Graduating from college is an exciting time--but also a scary one, filled with lots of questions about what comes next. While you may need to address your existential quandaries in the classroom, Student Life has put together a series of events to tackle your logistical questions about post-grad life. These eight events will take place in two sessions over the Spring Semester.
W16 Reading Room Congratulations! You have your BCB diploma in hand and are ready for your next adventure. Whether your next adventure keeps you in Berlin or somewhere else across the globe, there are a few things that you need to take care of before you leave.
Remember all of that bureaucracy you went through when you first arrived in Berlin? Now it’s time to do it all in reverse. In this session, we will cover how to complete your Abmeldung (if you are leaving Germany) or Ummeldung (if you are staying in Germany), terminate various contracts (health insurance, phone, bank, etc.) and more!
This event is part of Student Life's Preparing for Life After BCB event series. If you are unable to attend this event, there will be a second session on Tuesday, April 25.Sponsored by: Student Life.
*RESCHEDULED* Transnational Feminist Solidarity as Praxis
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 6–7:15 pm
Online In this talk, Sara Salem focuses on a trip Angela Davis made to Egypt in the early 1980s to explore questions of transnational feminist solidarity and feminist difference. The focus on Marxism and feminism enabled Egyptian feminists to forge solidarity with women across the globe, including Angela Davis, who located gender oppression within the same structures—namely, capitalism and imperialism. Focusing on this trip, Salem shows how the encounters Davis had with feminists during this trip reveal much about the workings of transnational feminism as praxis, as well as the possibilities of feminist solidarity that sees difference as productive rather than divisive.
This event is part of the OSUN Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice series. Sara Salem is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the London School of Economics. Her research interests include postcolonial studies, Marxist theory, and global histories of anticolonialism. Her recently published book with Cambridge University Press is entitled Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony (2020). She is currently thinking and writing about ghosts and anticolonial archives.
A Neighborhood Tour Along Historical Sites of Civic Engagement
Thursday, March 9, 2023 10 am – 12:15 pm
Meet at the Old Parish Church (Breite Straße 37) Did you know that just a few feet from campus, only a couple of years ago, senior citzens successfully occupied their senior community center for over 90 days to prevent it from gentrification? Did you know that the secret center of the feminist and queer movement in the GDR dictatorship was the Old Parish Church in Pankow--pretty much right next to the residential district of the political dictatorship elite? Award-winning novelist, historian, performer and former GDR civil rights activist Annett Gröschner takes us to places of civil disobedience against political and economic oppression of the past 50 years. The various historical snapshots will form the basis of a midterm site-specific performance project "Performing Pankow", but for now, the BCB community is warmly invited to join the class and discover the historical layers of our BCB neighborhood in a collective walk.
To RSVP, please contact Nina Tecklenburg.Sponsored by: Nina Tecklenburg / TH164 Critical Acts: Introduction to Performance Studies.
W15 Cafe Join the Student Life Committee for a discussion of mental health resources available on campus. All members of the BCB community are welcome to attend. This event takes place in the W15 Cafe.
W15 Cafe Students are warmly invited to this information session in the W15 Cafe about Open Society University Network certificate programs, hosted by BCB faculty and staff. Those who enter certificate programs join cohorts of like-minded students from across the globe taking OSUN classes and participating in co-curricular activities. Students can enroll in three certificate programs: Civic Engagement, Human Rights, and Public Policy & Economic Analysis.
This session will take place on Monday, March 13 from 1:00-2:00pm at the W15 Cafe. The deadline to apply for OSUN certificates is Monday, April 3, 2023.
Online Nature is a layer-cake concept: it has always meant many things and has never been morally neutral. In early modern Europe, radically new natural philosophies shifted the meanings of nature but did not put an end to its moral authority. We can understand the continuing moral resonances of nature by exploring early modern ideas still present in modern ideas of nature.
This online lecture, organized by the Early Modern Science core course in collaboration with Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, is open to all interested members of the BCB community. Participants can register for the lecture here. Prof. Dr. Lorraine Daston is director emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, visiting professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and permanent fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. Her award-winning work spans a broad range of topics in the early modern and modern history of science. Professor Daston is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and a corresponding member of the British Academy. Sponsored by: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
K24, SR11 It's never too early to start tackling some of the following key questions: What do I want from my career? What are my core values? What are my strengths and aptitudes? Soft skills and hard skills? Do I want to specialize in certain technical skills or take on a management role?
We will also explore different routes to go after graduation: - Internships - Traineeships - Entry-Level Jobs - Grad Programs in Germany and Abroad - Ausbildung & Weiterbildung - Fellowships/Stipends/Residencies - Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr / Peace Corps / Travel & Work Abroad - Own Business, Start-Up, NGO - Arbeitslosigkeit (for EU citizens)
W15 Cafe The Berlin housing market can be daunting. Come learn the difference between hot and cold rent, hear tips and tricks for finding an apartment or WG, and hear from people who have successfully navigated this process. Don’t wait, May is sooner than you think!
This event is part of Student Life's Preparing for Life After BCB event series. For students unable to attend this event, a repeat session will take place on Tuesday, May 9.Sponsored by: Student Life.
K24 Reading Room On behalf of LGBCBTQ+, we are proud to announce the official opening of the Queer Community Library on Wednesday, March 15th from 7:30 p.m. till 9 p.m in the reading room of K24. The Queer Community Library was established in order to bring queer literature, history, and awareness to our community. By starting this library, we hope to elevate queer perspectives, resources and politics on campus, which are too often missing in our personal and academic lives. This library is open to all members of BCB, and we hope that both LGBTQIA+ people and allies can utilize this space and engage with the texts to spark further conversation and action.
Come by to celebrate the official opening with snacks and drinks. We'll be hearing from a Berlin-based queer guest speaker sharing some of their work and we invite our very own BCB community to come and share readings from their own or others' queer work (prose, poetry, spoken word, visual art) during the event! If you'd like to present, please use this signup link.
Would you like to share queer-related works, but rather not during the event? We encourage you to add them to our digital library/archive, where you can find political essays, literature, studies and art.
We hope to see you all there next week for an evening full of queer works and creations, love and celebration!
P24 SR5 Bard College Berlin students are warmly invited to a series of three workshops led by Ayşe Çavdar. These workshops will introduce BCB students to the basics of practical journalism, through discussion and hands-on work writing and editing stories. Students should commit to all three sessions, and will be expected to do reading and preparatory work and to have individual consultations between sessions. Students who satisfactorily complete the workshop series will be eligible for 2 ECTS credits.
To enroll in this workshop series, please write to Ayse ([email protected]) by Friday March 10, 2023.
In this workshop we will discuss the basic concepts and processes of journalism. What is news, what does a newsroom look like, how does it function, and why is not all information news, even if they are important? Who does a journalist work for, or to whom are they responsible? What do we talk about when we talk about journalistic ethics? What should we pay attention to when thinking about the media-politics-capital triad?
In the second workshop, we will briefly discuss which news writing techniques we can use for which media environment. Students should come with a news draft/proposal to pitch at this workshop, which will now function as a news room.
Workshop III: Collaborative Journalism April/May Date TBD, will be selected according to participant availability
Journalism is a collective work. Each journalist is also the editor and ombudsman of their fellow journalists. Why does this have to be so? What distinguishes a freelancer journalist from a journalist working for an organization? How can we edit most effectively? Students will present their draft news reports to discuss and edit collectively. Ayşe Çavdar completed her BA degree in Journalism at Ankara University and received her MA in History at Boğaziçi University in Turkey. She finalized her doctoral thesis titled "The Loss of Modesty: The Adventure of Muslim Family from Neighborhood to Gated Community" at the European University of Viadrina in 2014 . She was a postdoctoral fellow at Käte Hamburger Kolleg - Center for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg in 2017. She continued her studies as a visiting scholar at Philipps University in Marburg for two years between 2018-2020. Recently, she has been a visiting scholar at Bard College Berlin.
Alongside her academic career, Çavdar has been a journalist for three decades, working on diverse political, cultural, and social issues. She participated in and worked for different NGOs in Turkey professionally and as a volunteer.
P24 SR5 In this workshop, we will discuss the basic concepts and processes of journalism. What is news, what does a newsroom look like, how does it function, and why is not all information news, even if they are important? Who does a journalist work for, or to whom are they responsible? What do we talk about when we talk about journalistic ethics? What should we pay attention to when thinking about the media-politics-capital triad?
This event is part of a series of three workshops, led by Ayşe Çavdar. These workshops will introduce BCB students to the basics of practical journalism, through discussion and hands-on work writing and editing stories. Students should commit to all three sessions, and will be expected to do reading and preparatory work and to have individual consultations between sessions. Students who satisfactorily complete the workshop series will be eligible for 2 ECTS credits.
To enroll in this workshop series, please write to Ayse ([email protected]) by Friday March 10, 2023. Ayşe Çavdar completed her BA degree in Journalism at Ankara University and received her MA in History at Boğaziçi University in Turkey. She finalized her doctoral thesis titled "The Loss of Modesty: The Adventure of Muslim Family from Neighborhood to Gated Community" at the European University of Viadrina in 2014 . She was a postdoctoral fellow at Käte Hamburger Kolleg - Center for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg in 2017. She continued her studies as a visiting scholar at Philipps University in Marburg for two years between 2018-2020. Recently, she has been a visiting scholar at Bard College Berlin.
Alongside her academic career, Çavdar has been a journalist for three decades, working on diverse political, cultural, and social issues. She participated in and worked for different NGOs in Turkey professionally and as a volunteer.
P98A Lecture Hall Join us in the P98A Lecture Hall for a screening of the documentary Academic_Puszi, followed by a Q&A session with the director, Dr. Georgiana Turculet. Academic_Puszi addresses pressing questions about hypermobility, precarity and solidarity in today's academia. This event is sponsored by the Philipp-Schwartz-Initiative of the Alexander-von-Humbolt Foundation. Georgiana Turculet is a Principal Investigator for an EU-funded Marie S. Curie research project titled On Just Movement, JUSMOVE, hosted by the Law Department at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona and the Big Data Science Laboratory at Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara (WUT). Her project aims at impacting scholarly and public contemporary debates, as well as stakeholders, such as United Nations agencies and the European Union. She holds a PhD from the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations of Central European University (CEU). Her Alma Mater University CEU was forced to move together with its students and faculty, from Hungary to Austria, which explains her interest in academic freedom and mobility.Sponsored by: Philipp-Schwartz-Initiative .
Pankow Join BCB and the borough of Pankow for the annual Pankow Gegen Rassismus(weeks against racism). While we all strive to oppose and eliminate prejudice throughout the year, this annual tradition brings special attention to opposing racism in our neighborhood. Several events, some organized by BCB and some organized externally, will take place over the two week period from March 20 to April 2. All students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend. AntiRacism Reading Group! Are you ready to commit to anti-racism & addressing racial inequality?
If the answer is yes, Then join the AR group! The group will discuss anti-racist texts and materials and engage in critical and productive reflection. First session and a guided tour through the Janusz-Korczak-Bibliothek (local library) will take place between 28th and 31st of March! (date tbc)
Email Kat Southern for more information and register via the sign up form! March 20 - April 2 Book fair featuring BIPoC authors and literature on (anti-)racism
Discover books and other media by BIPoc authors and literature addressing (anti)racism, migration, and diversity. At the following libraries, you'll find special displays of books during the Weeks against Racism.
Locations/Libraries: 1) Janusz-Korczak-Bibliothek 2) Bettina-von-Arnim Bibliothek 3) Stadtteilbibliothek Buch March 25, 2pm Vietnamese Cooking Crash Course @Club Asiaticus e.V. | viTa | VINAPHUNU Schönfließer Str. 7 10439 Berlin
For all lovers of Vietnamese cuisine and culture. This crash course teaches you the Vietnamese language in the form of a cooking course. A traditional dish usually consists of, among other things, Vietnamese herbs and spices. Simple sentences and a vocabulary will be taught to the participants. At the common meal afterwards there is time and space for questions and exchange.
Since over 30 years, VINAPHUNU offers Vietnamese women in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow, legal advice and social consulting, various courses e.g. German/ handcrafts/ health classes, divers activities for families and children, plus large library.
Please register in advance via phone or mail. Contact: Aymi Tran ([email protected] / 015251903106) March 30, 10am Theatre Workshop: Generational Healing by Migra Up! @Scaling Spaces, Berliner Straße 80, 13189 Berlin
What if you could tap into the wisdom and love of the ancestors that lies behind our painful family stories? In this 3-hour workshop you're invited to explore what you've inherited and how we you can best tap into that wisdom.
Migra UP! is the place for migrant self-organization in Pankow. They promote cooperation between Pankow migrant associations and the local administration. Empowerment is written in capital letters at Migra UP! and professional networking is our most important offer.
W15 Cafe Please join us for an artist talk with Tanya Marcuse, Professor of Photography at Bard College, at the W15 Cafeteria. Bring your lunch or enjoy light refreshments provided at the event.
Tanya Marcuse makes large-scale photographs investigating the imperiled natural world in elaborately constructed tableaux. In 2005, she embarked on a three part, 14 year project – Fruitless | Fallen | Woven –moving from iconic, serial photographs of trees in Fruitless to immersive, allegorical works in Fallen and Woven. Fueled by the Biblical narrative of the fall from Eden, these related projects use increasingly fantastical imagery and more elaborate methods of construction to explore cycles of growth and decay and the dynamic tension between the passage of time and the photographic medium.
Tanya's photographs are in many collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art and the George Eastman Museum. Her books include Undergarments and Armor (Nazraeli Press, 2005), Wax Bodies, (Nazraeli Press, 2012), Fruitless | Fallen | Woven (Radius Press, 2019) and Ink (Fall Line Press (2021). Tanya Marcuse is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Peter S. Reed Grant and MacDowell Fellowships. Tanya is a student of martial arts and boxing to cultivate mental and physical discipline. She teaches at Bard College.
Academic Writing: Constructing Arguments and Using Evidence
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 12–2 pm
K30 Lounge This event is part of "Academic Writing: The Research Paper", a series of events designed to help students improve their academic scholarship. Two workshops will take place over four days. No advance registration is required.
All four events will take place from 12:00-2:00pm in the K30 Lounge.
Workshop 1 Part 1: Research Methods and Practices | Feb 23, 2023 Part 2: Structuring a Research Paper | Feb 27, 2023
Workshop 2 Part 1: Constructing Arguments and Using Evidence | Mar 21, 2023 Part 2: Writing and Editing Strategies | Mar 23, 2023
*NEW DATE!* You and Your Residence Permit after Graduation: BCB Alum Panel
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 12:30–1:30 pm
W16 SR9 This event, originally scheduled for March 14, will now take place on Tuesday, March 21 in W16 SR9.
Wondering what comes next after the student residence permit**? Come chat with three BCB alum about their different post-BCB residence permit paths!
**Student residence permits expire with exmatriculation unless you’re enrolled in another degree program and the specific program isn’t stipulated in your residence permit!
This event is part of Student Life's Preparing for Life After BCB event series. If you are unable to attend this event, there will be a similar event on Thursday, April 27.Sponsored by: Student Life.
FIELD TRIP! Give Something Back to Berlin: Newroz Community Gathering
Registration Deadline: Sunday, March 19
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 4–7 pm
Give Something Back to Berlin, an award-winning association that connects migrants, refugees, and locals to engage in building an open and inclusive society kindly invited us to join their Newroz Community Gathering - Newroz is the Kurdish celebration of Nowruz; the arrival of spring and new year in Kurdish culture.
We will have an exclusive introduction meeting with Ragip Zik, Co-Director on Communications and Partnerships at Give Something Back to Berlin, where you can learn about Internship & Volunteering Opportunities and all their programs like music and language teaching, social cooking, arts & activism.
Afterwards we can explore their program offerings, e.g. in music and language teaching, social cooking, arts & activism and spend some leisure time there together!
Please register via email to: [email protected] by Sunday, March 19th. We need to have a rough idea of the group size. Ragıp brings with him over 20 years’ experience in project management, communication, and international cooperation. Working for NGOs in Greece, Italy, and Turkey, Ragıp coordinated multi-partner projects across the Euro-Mediterranean area, the Middle East, and the Caucasus in the past. Ragıp holds a PhD in Sociology from Freie Universität Berlin and blends his civil society practice with social research. He has taught on nonprofit communications at various universities and occasionally serves as a trainer and consultant in human rights, advocacy, peacebuilding, and youth work. His research on visual activism, social movements, and digital media appeared in academic and non-academic publications and also in artistic formats. At GSBTB, Ragıp is part of the Senior Management Team. At the same time, he oversees strategic communications and partnership efforts.
Taking Exception to Norm: The Caretaker Governments in Bangladesh
with Riaz Partha Khan
Wednesday, March 22, 2023 12:30–1:30 pm
P24 SR8 As both legal norm and political exception, the interim regimes in Bangladesh conducted a series of successful elections, but succumbed to partisan conflicts and emergency rule. Riaz Partha Khan will present his paper on these caretaker governments and turns to Walter Benjamin's materialist conception of history to identify the specificities of each extreme event by means of conceptual distinctions that shed light on the overall caretaker phenomena. The paper will be available in print format at the event and a digital version is attached to this invitation.
This lecture is open to faculty and staff. It is presented by Dr. Riaz Partha Khanas part of the Faculty Colloquium series, organized by Gale Raj-Reichert, Ewa Atanassow, and Nina Tecklenburg.
P98 Lecture Hall Join us for an in-person info session on "Applying to Graduate Schools in Germany: What are your options and how to boost your chances” presented by Mr. Matthew Poet from the Hertie School, one of Europe’s top policy schools (Berlin, Germany).
K30 Lounge This event is part of "Academic Writing: The Research Paper", a series of events designed to help students improve their academic scholarship. Two workshops will take place over four days. No advance registration is required.
All four events will take place from 12:00-2:00pm in the K30 Lounge.
Workshop 1 Part 1: Research Methods and Practices | Feb 23, 2023 Part 2: Structuring a Research Paper | Feb 27, 2023
Workshop 2 Part 1: Constructing Arguments and Using Evidence | Mar 21, 2023 Part 2: Writing and Editing Strategies | Mar 23, 2023
P24 SR5 In the second workshop, we will briefly discuss which news writing techniques we can use for which media environment. Students should come with a news draft/proposal to pitch at this workshop, which will now function as a news room.
This event is part of a series of three workshops, led by Ayşe Çavdar. These workshops will introduce BCB students to the basics of practical journalism, through discussion and hands-on work writing and editing stories. Students should commit to all three sessions, and will be expected to do reading and preparatory work and to have individual consultations between sessions. Students who satisfactorily complete the workshop series will be eligible for 2 ECTS credits.
To enroll in this workshop series, please write to Ayse ([email protected]) by Friday March 10, 2023. Ayşe Çavdar completed her BA degree in Journalism at Ankara University and received her MA in History at Boğaziçi University in Turkey. She finalized her doctoral thesis titled "The Loss of Modesty: The Adventure of Muslim Family from Neighborhood to Gated Community" at the European University of Viadrina in 2014 . She was a postdoctoral fellow at Käte Hamburger Kolleg - Center for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg in 2017. She continued her studies as a visiting scholar at Philipps University in Marburg for two years between 2018-2020. Recently, she has been a visiting scholar at Bard College Berlin.
Alongside her academic career, Çavdar has been a journalist for three decades, working on diverse political, cultural, and social issues. She participated in and worked for different NGOs in Turkey professionally and as a volunteer.
Reading Group: Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh/The Persian Book of Kings with Dr. Ahmad Ghani Khosrawi
*EXTENDED* Enrollment Deadline: Monday, March 27, 2023
Runs through Saturday, May 20, 2023
This set of four reading group sessions lead by will introduce students to the Persian poet Ferdowsi and his 10th century epic poem and classic of world literature, Shahnameh/The Persian Book of Kings. Participants should commit to all four sessions, and will be expected to complete readings, preparatory work, and individual consultations between sessions. Students who satisfactorily complete the workshop series will be eligible for 2 ECTS credits.
This event isgenerously supported by the Philipp Schwartz Initiative of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
To enroll, please write to Maheen Atif by Monday, March 27, 2023.
Schedule:
Session I | Tuesday March 28, 2023, 12:30 - 1:30 pm | Lecture Hall The series will begin with an introductory talk by Dr. Khosrawi on Ferdowsi and the Shahnameh in the context of world literature. All are invited to this event, including those not participating in the reading group.
Session II | Tuesday April 18, 2023, 12:30-1:30pm | P98A SR4 Close reading and discussion of selected sections of the Shahnameh; Ferdowsi and his world
Session III | Tuesday May 2, 2023, 12:30-1:30pm | P98A SR4 Close reading and discussion of selected sections of the Shahnameh; Impact of the Shahnameh on the formation of other types of Persian literature and culture
Session IV: Closing Event | To be scheduled for Completion Week Reflections on the Shahnameh and contemporary Afghanistan, combined with Afghan music, food and photography exhibition (TBC) Prof. Ahmad Ghani Khosrawi is a Philipp Schwartz Fellow at Bard College Berlin. He was previously the Dean of Humanities and Literature faculty of Herat University. A scholar and humanitarian, he is the author of 15 books and more than 50 articles published in several countries. He serves as a Senior Cultural Advisor of the Belt and Road Initiative 2018-2030 (China), and is a member of International linguistics, a member of ECHO, and a researcher of AIL. He also founded the German department at Herat University. Prof. Khosrawi received his Bachelor’s degree in Humanities and Literature from Herat University, and received his Masters and Doctorate degrees from the Jamia Millia Islamic University in New Delhi, India.Sponsored by: Philipp Schwartz Initiative, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
A Theatrical Adaptation of Christina Rossetti's 1862 Poem
Friday, March 24, 2023 – Saturday, March 25, 2023 5–7:45 pm
The Factory Goblin Marketis an experimental theater production inspired by the poem of the same name by Christina Rosetti, originally published in 1862. This production attempts to capture the essence of Rosetti's narrative and transform her words into a visually immersive performance. Goblin Market (1862) tells the story of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, as they interact with a group of river goblins who sell them forbidden fruits. Considering the relevance of the poem's subtext, which hints at sexual assault and drug addiction, Goblin Market (2023) plans to introduce an unabriged interpretation of this Pre-Paphaelite text by abstracting it into a re-imagined modernity.
Goblin Market investigates the embodied experience of oral transmission, particularly in its darker manifestations. As an embodied experience, the theater as a medium is the ideal experimentation ground for what Freud termed “the uncanny" (das unheimlich); this phenomenon ultimately springs forth from the incongruity between our bodily experience and the space that surrounds us.
This event is organized by Michaella Toscano and Nora Stone.
Performance times are: Friday, March 24: 5:00 - 5:30 pm Saturday, March 25: 6:00 - 6:30 pm
W15 Cafe Another year, another Ramadan! A month for reflection and evaluation as much as it is a time for community and solidarity. The BCB community is invited to come together to break fast and enjoy a community Iftar. All are welcome!
If you wish to help with organizing and cooking, contact the DEI office or come by the kitchen at K24 starting at 4 pm.
The Factory Due to a scheduling change, this event will begin at 7pm.
This semester's Open Mic Night will take place in The Factory as usual, and the stage is open to any student willing to perform. Whether it's singing, playing an instrument, reading from a book about feet, dancing, stand-up comedy, it doesn't matter! It's a place to showcase the talents of our student body. Sign up in advance to perform here. Sign-ups will also be available at the event.
A Theatrical Adaptation of Christina Rossetti's 1862 Poem
Friday, March 24, 2023 – Saturday, March 25, 2023 5–7:45 pm
The Factory Goblin Marketis an experimental theater production inspired by the poem of the same name by Christina Rosetti, originally published in 1862. This production attempts to capture the essence of Rosetti's narrative and transform her words into a visually immersive performance. Goblin Market (1862) tells the story of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, as they interact with a group of river goblins who sell them forbidden fruits. Considering the relevance of the poem's subtext, which hints at sexual assault and drug addiction, Goblin Market (2023) plans to introduce an unabriged interpretation of this Pre-Paphaelite text by abstracting it into a re-imagined modernity.
Goblin Market investigates the embodied experience of oral transmission, particularly in its darker manifestations. As an embodied experience, the theater as a medium is the ideal experimentation ground for what Freud termed “the uncanny" (das unheimlich); this phenomenon ultimately springs forth from the incongruity between our bodily experience and the space that surrounds us.
This event is organized by Michaella Toscano and Nora Stone.
Performance times are: Friday, March 24: 5:00 - 5:30 pm Saturday, March 25: 6:00 - 6:30 pm
WIRWIR On Sunday, April 26, WIRWIR will host the launch of BCB arts faculty April Gertler's new book, Bread Banter.
From Berlin Independents Guide:
April Gertler will be launching her latest book, BREAD BANTER - a collection of over 30 recipes and stories of Irish Soda Bread, which was a component of the lecture baking performance TAKE THE CAKE; Soda Bread in Ireland late last year. The book is the result of over 2 years of research in Ireland which is considered the national cake of the country.
In the words of Julia Gelezova from Terms of Consumption, which commissioned the project, "The cake plays the protagonist in TAKE THE CAKE and I believe it is because the cake embodies nostalgia, commensality through the act of slicing and sharing, and the opportunity to dissect the ingredients to explore the historical and social landscape of, in this case, a country. The gathering of oral stories, memories, and recipes is an empowering part of [the] process, allowing the participants to own, and at times reclaim, their stories and share the intrinsic knowledge that has been passed on through generations.”
BREAD BANTER - the book and a video of the lecture performance TAKE THE CAKE: SODA BREAD will be on view in addition to some fresh ready to eat Soda Bread with homemade butter!
The event will take place at WIRWIR, Stuttgarter Str. 56, 12059 Berlin. You can find out more about the event here.
Why Do We 'Care'? Roots and Consequences of the Feminist Revolution in Iran
Monday, March 27, 2023 12:30–1:15 pm
P98a Lecture Hall / Online Despite its uniqueness and unpredictability, the current Jin Jiyan Azadi revolution in Iran is not born out of a void. In this lecture, Firoozeh Farvardin, a feminist activist/scholar, addresses the historical contexts of political discontent and mobilizations against gender/sexual politics of the Islamic Republic in the past four decades that led to the revolutionary movement in the present. She also discusses the meanings and implications of calling the revolutionary movement in Iran a feminist revolution. The lecture will be concluded with an invitation to think about the implications and long-term impacts of the Jin Jiyan Azadi revolution on transnational feminist struggles.
Bard College Berlin students are encouraged to attend the lecture in-person in the P98a Lecture Hall. OSUN attendees can join the lecture online using this link.
This event is part of the Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice lecture series and is organized with the course SE294 Social Justice & Transnational Feminism. Firoozeh Farvardin is a feminist activist/scholar based in Berlin. She is currently a postdoc fellow of IRGAC (International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-strategies), Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, where she is working on gender/sexual (counter) strategies of authoritarian neoliberalism in Iran. She is also an affiliated researcher at MERGE (Middle East and Migration Research Network) and a former guest lecturer at the Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research (BIM), Humboldt University of Berlin. Sponsored by: OSUN / Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice Project.
Campus Exhibition: Feminist Movements Across Space and Time
Monday, March 27, 2023 1:30–3 pm
Waldstr. 15 Cafe Bard College Berlin, with help from the Civic Engagement office, invites you to attend a special one-day gallery exhibition entitled Feminist Movements Across Space and Time. This event will begin following the lecture "Why Do We 'Care'? Roots and Consequences of the Feminist Revolution in Iran," which gallery visitors are encouraged to attend. This event is open to the public.
Throughout March 2023, BCB community members were invited to share their interests, perspectives or personal experiences regarding women’s rights movements from across the world. Ranging from particular initiatives, demands, protest slogan or images that the contributors find especially powerful, inspiring or urgent, the exhibition features visual and written personal reflections and testimonies to the many shapes and shades of women's rights movements and feminist fights across space and time.
The full list of contributors will be announced closer to the date of the event.
The Factory For all who would like to know how to collaborate productively, how to survive as an independent artist group or how to succeed as a feminist performance collective in the male dominated theater and arts business: Award-winning performance collective She She Pop will hold a one-hour Q&A session about their work as a feminist performance collective whose member have been collaborating for 30 years.
This Q&A session is part of the course Self-Instructions: Creating Autobiographical Performance with She She Pop (Nina Tecklenburg, in collaboration with She She Pop)
Online Author Fatin Abbas returns to our campus (via zoom) to talk about her debut novel, Ghost Season. Weaving a sweeping history of the breakup of Sudan into the lives of five captivating characters, Abbas explores the porous and perilous nature of borders—whether they be national, ethnic, or religious—and the profound consequences for those who cross them. The book discussion is part of SO285 Migration, Space, and Power, a course taught by BCB Migration Studies professor Agata Lisiak who will also moderate the event.
The event takes place within the framework of and is funded by the Mellon Cluster of Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education. A Zoom link will be included in the "This Week at BCB" email on 3.23 & 3.27. Fatin Abbas is the author of Ghost Season: A Novel (W.W. Norton 2023; also forthcoming in the UK and Germany). Her short fiction has appeared in Granta, Freeman’s: The Best New Writing on Arrival, The Warwick Review, and Friction, amongst other places, and her journalism and non-fiction have appeared in The Nation, Le Monde diplomatique, Zeit Online, and Africa Is a Country, among other venues. She has been a Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholar (UK), a Writer-in-Residence at the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature (Switzerland), a Maison Baldwin St. Paul de Vence Writer-in-Residence (France), an Austrian Federal Chancellery/KulturKontakt Artist-in-Residence (Austria), and has held fellowships at the Akademie Schloss Solitude and Schloss Wiepersdorf in Germany. She gained her BA in English from the University of Cambridge, her PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Hunter College, CUNY. Sponsored by: Mellon Cluster of Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education.
Logistical Power in American Political Development
with Boris Vormann
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 12:30–1:30 pm
P24 SR8 How is it possible that the American state, often characterized as weak and decentralized, has built the largest circulation systems in human history? Putting under scrutiny widespread myths of American statelessness, this talk fleshes out how the United States’s ascent to global economic hegemony rested, fundamentally, on the consolidation of the state apparatus and its direct and indirect investments in logistical infrastructure.
This lecture is open to faculty and staff. It is presented by Prof. Dr. Boris Vormann, director of the Politics Concentration at BCB, as part of the Faculty Colloquium series, organized by Gale Raj-Reichert, Ewa Atanassow, and Nina Tecklenburg.Sponsored by: Faculty Colloquium.
Online This talk centers on documentation and self-documentation following the brutal full-scale military Russian invasion of Ukraine. Queer feminist scholars, artists, and activists Ira Tantsiura, Marina Gaba, and Natalka Chezh explore the challenges of creating and preserving war memories and experiences from a decolonial perspective. Panelists make timely contributions to the discussion of the ethics and politics of war documentation through various examples: from planning a feminist film festival to the self-documentation of performance art in the streets to the autoethnographic sketch on changes that experiencing living in wartime brings to one's writing.
This event is sponsored by the Threatened Scholars Initiative of the Open Society University Network (TSI-OSUN) and open to the public. It is part of the series New Directions in Research and Art: Perspectives from Ukraine.
Meeting Link Natalka Chezh is a burned-out grassroots queer anarcho activist who now sporadically translates texts of her comrades and writes her own, most of which will never see the light of day.
Marina Gaba is an artist who works with performance, photo and video documentation, and zine-making. She grew up and established herself as an artist in Dnipro, where she still lives.
Ira Tantsiura is an independent researcher, queer feminist activist, and film festival programmer.Sponsored by: TSI-OSUN.
The Living Open Archive: Visualizing Human Rights Narratives and Contextualizing Legal Interventions
An Online Workshop with ECCHR
Friday, March 31, 2023 5–7 pm
Online To register for this event, please email Zeynep Kıvılcım no later than March 25, 2023.
Together with partners worldwide and those affected by human rights abuses, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) uses legal interventions to combat the impunity of perpetrators responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and border violence.
ECCHR’s current project, the Living Open Archive project, aims to render legal interventions visible, as well as to provide a platform to access and explore the last 15 years of accumulated knowledge within the organization and wider network. As both an active tool and a repository of knowledge, the Archive will help generate new ways of visualizing the possibilities and challenges of human rights work that extend beyond singular cases.
In this workshop, Dr. Annelen Micus (Director of the ECCHR Institute for Legal Intervention) and Rieke Ernst (Coordinator of Activism & Art at ECCHR) will present the in-progress Living Open Archive project and lead a critical discussion that reflects on the narratives that shape, as well as emerge from, human rights work. The workshop will bring together students from the Bard College in NY and in Berlin to work together with ECCHR to develop creative approaches and ideas for the Archive to become a living tool accessible for a wide range of human rights activists.
ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.Sponsored by: ECCHR, OSUN.
Graduating from college is an exciting time--but also a scary one, filled with lots of questions about what comes next. While you may need to address your existential quandaries in the classroom, Student Life has put together a series of events to tackle your logistical questions about post-grad life. These eight events will take place in two sessions over the Spring Semester.
W16 Reading Room Congratulations! You have your BCB diploma in hand and are ready for your next adventure. Whether your next adventure keeps you in Berlin or somewhere else across the globe, there are a few things that you need to take care of before you leave.
Remember all of that bureaucracy you went through when you first arrived in Berlin? Now it’s time to do it all in reverse. In this session, we will cover how to complete your Abmeldung (if you are leaving Germany) or Ummeldung (if you are staying in Germany), terminate various contracts (health insurance, phone, bank, etc.) and more!
This event is part of Student Life's Preparing for Life After BCB event series. If you are unable to attend this event, there will be a second session on Tuesday, April 25.Sponsored by: Student Life.
*RESCHEDULED* Transnational Feminist Solidarity as Praxis
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 6–7:15 pm
Online In this talk, Sara Salem focuses on a trip Angela Davis made to Egypt in the early 1980s to explore questions of transnational feminist solidarity and feminist difference. The focus on Marxism and feminism enabled Egyptian feminists to forge solidarity with women across the globe, including Angela Davis, who located gender oppression within the same structures—namely, capitalism and imperialism. Focusing on this trip, Salem shows how the encounters Davis had with feminists during this trip reveal much about the workings of transnational feminism as praxis, as well as the possibilities of feminist solidarity that sees difference as productive rather than divisive.
This event is part of the OSUN Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice series. Sara Salem is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the London School of Economics. Her research interests include postcolonial studies, Marxist theory, and global histories of anticolonialism. Her recently published book with Cambridge University Press is entitled Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony (2020). She is currently thinking and writing about ghosts and anticolonial archives.
A Neighborhood Tour Along Historical Sites of Civic Engagement
Thursday, March 9, 2023 10 am – 12:15 pm
Meet at the Old Parish Church (Breite Straße 37) Did you know that just a few feet from campus, only a couple of years ago, senior citzens successfully occupied their senior community center for over 90 days to prevent it from gentrification? Did you know that the secret center of the feminist and queer movement in the GDR dictatorship was the Old Parish Church in Pankow--pretty much right next to the residential district of the political dictatorship elite? Award-winning novelist, historian, performer and former GDR civil rights activist Annett Gröschner takes us to places of civil disobedience against political and economic oppression of the past 50 years. The various historical snapshots will form the basis of a midterm site-specific performance project "Performing Pankow", but for now, the BCB community is warmly invited to join the class and discover the historical layers of our BCB neighborhood in a collective walk.
To RSVP, please contact Nina Tecklenburg.Sponsored by: Nina Tecklenburg / TH164 Critical Acts: Introduction to Performance Studies.
W15 Cafe Join the Student Life Committee for a discussion of mental health resources available on campus. All members of the BCB community are welcome to attend. This event takes place in the W15 Cafe.
W15 Cafe Students are warmly invited to this information session in the W15 Cafe about Open Society University Network certificate programs, hosted by BCB faculty and staff. Those who enter certificate programs join cohorts of like-minded students from across the globe taking OSUN classes and participating in co-curricular activities. Students can enroll in three certificate programs: Civic Engagement, Human Rights, and Public Policy & Economic Analysis.
This session will take place on Monday, March 13 from 1:00-2:00pm at the W15 Cafe. The deadline to apply for OSUN certificates is Monday, April 3, 2023.
Online Nature is a layer-cake concept: it has always meant many things and has never been morally neutral. In early modern Europe, radically new natural philosophies shifted the meanings of nature but did not put an end to its moral authority. We can understand the continuing moral resonances of nature by exploring early modern ideas still present in modern ideas of nature.
This online lecture, organized by the Early Modern Science core course in collaboration with Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, is open to all interested members of the BCB community. Participants can register for the lecture here. Prof. Dr. Lorraine Daston is director emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, visiting professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and permanent fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. Her award-winning work spans a broad range of topics in the early modern and modern history of science. Professor Daston is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and a corresponding member of the British Academy. Sponsored by: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
K24, SR11 It's never too early to start tackling some of the following key questions: What do I want from my career? What are my core values? What are my strengths and aptitudes? Soft skills and hard skills? Do I want to specialize in certain technical skills or take on a management role?
We will also explore different routes to go after graduation: - Internships - Traineeships - Entry-Level Jobs - Grad Programs in Germany and Abroad - Ausbildung & Weiterbildung - Fellowships/Stipends/Residencies - Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr / Peace Corps / Travel & Work Abroad - Own Business, Start-Up, NGO - Arbeitslosigkeit (for EU citizens)
W15 Cafe The Berlin housing market can be daunting. Come learn the difference between hot and cold rent, hear tips and tricks for finding an apartment or WG, and hear from people who have successfully navigated this process. Don’t wait, May is sooner than you think!
This event is part of Student Life's Preparing for Life After BCB event series. For students unable to attend this event, a repeat session will take place on Tuesday, May 9.Sponsored by: Student Life.
K24 Reading Room On behalf of LGBCBTQ+, we are proud to announce the official opening of the Queer Community Library on Wednesday, March 15th from 7:30 p.m. till 9 p.m in the reading room of K24. The Queer Community Library was established in order to bring queer literature, history, and awareness to our community. By starting this library, we hope to elevate queer perspectives, resources and politics on campus, which are too often missing in our personal and academic lives. This library is open to all members of BCB, and we hope that both LGBTQIA+ people and allies can utilize this space and engage with the texts to spark further conversation and action.
Come by to celebrate the official opening with snacks and drinks. We'll be hearing from a Berlin-based queer guest speaker sharing some of their work and we invite our very own BCB community to come and share readings from their own or others' queer work (prose, poetry, spoken word, visual art) during the event! If you'd like to present, please use this signup link.
Would you like to share queer-related works, but rather not during the event? We encourage you to add them to our digital library/archive, where you can find political essays, literature, studies and art.
We hope to see you all there next week for an evening full of queer works and creations, love and celebration!
P24 SR5 Bard College Berlin students are warmly invited to a series of three workshops led by Ayşe Çavdar. These workshops will introduce BCB students to the basics of practical journalism, through discussion and hands-on work writing and editing stories. Students should commit to all three sessions, and will be expected to do reading and preparatory work and to have individual consultations between sessions. Students who satisfactorily complete the workshop series will be eligible for 2 ECTS credits.
To enroll in this workshop series, please write to Ayse ([email protected]) by Friday March 10, 2023.
In this workshop we will discuss the basic concepts and processes of journalism. What is news, what does a newsroom look like, how does it function, and why is not all information news, even if they are important? Who does a journalist work for, or to whom are they responsible? What do we talk about when we talk about journalistic ethics? What should we pay attention to when thinking about the media-politics-capital triad?
In the second workshop, we will briefly discuss which news writing techniques we can use for which media environment. Students should come with a news draft/proposal to pitch at this workshop, which will now function as a news room.
Workshop III: Collaborative Journalism April/May Date TBD, will be selected according to participant availability
Journalism is a collective work. Each journalist is also the editor and ombudsman of their fellow journalists. Why does this have to be so? What distinguishes a freelancer journalist from a journalist working for an organization? How can we edit most effectively? Students will present their draft news reports to discuss and edit collectively. Ayşe Çavdar completed her BA degree in Journalism at Ankara University and received her MA in History at Boğaziçi University in Turkey. She finalized her doctoral thesis titled "The Loss of Modesty: The Adventure of Muslim Family from Neighborhood to Gated Community" at the European University of Viadrina in 2014 . She was a postdoctoral fellow at Käte Hamburger Kolleg - Center for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg in 2017. She continued her studies as a visiting scholar at Philipps University in Marburg for two years between 2018-2020. Recently, she has been a visiting scholar at Bard College Berlin.
Alongside her academic career, Çavdar has been a journalist for three decades, working on diverse political, cultural, and social issues. She participated in and worked for different NGOs in Turkey professionally and as a volunteer.
P24 SR5 In this workshop, we will discuss the basic concepts and processes of journalism. What is news, what does a newsroom look like, how does it function, and why is not all information news, even if they are important? Who does a journalist work for, or to whom are they responsible? What do we talk about when we talk about journalistic ethics? What should we pay attention to when thinking about the media-politics-capital triad?
This event is part of a series of three workshops, led by Ayşe Çavdar. These workshops will introduce BCB students to the basics of practical journalism, through discussion and hands-on work writing and editing stories. Students should commit to all three sessions, and will be expected to do reading and preparatory work and to have individual consultations between sessions. Students who satisfactorily complete the workshop series will be eligible for 2 ECTS credits.
To enroll in this workshop series, please write to Ayse ([email protected]) by Friday March 10, 2023. Ayşe Çavdar completed her BA degree in Journalism at Ankara University and received her MA in History at Boğaziçi University in Turkey. She finalized her doctoral thesis titled "The Loss of Modesty: The Adventure of Muslim Family from Neighborhood to Gated Community" at the European University of Viadrina in 2014 . She was a postdoctoral fellow at Käte Hamburger Kolleg - Center for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg in 2017. She continued her studies as a visiting scholar at Philipps University in Marburg for two years between 2018-2020. Recently, she has been a visiting scholar at Bard College Berlin.
Alongside her academic career, Çavdar has been a journalist for three decades, working on diverse political, cultural, and social issues. She participated in and worked for different NGOs in Turkey professionally and as a volunteer.
P98A Lecture Hall Join us in the P98A Lecture Hall for a screening of the documentary Academic_Puszi, followed by a Q&A session with the director, Dr. Georgiana Turculet. Academic_Puszi addresses pressing questions about hypermobility, precarity and solidarity in today's academia. This event is sponsored by the Philipp-Schwartz-Initiative of the Alexander-von-Humbolt Foundation. Georgiana Turculet is a Principal Investigator for an EU-funded Marie S. Curie research project titled On Just Movement, JUSMOVE, hosted by the Law Department at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona and the Big Data Science Laboratory at Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara (WUT). Her project aims at impacting scholarly and public contemporary debates, as well as stakeholders, such as United Nations agencies and the European Union. She holds a PhD from the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations of Central European University (CEU). Her Alma Mater University CEU was forced to move together with its students and faculty, from Hungary to Austria, which explains her interest in academic freedom and mobility.Sponsored by: Philipp-Schwartz-Initiative .
Pankow Join BCB and the borough of Pankow for the annual Pankow Gegen Rassismus(weeks against racism). While we all strive to oppose and eliminate prejudice throughout the year, this annual tradition brings special attention to opposing racism in our neighborhood. Several events, some organized by BCB and some organized externally, will take place over the two week period from March 20 to April 2. All students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend. AntiRacism Reading Group! Are you ready to commit to anti-racism & addressing racial inequality?
If the answer is yes, Then join the AR group! The group will discuss anti-racist texts and materials and engage in critical and productive reflection. First session and a guided tour through the Janusz-Korczak-Bibliothek (local library) will take place between 28th and 31st of March! (date tbc)
Email Kat Southern for more information and register via the sign up form! March 20 - April 2 Book fair featuring BIPoC authors and literature on (anti-)racism
Discover books and other media by BIPoc authors and literature addressing (anti)racism, migration, and diversity. At the following libraries, you'll find special displays of books during the Weeks against Racism.
Locations/Libraries: 1) Janusz-Korczak-Bibliothek 2) Bettina-von-Arnim Bibliothek 3) Stadtteilbibliothek Buch March 25, 2pm Vietnamese Cooking Crash Course @Club Asiaticus e.V. | viTa | VINAPHUNU Schönfließer Str. 7 10439 Berlin
For all lovers of Vietnamese cuisine and culture. This crash course teaches you the Vietnamese language in the form of a cooking course. A traditional dish usually consists of, among other things, Vietnamese herbs and spices. Simple sentences and a vocabulary will be taught to the participants. At the common meal afterwards there is time and space for questions and exchange.
Since over 30 years, VINAPHUNU offers Vietnamese women in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow, legal advice and social consulting, various courses e.g. German/ handcrafts/ health classes, divers activities for families and children, plus large library.
Please register in advance via phone or mail. Contact: Aymi Tran ([email protected] / 015251903106) March 30, 10am Theatre Workshop: Generational Healing by Migra Up! @Scaling Spaces, Berliner Straße 80, 13189 Berlin
What if you could tap into the wisdom and love of the ancestors that lies behind our painful family stories? In this 3-hour workshop you're invited to explore what you've inherited and how we you can best tap into that wisdom.
Migra UP! is the place for migrant self-organization in Pankow. They promote cooperation between Pankow migrant associations and the local administration. Empowerment is written in capital letters at Migra UP! and professional networking is our most important offer.
W15 Cafe Please join us for an artist talk with Tanya Marcuse, Professor of Photography at Bard College, at the W15 Cafeteria. Bring your lunch or enjoy light refreshments provided at the event.
Tanya Marcuse makes large-scale photographs investigating the imperiled natural world in elaborately constructed tableaux. In 2005, she embarked on a three part, 14 year project – Fruitless | Fallen | Woven –moving from iconic, serial photographs of trees in Fruitless to immersive, allegorical works in Fallen and Woven. Fueled by the Biblical narrative of the fall from Eden, these related projects use increasingly fantastical imagery and more elaborate methods of construction to explore cycles of growth and decay and the dynamic tension between the passage of time and the photographic medium.
Tanya's photographs are in many collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art and the George Eastman Museum. Her books include Undergarments and Armor (Nazraeli Press, 2005), Wax Bodies, (Nazraeli Press, 2012), Fruitless | Fallen | Woven (Radius Press, 2019) and Ink (Fall Line Press (2021). Tanya Marcuse is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Peter S. Reed Grant and MacDowell Fellowships. Tanya is a student of martial arts and boxing to cultivate mental and physical discipline. She teaches at Bard College.
Academic Writing: Constructing Arguments and Using Evidence
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 12–2 pm
K30 Lounge This event is part of "Academic Writing: The Research Paper", a series of events designed to help students improve their academic scholarship. Two workshops will take place over four days. No advance registration is required.
All four events will take place from 12:00-2:00pm in the K30 Lounge.
Workshop 1 Part 1: Research Methods and Practices | Feb 23, 2023 Part 2: Structuring a Research Paper | Feb 27, 2023
Workshop 2 Part 1: Constructing Arguments and Using Evidence | Mar 21, 2023 Part 2: Writing and Editing Strategies | Mar 23, 2023
*NEW DATE!* You and Your Residence Permit after Graduation: BCB Alum Panel
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 12:30–1:30 pm
W16 SR9 This event, originally scheduled for March 14, will now take place on Tuesday, March 21 in W16 SR9.
Wondering what comes next after the student residence permit**? Come chat with three BCB alum about their different post-BCB residence permit paths!
**Student residence permits expire with exmatriculation unless you’re enrolled in another degree program and the specific program isn’t stipulated in your residence permit!
This event is part of Student Life's Preparing for Life After BCB event series. If you are unable to attend this event, there will be a similar event on Thursday, April 27.Sponsored by: Student Life.
FIELD TRIP! Give Something Back to Berlin: Newroz Community Gathering
Registration Deadline: Sunday, March 19
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 4–7 pm
Give Something Back to Berlin, an award-winning association that connects migrants, refugees, and locals to engage in building an open and inclusive society kindly invited us to join their Newroz Community Gathering - Newroz is the Kurdish celebration of Nowruz; the arrival of spring and new year in Kurdish culture.
We will have an exclusive introduction meeting with Ragip Zik, Co-Director on Communications and Partnerships at Give Something Back to Berlin, where you can learn about Internship & Volunteering Opportunities and all their programs like music and language teaching, social cooking, arts & activism.
Afterwards we can explore their program offerings, e.g. in music and language teaching, social cooking, arts & activism and spend some leisure time there together!
Please register via email to: [email protected] by Sunday, March 19th. We need to have a rough idea of the group size. Ragıp brings with him over 20 years’ experience in project management, communication, and international cooperation. Working for NGOs in Greece, Italy, and Turkey, Ragıp coordinated multi-partner projects across the Euro-Mediterranean area, the Middle East, and the Caucasus in the past. Ragıp holds a PhD in Sociology from Freie Universität Berlin and blends his civil society practice with social research. He has taught on nonprofit communications at various universities and occasionally serves as a trainer and consultant in human rights, advocacy, peacebuilding, and youth work. His research on visual activism, social movements, and digital media appeared in academic and non-academic publications and also in artistic formats. At GSBTB, Ragıp is part of the Senior Management Team. At the same time, he oversees strategic communications and partnership efforts.
Taking Exception to Norm: The Caretaker Governments in Bangladesh
with Riaz Partha Khan
Wednesday, March 22, 2023 12:30–1:30 pm
P24 SR8 As both legal norm and political exception, the interim regimes in Bangladesh conducted a series of successful elections, but succumbed to partisan conflicts and emergency rule. Riaz Partha Khan will present his paper on these caretaker governments and turns to Walter Benjamin's materialist conception of history to identify the specificities of each extreme event by means of conceptual distinctions that shed light on the overall caretaker phenomena. The paper will be available in print format at the event and a digital version is attached to this invitation.
This lecture is open to faculty and staff. It is presented by Dr. Riaz Partha Khanas part of the Faculty Colloquium series, organized by Gale Raj-Reichert, Ewa Atanassow, and Nina Tecklenburg.
P98 Lecture Hall Join us for an in-person info session on "Applying to Graduate Schools in Germany: What are your options and how to boost your chances” presented by Mr. Matthew Poet from the Hertie School, one of Europe’s top policy schools (Berlin, Germany).
K30 Lounge This event is part of "Academic Writing: The Research Paper", a series of events designed to help students improve their academic scholarship. Two workshops will take place over four days. No advance registration is required.
All four events will take place from 12:00-2:00pm in the K30 Lounge.
Workshop 1 Part 1: Research Methods and Practices | Feb 23, 2023 Part 2: Structuring a Research Paper | Feb 27, 2023
Workshop 2 Part 1: Constructing Arguments and Using Evidence | Mar 21, 2023 Part 2: Writing and Editing Strategies | Mar 23, 2023
P24 SR5 In the second workshop, we will briefly discuss which news writing techniques we can use for which media environment. Students should come with a news draft/proposal to pitch at this workshop, which will now function as a news room.
This event is part of a series of three workshops, led by Ayşe Çavdar. These workshops will introduce BCB students to the basics of practical journalism, through discussion and hands-on work writing and editing stories. Students should commit to all three sessions, and will be expected to do reading and preparatory work and to have individual consultations between sessions. Students who satisfactorily complete the workshop series will be eligible for 2 ECTS credits.
To enroll in this workshop series, please write to Ayse ([email protected]) by Friday March 10, 2023. Ayşe Çavdar completed her BA degree in Journalism at Ankara University and received her MA in History at Boğaziçi University in Turkey. She finalized her doctoral thesis titled "The Loss of Modesty: The Adventure of Muslim Family from Neighborhood to Gated Community" at the European University of Viadrina in 2014 . She was a postdoctoral fellow at Käte Hamburger Kolleg - Center for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg in 2017. She continued her studies as a visiting scholar at Philipps University in Marburg for two years between 2018-2020. Recently, she has been a visiting scholar at Bard College Berlin.
Alongside her academic career, Çavdar has been a journalist for three decades, working on diverse political, cultural, and social issues. She participated in and worked for different NGOs in Turkey professionally and as a volunteer.
Reading Group: Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh/The Persian Book of Kings with Dr. Ahmad Ghani Khosrawi
*EXTENDED* Enrollment Deadline: Monday, March 27, 2023
Runs through Saturday, May 20, 2023
This set of four reading group sessions lead by will introduce students to the Persian poet Ferdowsi and his 10th century epic poem and classic of world literature, Shahnameh/The Persian Book of Kings. Participants should commit to all four sessions, and will be expected to complete readings, preparatory work, and individual consultations between sessions. Students who satisfactorily complete the workshop series will be eligible for 2 ECTS credits.
This event isgenerously supported by the Philipp Schwartz Initiative of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
To enroll, please write to Maheen Atif by Monday, March 27, 2023.
Schedule:
Session I | Tuesday March 28, 2023, 12:30 - 1:30 pm | Lecture Hall The series will begin with an introductory talk by Dr. Khosrawi on Ferdowsi and the Shahnameh in the context of world literature. All are invited to this event, including those not participating in the reading group.
Session II | Tuesday April 18, 2023, 12:30-1:30pm | P98A SR4 Close reading and discussion of selected sections of the Shahnameh; Ferdowsi and his world
Session III | Tuesday May 2, 2023, 12:30-1:30pm | P98A SR4 Close reading and discussion of selected sections of the Shahnameh; Impact of the Shahnameh on the formation of other types of Persian literature and culture
Session IV: Closing Event | To be scheduled for Completion Week Reflections on the Shahnameh and contemporary Afghanistan, combined with Afghan music, food and photography exhibition (TBC) Prof. Ahmad Ghani Khosrawi is a Philipp Schwartz Fellow at Bard College Berlin. He was previously the Dean of Humanities and Literature faculty of Herat University. A scholar and humanitarian, he is the author of 15 books and more than 50 articles published in several countries. He serves as a Senior Cultural Advisor of the Belt and Road Initiative 2018-2030 (China), and is a member of International linguistics, a member of ECHO, and a researcher of AIL. He also founded the German department at Herat University. Prof. Khosrawi received his Bachelor’s degree in Humanities and Literature from Herat University, and received his Masters and Doctorate degrees from the Jamia Millia Islamic University in New Delhi, India.Sponsored by: Philipp Schwartz Initiative, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
A Theatrical Adaptation of Christina Rossetti's 1862 Poem
Friday, March 24, 2023 – Saturday, March 25, 2023 5–7:45 pm
The Factory Goblin Marketis an experimental theater production inspired by the poem of the same name by Christina Rosetti, originally published in 1862. This production attempts to capture the essence of Rosetti's narrative and transform her words into a visually immersive performance. Goblin Market (1862) tells the story of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, as they interact with a group of river goblins who sell them forbidden fruits. Considering the relevance of the poem's subtext, which hints at sexual assault and drug addiction, Goblin Market (2023) plans to introduce an unabriged interpretation of this Pre-Paphaelite text by abstracting it into a re-imagined modernity.
Goblin Market investigates the embodied experience of oral transmission, particularly in its darker manifestations. As an embodied experience, the theater as a medium is the ideal experimentation ground for what Freud termed “the uncanny" (das unheimlich); this phenomenon ultimately springs forth from the incongruity between our bodily experience and the space that surrounds us.
This event is organized by Michaella Toscano and Nora Stone.
Performance times are: Friday, March 24: 5:00 - 5:30 pm Saturday, March 25: 6:00 - 6:30 pm
W15 Cafe Another year, another Ramadan! A month for reflection and evaluation as much as it is a time for community and solidarity. The BCB community is invited to come together to break fast and enjoy a community Iftar. All are welcome!
If you wish to help with organizing and cooking, contact the DEI office or come by the kitchen at K24 starting at 4 pm.
The Factory Due to a scheduling change, this event will begin at 7pm.
This semester's Open Mic Night will take place in The Factory as usual, and the stage is open to any student willing to perform. Whether it's singing, playing an instrument, reading from a book about feet, dancing, stand-up comedy, it doesn't matter! It's a place to showcase the talents of our student body. Sign up in advance to perform here. Sign-ups will also be available at the event.
A Theatrical Adaptation of Christina Rossetti's 1862 Poem
Friday, March 24, 2023 – Saturday, March 25, 2023 5–7:45 pm
The Factory Goblin Marketis an experimental theater production inspired by the poem of the same name by Christina Rosetti, originally published in 1862. This production attempts to capture the essence of Rosetti's narrative and transform her words into a visually immersive performance. Goblin Market (1862) tells the story of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, as they interact with a group of river goblins who sell them forbidden fruits. Considering the relevance of the poem's subtext, which hints at sexual assault and drug addiction, Goblin Market (2023) plans to introduce an unabriged interpretation of this Pre-Paphaelite text by abstracting it into a re-imagined modernity.
Goblin Market investigates the embodied experience of oral transmission, particularly in its darker manifestations. As an embodied experience, the theater as a medium is the ideal experimentation ground for what Freud termed “the uncanny" (das unheimlich); this phenomenon ultimately springs forth from the incongruity between our bodily experience and the space that surrounds us.
This event is organized by Michaella Toscano and Nora Stone.
Performance times are: Friday, March 24: 5:00 - 5:30 pm Saturday, March 25: 6:00 - 6:30 pm
WIRWIR On Sunday, April 26, WIRWIR will host the launch of BCB arts faculty April Gertler's new book, Bread Banter.
From Berlin Independents Guide:
April Gertler will be launching her latest book, BREAD BANTER - a collection of over 30 recipes and stories of Irish Soda Bread, which was a component of the lecture baking performance TAKE THE CAKE; Soda Bread in Ireland late last year. The book is the result of over 2 years of research in Ireland which is considered the national cake of the country.
In the words of Julia Gelezova from Terms of Consumption, which commissioned the project, "The cake plays the protagonist in TAKE THE CAKE and I believe it is because the cake embodies nostalgia, commensality through the act of slicing and sharing, and the opportunity to dissect the ingredients to explore the historical and social landscape of, in this case, a country. The gathering of oral stories, memories, and recipes is an empowering part of [the] process, allowing the participants to own, and at times reclaim, their stories and share the intrinsic knowledge that has been passed on through generations.”
BREAD BANTER - the book and a video of the lecture performance TAKE THE CAKE: SODA BREAD will be on view in addition to some fresh ready to eat Soda Bread with homemade butter!
The event will take place at WIRWIR, Stuttgarter Str. 56, 12059 Berlin. You can find out more about the event here.
Why Do We 'Care'? Roots and Consequences of the Feminist Revolution in Iran
Monday, March 27, 2023 12:30–1:15 pm
P98a Lecture Hall / Online Despite its uniqueness and unpredictability, the current Jin Jiyan Azadi revolution in Iran is not born out of a void. In this lecture, Firoozeh Farvardin, a feminist activist/scholar, addresses the historical contexts of political discontent and mobilizations against gender/sexual politics of the Islamic Republic in the past four decades that led to the revolutionary movement in the present. She also discusses the meanings and implications of calling the revolutionary movement in Iran a feminist revolution. The lecture will be concluded with an invitation to think about the implications and long-term impacts of the Jin Jiyan Azadi revolution on transnational feminist struggles.
Bard College Berlin students are encouraged to attend the lecture in-person in the P98a Lecture Hall. OSUN attendees can join the lecture online using this link.
This event is part of the Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice lecture series and is organized with the course SE294 Social Justice & Transnational Feminism. Firoozeh Farvardin is a feminist activist/scholar based in Berlin. She is currently a postdoc fellow of IRGAC (International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-strategies), Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, where she is working on gender/sexual (counter) strategies of authoritarian neoliberalism in Iran. She is also an affiliated researcher at MERGE (Middle East and Migration Research Network) and a former guest lecturer at the Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research (BIM), Humboldt University of Berlin. Sponsored by: OSUN / Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice Project.
Campus Exhibition: Feminist Movements Across Space and Time
Monday, March 27, 2023 1:30–3 pm
Waldstr. 15 Cafe Bard College Berlin, with help from the Civic Engagement office, invites you to attend a special one-day gallery exhibition entitled Feminist Movements Across Space and Time. This event will begin following the lecture "Why Do We 'Care'? Roots and Consequences of the Feminist Revolution in Iran," which gallery visitors are encouraged to attend. This event is open to the public.
Throughout March 2023, BCB community members were invited to share their interests, perspectives or personal experiences regarding women’s rights movements from across the world. Ranging from particular initiatives, demands, protest slogan or images that the contributors find especially powerful, inspiring or urgent, the exhibition features visual and written personal reflections and testimonies to the many shapes and shades of women's rights movements and feminist fights across space and time.
The full list of contributors will be announced closer to the date of the event.
The Factory For all who would like to know how to collaborate productively, how to survive as an independent artist group or how to succeed as a feminist performance collective in the male dominated theater and arts business: Award-winning performance collective She She Pop will hold a one-hour Q&A session about their work as a feminist performance collective whose member have been collaborating for 30 years.
This Q&A session is part of the course Self-Instructions: Creating Autobiographical Performance with She She Pop (Nina Tecklenburg, in collaboration with She She Pop)
Online Author Fatin Abbas returns to our campus (via zoom) to talk about her debut novel, Ghost Season. Weaving a sweeping history of the breakup of Sudan into the lives of five captivating characters, Abbas explores the porous and perilous nature of borders—whether they be national, ethnic, or religious—and the profound consequences for those who cross them. The book discussion is part of SO285 Migration, Space, and Power, a course taught by BCB Migration Studies professor Agata Lisiak who will also moderate the event.
The event takes place within the framework of and is funded by the Mellon Cluster of Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education. A Zoom link will be included in the "This Week at BCB" email on 3.23 & 3.27. Fatin Abbas is the author of Ghost Season: A Novel (W.W. Norton 2023; also forthcoming in the UK and Germany). Her short fiction has appeared in Granta, Freeman’s: The Best New Writing on Arrival, The Warwick Review, and Friction, amongst other places, and her journalism and non-fiction have appeared in The Nation, Le Monde diplomatique, Zeit Online, and Africa Is a Country, among other venues. She has been a Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholar (UK), a Writer-in-Residence at the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature (Switzerland), a Maison Baldwin St. Paul de Vence Writer-in-Residence (France), an Austrian Federal Chancellery/KulturKontakt Artist-in-Residence (Austria), and has held fellowships at the Akademie Schloss Solitude and Schloss Wiepersdorf in Germany. She gained her BA in English from the University of Cambridge, her PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Hunter College, CUNY. Sponsored by: Mellon Cluster of Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education.
Logistical Power in American Political Development
with Boris Vormann
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 12:30–1:30 pm
P24 SR8 How is it possible that the American state, often characterized as weak and decentralized, has built the largest circulation systems in human history? Putting under scrutiny widespread myths of American statelessness, this talk fleshes out how the United States’s ascent to global economic hegemony rested, fundamentally, on the consolidation of the state apparatus and its direct and indirect investments in logistical infrastructure.
This lecture is open to faculty and staff. It is presented by Prof. Dr. Boris Vormann, director of the Politics Concentration at BCB, as part of the Faculty Colloquium series, organized by Gale Raj-Reichert, Ewa Atanassow, and Nina Tecklenburg.Sponsored by: Faculty Colloquium.
Online This talk centers on documentation and self-documentation following the brutal full-scale military Russian invasion of Ukraine. Queer feminist scholars, artists, and activists Ira Tantsiura, Marina Gaba, and Natalka Chezh explore the challenges of creating and preserving war memories and experiences from a decolonial perspective. Panelists make timely contributions to the discussion of the ethics and politics of war documentation through various examples: from planning a feminist film festival to the self-documentation of performance art in the streets to the autoethnographic sketch on changes that experiencing living in wartime brings to one's writing.
This event is sponsored by the Threatened Scholars Initiative of the Open Society University Network (TSI-OSUN) and open to the public. It is part of the series New Directions in Research and Art: Perspectives from Ukraine.
Meeting Link Natalka Chezh is a burned-out grassroots queer anarcho activist who now sporadically translates texts of her comrades and writes her own, most of which will never see the light of day.
Marina Gaba is an artist who works with performance, photo and video documentation, and zine-making. She grew up and established herself as an artist in Dnipro, where she still lives.
Ira Tantsiura is an independent researcher, queer feminist activist, and film festival programmer.Sponsored by: TSI-OSUN.
The Living Open Archive: Visualizing Human Rights Narratives and Contextualizing Legal Interventions
An Online Workshop with ECCHR
Friday, March 31, 2023 5–7 pm
Online To register for this event, please email Zeynep Kıvılcım no later than March 25, 2023.
Together with partners worldwide and those affected by human rights abuses, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) uses legal interventions to combat the impunity of perpetrators responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and border violence.
ECCHR’s current project, the Living Open Archive project, aims to render legal interventions visible, as well as to provide a platform to access and explore the last 15 years of accumulated knowledge within the organization and wider network. As both an active tool and a repository of knowledge, the Archive will help generate new ways of visualizing the possibilities and challenges of human rights work that extend beyond singular cases.
In this workshop, Dr. Annelen Micus (Director of the ECCHR Institute for Legal Intervention) and Rieke Ernst (Coordinator of Activism & Art at ECCHR) will present the in-progress Living Open Archive project and lead a critical discussion that reflects on the narratives that shape, as well as emerge from, human rights work. The workshop will bring together students from the Bard College in NY and in Berlin to work together with ECCHR to develop creative approaches and ideas for the Archive to become a living tool accessible for a wide range of human rights activists.
ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.Sponsored by: ECCHR, OSUN.
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