Bard College Berlin News
Bard College Berlin’s 2026 Commencement Ceremony Honors Graduates
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of Bard College Berlin’s Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC) scholarships to students from areas of crisis and conflict. In Managing Director Florian Becker’s opening remarks, he noted that 22 students of the graduating class are PIESC scholarship recipients from countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Syria, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
This year’s commencement address was given by Susan H. Gillespie, Second Vice Chair of the Bard College Berlin Board of Governors, translation scholar, and long-time proponent of international liberal arts education. In his introduction of Gillespie, Taun Toay, Chief Financial Officer of Bard College and Co-Managing Director of Bard College Berlin, remarked that alongside Julie Johnson Kidd, Gillespie is one of the two most significant people in the history of shaping Bard College Berlin’s formation.
Following the end of apartheid in South Africa and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Gillespie founded the Institute for International Liberal Education at Bard College, which has pioneered in the development of dual-degree liberal arts programs with university partners in Russia, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, and elsewhere, including the formation of Smolny College at St. Petersburg State University in partnership with Bard College.
In her address to the graduates, Gillespie noted the increase in economic and social inequality threatening democracy around the world. She urged graduates to consider the ways, as individuals and society, “to oppose oligarchy and protect societal freedoms, defend earth as our home, and strengthen contemporary education and international cooperation.” Gillespie stated that Bard College Berlin graduates are well equipped to tackle these issues. She told the class, “You are a unique and very special group of distinctive individuals… [who] have now experienced living and working in a set of common values.”
Kimberly Marteau Emerson, Chair of the BCB Board of Governors, and Philip Fedchin, Technology Strategist for Smolny Beyond Borders, introduced Bard College Berlin’s Honorary Doctorate recipient, Vincent McGee. Marteau Emerson stated of McGee, “Your record of civil courage and sustained commitment has never wavered… You show others the way of living a life based on principle and humanity.
Vincent McGee is the Director of the Andrew Gagarin Trust, a member of the Board of the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College, and has been a lifelong supporter of liberal arts education and human rights. McGee played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Andrew Gagarin Center for Civil Society and Human Rights at Smolny College. When Bard College was declared an “undesirable institution” in Russia, McGee’s support ensured continuity, allowing Smolny Beyond Borders to flourish and provide critical educational opportunities across borders.
In his acceptance address, McGee noted the importance of defending against attacks on academic freedom and freedom of speech around the world, including in the United States and Germany. He reflected on his experience as a young man who was prosecuted and imprisoned for 11 months by the Nixon administration for conscientiously objecting to the Vietnam War, and told students, “Bard has given you the opportunity and skills to think, to analyze situations in your fields and across art, music, science, and literature. You have a basis of thinking which is, to some extent, unique… You have this gift, and now you and your peers are our hope and our future.”
Two students were chosen by their peers to address the graduating class: Precious Chukwukezie and Yelizaveta Mamon. Both Precious and Yelizaveta are PIESC scholarship recipients who came to Berlin from Ukraine in 2022 after the Russian invasion, Precious originally from Nigeria. Yelizaveta reflected on her experiences of “translating herself” into English after arriving in Berlin and on being able to turn feelings of anger into theater and intellectual work at BCB. Precious noted that Bard College Berlin granted her community across differences and the experience of learning to sit with uncertainty: “BCB gave us tools to be angry at the war, and the understanding that anger alone is not enough.” Precious also read a letter from BCB classmate Zo Hailu, who is currently on trial in Germany.
Senior thesis awards were awarded to Yelizaveta Mamon for her thesis “The Soviet Memorial in Treptow Park — an (Un)regulated Space?,” to Nadina Skrudiņa for her thesis “Unpacking the Structure and Components of the Gender Wage Gap in Latvia,” and to Sanskriti Shrestha for her Creative Component short film Unermüdlich: The Antelope and the Waiting Body. Students are nominated for the thesis prize by their academic advisors and chosen by a committee that includes members of the faculty, university leadership, and the Board of Governors.
This year’s Commencement ceremony concluded with a charge to the graduates delivered by Professor Ostap Sereda and a performance by the student band Noise Complaint, who performed a high-energy set of songs chosen by the graduating class.
The Class of 2026 is a diverse and highly accomplished group of scholars. Their post-graduate plans encompass serving in the Peace Corps in Kosovo; working at a human rights organization supporting LGBTQ+ individuals in Russia; graduate studies in cities including Beijing, Cambridge, London, Oxford, Prague, and more; and Erasmus Mundus fellowships in Spain and Finland.
Congratulations to the Bard College Berlin Class of 2026, and best of luck as you embark on your post-graduation journeys!
Post Date: 06-04-2026