Five Bard College Graduates Win 2023 Fulbright Awards
Five Bard College graduates—Juliana Maitenaz ’22, Evan Tims ’19, Elias Ephron ’23, Eleanor Tappen ’23, and Macy Jenks ’23—have won 2023–24 Fulbright Awards for individually designed research projects, graduate study, and English teaching assistantships. During their grants, Fulbrighters meet, work, live with, and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences. The Fulbright program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think. Bard College is a Fulbright top producing institution.
Five Bard College Graduates Win 2023 Fulbright Awards
Five Bard College graduates have won 2023–24Fulbright Awards for individually designed research projects, graduate study, and English teaching assistantships. During their grants, Fulbrighters meet, work, live with, and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences. The Fulbright program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think. Bard College is a Fulbright top producing institution.
Juliana Maitenaz ’22, who graduated with a BA in Global and International Studies and a BM in Classical Percussion Performance, has been selected for an independent study–research Fulbright scholarship to Brazil for the 2023–24 academic year. Her project, “Rhythm and Statecraft,” seeks to identify Brazilian percussion and rhythms as a method of cultural communication. Maitenaz aims to conduct her research in São Paulo and will focus on how percussional elements in the Brazilian traditions of Carnival and Samba School performances are instrumental to the country’s statecraft and national identity. The goal of her research is to examine international communication and collaboration through cultural and musical diplomacy. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to learn more about the role Brazilian percussion plays as an inspiring means of cultural communication,” Maitenaz said.
Evan Tims ’19, who was a joint major in Written Arts and Human Rights with a focus on anthropology at Bard, has been selected for a Fulbright-Nehru independent study–research scholarship to India for the 2023–24 academic year. His project, “From the River to Tomorrow: Perceptions of Kolkata’s Water Future,” studies the perceptions of Kolkata’s water future among urban planners, infrastructure experts, and communities—such as those who work in river transport, fishing, and who live in housing along the banks—most vulnerable to water changes along the Hooghly River. He will analyze the dominant narratives of the city and river’s future and reference scientific and planning literature in understanding the points of confluence and divergence between scientific and colloquial understandings of the river, particularly as different stakeholder communities approach an uncertain water future. “In light of urban development and climate change, Kolkata’s water is facing significant change over the coming decades,” said Tims. “It is crucial to understand the complex, layered relationships between stakeholder communities as they seek to negotiate an increasingly uncertain water future.” While in India, Tims also plans to teach a climate fiction writing workshop. In 2021-2022, he was Bard’s first recipient of the yearlong Henry J. Luce Scholarship, which enabled him to conduct ethnographic research on Himalayan water futures and lead a climate writing workshop in Nepal and, later, in Bangladesh. Earlier this academic year, Tims won the prestigious Schwarzman Scholarship to China. As an undergraduate at Bard, Tims also won two Critical Language Scholarships to study Bangla in Kolkata during the summers of 2018 and 2019.
Elias Ephron ’23, a joint major in Political Studies and Spanish Studies, has been selected as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) to Spain for the 2023–24 academic year. While in Spain, Ephron hopes to engage with his host community through food, sharing recipes, hosting dinner parties, and cooking together; take part in Spain’s unique and visually stunning cultural events, like flamenco performances, and Semana Santa processions; visit the hometown of the great poet and playwright Federico García Lorca; and, as a queer individual, meet other queer people. “Having learned Spanish, French, and German to fluency or near-fluency, I understand that language learning requires many approaches. Some are more commonly thought of as ‘fun’ or ‘nascent’ modes of learning, while others more clearly resemble work. I hope to marry this divide, showing students that language learning is both labor and recreation; they may have to work hard, but it can be a great deal of fun, too,” said Ephron. In addition to his work as a writing tutor in the Bard Learning Commons, Ephron has received multiple awards, including the PEN America Fellowship and the Bard Center for the Study of Hate Internship Scholarship.
Eleanor Tappen ’23, a Spanish Studies major, has been selected as a Fulbright ETA to Mexico for the 2023–24 academic year. Tappen has studied abroad in Granada, Spain, received her TESOL certification (which involved 40 hours of training), volunteered in a local elementary school in the fall of 2022, and works as an ESL tutor at the Learning Commons. For Tappen, a Fulbright teaching assistantship in Mexico is an intersection of her academic interest in Mexican literature and her passion for accessible and equitable language learning. During her Fulbright year, Tappen intends to volunteer at a local community garden, a setting she found ideal for cross-cultural exchange and friendship during her time at the Bard Farm. She also hopes to learn about pre-Colombian farming practices, whose revival is currently being led by indigenous movements in Mexico seeking to confront issues presented by unsustainable industrial agricultural practices. “I’m thrilled by the opportunity to live in the country whose literature and culture have served as such positive and significant points in both my academic and personal life. During my time as an ETA in Mexico, I hope to inspire in my students the same love of language-learning I found at Bard.”
Biology major Macy Jenks ’23 has been selected as an ETA to Taiwan for the 2023–24 academic year. Jenks is an advanced Mandarin language speaker having attended a Chinese immersion elementary school and continuing her Mandarin language studies through high school and college, including three weeks spent in China living with host family in 2015. She has tutored students in English at Bard’s Annandale campus, as well as through the Bard Prison Initiative at both Woodbourne Correctional Facility and Eastern New York Correctional Facility. She also has worked with the Bard Center for Civic Engagement to develop curricula and provide STEM programming to local middle and high school students. “As a Fulbright ETA, I hope to equip students with the tools necessary to hone their English language and cultural skills while encouraging them to develop their own voices,” says Jenks. While in Taiwain, she plans to volunteer with the Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps, which offers medical care to rural communities, or with the Taipei Medical University in a more urban setting to further engage with the community and learn more about Taiwan’s healthcare systems and settings. With her love of hiking, Jenks also hopes to explore various cultural sites including the cave temples of Lion’s Head Mountain and Fo Guang Shan monastery and enjoy the natural beauty of Taiwan.
The Fulbright US Student Program expands perspectives through academic and professional advancement and cross-cultural dialogue. Fulbright creates connections in a complex and changing world. In partnership with more than 140 countries worldwide, the Fulbright US Student Program offers unparalleled opportunities in all academic disciplines to passionate and accomplished graduating college seniors, graduate students, and young professionals from all backgrounds. Program participants pursue graduate study, conduct research, or teach English abroad. us.fulbrightonline.org.
Three Bard College alumni/ae—Beatrice Abbott ’15, Megumi Kivuva ’22, and Tobias Golz Timofeyev ’21—have been awarded competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships for the 2023 award year. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) aims to “ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States” and “seeks to broaden participation in science and engineering of underrepresented groups, including women, minorities, persons with disabilities, and veterans” through selection, recognition, and financial support of individuals who have demonstrated the potential to be high achieving scientists and engineers early in their careers.
Three Bard Alumni/ae Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
Three Bard College alumni/ae—Beatrice Abbott ’15, Megumi Kivuva ’22, and Tobias Golz Timofeyev ’21—have been awarded competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships for the 2023 award year. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) aims to “ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States” and “seeks to broaden participation in science and engineering of underrepresented groups, including women, minorities, persons with disabilities, and veterans” through selection, recognition, and financial support of individuals who have demonstrated the potential to be high achieving scientists and engineers early in their careers.
Beatrice Abbott ’15, who majored in political studies at Bard, has won a fellowship for the field of social sciences. She is a master’s student in geography at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include evidence/forensics, critical migration studies, critical cartography and geographic information systems (GIS), and visual culture.
Megumi Kivuva ’22, who majored in Spanish studies and computer science with a concentration in Experimental Humanities at Bard, has won a fellowship for the field of STEM education and learning research. Kivuva is a PhD student in computing education at the University of Washington. Their research “aims to broaden participation in computing education for Black and refugee students,” and they “use community participatory research to understand the barriers to accessing computing education and codesign interventions to make computing education more accessible to these communities.”
Tobias Golz Timofeyev ’21, who majored in mathematics at Bard, has won a fellowship for the field of mathematical biology. He is a PhD student in mathematical sciences at the University of Vermont. The fellowship will allow him to focus on his research project, "Decoding Parallel Processing in the Brain using the Connectome Eigenfunctions."
As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The five-year fellowship period provides a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, as well as access to opportunities for professional development. NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering. Each year, the NSF receives more than 12,000 applications to the GRFP program, which has awarded fellowships to its selected scholars since 1952.
The recent attack on the presidential palace in Brazil bears a seeming resemblance to the events of January 6, 2021, at the United States Capitol. For Professor of Political Studies Omar G. Encarnación, however, the similarities are in appearances only. In The Nation, he examines how Brazil’s democracy is better designed to withstand threats. “Even though political violence driven by conspiracy theories and mass delusion about a stolen election will forever unite the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations, Brazilian democracy fared better than American democracy under a president who was hell-bent on undermining the institutions and norms that he was elected to protect,” he writes.
Professor Omar G. Encarnación Writes about the Resilience of Brazil’s Democracy for The Nation
The recent attack on the presidential palace in Brazil bears a seeming resemblance to the events of January 6, 2021, at the United States Capitol. For Professor of Political Studies Omar G. Encarnación, however, the similarities are in appearances only. In The Nation, he examines how Brazil’s democracy is better designed to withstand threats. “Even though political violence driven by conspiracy theories and mass delusion about a stolen election will forever unite the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations, Brazilian democracy fared better than American democracy under a president who was hell-bent on undermining the institutions and norms that he was elected to protect,” he writes. In Encarnación’s view, several factors contributed to this strength, including a reinforcement of the country’s judiciary to counter Bolsonaro’s impact, an electoral system recognized by voting experts as one of the safest in the world, and that Bolsonaro lacked institutional backing equivalent to what Trump received from the Republican party. “None of this means that Bolsonaro didn’t manage to inflict serious damage on Brazilian democracy,” he continues. “But the mere fact that Brazilian democratic institutions have withstood the Bolsonaro era is itself a cause for celebration.”
Diplomat in Residence Frederic C. Hof’s Lessons in Diplomacy from Wartime Lebanon
Reflecting on his perilous days as a US military attache in Beirut, Ambassador Frederic C. Hof argues there is more to successful diplomacy than conferences. Much of the essential work of diplomacy, he writes, is collecting and reporting information, rather than in formal or high-profile negotiations, and a great deal of this work is carried out not by professional civilian diplomats but by military attaches serving under the direction of the ambassador. Frederic C. Hof is diplomat in residence at Bard and the author of Reaching for the Heights: The Inside Story of a Secret Attempt to Reach a Syrian-Israeli Peace.
Professor Walter Russell Mead on the Peril of Ignoring the Middle East
“The Biden administration faces a real dilemma,” writes Professor Walter Russell Mead in the Wall Street Journal. “Feeling overstretched against Russian aggression in Ukraine and Chinese ambition in the Indo-Pacific, the White House wants to minimize its exposure to the Middle East. Yet the region is too important to ignore—and the more the U.S. withdraws, the more influence it sheds. As America becomes less relevant, regional actors feel free to make more decisions that Washington dislikes, effectively undermining U.S. influence around the globe.” Walter Russell Mead is the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities at Bard College.
Bard College Awarded $399,000 Grant from Mellon Foundation for Project on Voting Rights
Bard College is proud to announce that it has received a $399,000 award from the Mellon Foundation to support a three-year applied learning research curricular project on voting rights. The project, done in collaboration with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, and The Andrew Goodman Foundation, will use the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and outlawed age-based voter discrimination, as a prism through which to understand the history of voting and disenfranchisement in the United States and the role of college communities in the fight for voting rights.
The project will produce research and teaching materials on the history of voting rights, with a special focus on the 26th Amendment, in the form of written and video case studies, recorded lectures, and oral histories. These materials will be contextualized by the historic and contemporary struggles for voting rights on these campuses and will in turn be used in the classroom in codesigned and cotaught network collaborative courses that will take place simultaneously at the four main partner institutions of higher education: Bard College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Tuskegee University, and Prairie View A&M University. The materials will also be used in trainings of student ambassadors of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, a national organization situated on 81 campuses across 26 states and Washington, D.C., including at these institutions, with a mission to make youth voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. The Andrew Goodman Foundation will lift up their students’ ongoing work on these campuses and across its network, and historically ground and help shape their future civic engagement activities as promoters and defenders of the right to vote.
This project highlights how academic institutions and their leaders can also serve as important civic actors in promoting and defending democratic principles. The four institutions centrally involved in the project offer unique insights into the role of colleges in the fight for voting rights, particularly the fight against discrimination based on race and age.
Bard College has for the last quarter century participated in four successful lawsuits, one federal and three state, grounded in the 26th Amendment, that established student voting eligibility, a polling site on campus, and the adoption of a state law mandating polling sites on college campuses with more than 300 registered student voters and outlawing campus gerrymanders.
Tuskegee University (then Tuskegee Institute) and its Dean of Students Charles Goode Gomillion were at the center of a boycott in response to the decision by the Town of Tuskegee to gerrymander town lines so as to exclude the majority of Black residents. Gomillion was the lead plaintiff in the landmark 1960 Supreme Court case, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, in which the court found – for the first time – that an election district boundary designed to exclude Blacks denied equal representation in violation of the 15th Amendment of the US Constitution.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T) was not only the home of the Greensboro Four and a critical catalyzing actor during the civil rights movement, but was featured in recent North Carolina state and federal cases Harper v. Lewis and Common Cause v. Runcho, which fought corrosive partisan gerrymandering in the state and ultimately caused the invalidation of the state map which divided the university’s campus into two congressional districts.
Prairie View A&M was involved in the only 26th Amendment case that went before the Supreme Court, Symm v. United States, which in 1979 established the rights of students to vote as residents where they attend college. Prairie View A&M students have subsequently led numerous efforts to fight voter harassment and intimidation, including more recently in a federal case for equal access to early on-campus voting opportunities.
Melanye Price, Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice, Prairie View A&M University, said, “Prairie View and the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice are proud to be part of this grant. Our students have been at the forefront of student voting rights advocacy and it is important the current students know this history. We are excited to partner with the Mellon Foundation, Bard College, and other HBCUs to bring this history to national attention”
Dr. Jelani M. Favors, the Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professor of History at North Carolina A&T State University, said, “North Carolina A&T State University is excited to partner with Bard College, Prairie View A&M, Tuskegee University, and The Andrew Goodman Foundation in launching this new teaching and research initiative. With support from the Mellon Foundation and the Open Society University Network, our institutions are poised to further highlight the legacy of civic action and social justice that have defined our campuses and to educate a new generation of students on the challenges that continue to threaten and undermine American democracy.”
Dr. Lisa Bratton, Associate Professor of History, Tuskegee University, said “I am thankful to Bard College for spearheading this collaboration and am excited about the opportunity to work with other HBCUs as we highlight the groundbreaking work of Charles Gomillion. This is yet another opportunity for students to learn more about the history that was made right here in Tuskegee.”
Jonathan Becker, Professor of Political Studies at Bard and Bard’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, who is the project’s Principal Investigator, said, “We are thrilled that the Mellon Foundation is supporting this project, which unites four universities and a non-profit that have been centrally involved in defending the rights of students to vote and the fight against race-based disenfranchisement. Young people are the country’s future and defending their voting rights is essential to a healthy democracy.”
Yael Bromberg, Esq., a constitutional rights attorney, leading legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and lecturer at Rutgers Law School, who additionally serves as Special Counsel and Strategic Advisor to the President/CEO of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, said, “This unique applied learning collaboration will be the first to examine and conceptualize the ways in which a protected class of voters – youth voters – experience and fight against unconstitutional violations of the right to vote, and the unique role of academic institutions in supporting them. The collaboration is special in that we will train and inspire young democracy practitioners, based on the studied experiences of their peers across the country, how to effectively organize and advocate, and when necessary, litigate, for social change.”
Charles Imohiosen, Esq., President/CEO of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, said: “The Andrew Goodman Foundation is excited to continue to partner with North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University, and of course Bard College, to make youth voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. We look forward to welcoming Tuskegee University into our family, and are grateful to the Mellon Foundation for making this possible. This unique applied learning collaboration will allow The Andrew Goodman Foundation to share best practices and skills from our network and learn collectively with our partners, as we continue to train and empower young people with the key tools to be effective democracy practitioners.”
Three Bard Students, Edris Tajik ’23, Evan Tims ’19, and Michael Nyakundi ’23, Selected as Schwarzman Scholars
Three Bard students have won prestigious Schwarzman Scholarships. Edris Tajik ’23, a student who is from Afghanistan studying at Bard College’s Annandale campus, Michael Nyakundi ’23, a student who is from Kenya studying at Bard College Berlin, and Evan Tims ’19, a Bard Annandale alumnus from Maine, have been selected to join the eighth class of Schwarzman Scholars, a fully-funded, one-year master’s degree and leadership program in Global Affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Tajik, Tims, and Nyakundi are three of 151 scholars, from 36 countries and 121 universities, to be chosen out of almost 3,000 applicants. They are part of this year’s exceptional cohort, which comprises accomplished young leaders working at the forefronts of their industries, and will enroll in Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in August 2023.
Evan Tims (Bard College ’19) grew up in coastal Maine, where he developed an early interest in the relationship between narrative, social justice, and environmental change. He earned a joint BA in human rights and written arts, received the Bard Written Arts Prize and the Christopher Wise Award in environmentalism and human rights for his Senior Project, and is the founder and director of the In 100 Years Project, an organization focused on building environmental dialogue through creative workshops. Tims is particularly focused on the social challenges of water in the 21st century. As a 2021–22 Henry J. Luce Scholar, he lived in Nepal and conducted research in the hydropower sector while leading climate engagement projects.
Edris Tajik (Bard College ’23) came to Bard last year from Afghanistan and is currently a senior majoring in Political Science. He has spent the past four years of his life on peace-building and youth empowerment projects through NGOs in Afghanistan. Edris has trained 240 students in Model United Nations and 120 students on peace-building initiatives as well as implemented six community-based projects. Edris is a Generation Change fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and is currently interning with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He intends to pursue a career in international relations. Edris has been named as a LeadNext Fellow at the Asia Foundation for the year 2023. He is one of ten students from Asia who has been selected to participate in this year's program.
Michael Nyakundi (Bard College Berlin ’23) is a Kenyan national studying economics, politics, and social thought who is interested in criminal justice reform through public policy and law. He previously interned at the Kenyan State House analyzing the impact of President Kenyatta’s Big4 agenda and has volunteered with the Kenya Red Cross and Plan International on youth-police arbitration projects. Recently, Michael led a team of 500+ to address police brutality in Soweto slums Nairobi. His project, Project Ma3, co-won the Margarita Kuchma project award this past summer. As a Schwarzman Scholar, Michael hopes to deepen his knowledge of Sino-Kenya relations.
Schwarzman Scholars (est. 2015) is designed to meet the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. It was inspired by the Rhodes Scholarship, which was founded in 1902 in an effort to promote international understanding and peace.
Schwarzman Scholars supports up to 200 Scholars annually from the U.S., China, and around the world for a one-year master’s in global affairs at Beijing’s Tsinghua University — ranked first in Asia as an indispensable base for China’s political, business, and technological leadership.
Scholars chosen for this highly selective program will live in Beijing for a year of study and cultural immersion — attending lectures, traveling around the region, and developing a better understanding of China.
James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities Walter Russell Mead’s The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People is named among 100 Notable Books of 2022 by the New York Times Book Review.
Bard VP and OSUN Vice Chancellor Jonathan Becker on the Global Liberal Arts Challenge
Writing for Ethics & International Affairs, Jonathan Becker, executive vice president, vice president for academic affairs, and professor of political studies at Bard College and vice chancellor of the Open Society University Network, argues that, as the liberal arts and sciences (LAS) are threatened worldwide, action is needed to defend them. An LAS education runs contrary to the “hyperspecialized, rigidly sequenced, and strictly disciplinary curriculums” often employed in less democratic societies throughout the world. An LAS education, by contrast, promotes “energetic intellectual life outside of the classroom that reflects students’ hopes of a vibrant civil society,” which is often the reason such curricula are targeted by more authoritarian governments. “The goal is to adapt liberal arts principles to the local environment through dialogue and exchange of ideas, not to export a cookie cutter model,” Becker writes.
Olin, Room 1025:30 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 The AHS Chapter at Bard is honored to host Development Associate at Bard Prison Initiative and US Air Force Veteran Julia Liu to discuss the role of women in the Air Force. Refreshments will be provided!
Dr. Jill McCorkel, professor of sociology and criminology at Villanova University and the founder and executive director of the Philadelphia Justice Project for Women and Girls Olin 1025:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Women are the fastest growing segment of virtually all sectors of the carceral system (jail, prison, parole, and probation). This is also the case at the back end of the system, among those serving extreme sentences of 50 years in prison or more. People serving these sentences refer to their experience as "death by incarceration" given that sentence length and statutory limitations and exclusions from parole eligibility guarantee that they will die in prison. The number of women serving these sentences has exponentially increased in recent decades. The vast majority are survivors of gender violence. Their criminal convictions are often directly or indirectly tied to their encounters with violence and abuse. In this talk, I'll discuss why and how this is happening and what we can and should be doing about it.
U.S. Foreign Affairs in Europe Olin, Room 1026:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 The Alexander Hamilton Society at Bard is inviting you to their speaker event tonight! On April 17th, 6:00 PM at OLIN 102, Mr. Daniel Fata will be talking about U.S. Foreign Affairs in Europe.
Mr. Fata is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy. Currently, he is a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS).
* Food and refreshments will be available
Bring a friend!
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
with speakers June Nemon and leaders from the Stony Run Tenants Union Olin, Room 1025:10 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 This event is part of the Political Organizing Speaker Series, Spring 2023
Thursday, March 16, 2023
with speakers Becky Simonsen and Puya Gerami Olin, Room 2035:10 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 More information on the work of these speakers can be found here.
This event is part of the Political Organizing Speaker Series, Spring 2023
Weis Cinema4:30 pm – 5:30 pm EST/GMT-5 Prof. Michel DeGraff is a leading linguist known as one of the most prominent Haitian creolists. He is a professor at MIT and the founder of the MIT-Haiti Initiative promoting learning of science and technology in Kreyòl. His New York Times opinion piece, "As a Child in Haiti I Was Taught to Despise My Language" (published in October 2022), will be an entry point to this lecture where he will provide an analysis of some of the long-lasting nefarious impact of colonialism in Haiti, especially in the realms of education. The eventual objective is to enlist lessons from history in order to help usher better futures for those sufferers whom Fanon calls the “Wretched of the Earth” and whom Jean Casimir calls the “ Malere ”—better futures in Haiti and beyond.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Professor J.T. Roane, assistant professor of geography at Rutgers University-New Brunswick Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EST/GMT-5 This talk is drawn from Roane's recently published book, Dark Agoras: Insurgent Black Social Life and the Politics of Place (NYU Press, 2023). Roane shows how working-class Black communities cultivated insurgent assembly—dark agoras—in twentieth century Philadelphia. He investigates the ways they transposed rural imaginaries about and practices of place as part of their spatial resistances and efforts to contour industrial neighborhoods. In acts that ranged from the mundane refashioning of intimate spaces to confrontations over the city's social and ecological arrangement, Black communities challenged the imposition of Progressive visions for urban order seeking to enclose or displace them.
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Panel discussion at Bard College with Masha Gessen (Bard/New Yorker), Anna Nemzer (TVRain/RIMA), Archie Magno (Bard) Moderated by Ilia Venyavkin (RIMA) Campus Center, Weis Cinema6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5 In his recent Nobel Prize lecture Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov called independent journalism “the antidote against tyranny” and promised that Russian journalists would never give up. Still, if we look at the history of independent media in Russia, we will see that the hope that unbiased media coverage would protect society from relativism, conspiracy theories, propaganda and — at the end of day — from dictatorship, has proven unjustified. Or has it?
The panel will discuss the history of the past 20 years of Russian independent journalism: How did dictatorship in modern Russia become possible? What did independent media do wrong? Have we learned anything new about freedom of speech that we did not know before?
At the panel we will also present the Russian Independent Media Archive (RIMA) — a joint digital initiative of Bard College and PEN America to protect the work of Russian journalists from censorship.
The event is sponsored by Center for Civic Engagement, the Gagarin Center at Bard College, and PEN America.