Omar G. Encarnación for Time: “50 Years After Franco’s Death, Spain Confronts Its Dark Past”
Writing for Time, Omar G. Encarnación, Charles Flint Kellogg Professor of Politics in the Division of Social Studies, wrote about the transformation of Spain since the death of dictator Francisco Franco 50 years ago.
Omar G. Encarnación for Time: “50 Years After Franco’s Death, Spain Confronts Its Dark Past”
Among other measures, Sánchez’s government exhumed and relocated Franco’s remains “in the interest of national reconciliation,” reformed teaching surrounding Franco’s legacy, and expanded reparation for Franco’s victims. Spain is not immune to the worldwide rise of far-right movements, Encarnación writes, as evidenced by the rise of Vox, a far-right party that “vehemently rejects Sánchez’s historical memory agenda.” However, the recent, collective memory of dictatorship, he argues, may help to inoculate Spain against these trends: “Sánchez’s robust embrace of historical memory could not have come at a more opportune time for Spain. Aside from giving Franco’s victims some measure of accountability and reminding the younger generations of the historic sacrifices that made democracy possible, it is a powerful wake-up call about the risks posed by the far-right.”
Bard's Politics Program gives students a well-rounded understanding of political theory, American politics, comparative politics, and international relations, studying the choices we can make as individuals and the fates of communities, nations, and states.
Post Date: 11-25-2025
Upstate Films Hosts Youth Voting Rights Book Launch and Documentary Screening on November 18
On November 18 at 5 pm, Upstate Films at the Starr Theater in Rhinebeck is hosting a special multi-media presentation of the book, Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses, and four short documentaries focusing on the fight for voting rights on US college campuses. Introduced by Bard College President Leon Botstein, this free event features a conversation with Bard College Vice President Jonathan Becker, alum Seamus Heady ’22, and constitutional rights attorney Yael Bromberg.Upstate Films Hosts Youth Voting Rights Book Launch and Documentary Screening on November 18
Introduced by Bard College President Leon Botstein, Event Features Conversation with Bard College Vice President Jonathan Becker, Alum Seamus Heady ’22, and Constitutional Rights Attorney Yael Bromberg
On November 18 at 5 pm, Upstate Films at the Starr Theater in Rhinebeck is hosting a special multi-media presentation of a book and four short documentaries focusing on the fight for voting rights on US college campuses. The event will feature a reading and conversation with book editors, Jonathan Becker and Yael Bromberg, and with documentary producer Seamus Heady. It will be introduced by Bard College President Leon Botstein. The event is free and open to the public. Tickets can be secured here.The book, Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses, coedited by Becker and Bromberg, uses the history of the 26th Amendment and the ongoing fight to promote and defend youth voting rights as a prism through which to teach the history of the struggle for the fundamental right to vote in the United States.
The book and the documentaries focus on case studies of four institutions – Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Bard College. These cases, which emerged from a joint course that united faculty and students from all four institutions, offer unique insights into the role of college communities in the fight for suffrage, and their contributions to the evolution of the right to vote.
Bard College President Leon Botstein says: “This remarkable and inspiring book and the accompanying documentaries tell us about the struggle for voting rights at Bard and at three Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Readers will learn how college communities can and must promote core democratic freedoms, rights and practices. The authors’ achievement testifies to the indispensable link between higher education and democracy.”
The book is coedited and includes chapters by Jonathan Becker, professor of political studies, vice president for academic affairs and director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College, and Yael Bromberg, Esq., a constitutional rights litigator, leading legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and election law professor at American University Washington College of Law.
Jonathan Becker says: “The book and film, A Poll to Call Our Own, have particular resonance in Dutchess County, where the fight for Bard and Vassar students to vote locally and have polling places on college campuses campus took place over nearly a quarter century. The lessons of the book are particularly important today, as we see the shadow of authoritarianism creeping across the country.”
Yael Bromberg says: “It is fitting that we are launching this book release in Dutchess County. What started as successful litigations to secure an on-campus polling site at Bard College, then motivated a state mandate to secure the mechanism on campuses across the state. These efforts evolved from litigation and advocacy into an ongoing national academic partnership and resulting book, which examines evolution of the right to vote from the perspective of college communities. We look forward to sharing these lessons in the midst of this moment of constitutional crisis.”
The films were directed by Seamus Heady ’22 and Mariia Pankova MA ’24 in Human Rights and the Arts. Heady says: “As a lifelong resident of Dutchess County, I was shocked and disheartened to learn of the barriers local students have faced in casting their ballots. The multi-campus collaboration allowed us not only to situate Bard's story in a national context, but to draw on the rich activist history of all four campuses. When you start making these connections across geography and history, the authoritarian playbook is really laid bare, and we get to see what strategies have prevailed in resisting that.”
For free tickets, go here. Books will be for sale courtesy of Oblong Books.
Further information on the event can be found here. More information on the book can be found at: https://cce.bard.edu/get-involved/election/youth-voting-rights-book/
Post Date: 11-05-2025
Professor Omar G. Encarnación for TIME Magazine: “Why Bolsonaro’s Conviction Matters”
For TIME magazine, Omar G. Encarnación, Charles Flint Kellogg Professor of Politics at Bard College, examines the significance of the recent conviction of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup to stay in power following his defeat in the 2022 Brazilian election.Professor Omar G. Encarnación for TIME Magazine: “Why Bolsonaro’s Conviction Matters”
The Politics Program at Bard welcomes students who care about politics and want to reason critically about political outcomes and debates at the local, national, and international levels. The program is designed to inform responsible participation in American and global public affairs, and prepares students for work and further study in political science, international affairs, public policy, law, cultural studies, and related fields.
Further reading: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/brazil/irony-trumps-spat-brazil
Post Date: 09-24-2025
More News
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Omar G. Encarnación Published in the New York Times Opinion Section
Omar G. Encarnación Published in the New York Times Opinion Section
Professor Omar G. Encarnación wrote about Spain’s recent innovations in human rights for the New York Times Opinion Section. His essay “Spain Is an Example to the World” argues Spain has taken a “humane and pragmatic approach” to migration, welcoming in a large number of immigrants from outside Europe. Spain’s economy depends on immigrant workers, Encarnación writes, and the country has progressive attitudes about immigration in general. Despite recent challenges, the country is proving immigration is “a resource for growth and renewal that Spain’s peers spurn at their cost.”
Encarnación studies South American and Southern European politics, focused on democratization, social movements, and LGBTQ politics. He has taught at Bard since 1998.
Post Date: 08-13-2025
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Professor Simon Gilhooley Wins an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship
Professor Simon Gilhooley Wins an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship
Associate Professor of Politics Simon Gilhooley received an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Massachusetts Historical Society for 2025–26. The fellowship will support his project "The Declaration of Independence as Constitutional Authority in the Long Nineteenth Century," which studies how political actors across American history have invoked the Declaration not just as a rhetorical device but as a set of principles to guide interpretation of the Constitution. He is one of only nine individuals offered an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for the upcoming academic year.
Gilhooley’s book project will focus on the correspondence of Declaration signers John Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert Treat Paine, and the papers of key political families of the period, all of which he will consult during the fellowship. Awardees receive $3,000 to complete four weeks of residency.
Post Date: 06-10-2025
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William Helman ’25 Receives Hudson Institute Fellowship
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Lucas G. Pinheiro Named a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study
Lucas G. Pinheiro Named a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study
Assistant Professor of Politics Lucas G. Pinheiro has been named a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study located in Princeton, New Jersey, for the 2025-2026 academic year. One of two scholars chosen from liberal arts colleges, he will join 21 colleagues to pursue a year of intense study focused on interdisciplinary exchange. The Institute for Advanced Study was founded in 1930 as a scholarly refuge where members could pursue research without administrative responsibilities.
Pinheiro will use his time at the Institute to work on his book project Factories of Modernity: Political Thought in the Capitalist Epoch. The book imagines the factory as a foundational institution in the histories of modern political thought and global capitalism, using case studies to trace the factory’s evolution across Britain, Africa, and the Americas. Pinheiro’s research focuses on the development of global capitalism, empire, racial slavery, and abolition in the Atlantic world from the late 17th century to today.
Post Date: 05-19-2025
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Omar G. Encarnación Reflects on the Legacy of the First Latin American Pope
Omar G. Encarnación Reflects on the Legacy of the First Latin American Pope
For Time magazine, Omar G. Encarnación, Charles Flint Kellogg Professor of Politics at Bard, considers the legacy of Pope Francis after his passing on Easter Monday. Although Francis did not reverse the decline of Catholicism in Latin America, as the Vatican had hoped, he did transform the Church in the image of Latin America, writes Encarnación. In his first papal announcement, Francis denounced the twin evils of poverty and inequality, citing “idolatry of money” and criticizing “unfettered capitalism as a new tyranny,” ideas drawn from Liberation Theology, a progressive philosophy originating in Latin America that married Marxist critiques of capitalism with traditional Catholic concerns for the poor and marginalized. The Argentine pontiff’s second legacy, informed by an understanding of the devastating impacts of Amazonian deforestation especially on vulnerable populations, was that he “unambiguously aligned the Vatican with the fight against climate change.” Pope Francis’s third and most surprising legacy, asserts Encarnación, was his support of the LGBTQ community’s struggle for dignity and respect, a perspective shaped by the divisive culture war over same-sex marriage in Argentina, the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage in July 2010. “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” the Pope once said when asked about homosexuals in the Catholic clergy. Encarnación writes, “he made the Church more progressive at a time when the far-right is ascendant around the globe. Whether that direction continues will be up to the next Pontiff. But one thing is certain: Francis will be a tough act to follow.”
Post Date: 04-23-2025
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Ella Walko ’26 Recognized for Voter Registration, Education, and Turnout Efforts
Ella Walko ’26 Recognized for Voter Registration, Education, and Turnout Efforts
Walko ’26 Is One of 232 College Students Nationwide Recognized for Their Nonpartisan Voter Registration and Turnout Successes in 2024
Bard College and the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) honored Ella Walko ’26 as part of the fourth annual ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll. The 2025 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll recognizes college students at participating campuses who have gone above and beyond to advance nonpartisan student voter registration, education and turnout efforts in their communities. Ella Walko ’26 is one of 232 students who mobilized their fellow students to make their voices heard in a historic election cycle. At Bard, Walko is majoring in politics with a concentration in gender and sexuality studies. She is actively involved with Election@Bard, a student-led initiative that helps students register to vote, provides information about candidates, hosts forums in which candidates and students can meet, and protects the rights of students to vote and have their votes counted.
“The Bard Center for Civic Engagement chose to honor Ella on the All-In Student Honor Roll because she exemplifies all of the best qualities of a Bard student,” said Sarah deVeer ’17, Bard CCE Outreach Coordinator Special Events Administrator. “Ella is a dynamic and consistently hardworking leader, who has risen to meet the needs of her generation through her work on the Election@Bard team. Ella is one of the most communicative, intentional, and collaborative forces of a student that I have had the pleasure of working with. We look forward to seeing where Ella's post-Bard journey takes her.”
“I am honored to receive this award, but what is even more gratifying is working alongside my peers and team members to build an informed, engaged, and civically active community,” said Walko. “I’m so proud of our efforts this past year and all we’ve been able to accomplish!”
“Whether they hosted nonpartisan voter registration drives or early voting celebrations, the students honored today made sure their peers did not sleep in on Election Day,” said Jen Domagal-Goldman, Executive Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “With 100,000 local elections happening across the country in 2025, ALL IN students continue to ensure that everyone on their campuses has the information they need to cast their ballot. The 232 Student Voting Honor Roll honorees lead by example, making nonpartisan voter participation a lifelong habit for themselves and their peers.”
A recent survey from CIRCLE found that 48% of under-35 youth who did not vote in 2024 heard little or nothing at all about how to vote, compared to the 15% of under-35 youth who cast their ballots. By integrating nonpartisan voter registration and education into campus life, colleges and universities can have a measurable impact in encouraging students to become active and engaged citizens.
The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student civic engagement. With the support of the ALL IN staff, campuses that join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge complete a set of action items to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning, voter participation and ongoing engagement in our democracy on their campus. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge engages more than 1,000 institutions enrolling over 10 million students in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Campuses can join ALL IN here.
Post Date: 04-10-2025
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