Alumni/ae

BCB alumnus and former PIESC scholar Karam Alhamad has published an article in Newsweek on the anniversary of the Syrian revolution. The article, “Eleven Years Later, War Rages on in Syria. It Won’t Stop if the West Remains Silent | Opinion,” is a personal piece documenting Karam’s own experiences in the war, inlcuding the impact being tortured and detained had on him and his family.  

“​​Assad has taken a large portion of our land. He has taken many of our lives. But he will never win the trust of Syrians, and—most importantly—he can never take our stories. This emboldens my belief that art is also a source of hope on the journey toward a free Syria.” 

Karam is a photographer, editor, journalist and activist. He received his Bachelors in Economics, Politics, and Social Thought from Bard College Berlin in 2020. Karam is currently completing a Masters in Public Policy at Yale University.

Read the full article on Newsweek >>

Bard College Berlin’s Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC), is a scholarship program for students from areas of crisis and conflict. Find our more on the PIESC webpage>>

Theater director Marie Schleef (Bard College ’14, BCB Spring ’13) has been named as one of the recipients of the inaugural Chanel Next Prize.
The Chanel Next prize is a new biannual award initiated by the French fashion label as part of the Chanel Culture Fund, which aims to support cultural innovators in advancing new ideas and greater representation in culture and society. 10 artists who are deemed to be redefining their respective fields receive 100,000 EUR prize money and also benefit from access to a network of mentors selected by the brand. The winners hail from a wide range of disciplines, including: music, dance, film, visual arts, and theater.

Marie Schleef completed her bachelor's in Theater and Performance at Bard College and spent the spring of 2013 at Bard College Berlin as part of the Study Abroad Program. She went on to study directing for theater at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch” in Berlin. Schleef directs and produces innovative and unconventional performance theater pieces. Her most newest piece: Die Geschichte einer Stunde//The Story of an Hour recently showed at the Ballhaus Ost in Berlin.

Read more on ARTnews >>
 

BCB alumnus Ido Nahari (EPST '19) wrote comments on the evacuation of Sharbat Gula, subject of Steve McCurry’s famous portrait “Afghan Girl,” from Afghanistan in an article for German newspaper taz.

End of November 2021 Steve McCurry announced that Sharbat Gula had been evacuated from Afghanistan with the help of the NGO Future Brilliance, the Italian government and the NFT Platform Metagood.

In his article Ido Nahari reflects critically on McCurry’s 1984 portrait of Gula well as the commercial success he has enjoyed thanks to the image, arguing that that this has resulted in the glamourizing of Gula’s hardship. He questions involvement of private companies such as Metagood in humanitarian actions stating that it was fame of Gula’s image which motivated her evacuation.

Read the full article on taz.de >>

BCB Professor of Art History Geoff Lehman is a guest on the podcast On the Green Track hosted by BCB alumna Ditke Grønvald (Humanities, Arts, and Social Thought ’18). The podcast explores the topics of travel and tourism from a intersectional and philosophical point of view, touching on the cultural and social aspects as well as issues of sustainability.

In the first of a two part episode, titled: “Travel and the Imagination” Prof. Lehman discusses how our dreams and internal life, including our response to art and media, influence us our travel choices and experiences.

Listen to the first part on Spotify here >>
Find out more about Dikte’s work on travel and tourism on the On The Green Track website >>
 

BCB alumnus and former PIESC scholar Sam Zamrik (HAST ’21) curated a three day writing and music workshop series at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) museum in Berlin.

The workshop series titled “The Pen and the Beat” and running from October 8 to 10, 2021, was part of a series of events dealing with migration, asylum, and exile, coordinated by the HKW to run alongside its oral history installation Archiv der Flucht (Archive of Refuge).

The first two workshops “Listening Critically” and “Between Weimar and Now” involved reading and free writing exercises and focused on creating space for the exchange of migrant and refugee narratives and the (re)definition of legal terminology surrounding asylum. In the third workshop “Refubeats” participants produced audio compositions on their smartphones inspired by the stories from the Archiv der Flucht installation.

The workshops were co-hosted by Sam Zamrik, BCB faculty member Ariane Simard, BCB alumnus Anas Maghrebi (Humanities, Arts, and Social Thought '21), and Syrian journalist Dima Kalaji.

Sam works as a freelance writer, poet and musician. Find out more about his work here >>