglitz. This project involves several permanent room interventions that integrate three different floors of the school. Scheduled to be completed by its reopening this autumn, von Bergen has chosen Arts and Society students at BCB to assist in this production as interns as well as assistants.

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

On Sunday, May 14 the seminars Citizens of the World: Ancient, Modern, Contemporary in Berlin and Annandale, co-taught by Ewa Atanassow and Thomas Bartscherer, will hold a joint cross-campus debate. The topic of the debate, "A citizen of the world is a citizen of nowhere," is borrowed from Theresa May's 2016 party conference speech. Two cross-campus teams will exert their wit and rhetorical talents to argue for or against this claim, while a transatlantic jury will adjudicate the contest.

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

On May 2nd, 2017 the article "Migrant Mothers in Austere Times: Finding Love in a Hopeless Place?" by Dr. Agata Lisiak was published on Discover Society, an online platform for sharing academic research with wider audiences, coordinated by the not-for-profit Social Research Publications. Drawing on her research project Immigrant Mothers As Agents of Change conducted within the ERC-funded TRANSFORmIG framework, Lisiak discusses why, in the aftermath of David Cameron's austerity-driven reforms—which have intensified socio-economic inequalities and placed the burden on vulnerable social groups—Polish mothers living in the UK paradoxically express satisfaction with their situation. Lisiak argues that at stake in this positive outlook is the fact that, despite difficult beginnings, Polish mothers who migrated to the UK have attained a sense of economic security and respectability. Link to full article

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

Bard College Berlin is pleased to announce the appointment of two new postdoctoral Fellows in the Global Fellowship Program supported by the Open Society Foundation for 2017-2018. Candidates for these Fellowships are PhD graduates of the Central European University in Budapest. The Fellows for the coming academic year are Elena Stavrevska, whose field of research is in the area of international relations, and Bastian Becker (political economy).

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

Faculty Dr. Agata Lisiak and students Donovan Stewart (BA 2018, USA/Japan) and Mikalai Maksimchuk (BA 2018, Belarus) will participate in the international student conference "Europe 2017. From Printed Word to Knowledge: Local Traditions and Global Transition" which will take place on May 6-7, 2017 at the European Humanities University in Vilnius. The 2017 EHU Student Conference aims to commemorate two important dates: the 500th anniversary of the first printed book in Belarusian (and the first printed book in East Slavic languages) published by Francysk Skaryna, and the 25th anniversary of the European Humanities University. The two BCB students will give presentations in the panels "Post-Migrant Cities: Lessons from the Urban Age" and "Printing House and Revolution: Techno-Cultural Logic of (Social) Transformation." In the frame of a series of pre-conference events, Agata Lisiak will take part in a special academic session on migration titled Approaches to Gender in Migration and Border Studies on May 4, where she will be presenting from her research project Immigrant Mothers As Agents of Change based at Humboldt University and funded by the ERC-project TRANSFORmIG. Other panelists include Olga Sasunkevich, Jakub Grygar and Kristina Sliavaite. Additionally, on May 6, Lisiak will deliver a keynote speech titled Women in revolutionary iconography: representations and appropriations, in which she will draw on her long-term research, partially funded by Marie Curie Actions. The conference participation is generously supported by the HESP linkage grant awarded to Agata Lisiak as a representative of BCB for engaging in cross-campus activities including co-taught seminars, presentations, and conferences. Official conference website

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