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Regular Decision Application Deadline

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Online Event



Bard College Berlin accepts applications for entry to our BA degree programs and one-year programs in Fall 2026. The Regular Decision application deadline is January 15, 2026, at 23:59 in your time zone. Students who apply by the Regular Decision deadline can expect to receive their admission and financial aid/scholarship decisions in late March. Applicants from countries outside the EU/EEA and with a visa entry requirement for Germany are strongly encouraged to submit their application no later than the Regular Decision application deadline.

For more information on eligibility and application requirements, please refer here: How to Apply.

Should you have any questions about your application for admission and/or financial aid at BCB, please do not hesitate to reach out to the BCB Admissions Team at [email protected]. We look forward to receiving your application!

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Welcome Reception

Monday, January 26, 2026
6:30–8 pm

JJK Hall Cafe (W15)
The Welcome Reception is an opportunity for the BCB community to come together after the first day of classes, welcome our new community members, and reconnect with one another. Join faculty, staff, and students to celebrate the start of the semester.

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Post-Soviet Legacies in the Global Context - a discussion with Professor Manuela Boatcă

Monday, January 26, 2026
6:30–8 pm

Online
We warmly invite you to a public meeting of the newly established working group, Post-Soviet Legacies in the Global Context. Convened as part of FG DeKolonial, an association for antiracist, postcolonial, and decolonial thought and practice, the group seeks to explore the wide-ranging and often understudied global impacts of Soviet legacies extending well beyond the geographical boundaries of the former USSR to regions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We are interested in the translation and applicability of postcolonial and decolonial perspectives to post-Soviet contexts and examining the conceptual and empirical challenges this entails.

Please register by January 24, 2026 via email ([email protected]) to receive access information.Sponsored by: FG DeKolonial.

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Fritz Stern Award for Democratic Engagement 

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Invitation Only
Fritz Stern Award for Democratic Engagement honoring Małgorzata Maria Gersdorf, Former First President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Poland laudation by Andreas Voßkuhle, Former President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. 

With her unwavering dedication to justice and democracy in Poland, Małgorzata Maria Gersdorf has inspired people worldwide. From her early activism in Solidarność to her historic role as First President of the Supreme Court, she has been a staunch defender of judicial independence and the rule of law. In 2017, she stood firm against efforts to undermine the judiciary, showing exceptional courage and dignity. Her return to the court, white rose in hand, became a symbol of constitutional integrity and Poland’s commitment to the European Union. Her resilience galvanized the Polish judiciary and civil society. It reminded all Europeans of the shared values of democracy, justice, and the rule of law.

The Fritz Stern Award for Democratic Engagement, which will be awarded jointly by Bard College Berlin and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science and Humanities, honors individuals who have made significant contributions to global democratic culture and practice across the academic, cultural, and political spheres. The inaugural award ceremony will also celebrate the launch of the new European Democracy Institute at Bard College Berlin.

We are grateful for the generous support of the C.H.Beck Kulturstiftung, Allison Blakely, Ruprecht Brandis, Roland Brinkmann, and Olivier Weddrien. This initiative would not have been possible without their dedication to democracy and education. 

Registration closed. The event is at capacity.
For questions kindly contact Dr. Berit Ebert: [email protected]

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Documentary Screening: Protest Under Pressure

Thursday, January 29, 2026
7–9 pm

Lecture Hall (P98a)
Over the past two years, German universities have become sites of resistance for students in solidarity with Palestine. Campuses have bee marked by police violence, court proceedings, intimidation, and growing forms of (self-)censorship. Set at the Free University of Berlin, this documentary traces how academic spaces have been reshaped by state repression. The film centers on the brutal eviction of the Palestine solidarity encampment in May 2024 and the cascade of events that followed: a media smear campaign, institutional threats, legal repercussions, and mounting interference with academic freedom.These developments are situated within a wider political framework—Germany’s “reason of state”—and examined in relation to the country’s role in the ongoing occupation and genocide in Palestine. Interweaving testimonies from students, activists, professors, legal experts, and journalists with on-the-ground footage and archival recordings of protests, the film maps how universities, police, media, politicians, and the judiciary collectively shape the boundaries of permissible speech and dissent.

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Why Close Reading?

Saturday, January 31, 2026
10 am – 6:30 pm

JJK Hall
Close reading is having a global renaissance, both as a literary approach and a teaching practice. It is also a core aspect of the Bard College Berlin curriculum. And yet, what is close reading: a method, an academic exercise, or an ethical stance and epistemic orientation? What are its historical roots and contemporary uses, and what debates and contestations have shaped close reading as a form of inquiry and pedagogy? What kinds or varieties of close reading have established themselves in different academic disciplines? And how can we evaluate the benefits and also drawbacks of close reading compared to other scholarly and pedagogical techniques and emerging technologies? 

This one-day workshop explores the long history and diverse theories of close reading, and probes the plurality of close reading approaches practiced by BCB faculty and students. We would also consider the possibility of convening an interdisciplinary conference to discuss, through the question of close reading, the meaning and value of humanistic inquiry today and the challenges it faces from new technologies and from the broader devaluation of expertise.

Please register to attend the workshop by January 29 so that we can prepare seats and catering accordingly. If you decide last-minute to attend, you're still welcome.

Hosted by the BCB Learning Commons and European Democracy Institute.

Program

10:00-10:15 Institutional Welcome: Florian Becker 

10:15-12:00 Panel I: Close Reading as Analytical Method(s) – moderator Giulia Clabassi
Luis Miguel Isava: “Varieties and Specificities of Close Reading”
Matthias Hurst: “Close Reading and Film”
Geoff Lehman: “Interpretation and the Pictorial Encounter”
Berit Ebert: “Close Reading and Law”

Lunch Break 
 
13:30-15:00 Panel II: Close Reading as Pedagogical Practice – moderator Christian Wollin
Ewa Atanassow: “Close Reading Plato’s Republic, or How to Learn from Students”
Martin Widmann: “Close Reading as a Tool in Teaching Literature in a Foreign Language”
Donovan Stewart:  “The Time of Close Reading”

Coffee Break
 
15:30-17:00 Panel III: Close Reading and the Liberal Arts – moderator Courtney Hodrick
Jeffrey Champlin: "Three Teachers who Made Me Close Read" 
Michael Weinman: “We are All Close Readers: Esotericism; Hermeneutics; Historicism; New Criticism”
James Harker: “Close Reading from and beyond Literature”

17:15-18:30 Panel IV: Close Readings and the Humanities –  moderator David Hayes
Glenn Most, MPWIG/ University of Chicago
Beer Albers, Cluster of Excellence Cross-Cultural Philology, Ludwig Maximilian University