News Archive

Together with Isaac Ariail Reed, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, faculty member Michael Weinman is co-convener of the newly launched "Hannah Arendt Working Group on Critical Theories of Modernity" hosted by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.  

Weinman and Reed describe the group and its mission thus: "We seek answers—not an answer—to two related sets of questions: (1) How, after what Theodor Adorno and Hannah Arendt identified as twentieth-century barbarism, is it possible to articulate a critical assessment of “the Western tradition” that does not amount to a Nietzschean or Heideggerian rejection? And why is it worthwhile, even necessary, to do so? (2) When we engage that tradition, can we articulate a deep history and philosophy of civil engagement and democratic decision-making? What are the moments in the democratic tradition that articulate how the polity can be made more ethical and less prone to violence and the untrammeled use of instrumental advantage? And on what basis, and through what worldview, do we wish to offer a robust defense of democratic norms of action and interaction?"

More details about the Working Group can be found on the IASC website.

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

Faculty Andreas Martin Widmann published an essay on filmmaker Roland Klick entitled "Verloren im Supermarkt – Jenseits des Neuen Deutschen Films" ["Lost in the Supermarket. Beyond the New German Cinema"] in the Winter 2018 issue of Lettre International. 

Roland Klick is an outsider among the auteur directors of 1960s and 70s New German Cinema. The essay traces Klick's life and career ahead of his 80th birthday. Klick's approach to making films which combine compelling storytelling with artistic credibility is discussed with regard to underrated masterpieces such as Bübchen, Deadlock and Supermarkt. In the biographical essay, Widmann analyzes these films against the historical background of postwar Western German society.

Read the essay here (subscription required)>>

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

On January 18, 2019 faculty member Matthias Hurst gave a talk at the interdisciplinary colloquium "Mensch und Roboter, Leiblichkeit und Maschine. Neue Interaktionsformen" ("Human and Robot, Embodiment and Machine. New Forms of Interaction"), held at Heidelberg University.

Hurst’s presentation was entitled "Fiktionen des Fast-Menschlichen. Roboter, Androiden und Künstliche Intelligenz im Science Fiction-Film" (“Fictions of the Almost Human. Robots, Androids, and Artificial Intelligence in Science Fiction Films”) and examined the origins of modern robot and android fictions in mythology, Enlightenment philosophy (La Mettrie's Mechanistic Materialism), romantic / gothic literature (Doppelgänger motif, problematic subjectivity), and the development of modern technology and robotics. Hurst also discussed the diverse approaches to human-robot interaction, based on these cultural and historical discourses, phenomena like the ‘uncanny valley’ and machine eroticism, as well as the different depictions or expressions of hopes and fears related to artificial intelligence in science fiction films (such as Metropolis, Saturn 3, Blade Runner, Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, Her, Ex-Machina, Alien Covenant, Transcendence).

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

On January 25, 2019, Professor of Migration Studies Agata Lisiak gave a talk at Nion, a new Japanese initiative exploring new modes of living and working. Lisiak unpacked the popular image of international artists as the ultimate gentrifiers and pointed at the importance of international alliances in the struggle for the right to the city. Lisiak was invited by Angles, a collective of artists, writers, filmmakers and other creatives interested in telling stories about Berlin.

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

Faculty member Martin Binder recently published the article “Soft paternalism and subjective well-being: how happiness research could help the paternalist improve individuals’ well-being” in the Journal of Evolutionary Economics. 

From the paper’s abstract:
Soft paternalists claim to respect individuals’ preferences by trying to nudge them towards actions that would satisfy said preferences if they were suitably informed and debiased. This paper argues that soft paternalists neither respect preferences nor credibly improve individuals’ welfare through their nudges, as these are based on ad hoc judgements of what individuals’ informed preferences would look like. 

Read the article here>>

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

The collaborative visual essay "A city coming into being" written by students Reece Cox (Bard in Berlin 2017), Flavia Tienes (BA 2018) and Sophia Braddel (BA 2018), and Professor of Migration Studies Agata Lisiak in the frame of the class "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" (taught by Lisiak at Bard College Berlin in Fall 2017) was recently published in the peer-reviewed academic journal CITY: Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action.

The essay uses experimental walking and writing methods to examine the experience of modernity in contemporary Berlin, aiming through its collaborative and experimental format to provide new perspectives on urban modernities and urban methods. 

From the abstract:
"Our reflections—some captured through photography, some expressed in prose—give way to essential questions: How does walking help us interrogate the experience of modernity? Can it help us understand what it means for Berlin (or any other city) to be “a city coming into being”? How do we make it come into being? Even when walking the same route, each person is bound to experience the city differently, and so we find it makes little sense to try to impose a single reading of contemporary Berlin. We invite the reader to walk through the city with us, but we do not insist on holding hands. Our text quite literally reflects various points of view on the city and should be considered a series of occurrences, reflections, and impressions that work both in contrast and concert."

Access the article here>> 

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

On January 3rd 2019, Professor of Politics Boris Vormann gave an interview to SWR2 on the swearing-in of the 116th Congress and what it means for the new US Congress to be seated during a government shutdown. 

In his contribution entitled "Was die Demokraten bewegen können" ("What can the Democrats do"), Vormann argues that the "shutdown conflict" signals a U-turn in US politics and that Trump takes advantage of the blockade situation in order to build political pressure on his opponents. 

Listen to the interview here>>

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

The chapter entitled "Epic" by faculty Michael Weinman was recently published in The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Literature, edited by Barry Stocker and Michael Mack (2018). The handbook "presents the major perspectives within philosophy and literary studies on the relations, overlaps and tensions between philosophy and literature."

Weinman's chapter has two central aims. First, to introduce the the rivalry between philosophy and epic, beginning from "the ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry" reported by Plato Republic 10 and continuing right until today. Second, to argue that epic remains relevant for philosophy for essential, not merely accidental or historical, reasons; chief among these, as Weinman argues, is one Plato identifies: the peculiar power of imitative poetry in which the poet’s voice is hidden directly in one or more speaking characters within the literary work.

Read more about the handbook>> 

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

On December 17, 2018 faculty and Associate Dean Prof. Dr. Kerry Bystrom and guest faculty Dr. Ramona Mosse gave a guest lecture at the University of Potsdam. 

Their lecture was entitled "Virtual Reality and Humanitarian Campaigning: Childhood, Empathy and Immersion in Clouds Over Sidra" and was part of the series “Children Crossing Borders” co-organized by Bystrom with Dr. Suncica Klass and Dr. Carly McLaughlin from the Institute for English and American Studies, University of Potsdam.

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

On January 8, 2019 faculty Michael Weinman will give a talk entitled “Hannah Arendt and the Authority of Tradition Today” at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Paderborn University. 

Read more about this talk on the organizer’s website>>
 

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

Professor of Politics Boris Vormann contributed the chapter “City Limits: Sustainable Urban Governance in Planetary Infrastructural Regimes” to the volume The Globalisation of Urban Governance edited by Helmut Philipp Aust (Freie Universität Berlin) and Anél du Plessis (North-West University, South Africa) and published by Routledge (2019).

From the volume’s description:
The Globalisation of Urban Governance makes an important scholarly contribution by linking the narrative on globalisation of good urban governance in various social sciences with legal discourse. It considers global governance and connects the existing debate about cities and their place in global governance with some of the most pertinent questions that lawyers face today.

Read more>>

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

Bard College Berlin is pleased to announce the winner of the DAAD Award. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has enabled Bard College Berlin to select one excellent international student with an impressive record of academic achievement and civic engagement.

The DAAD Award is a monetary award of €1000 that is part of DAAD funding in the STIBET program. It honors outstanding international students in Germany with an exceptional record of engagement for social, political, cultural or humanitarian causes.

Following the review of many qualified applications, the DAAD Award was offered to senior student Margarethe Hattingh (BA in Economics, Politics, and Social Thought). The committee was impressed not only with Margarethe’s excellent academic and civic engagement record, but also with the recommendations she received from BCB faculty.

Margarethe Hattingh is currently an editor and writer for Bard College Berlin’s student blog “Die Bärliner,” a member of the organizing team of the upcoming Liberal Education Student Conference, as well as a math tutor for her BCB peers. She previously worked as an assistant in BCB’s Civic Engagement Office, as a teacher of English to sixth-graders at a school in Berlin, and interned with the Berlin-based NGO Office for the Implementation of Equal Treatment.

“What this award means is that somewhere out there someone cares about the engagement of students in not just academics, but in the society around them; it means that this sort of engagement is valued, and that non-German students are also seen as valuable to Germany,” stated Marga upon receiving the award, noting that “the deserving [students] are too many to count”. She added that “the award means I can feel optimistic about the value I have contributed in my time here, and that I can continue to do more meaningful and impactful work with the money I have received.”

Florian Becker, BCB’s Managing Director, awarded the DAAD certificate to Margarethe during the traditional end-of-year celebration held on December 17, 2018 and open to the entire campus community.

Photo (left to right): BCB's Director of Public Affairs and Development Bendetta Roux, senior student and DAAD Award recipient Margarethe Hattingh, and Managing Director Florian Becker

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

The article “Long waves of urban reform” co-authored by Professor of Politics Boris Vormann with Hillary Angelo (University of California - Santa Cruz) was recently published in the journal CITY - analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action.

The article puts forth a view of urban reform movements as “‘long waves’: consistently patterned technological and economic cycles that repeat over time.” The two authors examine the case of the United States to show that their proposed view reveals similarities in different historical contexts. “We use this analytic to historicize the contemporary ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’ city, arguing that it is only the latest in a series of beauty and efficiency solutions to urban problems, and its promises should be taken with more than a grain of salt.”

Read more>>

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

On December 14, 2018 Professor of Migration Studies Agata Lisiak participated in a workshop titled "Lifestyles, Dwelling and Postmigratory Societies" organized by the Mobile Worlds research team at Goethe University in Frankfurt.

In her talk “At home in the city? Migrant mothers navigating the urban,” Lisiak discussed the different ways in which the meanings and functions of migrants’ homes help us better understand the intersection of migration, gender, and the urban.

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

On December 14^th and 15^th, Bard College Berlin hosted a colloquium, “Life Writing: New Forms, Uses, Genres.” Scholars from institutions in Germany, Italy, and Russia joined Bard College Berlin faculty for two days of seminar discussion and presentations.
 
“Life Writing” encompasses all written accounts of actual individuals, from biography and autobiography and memoir to letters, diaries, testimony, essays and hybrid genres such as autofiction and biofiction. Presentations approached life writing from many perspectives: the historical development of its forms, the limits of life writing genres, the use of life writing in political contexts, and the relationship between life writing and fiction.
 
BCB faculty participants included Ulrike Wagner, Jeffrey Champlin, Kerry Bystrom, Catherine Toal, Laura Scuriatti, and James Harker. 
 

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

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 |