Alumni/ae

At Kunst Queer Kiez, an initiative formed by Bard College Berlin alum Bose Sarmiento ‘21 (they/them), participants explore what it means to be queer and what it takes to artistically engage with the topic. Kunst Queer Kiez (KQK) is a “youth centered pedagogic project that uses artistic methods like dance, theater, and creative writing to investigate topics of identity, discrimination, queerness, and empowerment.” Bose, along with their collaborators Fanny (no pronouns), and Flo (she/no pronouns), founded the initiative with the aim of creating projects that integrate their personal and educational values with those of the youth community in the city.

“We want to make art out of everyday experiences and focus on Berlin, a place where queer life takes place,” says Bose about the project. “We want to engage with the question of what it means to be visible as a queer person and what it means to be safe.”

Participants take part in meetings every two weeks at JuKuz Youth Center. After being greeted by vegan snacks, attendees start off the meeting with some body-based exercises and theater games. They then break off into smaller groups to explore storytelling exercises and creative writing prompts. KQK meetings use creative approaches to tackle questions such as: “What does it mean to be queer? How can we make art out of our experiences and engage with topics that are hard to talk about? And what kind of queer spaces exist in Berlin?” At the safe and accessible space facilitated by KQK, these questions are approached through an intersectional perspective, something Bose took from their time at BCB.

Bose graduated with a degree in Arts and Aesthetics, and enjoyed the academic freedom to tailor their studies in ways that suited their interests. “I was able to take music courses and performance classes alongside courses focused on politics and migration in a way that complemented each other,” Bose says. They were often encouraged to use artistic approaches, something that has deeply influenced Bose’s way of analyzing and working.

Bose encourages current students and recent graduates to take advantage of the funding opportunities available in Germany for funding similar projects. Kunst Queer Kiez in particular is possible due to a collaboration with JuKuz, the center that hosts the meetings, as well as from public funding from the German state. Receiving approval for such projects can be hard work, but as Bose explains, the funding is a chance to “create spaces that align with your own values.” Through this funding, KQK can shape their vision of “accessibility, care, and engagement.”

Students from BCB are invited to participate in KQK meetings, which take place at JuKuz every two weeks. “Participants don’t need any theater experience, nor do they have to identify with the Queer label. The only requirement is to be aged between 15 and 25, and to have an interest in the topics that we address,” shares Bose.

The next meetings are planned for December 5, 2023 and February 19, 2024, from 17:00 to 19:00 at JuKuz. For more information, you can follow them on Instagram at @kunst.queer.kiez or contact them via email at [email protected].

Bard College Berlin alum Roman Steindler ‘21 recently took part in the highly prestigious International Parliamentary Scholarship offered by the German Bundestag, gaining invaluable hands-on knowledge about German democracy directly from the source.

The program offers 120 young university graduates from 50 countries around the world an invaluable chance to witness the highest workings of the German government up close. Roman learned many valuable lessons from this experience, and enjoyed the opportunity to apply the critical thinking skills he obtained during his interdisciplinary liberal arts education at Bard College Berlin in a practical way. When asked how his time at Bard College Berlin prepared him for a position at the Bundestag, he said, “The international student body at BCB pushed me to think on an intercultural level that was way ahead of most of my peers, and helped me appreciate contrasting viewpoints in a way that was helpful for political work.”

As part of the program, the participants are placed with a Member of Parliament as a full-time job. In this position, they write speeches, articles, and letters, and accompany their MPs to meetings of committees, political groups, and other events. Although he can’t discuss the specifics of his work due to confidentiality, he says, "Anyone who wants to work in the political space needs to be ready to move quickly and be ready to calmly address dynamic situations” in order to approach the rapidly changing atmosphere of politics effectively. 

In addition to working for the Bundestag, the networking opportunities offered through the program are one of the most invaluable aspects of the experience, including an internship that complements the practical aspect of the program. Roman’s internship included “a lot of educational programming for the entire peer group.” Through this experience, he learned about German politics more deeply, both on the international and the federal level, and learned a lot from discussing these findings with his peers and comparing notes on their respective stances.

The program is conducted entirely in German, and the level required to participate is extremely high. Roman was prepared for this by the in-depth application process, which gave him a sense of the level expected, and his participation in the program further confirmed just how rigorous it is. Roman is currently finishing his master's degree in political science and aims to work in a position as a strategic analyst in public service or to do work related to NGOs. 

More information about the program can be found on the German Bundestag website.

History professor Dr. Marion Detjen's former BCB Erasmus+ fellow, Luca Lupparelli, received the most prestigious prize for academic talent in Italy, the Premio America Giovani of the Fondazione Italia USA. The prize was awarded in the Parliament in Rome.

Lupparelli received his master's degree in Italian studies and European history from Perugia University in Italy. After finishing his degree, Lupparelli worked as Detjen’s research assistant at BCB over the summer of 2023. Detjen and Lupparelli are now working together on a project about the dissolution of the Pantheon Casa Editrice and the Italian exile of Helen and Kurt Wolff in the 1930s.

Read the full Italian article from Perugia University here.

Aryana Arian, an alumna of Bard College Berlin '20, was driven by her passion to create something that embodied the values deeply ingrained during her education at BCB. The outcome? Perediza, "the magazine that questions," a journal that delves into a wide array of global and interdisciplinary issues. This London-based print and digital publication explores topics ranging from media and climate change to art, style, and life. As Editor-in-Chief, Aryana applied her interdisciplinary education and networking opportunities from BCB to successfully launch the project.

“I learned everything from scratch,” Aryana says about the process behind creating Perediza. “I put myself to work for 10 months to really focus. I taught myself design, learned about the magazine business, the details of printing, and anything else that was needed to launch”. The magazine, which recently published its second edition, is the culmination of years of hard work and constant learning, produced from a desire to engage critically with the world through writing, art, and mixed media.

Collaboration is essential to Perediza. Aryana shares, “I envisioned something that would be a blend of a journal and a magazine—something fresh, innovative, and collaborative.” The realization of this vision was made possible by the network Aryana cultivated during her time at Bard College Berlin. Notably, Perediza's managing editor, Francesca Nicolodi, is a fellow BCB alumna. In addition, the magazine actively welcomes writing submissions and art collaborations from both current BCB students and alumni, fostering a dynamic space where the creative work of students can continue to shine beyond university.

Aryana recalls the profound effect the core curriculum at BCB had in shaping her way of viewing the world, teaching her the value in approaching problems from an interdisciplinary, critical lens that bridges the gap between a diverse set of fields. From philosophy to renaissance art, modernism, political economy, and aesthetic theory, the boundaries between disciplines were constantly questioned at BCB. Perediza aspires to extend this transformative effect to its readers, bringing academic subjects to the real world in an engaging, accessible way.

Beyond academic values, Perediza also draws inspiration from something equally precious that resulted from the BCB experience—personal connections. Aryana missed conversations between peers and the valuable insights gained from discussions among students, saying, “that was something I couldn’t really find after graduating and I longed for similarly enriching connections.” Perediza works to capture the essence of fleeting exchanges that are an invaluable facet of university life, and offers them a platform to be shared. Aryana says, “Bard College Berlin really has a special group of people that are very engaged with the world and how it works. That’s something that we can easily forget to appreciate until we lose it.”

Perediza is an ambitious project that connects university life to the world beyond, shaped by BCB’s educational values and networks that give a voice to a new generation in media. The second edition of the magazine—which explores aspects of self identity around nature, our surroundings, bodies, and even phones—can be ordered from the Perediza website or purchased at a select number of stores around the world. 

The final two episodes of Migration Studies Professor Agata Lisiak’s podcast Spatial Delight, a ten-part series which uses the work of geographer Doreen Massey to inspire critical thinking about space and power, were released this April and May.

The ninth episode, “Invasión Espacial,” was written and hosted by interdisciplinary artist and Bard College Berlin alumna Bose Sarmiento ’21. Bose transports listeners to the streets of Berlin on the 8th of March, International Women's Day. In the chaos of the many demonstrations taking place in the city on that day, Bose follows the music to find the Marea Abya Yala, a constellation of feminist collectives originating mostly from Latin America. This Spanish-language episode also features a conversation with anthropologist and dancer Cristina Barría Knopf, one of the leaders of the Comparsa Carnaval collective in Berlin. In addition to writing and hosting this episode, Bose is also the artist who designed Spatial Delight’s visual materials.

The tenth and final episode of Spatial Delight, “Time To Think,” addresses themes of precarity in the academic labor market and features interviews with two Bard College Berlin scholars: political scientist Aysuda Kölemen, who discusses threats to academic freedom posed by authoritarian regimes and neoliberal universities alike, and sociologist Aslı Vatansever, who talks about academic labor activism in Germany, where over 90% of academics work on precarious fixed-term contracts. Among the discussion topics for the episode is also their co-edited volume, Free As A Bird: Academic Freedom and Precarity in the Global North.