Bardian SPRING 2011
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<strong>Bardian</strong><br />
bard college spring <strong>2011</strong>
dear bardians,<br />
Greetings! It has been a great honor and a tremendous pleasure to serve as president of the Bard–St.<br />
Stephen’s Alumni/ae Association Board of Governors for the last four years. Bard alumni/ae are<br />
fascinating people doing interesting things, and it has been wonderful to get to know so many of you.<br />
Being a <strong>Bardian</strong> is a lifetime commitment and I look forward to the next chapter.<br />
I am excited to announce that Michelle Dunn Marsh ’95 will be installed as our new president at<br />
the May meeting, held during Commencement Weekend. Michelle, who splits her time between Seattle<br />
and New York City, will be our first president from the West Coast. She is an award-winning book<br />
designer and editor who has developed photo-based books for such institutions as Aperture Foundation<br />
and the Museum of Glass, and has lectured nationally on photography, book design, and publishing. I<br />
know you will enjoy getting to know her.<br />
This year’s Commencement and Alumni/ae Weekend is an especially proud one for those of us on<br />
Walter Swett ’96<br />
©Don Hamerman<br />
the Bard–St. Stephen’s Alumni/ae Association Board of Governors: we are honoring two of our own. Dick Koch ’40 will<br />
receive the Bard Medal for outstanding—and longstanding—service to the College, and Pia Carusone ’03, chief of staff to<br />
Representative Gabrielle Giffords, will receive the John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service. Pia led her colleagues<br />
in reopening the Arizona congresswoman’s offices on the first business day after the tragic shooting in Tucson.<br />
In November 1981 Adam Yauch ’86 wrote in his admissions essay to Bard, “My major interest still lies in music, and I<br />
am including a tape of my band. All of the music is original, written and performed by the Beastie Boys.” Ten years later,<br />
“Check Your Head” by the Beastie Boys wafted nonstop through the windows of main campus during my freshman year.<br />
This May, at the President’s Awards Ceremony, Bard will present Adam with the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and<br />
Letters for his “significant contributions to the American artistic or literary heritage.”<br />
In celebration of music that defined another era, two <strong>Bardian</strong>s will be awarded alumni/ae honorary doctor of fine arts<br />
degrees during this year’s Commencement ceremony. Songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman graduated from Bard in 1949<br />
and went on to work for Walt Disney. Their songs, from “It’s a Small World (After All)” to “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”<br />
to “Feed the Birds,” have left an indelible mark on our cultural consciousness.<br />
It’s going to be a great weekend and you don’t want to miss it. I hope to see you there!<br />
Chim Chim Cher-ee,<br />
Walter Swett ’96<br />
President, Board of Governors, Bard–St. Stephen’s Alumni/ae Association<br />
board of governors of the bard–st. stephen’s alumni/ae association<br />
Walter Swett ’96, President<br />
Roger Scotland ’93, Vice President<br />
Maggie Hopp ’67, Secretary<br />
Olivier te Boekhorst ’93, Treasurer<br />
Jonathan Ames ’05<br />
Robert Amsterdam ’53<br />
Claire Angelozzi ’74<br />
David Avallone ’87, Oral History Committee Chairperson<br />
Dr. Penny Axelrod ’63<br />
Belinha Rowley Beatty ’69<br />
Eva Thal Belefant ’49<br />
Joshua Bell ’98, Communications and New Technologies<br />
Committee Chairperson<br />
Dr. Miriam Roskin Berger ’56<br />
Jack Blum ’62<br />
Carla Bolte ’71<br />
Randy Buckingham ’73, Events Committee Cochairperson<br />
Cathaline Cantalupo ’67<br />
Pia Carusone ’03<br />
Charles Clancy ’69, Stewardship Committee Cochairperson<br />
Peter Criswell ’89<br />
Arnold Davis ’44, Nominations and Awards Committee<br />
Cochairperson<br />
Elizabeth Dempsey BHSEC ’03, ’05, Young Alumni/ae<br />
Committee Chairperson<br />
Kirsten Dunlaevy ’06<br />
Kit Kauders Ellenbogen ’52<br />
Joan Elliott ’67<br />
Barbara Grossman Flanagan ’60<br />
Diana Hirsch Friedman ’68<br />
R. Michael Glass ’75<br />
Eric Warren Goldman ’98, Alumni/ae House Committee<br />
Cochairperson<br />
Rebecca Granato ’99<br />
Dr. Ann Ho ’62, Career Connections Committee Chairperson<br />
Charles Hollander ’65<br />
Dr. John C. Honey ’39<br />
Elaine Marcotte Hyams ’69<br />
Richard Koch ’40<br />
Erin Law ’93, Fund-raising Committee Chairperson<br />
Cynthia Hirsch Levy ’65<br />
Isaac Liberman ’04<br />
Michelle Dunn Marsh ’95<br />
Peter F. McCabe ’70, Nominations and Awards Committee<br />
Cochairperson<br />
Steven Miller ’70, Stewardship Committee Cochairperson<br />
Anne Morris-Stockton ’68<br />
Karen Olah ’65, Alumni/ae House Committee Cochairperson<br />
Susan Playfair ’62<br />
Arthur “Scott” Porter Jr. ’79, Alumni/ae House Committee<br />
Cochairperson<br />
Allison Radzin ’88<br />
Emilie Richardson ’05<br />
Reva Minkin Sanders ’56<br />
Joan Schaffer ’75<br />
Barry Silkowitz ’71<br />
George A. Smith ’82, Events Committee Cochairperson<br />
Dr. Ingrid Spatt ’69<br />
Paul Thompson ’93<br />
Dr. Toni-Michelle Travis ’69<br />
Brandon Weber ’97<br />
Barbara Crane Wigren ’68<br />
Dr. Dumaine Williams ’03, Diversity Committee Chairperson<br />
Ron Wilson ’75<br />
Matt Wing ’06
Manning the Rail, USS Tortuga,<br />
Java Sea, 2010, An-My Lê<br />
<strong>Bardian</strong> <strong>SPRING</strong> <strong>2011</strong><br />
features<br />
departments<br />
2 Biodiversity’s Impact on Infectious Diseases | Felicia Keesing<br />
6 Antisemitism and Education | Kenneth Stern ’75<br />
8 Portfolio: An-My Lê | Introduction, Stephen Shore<br />
28 On and Off Campus<br />
29 Books by <strong>Bardian</strong>s<br />
35 Class Notes<br />
14 Distinguished Artist in Residence | Bill T. Jones<br />
cover A view of Columbus<br />
Circle from Jazz at Lincoln<br />
Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall,<br />
New York City, during the<br />
150th Jubilee (see page 18).<br />
Photo: Cory Weaver<br />
16 Playwright | Thomas Bradshaw ’02<br />
18 150th Jubilee<br />
20 What Is a <strong>Bardian</strong>? | David E. Schwab II ’52<br />
22 The Campaigns of Alexander | James Romm
felicia keesing<br />
biodiversity’s impact<br />
on infectious diseases<br />
Associate Professor of Biology Felicia Keesing was lead author on an important article in Nature, “Impacts<br />
of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases” (December 2, 2010), the salient<br />
points of which she reproduces here. The article garnered national and international attention, including<br />
notice in the New York Times under the headline, “As Biodiversity Declines, Disease Flourishes.” Keesing has<br />
received grants from the National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation, and National Institutes<br />
of Health. Her awards include the Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship, Anna M. Jackson Award, and prestigious<br />
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which represents the priority the U.S.<br />
government places on nurturing the professional development of outstanding scientists and engineers.<br />
In March, a team on which she is an investigator received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental<br />
Protection Agency to assess environmental risk for Lyme disease in Dutchess County, New York.<br />
The Hall of Biodiversity in the<br />
American Museum of Natural<br />
History<br />
©George Steinmetz/Corbis<br />
Public health initiatives increasingly emphasize the importance of preventing the transmission of infectious<br />
diseases, rather than just treating infections after they occur. A number of ambitious public<br />
health efforts—including vaccination campaigns, the eradication of pathogens like polio, and focused<br />
care for genetically susceptible individuals—are all examples of this new preemptive medicine. But<br />
the full development of preemptive medicine must incorporate another type of strategy as well. Recent<br />
research has demonstrated that biological diversity (biodiversity) in ecological communities—whether<br />
in agricultural fields, coral reefs, barns, or the insides of human bodies—can affect the transmission<br />
of infectious diseases. In a recent paper in Nature, my colleagues and I described how understanding<br />
the ecology of infectious diseases in nature can help predict, prevent, and mitigate the spread of infections<br />
in humans, wildlife, domesticated animals, and plants.<br />
Biodiversity encompasses the diversity of genes, species, and ecosystems. Increases in human<br />
populations have resulted in an unprecedented and precipitous loss of biodiversitythroughout the world.<br />
Current extinction rates are estimated to be at least 100 to 1,000 times background extinction rates and<br />
extinction rates over the next 50 years are estimated to be 10 to 100 times present extinction rates. Every<br />
major group of organisms faces extinction threats: 12 percent of bird species, 23 percent of mammals,<br />
32 percent of amphibians, and 33 percent of corals. Furthermore, the global abundances of birds, mammals,<br />
amphibians, reptiles, and fish have declined by almost 30 percent since 1970. Collectively, these<br />
declines and extinctions are caused by changing the earth’s ecosystems to meet the growing demands of<br />
human populations for food, fresh water, fiber, timber, and fuel; and by climate change.<br />
How might the decline of biodiversity affect infectious disease? Infectious diseases by definition<br />
involve interactions between at least two species—the pathogen and its host. For example, humans<br />
with influenza have been infected with a virus transmitted to them by another human. Often many<br />
more species are involved, including other species of hosts. Tuberculosis, for example, is caused by<br />
the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which can be transmitted back and forth between humans,<br />
cattle, and other animal host species. Some diseases also have vectors—meaning they transmit the<br />
biodiversity 3
pathogen from one host to another—such as ticks, mosquitoes, or fleas. Malaria in humans is caused<br />
by infection with a Plasmodium parasite that is transmitted to humans through the bite of an Anopheles<br />
mosquito. Of course, all of the species that are directly involved in disease transmission also interact<br />
with other species, such as predators and competitors, interaction that could then indirectly affect<br />
disease transmission. As a consequence, changes in biodiversity have the potential to affect risk of<br />
infectious disease exposure in plants and animals—including humans.<br />
Declines in biodiversity should, in principle, be equally likely to cause increases or decreases in<br />
disease transmission in the remaining species. For example, if the host species for a disease disappeared<br />
as biodiversity was lost, the transmission of that disease would be likely to decline. However, in recent<br />
years, a consistent picture has emerged: biodiversity loss tends to increase pathogen transmission and<br />
disease incidence. This pattern occurs across ecological systems that vary in type of pathogen, host,<br />
ecosystem, and transmission mode. As an example, West Nile virus is a mosquito-transmitted virus<br />
for which several species of birds act as hosts. Three recent studies have found low bird diversity is<br />
strongly correlated with an increased human risk or incidence of West Nile encephalitis in the United<br />
States. Communities with low bird diversity tend to be dominated by bird species that amplify the<br />
virus, leading to high infection prevalence in mosquitoes and people, while communities with high<br />
avian diversity contain many species that are poor hosts for the virus and do not amplify it. Another<br />
example is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a potentially fatal disease in humans that was discovered<br />
in the 1990s. The virus replicates in the bodies of rodents such as deer mice and is deposited into the<br />
environment when mice defecate and urinate. Humans can get sick if they accidentally inhale airborne<br />
virus particles. Studies have shown that a lower diversity of small mammals increases the prevalence<br />
of hantaviruses in their hosts, thereby increasing risk to humans. Diversity has a similar effect for<br />
plant diseases. In one case, the loss of species increased transmission of two fungal pathogens that<br />
infect perennial rye grass and other plant species.<br />
But why do declines in diversity tend to increase disease transmission? The short answer is that<br />
the species that remain when diversity declines tend to be good hosts for diseases. This is best illustrated<br />
with an example from my own research on Lyme disease. Lyme disease is caused by infection with a<br />
bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. This bacterium is passed back and forth between animal hosts<br />
through the bite of particular kinds of ticks, which are called the vectors of this disease. The ticks feed<br />
happily on lots of different kinds of animals; they have been recorded on dozens of species of mammals,<br />
birds, and reptiles. But some species are better hosts for the ticks, and for the bacteria, than others. In<br />
the eastern United States, for example, ticks that feed on white-footed mice survive better—and are<br />
much more likely to pick up the bacterial infection—than are ticks that feed on any other kind of animal.<br />
In contrast, ticks that feed on opossums are likely to be groomed off and killed by the opossum;<br />
and those that avoid being groomed off and survive to feed have almost no chance of picking up the<br />
bacterial infection.<br />
Felicia Keesing<br />
©Don Hamerman<br />
changes in biodiversity have the potential to affect risk of infectious<br />
disease exposure in plants and animals—including humans.<br />
Why is this relevant to biodiversity? White-footed mice can live almost anywhere; they survive in<br />
forests even when all other species are gone. They thrive in degraded and fragmented habitats. But<br />
opossums are more sensitive to habitat degradation and fragmentation and disappear as diversity<br />
declines. So forests with low diversity have lots of mice, a condition that increases Lyme disease risk,<br />
and few (if any) opossums, which decreases Lyme disease risk. As a result, Lyme disease risk is very high<br />
in patches of forest with low diversity.<br />
4 felicia keesing
A female Anopheles gambiae mosquito<br />
seen at 125x magnification. The<br />
Anopheles gambiae is predominant in<br />
Africa and is a disease vector for the<br />
Plasmodium protozoa that cause<br />
malaria.<br />
©David Scharf/Getty Images<br />
When we first made these discoveries about Lyme disease, we thought it was a coincidence that<br />
the host that remained when diversity declined was also the best host for the pathogen and the vector.<br />
But in the past few years, we have seen study after study that shows the same pattern for a number of<br />
other disease systems. We suspect that some underlying biological reason explains why species that<br />
thrive in low-diversity habitats are good hosts for pathogens and vectors, but we do not yet know what<br />
it is. One hypothesis posits that pathogens evolve to be transmitted most efficiently by the host species<br />
they encounter most frequently; abundant species also tend to be ecologically resilient so that they<br />
persist when diversity is lost. That would explain the pattern we so frequently see between diversity<br />
declines and increased disease transmission. Another hypothesis suggests that species that are<br />
“weedy”—short-lived and fast reproducing—tend to invest less energy in defending their bodies from<br />
certain kinds of attacks by pathogens. In other words, they may invest less in certain aspects of their<br />
immune defenses. A number of species have been shown to conform to this pattern. Pathogens may<br />
be able to adapt to these species by circumventing the immune defenses they do have, and these hosts<br />
then become good at transmitting the pathogen. Weedy species also tend to thrive in low-diversity<br />
habitats, so again, this would also explain the widespread correlation between reduced diversity and<br />
increased disease transmission. A final possibility is that both of these hypotheses could be correct:<br />
both pathways work together to reinforce the pattern we see.<br />
Whatever the underlying reason, the connection between diversity and disease is sufficiently clear<br />
and widespread that it lends extra importance to efforts to preserve biological diversity around the<br />
world. We know how to conserve diversity in theory—we need to keep natural areas as large as possible<br />
because larger areas of habitat have higher diversity. We also need to reinforce efforts to preserve diversity<br />
in the face of real-world challenges, such as economic development that appears to be at odds<br />
with preservation of natural habitats. The protection of human health is a powerful incentive for us<br />
to seek and adopt the appropriate strategies.<br />
biodiversity 5
kenneth stern ’75<br />
antisemitism and education<br />
Kenneth Stern ’75, an attorney and award-winning author, is the<br />
American Jewish Committee’s director on antisemitism. He is also the<br />
lead author of a definition of antisemitism used by the U.S. Department<br />
of State, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and various courts and<br />
political leaders around the globe. Stern was instrumental in developing<br />
a new academic discipline, hate studies, to analyze the evolution of<br />
hate and ways to counter its spread. Stern, who majored in government<br />
and political science, received the John Dewey Award for Distinguished<br />
Public Service from Bard in 2001.<br />
Jews make up approximately 10 percent of college faculties, and about<br />
30 percent in elite colleges, and as some have noted, this is in many<br />
ways a golden age for Jews on the American campus. Yet swastikas<br />
sprouted up at Evergreen State College, a progressive campus in<br />
Olympia, Washington, last spring, and Jewish students there became<br />
afraid to speak out. While this is an unusual “worst-case scenario,” it<br />
reflects a real problem. When students are afraid to speak because the<br />
climate endorses some ideas as inherently truthful, and counterarguments<br />
too evil to be allowed, the purpose of education is subverted.<br />
What is behind the incident at Evergreen? And what should educators<br />
do when confronted with similar events? An overview of antisemitism<br />
might be helpful for college-bound students and their<br />
families, as well as those interested in the intersection of the principles<br />
of free speech, academic freedom, mutual respect, critical thinking,<br />
and combating bigotry. Most students today do not understand the<br />
history of antisemitism in the academic world. It was part of life in<br />
my parents’ generation. Quotas, sometimes candidly acknowledged,<br />
limited the number of Jews admitted to elite colleges. When Judge<br />
Learned Hand asked A. Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard in the<br />
1920s, why the limitation on Jews, he said simply, “Jews cheat.” Hand<br />
observed that Protestants cheat too. Lowell replied, “You’re changing<br />
the subject; we’re talking about Jews.”<br />
Contrast that 1920s conversation with the academic world today.<br />
Harvard, Dartmouth, Penn, Barnard, Tufts, Princeton, Bard, and too<br />
many other elite colleges to catalogue have, or have had, Jewish presidents.<br />
The idea that Jews would be seen as outside the mainstream<br />
of campus life seems ridiculous. Why, then, was I fielding calls several<br />
years ago from a few Jewish parents, asking if it was “safe” for their<br />
son or daughter to attend Columbia University with the same trepidation<br />
as if they were sending their child to Gaza?<br />
This disconnect between reality and perception has much to do<br />
with two things: 1) the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts,<br />
and how antisemitism is and is not related to those issues, and 2) the<br />
failure of many on both sides to understand the importance of academic<br />
freedom and critical thinking on campuses.<br />
In 2001 the United Nations held its World Conference against<br />
Racism in Durban, South Africa. The antisemitism was so thick that<br />
the United States withdrew its delegation. Jews were called Christ<br />
killers. Some said Hitler should have won so “there would be no Israel.”<br />
Many said that Zionism (the notion that Jews, like other peoples, have<br />
a right to self-determination in their historic homeland) is akin to<br />
Nazism. Anti-Israel groups there decided to use the tactics that helped<br />
dismantle Apartheid South Africa (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions,<br />
or BDS) against Israel—and to start the push on college campuses.<br />
In 2002 divestment petitions began circulating at some<br />
American campuses, but so did antidivestment petitions, endorsed by<br />
far greater numbers. No college divested (nor has any to date), and<br />
many college presidents spoke out against the divestment calls.<br />
Some well-publicized incidents took place, such as a cinder block<br />
thrown through a window at a University of California–Berkeley<br />
building that housed Hillel (a national Jewish college organization)<br />
and graffiti elsewhere on the campus that said “F**k the Jews.” A near<br />
riot occurred at San Francisco State University, where Jews at a propeace<br />
rally were threatened. Posters there showed a dead baby with<br />
the caption: “Canned Palestinian children meat, slaughtered according<br />
to Jewish rites under American license.”<br />
A group of more than 300 American college and university presidents<br />
issued a statement. Their concern was the threat to the central<br />
mission of a college education: exposing students to new ideas, including<br />
ideas with which they may vehemently disagree. The goal is to<br />
teach students how to wrestle with those ideas in a safe environment.<br />
But violence and threats of violence create a chill. Those with a different<br />
point of view (in this case, pro-Israel) felt harassed, intimidated,<br />
and silenced. The presidents’ statement decried these actions as damaging<br />
to academic integrity and pledged to maintain an “intimidationfree<br />
campus.” Five years later, more than 400 presidents signed another<br />
statement after the United Kingdom’s University and College Union<br />
passed a resolution in favor of boycotting Israeli academics.<br />
These BDS efforts are unlikely to harm the Israeli economy or<br />
seriously hurt the Israeli academic community. But BDS may harm<br />
Jews, including Jews on some campuses. If the point is—and it is—to<br />
shoehorn Israel into the South African Apartheid paradigm as a pariah<br />
6 kenneth stern ’75
state, then imagine the reaction to someone in the late 1980s getting<br />
up in a public square and saying anything positive about Apartheid.<br />
Divestment was an issue at Evergreen State. After divestment<br />
motions failed in a few California universities, students at Evergreen<br />
passed a resolution favoring divestment. Evergreen is the alma mater<br />
of Rachel Corrie, the young woman killed by an Israeli bulldozer in<br />
Gaza in 2003. When the resolution was being debated, swastikas<br />
sprouted up around campus. Because pro-Israel voices had, for years,<br />
been shouted down at Evergreen, no one spoke up. When I met with<br />
Jewish student leaders in fall 2010, they refused to meet me on campus,<br />
because they believed it would have been risky to be seen publicly with<br />
someone from a Jewish human rights agency. We met in a synagogue.<br />
I spoke with Evergreen’s president about the need to change this<br />
climate and ensure that students were exposed to different ideas about<br />
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I find abhorrent the<br />
notion of “balance” that some outside academia<br />
promote: if teachers teach one side, they must teach<br />
the other. This violates a professor’s academic freedom,<br />
and in any event, students are not scales that<br />
need balance—they need to have their thinking<br />
shaken and learn how to confront difficult ideas,<br />
including (perhaps especially) biased ones. But the<br />
college also has a responsibility to ensure credible<br />
theories in any field are being taught. (The Evergreen<br />
president’s assertion that the Zionist narrative had<br />
been taught a few years earlier by a professor of<br />
puppetry was unpersuasive.) Contrast Evergreen Kenneth Stern ’75<br />
with Stanford University. A BDS resolution was<br />
©Don Hamerman<br />
considered there last spring too, but the leading<br />
Palestinian and Jewish student proponents were both aghast at the<br />
level of vitriol the debate unleashed. The resolution was pulled, the<br />
two students wrote a joint op-ed, and they held meetings so that pro-<br />
Palestinian students could understand why the call for boycotts struck<br />
Jewish students so deeply, given the many instances in history when<br />
Jews, alone, were singled out for different treatment. And Jewish students<br />
gained a better understanding of what it was like to be a<br />
Palestinian in the West Bank or Gaza. These students demonstrated<br />
the essence of critical thinking by inviting, instead of rejecting, challenges<br />
to their most fervently held ideas.<br />
While I strongly disagree with those who try to paint antisemitism<br />
on campus as normative (it is not), I believe that, when antisemitism<br />
does appear, improvement can be made in treating it as<br />
seriously as other forms of bigotry.<br />
The challenge seems to come especially around antisemitism in<br />
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a lecture at Brown University, I noted<br />
that if a political policy is attacked as one would oppose an American,<br />
French, or other such plan, that is fine. But when Israel is singled out<br />
in a way no other democracy is, there is a problem. As with any instance<br />
of bigotry, substitute the nationality, sex, sexual orientation, race, or<br />
religion (as befits the example), and if the same rules do not apply,<br />
something is wrong.<br />
The campus has a unique, powerful tool to tackle antisemitism:<br />
critical thinking. What is, and is not, antisemitism? Why? How is it the<br />
same as, or different than, other forms of bigotry? Is it antisemitic to call<br />
for boycotts? How about boycotts of products from the West Bank?<br />
Some, possibly out of concern, hysteria, lack of understanding of the<br />
academic mission, or a combination thereof, are trying to subvert the<br />
process rather than trying to ask and answer these questions academically.<br />
I have heard people suggest that anti-Israel professors should be<br />
fired, even if they have tenure. Such requests are dangerous, even if<br />
directed toward an antisemitic professor. They also change the dynamic:<br />
academics no longer see their role as challenging that professor’s bigotry,<br />
but rather as offering support to their embattled colleague because they<br />
see their own academic freedom at risk.<br />
While I do not like antisemitic speech any<br />
more than racist or sexist speech, it must be allowed.<br />
Jewish groups should not try to censor others, even<br />
antisemitic speakers or groups. Instead they should<br />
underscore the duty of others on campus to use<br />
their free-speech rights in objection, and if done<br />
well, in illumination.<br />
The Hillel director at Columbia University<br />
asked me in 2005 to speak with progressive Jewish<br />
students about antisemitism. An allegation had<br />
surfaced that some pro-Palestinian professors had<br />
mistreated pro-Israel students inside and outside<br />
class (which had occasioned those frantic calls from<br />
parents). The students had heard comments about<br />
“Jewish power” or the “Israel lobby” during debates about the professors,<br />
and were confused about whether this was, or was not, antisemitism.<br />
I asked if Columbia offered a class on antisemitism, where<br />
these events could be discussed. To my surprise, there was not.<br />
Upon investigation, I was stunned to find that only three standalone,<br />
comprehensive courses on antisemitism likely exist in the<br />
world: at Baruch College, the University of Cape Town, and Indiana<br />
University. Of course, antisemitism is treated in Holocaust classes and<br />
Judaic studies, and mentioned in classes on racism and discrimination.<br />
But antisemitism is not deemed worthy of a full-semester course<br />
hardly anywhere. Even in Israel.<br />
More than incidents here or there, the lack of serious interdisciplinary<br />
academic study of antisemitism troubles me. Antisemitism<br />
has much to teach us: How a religious-based hatred added a racebased<br />
hatred. Why antisemitism is present in countries that do not<br />
have Jews. What works to combat it and what does not, and the relevance<br />
of both to other forms of bigotry.<br />
Antisemitism is serious business. Rather than be discounted or<br />
exaggerated for political purposes, it needs to be better understood.<br />
The academic community can lead the way.<br />
antisemitism 7
Line Shack Supervisor for EA-6B Prowler, USS Ronald Reagan, North Arabian Gulf, 2009<br />
8 portfolio
portfolio<br />
an-my lê<br />
In 2005 An-My Lê, professor of photography at Bard, began “Events Ashore,” a series of photographs<br />
made on U.S. naval ships and at U.S. naval facilities. It was an outgrowth of her work from the previous<br />
two years at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, in the California<br />
desert. Through the Marines, An-My made contacts in the navy, which first invited her to photograph<br />
a carrier strike group practicing off the coast of California. The naval officers were struck by the technical<br />
and aesthetic clarity of her work and repeatedly invited her back. Since then she has visited<br />
amphibious assault battleships, destroyers, and missile cruisers. She has photographed at naval facilities<br />
in Antarctica, the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic, and Panama, and<br />
with the naval rescue force in Haiti.<br />
These pictures were made with a view camera mounted on a tripod. At first this must seem a most<br />
cumbersome and inappropriate tool with which to photograph the military. But the choice of this<br />
camera harkens back to the 19th-century tradition of war photography, and at the same time cuts to<br />
the heart of the central aesthetic issue in these images—the avoidance of the illustrative. When 19thcentury<br />
photographers worked with their stand cameras—cameras not unlike the one An-My uses,<br />
with their lack of mobility and long exposures—they could not photograph battles. They had to settle<br />
for photographing the battles’ aftermaths: cannonballs strewn across the Crimea’s “Valley of the<br />
Shadow of Death” or bodies of sharpshooters among the rock outcroppings on the hilly fields of<br />
Gettysburg. Freed by necessity from the desire to illustrate the battle, these photographers discovered<br />
photography’s suggestive potential. Photography is incapable of delineating the order of battle. It can<br />
neither explain strategy nor describe tactics. These photographers were forced to explore what photography<br />
was capable of communicating.<br />
Many photographers, given the remarkable access An-My has been afforded, would produce pictures<br />
that simply pointed at previously unseen sights or people doing things: sailors firing artillery or piloting<br />
a plane or swabbing a deck. These pictures would not be works of art—they would be illustrations.<br />
This is a difficult distinction to describe. I once asked John Swarkowski, the late director of the Museum<br />
of Modern Art’s Photography Department, for a definition of “illustration.” He said, “An illustration<br />
is a picture whose problems were solved before the photograph was made.” An-My says that illustrations<br />
are the expected images, where everything is contained. She, instead, looks between events and<br />
between things. “I am interested in making photographs that are layered with suggestions and meanings,”<br />
she says. “It is about introducing tension within the frame.” She attempts to suggest something<br />
beyond what the picture literally shows—a suggestion of the projection of military power, or of gender<br />
and racial issues, or of the military’s interaction with foreign cultures. But photography can never<br />
touch these issues in an expository way. It can merely hint.<br />
Take the photo of a young, female line shack supervisor. Her eyes communicate focus; the set of her<br />
mouth, competence. Her hands hint at vulnerability. Her helmet seems unwieldy. The out of focus<br />
background gives context. And the soft sunlight that she’s looking toward creates a sense of a delicate<br />
moment. Photography may not be able to explain, but it can allude.<br />
—Stephen Shore, Susan Weber Professor in the Arts at Bard and director of the College’s Photography<br />
Program<br />
an-my lê 9
Supply Distribution Convoy, Haiti, 2010<br />
10 portfolio
Patient Admission, US Naval Hospital Ship Mercy, Vietnam, 2010<br />
an-my lê 11
Forward Lookout, USS Tortuga, Gulf of Thailand, 2010<br />
12 portfolio
US Naval Hospital Ship Mercy, Vietnam, 2009<br />
an-my lê 13
distinguished artist in residence<br />
bill t. jones<br />
Dynamic, inquisitive, explosive choreographer Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company<br />
are about to enter their third year of affiliation with the Dance Program at Bard, the program’s first-ever<br />
partnership that involves deep integration of a choreographer and dance company into the curriculum.<br />
Jennifer Nugent in a performance<br />
of Another Evening: Venice/Arsenale<br />
Photo: Fabrizio Costantini<br />
Jones—winner of a MacArthur Fellowship, Tony Award, and Kennedy Center Honors—reviews and critiques<br />
student dance projects, and participates in panel discussions and other Bard programs. He brings the entire<br />
company to campus beginning May 11 for a three-week residency; the dancers are to rehearse repertoire<br />
for the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina, in July, as well as a new project that will be<br />
showcased in open rehearsals and master classes.<br />
In the spirit of partnership, Jones and company members constructed Another Evening: Venice/<br />
Arsenale at Bard. This site-specific work was performed at the monumental Arsenale’s Teatro alle Tese<br />
as part of the Venice Biennale. The dance recombined movements from earlier work with new inspirations,<br />
including spirited (“My work. Now. My work”), in-your-face (“Get going. Get in the car. Get in the<br />
car. Gogogogogogogo”), and provocative narration (“And then he made me, he forced me, I tried everything,<br />
I pleaded with him STOP please STOP”).<br />
Below are Jones’s musings about the creation and performance of Another Evening.<br />
Venice is almost too beautiful, too painful to look at. Venice seems to be about timelessness, but we<br />
know nothing is really timeless. There is an old American folk song in the piece that Sam Crawford,<br />
our composer, is using: “Red River Valley.” It’s a very sentimental song from the early pioneer days of<br />
America. I learned this song when I was a child. So I told Sam that I want to use that song, but the<br />
song should be almost like a memory of a world that is gone. The song should be almost like when<br />
you look at the Grand Canal at night, and you see one little boat bobbing and disappearing. It’s<br />
ephemeral, it is fragile, it is a memory. So everything in this piece is moving like light and water, for<br />
me, in Venice.<br />
I feel that in this work I am talking to myself at a very deep level. The work was almost made by<br />
intuition, trying to listen to things in my mind and trying to use material, like a chant from the early<br />
1980s that I wrote. A child; my beautiful codirector, Janet Wong; my company—I am trying to think of<br />
them in a new way, a fresh way, and then the piece begins to speak to me. “Get in the car. Get in the car.”<br />
What does that mean? Why did I write that? I live in the suburbs in New York; I live outside of the city.<br />
Every day I must go in to do my work; yes, that’s true. But then “get in the car”: the way that I have<br />
directed it, the way I have seen myself directing it, becomes a much more challenging thing. It’s like a<br />
parent directing a child, it’s like a policeman directing a person, it’s like a man who is unhappy with his<br />
life directing his life. I don’t think all of these things consciously, but I can see them when I witness what<br />
I have made. This is the way in which I refresh myself as a maker. Don’t try to make something mean<br />
something. Listen to the heart and mind. I listen to the choices that I am making. I learn something. I<br />
learn where I am truly situated in my life now.<br />
This finds me at a time where my thinking is changing. I would like to say that dance will always<br />
stay a central language, but I give myself permission to continue with text, music, singing, video. I am<br />
Bill T. Jones<br />
Photo: Christina Lane, courtesy of Jacob's<br />
Pillow Dance Festival<br />
14 distinguished artist in residence
an artist first, before a choreographer. I insist on that for myself. But<br />
dance, it is heroic to me. When I see and I remember the life of a<br />
dancer, I see dancers are very brave. Every day they face pain, doubt,<br />
fear; their bodies are changing in front of my eyes. One day a person<br />
is doing fine; he has an accident; the next day he cannot move. But<br />
everybody in the group must come to the rescue, make profound<br />
changes in the choreography, as a group. This is a picture of how I<br />
think people should always behave. They bond. This feels like a<br />
healthy community. Dance brings people together in that way.<br />
So the question is, what do my dancers give, or what have they<br />
given, to Another Evening? They are endlessly fascinating to me as<br />
beings—men, women, black, white, small, large, open, free, quiet,<br />
reserved. They are humanity. Ah! I have a little bit of humanity right<br />
here and I can get this humanity to do things. But I talk to this<br />
humanity and it is like a computer. It solves problems with me and<br />
for me. When I started Another Evening, I was determined I was going<br />
to make every movement. I didn’t want [the dancers’] participation.<br />
But it doesn’t work that way. They always give an idea, they change a<br />
movement, sometimes by mistake and sometimes purposefully. And<br />
I see their change and I can resist or I can accept. The healthy thing<br />
is to accept. This is always a struggle for me.<br />
The company is now 28 years old. There is nobody in my world<br />
who remembers when the company started. So this passage of time<br />
is very real, this memory that, as time goes on, becomes my memory.<br />
Another Evening tries to make us aware of that passage of time. But I<br />
have to make my peace with the fact that everything is changing and<br />
it changes rapidly. Sometimes it makes me very anxious, sometimes<br />
it makes me sad, and sometimes it’s exhilarating, like a parent with a<br />
child. The child is going to learn as they learn. The parent has to enjoy<br />
that, as opposed to being frightened by it. I am trying to enjoy it, as<br />
change, as rapid change, happens, new personalities, new problems.<br />
I’m trying to enjoy the change.<br />
bill t. jones 15
playwright<br />
thomas bradshaw ’02<br />
Playwright Thomas Bradshaw ’02 may amuse, outrage, and shock you with his studies of human behavior—but<br />
he won’t tell you what to think. He will instead challenge you to examine your response to his<br />
characters, who are often sympathetic, yet capable of repulsive actions.<br />
“Provocative” remains a favorite word among reviewers. The plays are not easy to watch—they’re not<br />
“first-date” material, says Bradshaw—and the performances are for adults only.<br />
Purity, for example, brings its audience into the life of an Ivy League African American English professor<br />
whose pastimes include drinking, cocaine, and pedophilia. Audience members have walked out<br />
during an onstage rape scene. The professor’s comfortable existence is challenged only when a “more<br />
black” professor is hired in his department.<br />
Earlier this year, Bradshaw was in Chicago working on the production of Mary (a Goodman Theatre<br />
commission) that was performed from February through March in the Owen Theatre. Mary takes place<br />
in 1983 in Virginia and centers on Mary, an African American domestic servant whose family has worked<br />
for the same family for hundreds of years, originally as slaves. She is a Bible-quoting homophobe who influences<br />
her husband to react violently to a visit by their employer’s gay son and his lover.<br />
Bradshaw, who is an assistant professor of mass communications at Medgar Evers College in<br />
Brooklyn, majored in theater and sociology at Bard, study that he says “informs my view of society’s<br />
impact on individuals.” He received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 2009 and a Prince Charitable<br />
Trusts Prize in 2010. “While his provocative explorations of race and sexuality like Purity and Southern<br />
Promises receive most of the attention, his gift as a stylist marks him as a real talent,” Jason Zinoman<br />
wrote in the New York Times. “He has proved in play after play that he has a confident vision of the theater<br />
that is his own. The politically incorrect plots jump merrily from one outrage to another, never pausing<br />
to explain motivation or linger on subtext. His dramas ask: What would happen if every dark urge, lingering<br />
resentment and unedited ugly insult that popped into your head came spilling out of your mouth?”<br />
Here Bradshaw talks with the <strong>Bardian</strong> about what defines his work.<br />
left Thomas Bradshaw<br />
Photo: David Paul-Morris, CUNY Archives<br />
right Matt Huffman, Derrick LeMont<br />
Sanders, Peter McCabe, Erwin E. A.<br />
Thomas, and Hugh Sinclair in<br />
Southern Promises, PS122, 2008<br />
Photo: Ryan Jensen<br />
It is true that I have written about pedophilia, rape, incest, and infanticide, but those subjects in no way<br />
define the breadth of my work. I guess people tend to focus on those issues because they are<br />
considered to be taboo. But are they really taboo, as far as our societal dialogue is concerned? It seems<br />
like every episode of Law and Order is about pedophilia, and To Catch a Predator deals exclusively with<br />
the subject—and that’s on network TV. All of these subjects are explored in film and no one blinks an<br />
eye. When these subjects are presented in the theater, however, people are sometimes outraged.<br />
I think that has a lot to do with the nature of the forms. In theater, you have living, breathing<br />
people in front of you, carrying out the actions onstage. In film, there is always a distance because the<br />
actors aren’t live, performing in front of you. This is why people feel perfectly comfortable stuffing<br />
their faces full of popcorn, texting, talking, and coming and going as they please in the movie theater.<br />
In a play, there’s something ceremonial about the proceedings. We don’t generally talk, eat, text,<br />
or leave the theater once the play has begun. Part of this has to do with respect for the actors, I believe.<br />
16 playwright
We recognize that real people are trying to concentrate and perform<br />
their craft on stage.<br />
Though people do read plays, I’m writing for performance, rather<br />
than simply a good read. You can’t get a true picture of any good play<br />
until it’s staged. My plays can often seem very scary on the page<br />
because people can’t imagine the tone or the effect the words have<br />
when being spoken out loud by real people. In performance, my plays<br />
are often very funny. But unless you’ve seen my work, it’s hard to imagine<br />
the tone when reading. Also, reading the stage direction “She slaps<br />
him in the face” is much different from seeing that performed live.<br />
The idea of justice that’s often presented in the theater is a denial<br />
of reality. Fifty percent of murders that happen in our country remain<br />
unsolved. That means that you have a 50-50 chance of getting away<br />
with killing someone. When people commit crimes, they rarely turn<br />
themselves in. They seem to feel remorse only once they have been<br />
caught. So the remorse often seems to stem from the fear of prison—<br />
and in our country the death penalty—not from an innate sense of<br />
horror at what they have done. People accept the crimes and horror<br />
that shows such as Law and Order present because justice is always<br />
rendered. This provides the viewer with a false sense of comfort about<br />
the world we live in—an idealized, inaccurate version of reality.<br />
I see myself as holding up a mirror to who we are as people, and<br />
not in an idealized way. I also believe in showing both sides of this.<br />
Sometimes people surprise us in the most wonderfully unexpected ways,<br />
and sometimes they surprise us with the depths of their depravity.<br />
In my work, no character is presented to the audience as being<br />
good or bad. In fact, most of my characters have the best of intentions<br />
in all the actions that they carry out, be they good or bad. Psychological<br />
realism often paints a black-and-white picture of the world that is<br />
incomplete and false. In reality, everyone falls into some shade of gray.<br />
Evil often stems from misguided logic or no thought at all. Slave<br />
masters often had the best intentions, but the societal system in which<br />
they worked was faulty, to say the least. Hitler believed that he was<br />
doing what was best for Germany. Obviously, he was wrong. My point<br />
is that in neither of those circumstances did these people sit down<br />
and say, “There are some evil actions that I would like to perform<br />
today.” Audiences can easily distance themselves from characters that<br />
we consider morally reprehensible when they’re demonized on stage.<br />
But when characters are painted as human beings with human qualities<br />
that we can all relate to, then we become disturbed. The implication<br />
is that we, too, have the ability to engage in “evil” behavior, if<br />
put in the right circumstances.<br />
I’m glad theater has the ability to force an audience to think about<br />
who we are as people, to step outside ourselves and question or affirm<br />
our core beliefs. My plays force the audience to confront issues from<br />
a perspective that they have never considered before. I do this by not<br />
attempting to explain the psychology of the characters. I paint a picture<br />
of the world and leave it up to the audience to decide the morality<br />
of what’s gone on in the play. Should art assume that all of our collective<br />
societal beliefs are gospel? Are there ways that our society might<br />
be misguided? If we were able to justify slavery and deny women equal<br />
rights for hundreds of years, are there possibly things that we as a society<br />
are misguided about now? I don’t answer these questions in my<br />
plays, I raise them.<br />
thomas bradshaw ’02 17
18
150th jubilee<br />
Excitement filled the air as more than 450 <strong>Bardian</strong>s and friends came together at Jazz at Lincoln<br />
Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City to celebrate Bard College’s 150th anniversary and 35<br />
years of President Leon Botstein’s inspired leadership. The 150th Jubilee in November was the largest<br />
single fund-raising event in Bard’s history.<br />
The Jubilee was cochaired by Roland J. and Kathleen Augustine, David C. and Constance Clapp,<br />
Mary and James H. Ottaway Jr., David E. Schwab II ’52 and Ruth Schwartz Schwab ’52, Martin T. and Toni<br />
Sosnoff, Charles P. Stevenson Jr. and Alex Kuczynski, and Walter Swett ’96 and Rebecca Hall.<br />
From the beginning, this very glitzy event caused a stir in the alumni/ae and Bard community.<br />
The evening began with a cocktail party in the atrium, where 15-foot-long red Bard banners hung<br />
from the ceiling and the archival photography exhibition Bard in Black and White lined the walls. Bard<br />
College Conservatory of Music alumnus Ming Aldrich-Gan ’10 regaled attendees with festive piano<br />
music against the scenery of Central Park. <strong>Bardian</strong>s’ attire ranged from full-length evening gowns, to<br />
mini dresses and boots, to a full suit of tartan plaid.<br />
As dinner guests were ushered into the Allen Room they saw for the first time the spectacular<br />
view that was the backdrop for the evening’s program. A wall of glass 85 feet high gave the appearance<br />
that one was floating over Columbus Circle. Tables on tiers faced the stage and window beyond; each<br />
table was decorated with Hudson Valley anemones and multicolored, leather-bound classic books.<br />
The program started with the premiere of a short film, Education for the Common Good, commissioned<br />
by Bard for the occasion. Huge screens hung from the ceiling so everyone had a front-row seat.<br />
The film title was taken from of a book about Bard’s early history written by former president Reamer<br />
Kline. It was produced by alumni/ae and friends of the College to highlight Bard’s journey over the last<br />
150 years and its vision for the future. Focusing on the widening scope of Bard and its myriad programs,<br />
the film demonstrates how Bard takes risks as an institution and effects real change in society and education.<br />
To see the film, go to www.bard.edu/media/commongood/.<br />
Charles P. Stevenson Jr., chair of the Board of Trustees, welcomed guests and noted that Bard has<br />
the courage to try things other colleges would not. He humorously described how he first met Leon<br />
Botstein and was persuaded that his support of Bard would be much more meaningful than supporting<br />
his own alma mater—Yale. Other speakers included Walter Swett ’96, president of the Board of<br />
Governors, Roger Scotland ’93, alumni/ae trustee, and Pia Carusone ’03, member of the Board of<br />
Governors. Bard faculty and students were represented, respectively, by Felicia Keesing, associate professor<br />
of biology, and a performance by students from The Bard College Conservatory of Music.<br />
The evening ended with George Soros, founder and chairman of Open Society Foundations, taking<br />
the stage to introduce Botstein, who thanked all who attended by saying: “We have much to be proud<br />
of in terms of what has been accomplished over the last 150 years. It is a joy to be in the presence of so<br />
many friends, colleagues, and alumni/ae, and I would like to thank everyone who came out to honor<br />
the College and who donated to this great institution and its unique and wide-ranging mission.”<br />
The Jubilee was an historic evening, raising over $1.1 million. It was a celebration of both the<br />
past and the anticipated success of the 150th Anniversary Campaign for Bard College, which has<br />
already raised $246 million of its $594 million goal.<br />
Speaking of looking to the future, the statement that really brought down the house, drawing<br />
applause and even a few tears, was Botstein’s closing remark: “When I came to Bard I was known as the<br />
youngest college president. . . . Let me say that I now fully intend to be the oldest.”<br />
Photos: Cory Weaver<br />
150th jubilee 19
david e. schwab ii ’52<br />
what is a bardian?<br />
Devoted <strong>Bardian</strong> David E. Schwab II '52, in honor of Bard's 150th<br />
anniversary, was asked for his reflections on what constitutes a <strong>Bardian</strong>.<br />
Chair emeritus of the Bard College Board of Trustees, on which he has<br />
served since 1964, Schwab in 1969 was one of the first recipients of the<br />
Bard Medal, the Bard–St. Stephen's Alumni/ae Association's highest<br />
award, given to those whose achievements have significantly advanced<br />
the welfare of the College. He received an honorary doctor of civil law<br />
degree from the College in 2004, the year he stepped down as chair.<br />
Bard College has been a significant part of my life for more than 60<br />
years. I arrived as a first-year student in the fall of 1948 (and on my<br />
very first day, met my future wife, Ruth). Bard was 88 years old; I was<br />
17. It seemed to me that Bard, originally St. Stephen’s College, had<br />
been founded around the time of Noah and the Flood. While at Bard,<br />
I met men (St. Stephen’s and Bard were all-male colleges until 1944)<br />
who had graduated 60 years earlier—in 1888. Is it possible that I am<br />
now the modern-day equivalent of those 1888 graduates? It is! And I<br />
am. Because of that personal history, I have been asked to undertake<br />
a clearly impossible task: define a <strong>Bardian</strong>.<br />
As the College celebrates the 150th anniversary of its founding,<br />
I have asked myself and others to identify the unifying trait or quality<br />
that allows each of us, including the few St. Stephen’s students still<br />
among us, to call ourselves “<strong>Bardian</strong>s.” Just what is a <strong>Bardian</strong>?<br />
Perhaps it refers to the common location at which we go, or went,<br />
to college—Annandale-on-Hudson—a hamlet (at best), a post-office<br />
address, a campus. Annandale is the only physical place we share. The<br />
“Annandale” in Steely Dan’s “My Old School” is more than a word in<br />
a song; it’s a place we personally know and to which we personally<br />
relate—for some because it’s a current or recent experience, for others<br />
because it’s an experience of distant youth. But, for more than 30 years,<br />
students at Simon’s Rock College (now Bard College at Simon’s Rock:<br />
The Early College) in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, have been<br />
<strong>Bardian</strong>s. And there are <strong>Bardian</strong>s in Saint Petersburg, Russia; in<br />
Jerusalem; in New York City; in the Central Valley of California; even<br />
in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, who have never seen Annandale.<br />
And they are <strong>Bardian</strong>s! So the term must refer to something more than<br />
physical location.<br />
Maybe the unifying characteristic is contained in the careers<br />
<strong>Bardian</strong>s engage in after college. St. Stephen’s graduates were once overwhelmingly<br />
Episcopal priests. They shared a common career. Later<br />
years produced few priests, but many writers, artists, poets, teachers,<br />
social workers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, research scientists, manufacturers,<br />
and on and on. There is no common career.<br />
Ethnicity? National origin? Religion? Socioeconomic advantages<br />
or disadvantages? No. <strong>Bardian</strong>s come from everywhere and from<br />
many backgrounds.<br />
So, the answer does not lie in where Bard students come from—<br />
or what their backgrounds are—but, rather, in what they become after<br />
the experience of a Bard education. Economists created the concept<br />
of “value-added,” and educators, hitchhiking on the concept, define<br />
value-added as “the enhancement of the knowledge, skills, and abilities<br />
of students and the empowering of them as critical, reflective, lifelong<br />
learners.” It is the value-added of a Bard education that makes us all<br />
<strong>Bardian</strong>s.<br />
And, what does that make us?<br />
First: We are literate and articulate. No one can receive a Bard<br />
education without learning to read carefully and write and speak<br />
clearly, concisely, and accurately. Even prior to the required—for entering<br />
undergraduates—Language and Thinking Program, now more<br />
than 20 years old, Bard teachers instilled in each student the habits (to<br />
use the current description of the Language and Thinking Program)<br />
of “thoughtful reading and discussion, clear articulation, accurate selfcritique,<br />
and productive collaboration.” Rarely do <strong>Bardian</strong>s accept the<br />
word of the latest blogger (or even of the most eminent scholar) without<br />
question. Professors at Bard, in every generation, have insisted on<br />
critical analysis and precision in thought and expression.<br />
Second: We possess a willingness to experiment and take risks.<br />
The founders of the movement known as “progressive education,”<br />
based on the work of John Dewey and others, were eager to try out<br />
new methods of education at all levels, from preschool to graduate<br />
work—in other words, to experiment. Experimentation, of necessity,<br />
involves risk. In the decades of the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s, and even beyond,<br />
Bard was a charter member of the progressive movement. Some argue<br />
that the progressive movement came to an end after the 1940s. Not<br />
at Bard. If one looks at “progressive education” as allowing the student<br />
to do whatever she or he wants, whenever she or he wants, then Bard<br />
was never progressive. Success at Bard has always required hard work.<br />
If, instead, one looks at the progressive movement as one that encourages<br />
various forms of education, such as (at the college level) individual<br />
attention to each student, one-on-one teaching, evaluation in<br />
forms other than grades from “A” to “F,” interdisciplinary courses,<br />
high school–early colleges, a music conservatory with required majors<br />
20 david e. schwab ii ’52
Richard Muller '51, left, and David<br />
Schwab, center, in discussion with<br />
a friend during a field trip in January<br />
1951 to study other colleges'<br />
systems of student government.<br />
The following semester, the Bard<br />
group of five received credit for<br />
rewriting the Bard community<br />
government constitution using<br />
their research.<br />
Photo: Courtesy of the Bard College Archives<br />
in the liberals arts, then Bard has always been, and still is,<br />
progressive. Certainly, methods of teaching change, as does<br />
the substance of courses taught. But experimentation, innovation,<br />
and risk taking lie at the heart of Bard and <strong>Bardian</strong>s.<br />
There are some <strong>Bardian</strong>s who see the changes that have<br />
taken place in the College over the years as a relinquishment<br />
of cherished progressive ideas. Whether out of nostalgia for<br />
lost youth or a genuine belief in the excellence of the education<br />
they received, alumni/ae of all colleges are conservative;<br />
they want the institution to be exactly as it was when<br />
they were there. And, although it may appear counterintuitive,<br />
alumni/ae of progressive institutions are often the<br />
most conservative of all. They view lectures, required courses,<br />
increased size of a college, increased size of classes—even if<br />
those increases are modest as compared to similar institutions—to<br />
be an abandonment of progressive idealism. I urge<br />
such <strong>Bardian</strong>s to look less to form and more to experimentation<br />
and risk taking as the central themes of the progressive<br />
movement. Times change and colleges must change<br />
with them.<br />
Third: We recognize the need for in-depth knowledge.<br />
Progressive educators of the 1920s and 1930s believed that<br />
students are better educated by proceeding from the specific<br />
to the general, from the practical to the abstract. In recent<br />
years, some of that thinking has been rejected. However,<br />
although Bard has had a First-Year Seminar, or its equivalent,<br />
for many years, the College has always believed that<br />
intense involvement in a discipline linked to the individual<br />
student’s interest yields more than a survey of a traditional<br />
canon can. Witness the Senior Project—a staple of a Bard<br />
education since the 1930s. <strong>Bardian</strong>s are rarely dilettantes;<br />
they tend to know their subjects well.<br />
Finally: We appreciate the fine and performing arts. The<br />
arts are, and have been for many years, central to the Bard experience. One of the advantages of a small<br />
residential college is the ability to meet, know, and grow to understand people who think differently—<br />
sometimes radically differently. The economics major, accustomed to seeing the world in macro terms,<br />
and the student of government, accustomed to seeing the world in terms of political forces, meet (and<br />
get to know) the painter or poet who sees the world in more personal, intimate, terms, and expresses<br />
himself or herself accordingly. Through these connections, the life of each individual is expanded exponentially.<br />
As a result, <strong>Bardian</strong>s, by and large, are curious and open to new ideas, new ways of thinking,<br />
new people, new places. <strong>Bardian</strong>s develop independence and a sense of self, an understanding of where<br />
they fit in a complex and ever-changing world.<br />
Maybe the answer to what makes us a group is that (again, by and large) <strong>Bardian</strong>s reject the concept<br />
of group. We are not joiners; we are individuals. (I cannot resist, given my years of involvement<br />
with fund-raising for the College, noting that nonjoiners are not the easiest group from which to raise<br />
money—no matter how devoted they are to Bard and how generous they may be to other causes. In<br />
that sense, although in no other, I would urge <strong>Bardian</strong>s to be joiners.) We <strong>Bardian</strong>s are not joiners<br />
because we want to think for ourselves and make our own decisions—and we do.<br />
As I said, the task of defining a <strong>Bardian</strong> is impossible. Suggestions welcomed!<br />
what is a bardian? 21
22 james romm
james romm<br />
the campaigns of alexander<br />
In the spring of 323 B.C.E. Alexander the Great and his army approached<br />
Babylon, the city that Alexander, the Macedonian king, had made the<br />
capital of his new-won empire, the former Achaemenid Persian territories.<br />
Alexander had returned the previous year from the land he<br />
called India (now Pakistan), his eastern boundaries firmly fixed; he<br />
was planning further campaigns in the West, as well as exploration of<br />
the waterways on his northeast frontier. He would never fulfill those<br />
plans. The journey to Babylon was to be the last he would make. An<br />
unknown ailment, perhaps a tropical disease, ended his life in Babylon<br />
on June 11, perhaps two months after his arrival in the city.<br />
Babylon was on friendly terms with the Macedonians. Alexander<br />
and his men had bivouacked there for several months in 331, after<br />
defeating the massive army of the vast Persian empire. Babylonians had<br />
welcomed Alexander as a liberator from Persian rule, and he had<br />
responded by vowing to later restore their Etemenanki, a shrine to the<br />
city’s principal god, Bel (also called Marduk), which the Persians had<br />
supposedly destroyed. (Evidence exists that the Persians were wrongly<br />
accused of this vandalism, but everyone in the ancient world believed<br />
them guilty.) But on his return to the city seven and a half years later, he<br />
met with a strangely cold reception. The Chaldaean priesthood, the very<br />
sect he had aided with his restoration project, now told him he would<br />
be cursed if he entered their city. After he scoffed at this warning, the<br />
Chaldaeans mysteriously conceded that Alexander could enter the city<br />
after all—but only from the east, not the west.<br />
The episode of Alexander’s entry into Babylon is presented here<br />
as it appears in the Landmark Arrian, a volume I edited under the direction<br />
of Robert Strassler, founder of the Landmark series. Arrian was a<br />
Greek writer of the second century C.E. who recorded Alexander’s campaigns<br />
in what is today our most reliable ancient account, even though<br />
it postdates by nearly five centuries the events it describes. Arrian follows<br />
the Macedonian king’s footsteps as he journeys from his home in<br />
the northern Aegean to the edge of the Punjab plain, and then halfway<br />
back again, to his fateful end in Babylon. Arrian based his narrative on<br />
two now-lost eyewitness accounts of Alexander’s march, written by<br />
Ptolemy, a close friend of Alexander who later became king of Egypt,<br />
and Aristoboulos, a low-level Greek officer serving in the Macedonian<br />
army; Arrian frequently informs his readers which of these two sources<br />
he is following for any given episode (as he does here).<br />
The Landmark Arrian stands fourth in a series begun in the<br />
1990s by Strassler, an independent scholar, businessman, part-time<br />
faculty member at Bard College at Simon’s Rock: The Early College,<br />
and chair emeritus of the Simon’s Rock Board of Overseers. The<br />
remarkable design features of the series, consistent across all its volumes,<br />
are illustrated in the pages excerpted here. Every location mentioned<br />
in the text is shown on clear, easy-to-read maps, designed by<br />
Strassler, and comprehensive notes explain references that readers<br />
might find obscure. Headings across each page, and side notes in the<br />
margins, keep the reader oriented in time, space, and narrative context.<br />
Photographs of artifacts and sites accompany relevant episodes.<br />
Footnotes are numbered in a way that keys them closely to the text,<br />
using the three levels of indexing commonly assigned to classical<br />
prose works (“7.16.1,” for instance, means Book 7, paragraph 16, section<br />
1.) The goal is to make these ancient narratives not just intelligible,<br />
but—with this new translation by Pamela Mensch—clear and<br />
compelling for modern readers, whatever their background in classical<br />
studies.<br />
Classicists, critics, and general readers have remarked on the clarity,<br />
beauty, and utility of the Landmark series. Arrian’s “painstaking<br />
reliance upon primary sources makes his Alexander surely the closest<br />
of all Alexanders to the original,” according to The Wall Street Journal,<br />
which calls the Landmark edition “sumptuously annotated and lavishly<br />
illustrated.” The New York Times called it “the most thrilling volume in<br />
this fine series.” The impact of the series promises to grow as more volumes<br />
are issued. Those interested in the series are encouraged to visit<br />
its website, www.thelandmarkancienthistories.com.<br />
Alexander’s march from 334 to 323 B.C.E. is a gripping story, better<br />
told by Arrian than by many of his modern adapters. Thanks to this<br />
edition of Arrian’s work, readers who want to follow that march will<br />
find their path easier, richer, and more rewarding. Preparing the book<br />
over the past five years has certainly been a rewarding journey for me.<br />
—James Romm, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics; editor,<br />
The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander<br />
From the Book:<br />
THE LANDMARK ARRIAN: The Campaigns of Alexander edited by James Romm,<br />
Series Editor Robert B. Strassler<br />
Copyright ©2010 by Robert B. Strassler and James Romm<br />
Published by arrangement with Pantheon, an imprint of The Knopf Doubleday<br />
Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.<br />
Image: Retraite des Dix Mille Tabula, Guillaume de Lisle, 1723. David Rumsey Map Collection, courtesy<br />
of www.davidrumsey.com<br />
the campaigns of alexander 23
Alexander tries to heed the warning NEAR BABYLON Spring 323 BOOK SEVEN<br />
7.16.5–8<br />
Spring 323<br />
NEAR BABYLON<br />
Advancing toward Babylon,<br />
Alexander is met by Chaldaean<br />
priests, who tell him that oracles<br />
of the local deity Bel have<br />
warned him not to enter the<br />
city. If he must enter it, they<br />
caution, he should do so from<br />
the east, not the west. But fate,<br />
as Arrian supposes, was now<br />
leading Alexander toward<br />
his doom.<br />
7.17.1–6<br />
Spring 323<br />
NEAR BABYLON<br />
Alexander suspects that the<br />
priests are really seeking to<br />
protect their own financial<br />
prerogatives. According to one<br />
source, he tries to heed their<br />
warnings anyway, but is<br />
prevented from moving to the<br />
city’s eastern entrance by a<br />
stretch of marshy ground.<br />
[5] Alexander now advanced to Babylon, and as he crossed the Tigris 5a with his army, he was<br />
met by the Chaldaean soothsayers, 5b who took him aside and asked him to halt his march to the<br />
city. They declared that they had received a prophecy from the god Bel 5c to the effect that an entry<br />
into Babylon at that time boded evil for Alexander. It is said that he answered them with a verse of<br />
the poet Euripides: “The best of seers is he who guesses well.”<br />
[6] In reply the Chaldaeans said, “Do not face west, sire, or lead your army into the city in<br />
that direction, but go around and enter on the east side.” [7] Even that approach presented difficulties,<br />
owing to the difficult terrain; but in any case the power of the divine was leading Alexander<br />
to the point beyond which he was fated to die. And perhaps it was better for him to depart at the<br />
high point of his fame and of the world’s longing for him, before any of the calamities of man’s lot<br />
befell him—the kind of calamities that, in all likelihood, prompted Solon to advise Croesus to look<br />
to the end of a long life and not to declare any human being happy until then. 7a [8] Hephaistion’s<br />
death had in fact been no small misfortune for Alexander, and it seems to me he would have wanted<br />
to die first rather than live on after losing Hephaistion, in the same way that I suppose Achilles<br />
would have chosen to die before Patroklos rather than become an avenger of his death. 8a<br />
[1] Alexander also suspected that self-interest, rather than prophetic power, prompted the<br />
Chaldaeans to try to prevent him from marching to Babylon at that time. For the temple of Bel,<br />
a vast structure built of baked brick bound together with pitch, stood in the center of Babylon.<br />
[2] On his return from Greece, Xerxes had razed it to the ground, as he had razed all the other<br />
Babylonian shrines. 2a According to some writers, Alexander had intended to rebuild the temple on<br />
the earlier foundation, and that was why he ordered the Babylonians to remove the mound. Others<br />
maintain that he planned to build an even larger temple. [3] Since in his absence the men to whom<br />
the project had been entrusted had not applied themselves to it with any zeal, he intended to put<br />
the entire army to work on it. Large tracts of land and an enormous amount of gold had been dedicated<br />
to the god Bel since the time when the Assyrians ruled Babylon, [4] and this fund had long<br />
ago supplied the money for temple repairs and sacrifices to the god. But at this time the Chaldaeans<br />
were administering the god’s property, since there was nothing on which the revenue could be spent.<br />
7.16.5a Babylon: Map 7.16 and Assyria inset; Tigris River:<br />
Map 7.16, Assyria inset.<br />
7.16.5b In Greco-Roman usage the term Chaldaean refers<br />
to the Babylonian priestly caste, known for its practice<br />
of divination and astrology. See also n. 3.16.5b.<br />
7.16.5c Bel, also known as Marduk or Bel-Marduk, was the<br />
chief god of the Babylonian pantheon and protector<br />
of the city of Babylon.<br />
7.16.7a The reference is to a famous dialogue found in<br />
Herodotus’ Histories (1.30), in which the Athenian<br />
wise man Solon seeks to answer the question put by<br />
Croesus, king of the Lydian empire, as to who are<br />
the happiest human beings. Solon, to Croesus’ surprise,<br />
names no wealthy or powerful individuals<br />
but, rather, relative nobodies. The two men he<br />
judges second happiest in all human history are a<br />
pair of Argive brothers, Cleobis and Biton, who died<br />
suddenly at the peak of their youth, beauty, and<br />
glory, in answer to a prayer to the goddess Hera that<br />
they receive the best reward any mortal could aspire<br />
to. The lesson Solon draws from their example is<br />
that, since human life is subject to unpredictable<br />
troubles and misfortunes, the best fate one can<br />
hope for is to leave it at one’s peak and not to risk a<br />
reversal of fortune. Arrian somewhat distorts this<br />
teaching by applying it to Alexander, since part of<br />
Solon’s point is that the wealth and power that<br />
come with imperial rule do not increase the sum<br />
of one’s happiness.<br />
7.16.8a Arrian here lends his support to the idea, first fostered<br />
by Alexander himself, that the bond between<br />
Alexander and Hephaistion paralleled the mythic<br />
friendship of Achilles and Patroklos (see 1.12.1 and<br />
n. 1.12.1d).<br />
7.17.2a This attack on the Babylonian temples by Xerxes<br />
probably took place just before the Persian invasion<br />
of Greece in 480, rather than just after, as Arrian<br />
asserts. According to Herodotus (Histories 1.183),<br />
Xerxes plundered the golden statue of Bel associated<br />
with the great temple, probably as part of his suppression<br />
of a Babylonian revolt around 482 (though<br />
Herodotus does not say the temple was destroyed).<br />
The symbolic connections between the worship of<br />
Bel and the political control of Babylon are amply<br />
demonstrated by Alexander’s own earlier rebuilding<br />
of the temple and participation in Bel’s rites (see<br />
3.16.4–5 and n. 3.16.4a).<br />
24 james romm
BOOK SEVEN Spring 323 NEAR BABYLON Alexander’s plans for the temple of Bel<br />
FIGURE 7.16. Digital reconstruction of ancient Babylon (top) as seen from the north, looking down the Processional Way toward the<br />
Ishtar Gate. The ziggurat of the Temple of Bel, known to the Babylonians as Etemenanki, is here shown intact, though in Alexander’s time<br />
it lay in ruins. The Ishtar Gate (bottom), rebuilt with the glazed bricks removed from Babylon, is now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.<br />
the campaigns of alexander 25
Alexander suspects the priests’ motives NEAR BABYLON Spring 323 BOOK SEVEN<br />
MAP 7.17. Plan of Babylon, showing the route by which Alexander attempted to enter the city from the east as the priests had advised<br />
but, stopped by the terrain, doubled back to the west entrance.<br />
Alexander suspected that this was why they were opposed to his entering Babylon, lest the swift<br />
completion of the temple deprive them of the benefits of the revenue. [5] But Aristoboulos says<br />
that Alexander was nonetheless ready to obey them, at least when it came to making a detour at<br />
the entrance to the city, and that he made camp on the first day at the bank of the Euphrates; 5a<br />
the next day he advanced, keeping the river on his right, since he wished to pass the west-facing<br />
part of the city, turn there, and lead his forces eastward. [6] But the difficult terrain prevented such<br />
an approach, for anyone who comes up to the city from the west and then turns eastward will find<br />
the ground marshy and covered with shoal water. And thus, according to Aristoboulos, Alexander<br />
disobeyed the god partly by intention and partly not.<br />
7.17.5a Euphrates River: Map 7.16, Assyria inset.<br />
26 james romm
Alexander the Great (marble detail), Pierre Puget, 1693<br />
Réunion des Museés Nationaux/Art Resource, NY<br />
the campaigns of alexander 27
On and Off Campus<br />
Bard Launches High School Early College in Newark<br />
Bard College and the Newark Public Schools are planning to open Bard High<br />
School Early College (BHSEC) Newark, a new four-year school for grades 9<br />
through 12. Based on the successful BHSEC Manhattan and BHSEC Queens,<br />
BHSEC Newark will be a selective, tuition-free public school that offers highly<br />
motivated students from all neighborhoods in Newark the opportunity to earn<br />
a New Jersey high school diploma, 60 college credits, and an associate in arts<br />
degree from Bard College. It is expected to open in September.<br />
Benefit Concerts Aid Conservatory<br />
Dawn Upshaw, acclaimed soprano and artistic director of the Graduate Vocal<br />
Arts Program at The Bard College Conservatory of Music, will perform on<br />
May 15 at the Fisher Center to benefit the Conservatory. The concert will also<br />
feature pianist Kayo Iwama, singers of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and<br />
the Collaborative Piano Fellows. More information about tickets for this benefit,<br />
as well as a complete list of Conservatory events, is at www.bard.edu/<br />
conservatory.<br />
On March 5, more than 35 student musicians from the Conservatory<br />
performed with acclaimed singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant at the Fisher<br />
Center, as a benefit for the Conservatory’s Scholarship Fund. Merchant, a<br />
Hudson Valley resident, presented songs from her latest recording project,<br />
Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch Records, 2010), and selected works from her<br />
extensive catalogue. For Leave Your Sleep, Merchant adapted the poetry of<br />
e.e. cummings, Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Gerard Manley<br />
Hopkins into songs influenced by klezmer, bluegrass, chamber music, and<br />
folk. James Bagwell conducted the orchestra, which included special guests<br />
Uri Sharlin on piano and accordion and Erik Della Penna on guitar.<br />
Arendt Center Examines Lying and Politics<br />
What is the role and danger of lying in politics today? Are lies political acts in<br />
which facts are denied and alternative realities created? By denying facts, does<br />
the political liar change the world, in order to make reality anew so that it conforms<br />
to our needs and desires? “Lying and Politics: What Is the Fate of Politics<br />
in the Age of Lying, Advertising, and Mass Market Deception?” took up those<br />
questions in March. Noted speakers, such as political theorist George Kateb,<br />
William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at Princeton University;<br />
Uday Singh Mehta, Clarence Francis Professor in the Social Sciences at Amherst<br />
College; and editor and author Roger Hodge provided analysis. Cosponsored<br />
by the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities at Bard College<br />
and the Hannah Arendt Center at the New School for Social Research, the<br />
conference took place March 4 and 5 in New York City.<br />
First Citizen Scientists Study Infectious Disease<br />
With an examination of how to reduce the global burden of infectious disease,<br />
the College inaugurated Citizen Science, an intensive introduction to the<br />
sciences now required for all first-year students. The course takes place<br />
during three weeks in January, and this year it brought noted scientists to<br />
campus for public lectures.<br />
Bonnie Bassler, professor of molecular biology at Princeton University<br />
and president of the American Society for Microbiology, offered “How Bacteria<br />
Talk to Each Other.” David Botstein, director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for<br />
Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, gave a talk titled “The Fruits of<br />
the Genome Sequences for Society.” Chad Heilig, lead methodologist for the<br />
international Tuberculosis Trials Consortium, presented “Find TB to Stop TB:<br />
How Science Can Improve Global Policy to Curtail the TB/HIV Syndemic.” Carl<br />
Zimmer, lecturer at Yale University, author, and journalist, conducted a workshop<br />
on the art and craft of science writing.<br />
Iris Awards Luncheon Funds BGC Scholarships<br />
Recipients of the 15th Annual Iris Foundation Awards for Outstanding<br />
Contributions to the Decorative Arts are Shelley and Donald Rubin, creators<br />
of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, the premier museum in the Western<br />
world dedicated to the art of the Himalayas; John Harris, OBE, historian of<br />
architecture, gardens, and architectural drawings; Juliet Kinchin, curator,<br />
Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York;<br />
and Bernard Dragesco, art historian and founder of Galerie Dragesco-<br />
Cramoisan, Paris.<br />
They were honored during a luncheon on April 6 at 583 Park Avenue in<br />
New York City. Proceeds from the luncheon go to graduate student scholarships<br />
and fellowships at the Bard Graduate Center. The awards are named for<br />
BGC founder and director Susan Weber’s mother, Iris Weber.<br />
Pulitzer Winner Speaks on Campus<br />
Robert Olen Butler, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Good Scent from a<br />
Strange Mountain, Tabloid Dreams, and Hell, read from his work in the Weis<br />
Cinema on March 7. Professor of Literature Bradford Morrow introduced Butler,<br />
whose visit was sponsored by the College’s Innovative Contemporary Fiction<br />
Reading Series.<br />
Natalie Merchant. Photo: Cory Weaver<br />
Robert Olen Butler. Photo: Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’00<br />
28
Books by <strong>Bardian</strong>s<br />
Jane Evelyn Atwood<br />
by Jane Evelyn Atwood ’70<br />
photo poche<br />
Photographer Jane Evelyn Atwood (winner of Bard’s Charles Flint<br />
Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters) displays striking images of female<br />
inmates in American and French prisons; the blind, hospitalized, and<br />
amputated; the people of Haiti; and portraits of luminaries such as<br />
Jean Genet and James Baldwin.<br />
Physics studies at St. Stephen’s College, ca. 1895. Photo: Bard College Archives<br />
Archival Photo Exhibition Online<br />
The photo exhibition Bard in Black and White: Selections from the Bard College<br />
Archives is now online. A collaboration between archivist Helene Tieger ’85<br />
and Tricia Fleming from the Office of Alumni/ae Affairs, the exhibition includes<br />
nearly 200 photographs from the College Archives and Special Collections. It<br />
was mounted on campus in October and also displayed at Bard’s 150th Jubilee<br />
in New York City in November. Some of the images were also featured in the<br />
<strong>Bardian</strong>’s Fall 2010 issue. The exhibition and catalogue can be viewed online at<br />
annandaleonline.org and will be displayed in the campus center during<br />
Commencement-Alumni/ae Weekend in May.<br />
CCS Honors Two for Curatorial Excellence<br />
Helen Molesworth, chief curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston,<br />
and Hans Ulrich Obrist, codirector of exhibitions and programs and director<br />
of international projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London, were honored with<br />
the 14th Annual Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Center for Curatorial<br />
Studies at Bard College. The awards—which reflect CCS Bard’s commitment<br />
to recognizing individuals who have defined new thinking, bold vision, and<br />
dedicated service to exhibition practice—were presented at a gala dinner on<br />
April 13 at Capitale in New York City. Molesworth’s research areas are concentrated<br />
largely within and around the problems of feminism, the reception<br />
of Marcel Duchamp, and the sociohistorical frameworks of contemporary art.<br />
Obrist has curated or cocurated more than 200 solo and group exhibitions<br />
and biennales throughout Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa.<br />
The Ethics of Authorship: Communication, Seduction, and<br />
Death in Hegel and Kierkegaard<br />
by Daniel Berthold, professor of philosophy<br />
fordham university press<br />
Examining the distinct writing styles of German idealist philosopher<br />
G. W. F. Hegel and Danish Christian existentialist Søren Kierkegaard,<br />
this book explores questions of authorship and responsibility, showing<br />
how each writer seduces and lures his readers and then disappears,<br />
essentially abandoning them to the text.<br />
Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents<br />
by Ian Buruma, Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights and Journalism<br />
princeton university press<br />
Buruma dissects the explosive tensions between religion and<br />
democracy in America, Europe, and Asia, and maintains that religion<br />
and democracy can be compatible—but only with a vigilant separation<br />
of religious and secular authorities.<br />
The Weight of the Ice: The Northeast Ice Storm of 2008<br />
by Dave Eisenstadter ’05<br />
surry cottage books<br />
Enlivened by more than 100 photographs, this book documents myriad<br />
stories of survival and heroism characterizing the Yankee response<br />
to the 2008 ice storm, which devastated New England and left millions<br />
without power for weeks.<br />
Panorama<br />
by H. G. Adler, translated from the German by Peter Filkins, visiting<br />
professor of literature<br />
random house<br />
Panorama tells the story of Josef Kramer, from his bucolic childhood<br />
in World War I–era Bohemia and adolescence in a xenophobic<br />
German boarding school to his young adulthood in Nazi labor and<br />
extermination camps and postwar exile abroad.<br />
The Correspondence of Paul Celan and Ilana Shmueli<br />
Translated from the German by Susan H. Gillespie, vice president,<br />
global initiatives; director, Institute for International Liberal Education,<br />
with an introduction by Norman Manea, Francis Flournoy Professor<br />
in European Studies and Culture<br />
sheep meadow press<br />
Written during the three years preceding Celan’s suicide in 1970,<br />
this passionate correspondence chronicles an intimate creative<br />
relationship, which began when Celan and Shmueli met as children<br />
in prewar Bukovina and continued sporadically for almost 40 years.<br />
Helen Molesworth, left. Photo: John Kennard<br />
Hans Ulrich Obrist, right. ©Gerhard Richter 2010<br />
on and off campus 29
Gifts Sustain Programs, Initiatives<br />
Bard continues to innovate in the form of new and continuing programs, validated<br />
with the support of distinguished grants.<br />
The Bard College Master of Arts in Teaching Program received a grant<br />
from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary<br />
Education Comprehensive Program. The grant will fund 75 percent of<br />
Preparing Teachers for These Times: Context-Specific Teacher Education Across<br />
the Domains, a three-year model for teacher preparation that addresses a<br />
national need to improve learning and close the achievement gap for all students.<br />
Environmental and Urban Studies, a new interdivisional major at Bard,<br />
has received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support its<br />
continued development. The EUS major furthers the College’s holistic approach<br />
to ecology and development through studies of the Hudson River estuary and<br />
valley, using the river as a laboratory for an integrated understanding of global<br />
environmental transformation.<br />
The Bard College Prison Initiative has obtained a grant from the TD<br />
Charitable Foundation (TD Bank) to support its work to restore higher<br />
education to the prisons of New York. BPI offers college classes and degrees<br />
inside three long-term, maximum-security prisons and two transitional<br />
medium-security prisons in New York State.<br />
Change in Action Starts Series<br />
President Leon Botstein gave a talk, “Leading Change,” during a workshop for<br />
Change in Action, a leadership development program begun a year ago to<br />
provide students with practical and theoretical educational opportunities.<br />
Students polled about potential workshop facilitators had suggested Botstein.<br />
In “Leading Change,” he discussed channeling one’s passion into action by<br />
using organization and persuasion, and by encouraging risk taking. The session<br />
also addressed how to maintain commitment in the face of failure.<br />
Critics Salute Bard Fiction Prize Recipient<br />
Karen Russell, recipient of the <strong>2011</strong> Bard Fiction Prize, is receiving rave reviews<br />
for her new novel, Swamplandia! (Alfred A. Knopf). “Vividly worded, exuberant<br />
in characterization, the novel is a wild ride: Russell has style in spades,” Emma<br />
Donoghue wrote in the February 6 New York Times Book Review.<br />
Russell received the annual Bard Fiction Prize for her short story collection,<br />
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (Random House, 2006). Swamplandia!<br />
expands on “Ava Wrestles the Alligator,” a short story in the St. Lucy’s collection.<br />
The prize, established in 2001 by the College to encourage and support promising<br />
young fiction writers, consists of a $30,000 award and a semester-long<br />
appointment as writer in residence.<br />
Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) Joins Peace Corps Program<br />
The Bard CEP has been accepted as a partner institution in the Peace Corps<br />
Fellows/USA program, a graduate fellowship program that offers financial<br />
assistance and other support to returned Peace Corps volunteers. Bard CEP<br />
already offers the Master’s International Program with Peace Corps, which<br />
allows graduate students to complete a part of their degree while they<br />
volunteer with the Peace Corps.<br />
Philosopher Explores Ties to Slave Trade<br />
Robert Bernasconi, one of the leading Continental philosophers in the United<br />
States, presented “Race, Slavery, and the Philosophers of the Enlightenment”<br />
on campus in February. His talk addressed race issues in the wake of controversies<br />
about whether John Locke’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade<br />
affected the writing of The Two Treatises of Government and whether Immanuel<br />
Kant’s failure to condemn publicly the use of African slaves in the Americas is<br />
evidence of racism. Bernasconi is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy<br />
at Pennsylvania State University. The Human Rights Project and the<br />
Difference and Media Project cosponsored his appearance.<br />
Pulitzer Correspondent Chronicles Iraq Report<br />
Anthony Shadid, New York Times foreign correspondent, was a guest of the<br />
Human Rights Project and Middle Eastern Studies Program in November. He<br />
delivered a lecture titled “Consequences Not Intended: Reporting on America’s<br />
War in Iraq.” Shadid has reported from most countries in the Middle East and,<br />
until December 2009, was Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post. He<br />
has won two Pulitzer Prizes (2004 and 2010) for his Iraq coverage.<br />
BPI Celebrates Graduation<br />
The Bard Prison Initiative marked its eighth annual commencement exercise<br />
on March 26 at Eastern New York Correctional Facility, Napanoch, New York.<br />
Six students received bachelor of arts degrees and 43 got their associate in<br />
arts degrees. William D. Brown, who retired that week as superintendent of<br />
the facility, received the <strong>Bardian</strong> Award. Gara LaMarche, president and CEO<br />
of Atlantic Philanthropies, was awarded the John Dewey Award for<br />
Distinguished Public Service.<br />
MFA Faculty Member Wins Newman Award<br />
Luca Buvoli, a faculty member in sculpture at the Milton Avery Graduate<br />
School of the Arts, is a recipient this year of the Barnett and Annalee<br />
Newman Award, a grant given to artists whose work embodies the rigorous<br />
and independent ethos of the Abstract Expressionist artist Barnett Newman.<br />
Karen Russell. Photo: Michael Lionstar<br />
Luca Buvoli. Photo: Sebastiano Piras<br />
30
Human Rights Lectures Focus on Corporate Complicity<br />
Several speakers came to campus in February as guests of the Human Rights<br />
Project Lecture and Film Series. Valentina Azarov, lecturer in human rights<br />
and international law at Al-Quds University and the Al-Quds Bard Honors<br />
College in Liberal Arts and Sciences, presented “Corporate Complicity in<br />
Human Rights Violations.” Susie Linfield, associate professor of journalism<br />
and associate director of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program at<br />
New York University, gave a talk titled “The Cruel Radiance: Photography and<br />
Political Violence.” Her appearance was cosponsored by the Hannah Arendt<br />
Center for Politics and the Humanities.<br />
Tower Named Composer of Year<br />
Joan Tower, Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts, has been honored as the<br />
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s 2010–11 Composer of the Year. The orchestra<br />
will perform six of her works this season, and she will lead master classes<br />
with the university’s composition students.<br />
Scholars Review Future of Anglo-American Relationship<br />
Richard Aldous, Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature,<br />
and Ted Bromund, senior research fellow at the Margaret Thatcher Center<br />
for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, delivered a joint lecture, “Cameron,<br />
Obama, and the Future of the Anglo-American Relationship” as part of the<br />
James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series. The Bard College Globalization<br />
and International Affairs Program and Foreign Affairs magazine presented the<br />
event in February at the SUNY Global Center in New York City.<br />
Prose Wins Distinguished Literary Award<br />
Francine Prose, Distinguished Writer in Residence at the College, received the<br />
Washington University International Humanities Medal. The $25,000 prize is<br />
among the largest literary awards in the United States and honors the lifetime<br />
work of a noted scholar, writer, or artist who has made a significant and<br />
sustained contribution to the world of letters or the arts.<br />
Alumni Share Their Learning, Talents<br />
In celebration of the International Year of Chemistry, the Bard Chemistry<br />
Program brought two alumni back to campus. Mahmud Hussain ’05 and James<br />
Morris ’07 spoke to students on their individual research in organometallic<br />
chemistry. Hussain earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and<br />
is now a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard. Morris is completing a Ph.D.<br />
at the University of Rochester.<br />
Composer-pianist Bruce Wolosoff ’77 returned to campus in early<br />
February to perform a recital of original works at Bard Hall.<br />
Alumni/ae Power Thought-Provoking Blog<br />
A number of <strong>Bardian</strong>s are behind a blog that is starting to make a name for<br />
itself. Established in March 2010, The Busy Signal (TheBusySignal.com) posts<br />
new original essays, short or long, focused on issues of the day—politics, policy,<br />
culture, and ideas—with the intention of starting conversations.<br />
Active in the venture are executive editor Jesse Myerson ’08, editor-inchief<br />
Henry Casey ’06, managing editor Julia Wentzel ’09, and staff writers<br />
including Akie Bermiss ’05, Andrea Greco ’06, Jacqueline Moss ’06, Meg<br />
Gatza ’07, Genya Shimkin ’08, Brian Fabry Dorsam ’09, and Katy Kelleher ’09;<br />
and guest contributors Colin Lissandrello ’08 and Dan Wilbur ’09. The Busy<br />
Signal has also featured interviews with Jonathan Cristol ’00, director of the<br />
Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, and author Mat Johnson,<br />
who formerly taught at Bard.<br />
Distillations and Siphonings<br />
by Jonathan Greene ’65<br />
broadstone books<br />
Jonathan Greene’s 30th collection in a career spanning five decades<br />
represents a poet at the peak of his art: minimal verse appears on the<br />
page in elegant simplicity, chronicling the pleasures and trials of rural<br />
life with idiosyncratic observations and sly humor.<br />
Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same:<br />
The Musical Moment in Film<br />
by Amy Herzog ’94<br />
university of minnesota press<br />
Drawing upon an eclectic selection of films, from French musicals<br />
and Scopitone jukebox films (forerunners to music videos) to<br />
Taiwanese cinema, Herzog investigates the power of music to<br />
disrupt and transform the formulaic and predictable narrative.<br />
Three Ladies Beside the Sea<br />
by Rhoda Levine ’53, drawings by Edward Gorey<br />
new york review books<br />
In sophisticated and darkly humorous rhyme, this illustrated children’s<br />
tale tells of three eccentric Edwardian ladies living by the sea and<br />
their pursuit to find the sad reason one spends her life up in a tree.<br />
Zone<br />
by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell ’90<br />
open letter<br />
Widely acclaimed in France, Énard’s epic novel—written as one long,<br />
compulsive sentence, which Mandell translates vividly into English—<br />
takes place within the mind of a Croatian soldier turned French spy<br />
on an overnight train journey.<br />
The Diviner’s Tale<br />
by Bradford Morrow, professor of literature<br />
houghton mifflin harcourt<br />
In Morrow’s newest novel, a literary thriller, struggling single mother<br />
Cassandra Brooks is gifted by bizarre divinations that eerily foretell the<br />
future while propelling her into a troubling past, forcing her to take<br />
control of her life and finally face off with a real-life, long-lost killer.<br />
Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian<br />
Intellectual History<br />
by Andrew J. Nicholson ’94<br />
columbia university press<br />
Challenging the postcolonial theory that the belief system known as<br />
Hinduism was created by 19th-century British imperialists, Nicholson<br />
posits that a unified Hinduism has its roots between the 12th and<br />
16th centuries C.E.<br />
The Elgar Companion to Hyman Minsky<br />
edited by Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, president, Levy Economics Institute,<br />
and Jerome Levy Professor of Economics; and L. Randall Wray, Levy<br />
senior scholar<br />
edward elgar<br />
These essays are by economists whose ideas and research have been<br />
influenced by the work of Hyman P. Minsky, who was a Distinguished<br />
Scholar at Bard’s Levy Economics Institute. Minsky’s work has seen a<br />
resurgence in light of the worldwide financial meltdown.<br />
on and off campus 31
Bard in Brooklyn Hosts Meetup<br />
Bard in Brooklyn held a gathering in February at Melville House Publishing<br />
in DUMBO, the workplace of cohost Kelly Burdick ’04. Burdick and cohosts<br />
Dumaine Williams ’03 and KC Serota ’04 greeted nearly 50 alumni/ae at<br />
the event, from a member of the class of ’72 through the most recent crop of<br />
transplants. Bard in Brooklyn (BiB) has set out to connect the more than 900<br />
Bard alumni/ae who live in the borough—to each other and to Bard. Watch<br />
annandaleonline.org, for upcoming BiB events.<br />
Philosophical Society Honors Professor<br />
Francisca Oyogoa, professor of sociology and African-American studies at<br />
Bard College at Simon’s Rock: The Early College, received the John Hope Franklin<br />
Dissertation Fellowship for her dissertation, “Do Employers Have a Race?<br />
Employers’ Racial Ideology and the Marginalization of Black Male Workers in<br />
the Pullman Railroad Company, 1858–1969.” The American Philosophical<br />
Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, presents the award.<br />
Energy-Producing Art Proposal Wins World Prize<br />
Robert Flottemesch ’02, Jen DeNike MFA ’02, and two partners won the<br />
2010 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition for their proposal,<br />
Lunar Cubit, a public art work that would also generate electricity.<br />
The initiative received hundreds of submissions from more than 40<br />
countries for public art installations with the potential for large-scale clean<br />
energy generation that could power thousands of homes. Lunar Cubit consists<br />
of a ring of eight pyramids circling a central pyramid. More about the proposal<br />
can be found at www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/1286.<br />
Private Tour of the Whitney for Alumni/ae<br />
Barbara Haskell, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, gave 30<br />
Bard alumni/ae and their guests a private, after-hours tour of the museum in<br />
February, focusing on Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time, which she<br />
cocurated.<br />
Publisher, Professor Extol Italian Lyric Poet<br />
Jonathan Galassi, publisher at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, read from his<br />
acclaimed new translation of Giacomo Leopardi’s Canti at the Fisher Center.<br />
He was accompanied by Associate Professor of Italian Joseph Luzzi, who<br />
read the poetry of Leopardi (1798–1837) in the original Italian. Together,<br />
they discussed the Canti’s fascinating composition process and Leopardi’s<br />
prominence among European lyric poets. Bard’s Italian Studies Program<br />
sponsored the event, which took place on February 23.<br />
Hecht Scholar Focuses on Caesar<br />
Garry Wills, professor of history emeritus at Northwestern University, delivered<br />
the Anthony Hecht ’44 Lectures in the Humanities at Bard, March 7–10. The<br />
series was rescheduled from October. Wills, the author of Lincoln at Gettysburg<br />
and Why I Am a Catholic, among many other books, spoke on “Rome and<br />
Rhetoric: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.” An additional lecture took place on<br />
March 9, at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.<br />
The biennial lecture series honors Anthony Hecht ’44 by reflecting his<br />
lifelong interest in literature, music, the visual arts, and U.S. cultural history.<br />
Split Between Rights Movement, Race Examined<br />
International human rights lawyers Matiangai Sirleaf and Tendayi Achiume<br />
analyzed how the human rights movement has failed to engage with race,<br />
during a daylong series of panels and presentations at Bard focusing on basic<br />
human rights and featuring noted activists and scholars.<br />
Otis Gaddis, an attorney, scholar at Yale Divinity School, and Episcopal<br />
priest in training, also appeared at the February 19 event and spoke about<br />
“Is Post-Black the New Black?”<br />
The day’s events were cosponsored by the Chinua Achebe Center for<br />
African Writers and Artists at Bard College, Institute for International Liberal<br />
Education, Dean of Student Affairs, and Human Rights Project.<br />
Conference Honors Team for Sportsmanship<br />
The men’s soccer team received the Sportsmanship Award for the fall 2010<br />
semester from the Skyline Conference, which also recognized several Bard<br />
student athletes for excellence.<br />
Jacob Hartog ’12 won Player of the Year honors in men’s soccer; teammate<br />
Deven Connelly ’12 made the First Team as a goalkeeper. Jean Wong ’14 was<br />
named Rookie of the Year in women’s tennis, and she made the First Team.<br />
Teammates Sofia Commito ’12 and Nelle Plotkin ’14 made the Second Team.<br />
In women’s soccer, Perry Scheetz ’13 and Kim Larie ’12 made the First Team;<br />
Maddy Huggins ’14 made the Second Team. In women’s volleyball, Rachel<br />
Van Horn ’12 earned Second Team recognition.<br />
Oldest Living Alumnus Visits Campus<br />
The Reverend John Mears ’35 and his wife, Dorothy, visited Bard last fall for<br />
the first time since his graduation 75 years before. At 98, Father Mears is<br />
believed to be the oldest living alumnus of the institution (the college changed<br />
its name from St. Stephen’s to Bard during his time here). He was delighted to<br />
visit the parts of campus that have changed little: Stone Row, Ludlow, the<br />
original library building, Bard Hall, and the Chapel, and he greatly enjoyed<br />
Jonathan Galassi and Professor Joseph Luzzi. Photo: Karl Rabe<br />
The Reverend John Mears ’35 and his wife, Dorothy. Photo: Sasha Boak-Kelly<br />
32
seeing the newer buildings, especially the Fisher Center. He regaled those he<br />
met with stories of his years here, including his work on campus—serving in<br />
the commissary, maintaining the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, and even<br />
walking Warden B. I. Bell’s dogs. At the chapel, he exchanged stories with<br />
Bard Chaplain Bruce Chilton ’71, and met with Bard archivist Helene Tieger ’85,<br />
who brought along his yearbook and other documents and photographs so<br />
that Father Mears could identify his friends and reminisce.<br />
Dawn Upshaw Sings Works by Tower, Alumni/ae<br />
Dawn Upshaw, acclaimed soprano and artistic director of the Graduate Vocal<br />
Arts Program at the Bard Conservatory, joined singers from the VAP in a<br />
special concert at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City on March<br />
17. The performance featured the first piece written for voice by Joan Tower,<br />
Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts, and works composed by current<br />
students and recent alumni/ae, including Yiwen Shen ’10, Stefan Weisman ’92,<br />
and Matt Schickele ’92. The event received a glowing New York Times review.<br />
Rare Film Prints Strengthen Collection<br />
Bard is now home to 60 rare English-subtitled film prints that constitute a<br />
microhistory of Taiwanese cinema from the 1950s to the 1990s. “The<br />
Taiwanese cinema of the 1980s and ’90s was one of the strongest in the<br />
world. This collection reflects the range and sophistication of filmmaking in<br />
Taiwan both before and during that period,” said Richard Suchenski, assistant<br />
professor of film and electronic arts, who coordinated the acquisition from<br />
the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office and supervises the collection.<br />
Up-to-the-Minute Scores Now on Athletics Website<br />
The Bard College Department of Recreation and Athletics has launched<br />
www.bardathletics.com, a website with information about varsity sports<br />
teams, club and intramural sports, gym and exercise class schedules, and<br />
community membership information, as well as photo galleries, video, social<br />
networking, and “Live Stats,” providing real-time play-by-play of varsity<br />
contests.<br />
Lecture Explores Urban Geography of New Orleans<br />
Richard Campanella, associate academic director of Bard’s Urban Studies<br />
in New Orleans Program, presented “Urban Geographies of New Orleans:<br />
Connecting Nature, Culture, and Economy” during a February 14 visit to<br />
Bard. He is associate director and research professor at the Center for<br />
Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane University in New Orleans and author of<br />
Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm (2006).<br />
Procedural Elegies / Western Civ Cont’d/<br />
by Joan Retallack, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of<br />
Humanities<br />
roof books<br />
Chosen by Artforum as one of the best books of 2010, this collection<br />
of poet Joan Retallack’s selected works from the 1970s to date<br />
presents an exhilaratingly lyric, exquisitely elegiac, and intelligently<br />
humorous homage to poetic experimentation, civilization, and<br />
procedure.<br />
Town<br />
by Kate Schapira ’01<br />
factory school<br />
In this innovative book of poems, Schapira creates an intricate portrait<br />
of a made-up town built upon single facts—sometimes contradictory<br />
but always true—contributed by fellow writers, friends, and<br />
family. The result is a poetic vision stratified by the infrastructure,<br />
protocol, and scruples of a very real America.<br />
Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic<br />
Identity in the Progressive Era<br />
by Ezra Shales BGC ’07<br />
rivergate books<br />
This volume traces the innovative history of the Newark Public<br />
Library’s experimental art exhibitions and the founding of the<br />
Newark Museum Association, which intertwined art, culture, literacy,<br />
civics, and consumption in a tumultuous industrial city at the turn of<br />
the 20th century.<br />
My Hollywood<br />
by Mona Simpson, Sadie Samuelson Levy Professor in Languages<br />
and Literature<br />
alfred a. knopf<br />
Simpson’s provocative novel alternates between the voices of composer<br />
and new mother Claire, recently transplanted from New York<br />
to L.A. by her husband’s television writing career, and her nanny<br />
Lola, whose caregiver job in America supports her husband and five<br />
children in the Philippines, and delves into the delicate balance of<br />
disparate yet interdependent social worlds.<br />
Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long<br />
Con That Is Breaking America<br />
by Matt Taibbi ’92<br />
spiegel & grau<br />
At turns hilarious and horrifying, this trailblazing book by Rolling<br />
Stone contributing editor Taibbi traces the roots and untangles the<br />
web of the elite “grifter class,” the network of political and economic<br />
power grabbers who are at the helm of this country.<br />
Legal Tender: Love and Legitimacy in the East German<br />
Cultural Imagination<br />
by John Griffith Urang ’97<br />
signale<br />
In this original and unconventional study, Urang analyzes a textured<br />
selection of East German films and novels to show how romance and<br />
love stories played an intricate cultural role in Stalinist-influenced<br />
East Germany between 1949 and 1989.<br />
Richard Campanella. Photo: Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’00<br />
on and off campus 33
COMMENCEMENT AND<br />
ALUMNI/AE WEEKEND<br />
May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Join this year’s alumni/ae honorees Richard F. Koch '40 (Bard Medal),<br />
Richard C. Friedman '61 (John and Samuel Bard Award), Adam Yauch '86<br />
(Kellogg Award), Pia Carusone '03 (Dewey Award), Jean M. French (<strong>Bardian</strong><br />
Award), Richard M. Sherman '49 and Robert B. Sherman '49 (Doctors of<br />
Fine Arts) for the weekend’s happenings and highlights, including:<br />
Annandale Roadhouse<br />
Bertelsmann Campus Center, Friday night only, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.<br />
BardCorps Airstream<br />
Record an audio history of your time at Bard.<br />
Live Music<br />
Including the American Symphony Orchestra at the Fisher Center, Bard bands at the Annandale<br />
Roadhouse on Friday night, and the annual Jazzfest in Blum Hall on both Friday and Saturday.<br />
Photography Retrospective: Peter Kenner '66<br />
Reception, Woods Studio, Saturday, 11 a.m.<br />
BBQ Celebration<br />
Catch up with classmates at reunion receptions, feast at the barbecue, be wowed by fireworks,<br />
and dance the night away at Bard's biggest and best annual party.<br />
Details at annandaleonline.org/commencement<br />
Photo: Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’00
Class Notes<br />
Editor’s note: More extensive versions of many of these notes and additional notes<br />
are posted on AnnandaleOnline.org, the Bard alumni/ae website. Class Notes of<br />
any length, with accompanying photos, may be posted there.<br />
’10<br />
1st Reunion: May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Brad Whitmore, 845-758-7663 or whitmore@bard.edu<br />
After a summer internship in San Francisco, Charlotte Ashlock moved to<br />
Rochester, New York, where she works for AmeriCorps, doing afterschool<br />
programming for teens in an inner-city library.<br />
Justin White is an adviser in the College Success Office of the Harlem<br />
Children’s Zone in New York City, providing academic, financial, and career<br />
guidance to local college students.<br />
’09<br />
Neşe Lisa Şenol completed her master’s degree in comparative literature<br />
and literary theory at the University of Pennsylvania in December 2010. She<br />
continues to work on her Ph.D., which she aims to receive by 2015.<br />
In June, Dan Whitener released a CD entitled On the Tracks, which is available<br />
through many online distributors, including iTunes.<br />
’08<br />
Class correspondent: Patricia Pforte, patricia.pforte@gmail.com<br />
Robin Brehm lives in Brooklyn, where she’s finishing her first year of the dual<br />
M.D./M.P.H. program at the SUNY Downstate College of Medicine.<br />
Nathan Churchill-Seder and Sarah Mercer ’07 were married in November<br />
2010 in Seattle. <strong>Bardian</strong>s in attendance included Emily Shornick, Rachel<br />
Sanders, and Ella Reily Stocker; Charlotte Hendrickson ’07 and Shraddha<br />
Rosidivito ’07; Lilah Steece ’06 and Victoria Jacobs ’06; and, of course,<br />
Nathan’s mom, Bard dance professor Jean Churchill.<br />
In 2010 Alex Davis worked as sound tech for a one-man show touring two<br />
theater festivals in Europe. In August he also worked tech with the Edinburgh<br />
Fringe Theater Festival in Scotland. He now works in arts and education in his<br />
hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.<br />
Mary Kate Donovan lives in Madrid. Arriving in 2009 as a Fulbright grantee,<br />
she is now a master’s candidate in Spanish and Latin American literature and<br />
culture at New York University’s Madrid campus.<br />
Elen Flügge is pursuing a master’s degree in sound studies at the University of<br />
Arts in Berlin, Germany, where she is active as an installation artist and writer.<br />
Chris Herring is pursuing a doctorate in sociology at UC Berkeley, after having<br />
completed a master’s degree at Central European University in Budapest and<br />
worked in New York City government.<br />
Patricia Pforte is working on a master’s degree in museum studies at New<br />
York University. This spring, she is interning for the Tenement Museum’s<br />
“Tenement Talks” program.<br />
Ace Salisbury’s short film A Headless Nun on a Swing Set that Is on Fire, a satire<br />
of European cinema, won the award for Best Foreign Film at the 2010 Zero<br />
Film Festival in New York City.<br />
Sam Scoppettone and Reanna Corinne Blackford ’07 are studying city and<br />
regional planning at Cornell University. Both plan to earn their master’s<br />
degrees there in 2012.<br />
In October 2010, Emily Shornick spoke on a Levi’s Photo Workshop panel<br />
organized by Spin magazine, on the topic of breaking into music photography.<br />
Emily lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and works in the photo department at<br />
Lucky magazine.<br />
Basha Smolen married Gus Hoffman in early <strong>2011</strong>. She is working in conjunction<br />
with the BBC, producing a short documentary series on fortune-tellers on<br />
New York’s Lower East Side.<br />
Jack Woodruff is serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, working on<br />
organic fertilizer production with groups of sugar cane growers.<br />
’07<br />
Class correspondent: Reanna Blackford, reanna.blackford@gmail.com<br />
Caity (Cook) Bolton completed her master’s degree in Near Eastern studies<br />
at New York University in May 2010 and works with Sudanese refugees in<br />
Cairo. She was right in the middle of things when the Egyptian revolution<br />
toppled Mubarak’s government, blogging on the events in Cairo at<br />
owayfarer.wordpress.com.<br />
Desiree (Porter) Costello lives in Portland, Oregon, and has three jobs—at a<br />
Montessori toddler community, at an organization called Backline<br />
(www.yourbackline.org), and with PDX Doulas. She married her “high school<br />
drama club crush” in August.<br />
Stephen Dickinson spent a semester in Buenos Aires and is working toward a<br />
master’s degree in architecture at Arizona State University. His thesis<br />
explores urban issues, marginal spaces, and societal values.<br />
Christine George graduated from St. John’s University School of Law in June,<br />
and is now in a law librarianship program at the University of Texas at Austin.<br />
Allyson Grennille received a master of arts in social sciences degree from the<br />
University of Chicago in 2008. Her thesis focused on the construction of<br />
authority in alternative news outlets.<br />
Jack Woodruff ’08 working with Ecuadorian sugar cane farmers as a Peace Corps<br />
volunteer. Photo: courtesy of Jack Woodruff<br />
This spring, Nevada Griffin completes his final year of a joint master’s program<br />
in international relations and public health at Yale University.<br />
class notes 35
Shayna Hall lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her boyfriend. She completed<br />
her master’s degree at the University of Michigan and works for a juvenile<br />
drug court as a therapist.<br />
JP Lor is a nonprofit fund-raising professional at the Chinese American<br />
International School in San Francisco. He is preparing for AIDS/LifeCycle,<br />
a seven-day, 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles in June.<br />
Howard Megdal and his wife, Rachel, are proud parents of Mirabelle Hope,<br />
born in March 2010. His second book, Taking the Field, will be published by<br />
Bloomsbury in May.<br />
Ananta Neelim lives in Melbourne, Australia, and has experienced his first<br />
summertime Christmas and New Year’s Eve. He is training to be an economist<br />
at Monash University.<br />
Formerly a faculty member at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public<br />
Health, Nicholas Risko is now a medical student at the University of Maryland<br />
School of Medicine.<br />
Tanya Rosen works as an associate conservation scientist for the Wildlife<br />
Conservation Society in Montana, focusing on human-wildlife conflicts. She<br />
also works for Project Snow Leopard in Pakistan and the International<br />
Institute for Sustainable Development.<br />
Bonnie Ruberg is a comparative literature Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley.<br />
She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Scott Jon Siegel, who is a game<br />
designer with Playdom. Scott spoke at the Montreal International Game<br />
Summit in November 2010, and was named one of Develop magazine’s<br />
“30 Under 30” for 2010.<br />
Leah Schrader joined Teach for America in Phoenix, where she taught fifthgraders<br />
with emotional difficulties. She now works in Baltimore as a science<br />
teacher at a school for integrated arts.<br />
Lillian Slezak works at Art in America in New York, where she “regularly<br />
employs the writing skills and enthusiasm for contemporary art” that she<br />
developed at Bard.<br />
Karen Soskin manages Other Music in New York City, and tour-manages<br />
bands for her all-women-run company, Strength In Numbers<br />
(www.strengthin123.com), which provides tour management, books tours,<br />
and releases records by female-identified/queer artists.<br />
Nicholas Ugbode finished a master’s degree in business from the University<br />
of London. He works in public relations and lives in New York City.<br />
Riley Willis has worked in the field of global health since graduating from<br />
Bard. She is now part of the program design team at a women’s health<br />
organization in New York City.<br />
’06<br />
5th Reunion: May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Brad Whitmore, 845-758-7663 or whitmore@bard.edu<br />
Class correspondent: Kirsten Dunlaevy, kdunlaevy@gmail.com<br />
Shirin Khosravi is the field director for the Hudson Valley chapter of the<br />
Human Rights Campaign (shirin.khosravi@hrc.org), working toward equal<br />
marriage rights in the state of New York in <strong>2011</strong>. She’s also heading up the<br />
Reunion Committee for the fifth reunion of ’06, and hopes to see you there.<br />
Gordon Stevenson is an artist and designer living and working in New York<br />
City. In early <strong>2011</strong> he had a show at Ochi Gallery in Sun Valley, Idaho. Under<br />
the name Baron Von Fancy, he designs clothing and other objects that can be<br />
found in stores both nationally and internationally.<br />
Max Zbiral Teller has been in Mumbai, India, for more than a year, studying<br />
with renowned Indian classical musician Panditji Shivkumar Sharma. His<br />
studies have been made possible by the American Institute of Indian Studies.<br />
To hear what he’s up to, visit www.maxzt.com.<br />
’05<br />
Ashley Bathgate earned a master’s degree and artist diploma in 2008 from the<br />
Yale School of Music. Soon after, she became the cellist in the award-winning,<br />
electro-acoustic ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars, and has been touring<br />
internationally with them ever since. Her newest side project is a duo called<br />
TwoSense with pianist Lisa Moore.<br />
Olivia Tamzarian, study abroad coordinator with Learning Programs<br />
International in Austin, Texas, presented a lecture at the Bard High School<br />
Early College Manhattan in January on the benefits of studying abroad.<br />
’04<br />
Joe Vallese (MAT ’06) coedited What’s Your Exit? A Literary Detour Through<br />
New Jersey. Published in May 2010, the book was named a top “Summer 2010<br />
The wedding of Desiree (Porter) Costello ’07 and Salvatore Costello (fourth and third from<br />
right) in August 2010. Others, from left to right: Izzy Sederbaum, Tracy Potter-Finns ’10,<br />
Litta Naukushu ’08, Genya Shimkin ’08, Julia Wentzel ’09. Photo: Emily Mucha<br />
Jean-Marc Gorelick ’02 monitoring Guinea’s presidential elections, summer 2010.<br />
Photo: Rita Pavone<br />
36
Beach Read” by NJ Monthly magazine, and had a cover story in Inside Jersey<br />
magazine’s “Literary NJ” issue.<br />
’03<br />
Jibade-Khalil Huffman presented a series of photographs as part of the<br />
exhibition Manual Transmission in July 2010 in New York City, as well as the<br />
poem-as-slideshow-as-performance, Monster Island Czar, at MoMA/P.S.1<br />
Contemporary Art Center in January. He was awarded a Lower Manhattan<br />
Cultural Council Workspace Residency for 2010–11.<br />
In the fall of 2010, Tanya Zaharchenko started a Ph.D. program in Slavonic<br />
studies at Cambridge University as a member of King’s College. For more info<br />
about the collaborative, transdisciplinary research project she has joined, visit<br />
www.memoryatwar.org.<br />
’02<br />
Class correspondent: Toni Fortini Josey, toni.josey@gmail.com<br />
Carla Aspenberg displayed a print of a shattered glass plate in the group<br />
exhibition New Prints <strong>2011</strong> / Winter at the International Print Center New York.<br />
Timothy Goldberg received his doctoral degree in mathematics from Cornell<br />
University in August. A visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Lenoir-<br />
Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, his thesis was titled<br />
“Hamiltonian actions in integral Kahler and generalized complex geometry.”<br />
Jean-Marc Gorelick spent one month in Guinea, West Africa, in the summer<br />
of 2010, working as a democracy officer in the Bureau for Africa at the United<br />
States Agency for International Development (USAID). Jean-Marc monitored<br />
Guinea’s first round of presidential elections on June 27 and assisted the<br />
USAID mission in coordinating its elections assistance activities.<br />
Dara Marcus will be spending the summer in Berlin and Beirut, and welcomes any<br />
<strong>Bardian</strong>s in those parts of the world to contact her at darabmarcus@yahoo.com.<br />
Skye McNeill is pursuing her master of fine arts degree in graphic design at the<br />
Maryland Institute College of Art. She recently designed four book covers for<br />
Rescue Press in Milwaukee. Visit www.skyemcneill.com for info and images.<br />
Molly Schulman lives in Los Angeles, where she is busy restoring her<br />
1885-era house and trying to get her paper goods company off the ground.<br />
You can see her work at www.mshoelace.com. Molly writes a collaborative<br />
blog with her sister, Amanda Schulman Brokaw ’99, which recounts the<br />
adventures of two Brooklyn boys through short stories and illustrations—visit<br />
ZekeAndDestroy.wordpress.com.<br />
’00<br />
Levi Stolove is an award-winning wedding photographer—a PDN Top Knots<br />
winner, WPJA member, and well published in magazines and blogs specializing<br />
in weddings.<br />
’97<br />
Class correspondent: Julia Wolk Munemo, juliamunemo@mac.com<br />
Nora Kovacs married Peter Isaac last September in Budapest, Hungary. Many<br />
of her friends from Bard attended the event, including Tamas Papp, Zsofia<br />
Rudnay, Zoltan Bruckner ’94, and Ana Pericic, Edina Deme, Ivan Lacko, and<br />
Radek Dyntar (all PIEs of 1995–96). Nora lives in Vienna and works at the<br />
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.<br />
While studying music in Brazil, Kenny Kozol met his wife, Sandra. They now live in<br />
Boston with Sandra’s daughter, Samia (11), and Kenny and Sandra’s two children,<br />
Madalena (2) and Benicio (1 year in October). Kenny plays music with his<br />
Latin band, Ten Tumbao (www.tentumbao.com), is working on a CD of original<br />
children’s music, and teaches music and Spanish at Brookline High School.<br />
Ana Martinez is traveling around the world with her husband, Bryan, and<br />
their 5-year-old son, Ricky. Follow their adventures on their blog: www.<br />
riderbymyside.com.<br />
Meri Pritchett has entered her second career. After a successful decade as an<br />
Emmy-nominated, docu-reality television writer, producer, and director in Los<br />
Angeles, she is now a life enrichment manager at a nursing home in Austin, Texas.<br />
Adam Weiss is an architect with Wilson Architectural Group in Houston and<br />
is happily married to Lisa Wildermuth.<br />
’96<br />
15th Reunion: May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Tricia Fleming, 845-758-7089 or fleming@bard.edu<br />
Class correspondent: Gavin Kleespies, gwkleespies@hotmail.com<br />
In April <strong>2011</strong> Christina Amato completed a six-month internship in book conservation<br />
at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. She enjoyed<br />
working on rare books such as a 17th-century recipe book and a 15th-century<br />
incunabulum.<br />
’01<br />
10th Reunion: May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Sasha Boak-Kelly, 845-758-7407 or boak@bard.edu<br />
Class correspondent: Sung Jee Yoo, sujeyo@gmail.com<br />
Hannah (Adams) Burque and Christopher Burque were married on August 28,<br />
2010, in their hometown of Chicago. <strong>Bardian</strong> guests included Ursula Arsenault,<br />
Ashley Kammrath, Matt Lucas, and Sam Morgan ’03. Hannah and Chris split<br />
their time between Los Angeles and Chicago, run a music licensing company<br />
together, and raise Chris’s daughter (now Hannah’s stepdaughter), Estella.<br />
Nick Jones’s play The Coward, a comedy about 18th-century England’s dueling<br />
culture, had a run in New York City in late 2010 at LCT3, a Lincoln Center<br />
initiative featuring the work of emerging playwrights and directors.<br />
Hannah (Adams) Burque ’01 and Christopher Burque at their Chicago wedding in<br />
August 2010 with Hannah’s new stepdaughter, Estella. Photo: Otto Arsenault<br />
class notes 37
Gavin W. Kleespies was the coeditor of Rediscovering the Hooper-Lee-Nichols<br />
House, a collection of short essays by some of the top preservation scholars in<br />
New England on the extensive investigation of one 17th-century house.<br />
Amy Kosh lives in Keene Valley, New York, where she makes art and teaches<br />
photography and yoga. Her photography has been included in exhibitions in<br />
Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the north country.<br />
At the end of 2010 Amie Siegel received the prestigious James and Audrey<br />
Foster Prize from the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. She also was<br />
one of 18 artists in The Talent Show, an exhibition at MoMA P.S.1 earlier<br />
this year.<br />
’95<br />
Noah Mullette-Gillman has published his first novel, The White Hairs, available<br />
at Amazon.com, lulu.com, and Barnes & Noble.<br />
’94<br />
Last summer Tara Lynn Wagner and her husband Josh Payne welcomed their<br />
daughter, Stella Rae, into the world. Five weeks later, Tara Lynn spent the<br />
week in Rhinebeck, reporting on the Chelsea Clinton wedding for NY1.<br />
’92<br />
Class correspondent Andrea J. Stein, stein@bard.edu<br />
’91<br />
20th Reunion: May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Jane Brien ’89, 845-758-7406 or brien@bard.edu<br />
’89<br />
Class correspondent: Lisa DeTora, detoral@lafayette.edu<br />
Peter Criswell is executive director of Big Apple Performing Arts, the umbrella<br />
organization for the 250-member New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and the<br />
45-member LGBTQ Youth Pride Chorus. He recently completed his master of<br />
science in leadership and strategic management from Manhattanville College.<br />
’87<br />
Class correspondent: David Avallone, ednoon@aol.com<br />
’86<br />
25th Reunion: May 20-22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Jane Brien ’89, 845-758-7406 or brien@bard.edu<br />
Class correspondent: Chris LeGoff, cak64@comcast.net<br />
Over the winter China Jorrin exhibited photographs from her Hudson River<br />
Psychiatric Center project at Gallery on the Green in Pawling, New York, and<br />
at the Hudson Opera House in Hudson, New York. In April she had a show of<br />
her Polaroids in Los Angeles.<br />
’85<br />
Philip Pucci has secured the exclusive worldwide motion picture rights to the<br />
life story of Andy Kessler, legendary New York City skateboarder, graffiti artist,<br />
and skate park designer. Philip is in development talks to produce a major<br />
motion picture based on Kessler’s story. Reach him at Philip@PhilipPucci.com.<br />
Leonard Schwartz is professor of literary arts at The Evergreen State College<br />
in Olympia, Washington, where he lives with his wife, Zhang Er, who also<br />
teaches at Evergreen, and their daughter, Cleo. His most recent book is The<br />
Sudden, from Chax Press.<br />
’83<br />
Jesse Browner’s fourth novel, Everything Happens Today, will be published in<br />
the United States and Italy by Europa Editions in October.<br />
A 2007 recipient of an Albee Foundation fellowship, George Hunka directed<br />
his play What She Knew in New York in December. In January, EyeCorner Press<br />
published his first book, Word Made Flesh: Philosophy, Eros and Contemporary<br />
Tragic Drama. He married pianist Marilyn Nonken in 2008; they have two<br />
daughters, Goldie Celeste and Billie Swift.<br />
Tim Long premiered his film Key West: Bohemia in the Tropics at the Tropic<br />
Cinema in Key West in October 2010. Arlo Haskell ’00, media director at the<br />
Key West Literary Seminar, was a consultant on the film, which had its broadcast<br />
premiere on Florida PBS in November.<br />
’82<br />
Bill Abelson is putting finishing touches on his third screenplay, Dr. Canard, a<br />
romantic comedy set in contemporary Seattle. An earlier script, The Blacktivist<br />
(cowritten with Mark Kirby), reached the quarterfinals of the Filmmakers<br />
International Screenwriting Competition. Additionally, this spring marks Bill’s<br />
20th season as public address announcer for the University of Washington<br />
baseball team.<br />
John Leaman released another recording by his electronica project<br />
Anesthesia Lounge. The CD, Under the Influence, can be found on the website<br />
anesthesialounge.com and elsewhere on the Web.<br />
’81<br />
30th Reunion: May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Jane Brien ’89, 845-758-7406 or brien@bard.edu<br />
Kristin Bundesen is happily living in Santa Fe, after completing her doctorate<br />
at the University of Nottingham, UK. She teaches at Santa Fe University of Art<br />
and Design.<br />
Orange Seats, China Jorrin ’86<br />
’80<br />
Linda Mensch lives in Warwick, New York. She directs the Moving Company<br />
Modern Dance Center, and also teaches dance for Road Recovery Foundation<br />
(www.roadrecovery.org), working with kids who are wards of the state.<br />
Linda’s line of jewelry can now be found in Whole Foods and other shops.<br />
38
’79<br />
East Chicago Central High School teacher Gale Carter spent part of the<br />
summer of 2010 taking part in the United Kingdom Parliament’s Teachers’<br />
Institute—one of only three teachers selected from outside the UK for this<br />
honor. She spent a week observing Parliament, met with several of its<br />
members, and met then newly elected Prime Minster David Cameron at 10<br />
Downing Street.<br />
’78<br />
Cassandra Chan’s new book, A Spider on the Stairs, was released in July<br />
by St. Martin’s Minotaur. In honor of the release, Cassandra has learned<br />
Dreamweaver and put up a new website: www.cassandrachan.com.<br />
Gretchen Fierle has been appointed chief communications officer of<br />
HealthNow New York, Inc., the parent company of BlueCross BlueShield of<br />
Western New York and BlueShield of Northeastern New York.<br />
’77<br />
The White City, a ballet choreographed by Tony Award winner Anne Reinking<br />
to music composed by Bruce Wolosoff, was staged in Chicago in March.<br />
’75<br />
Sculptural works by Jim Perry were included in an exhibition in Hopewell, New<br />
Jersey, in October. Jim’s work was featured in the Whitney Biennial Exhibition in<br />
1975, after which he took a three-decade hiatus from the art world, working for the<br />
New York Times. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife, Hetty Baiz ’72.<br />
’73<br />
Leslie Phillips’s husband, Glen Ceely, died in May 2009. They had three children,<br />
Seth, Courtney, and the late Robbie. Leslie’s sister, Anne Phillips ’69, died in 2010<br />
(see In Memoriam, this issue). Leslie lives in Edmonds, Washington, with her son<br />
Seth. Her daughter, Courtney, lives nearby in downtown Seattle. Leslie enjoys<br />
hearing from Bard friends and can be reached at lesliephillips@mac.com.<br />
’72<br />
Catharin Dalpino is now the Joan M. Warburg Professor of International<br />
Relations at Simmons College, and remains a visiting fellow in Southeast<br />
Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.<br />
She continues to advocate for assistance to Vietnamese people affected by<br />
Agent Orange and is conducting research on how we teach the Vietnam War<br />
to the generation of Americans born after 1975.<br />
’71<br />
40th Reunion: May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Anne Canzonetti ’84, 845-758-7187 or canzonet@bard.edu<br />
In early <strong>2011</strong>, Larry Merrill had a one-man exhibition of photographs, Looking<br />
at Trees, at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.<br />
’70<br />
In June, Steven Miller, executive director of the Morris Museum, Morristown,<br />
New Jersey, received the Honey and Maurice Axelrod Award for contributions<br />
in teaching about the Holocaust, genocide, and the reduction of bias, bigotry,<br />
and prejudice.<br />
’69<br />
Class correspondent: Elaine Marcotte Hyams, eshyams@yahoo.com<br />
Regan O’Connell Burnham writes: “Still in Western North Carolina enjoying<br />
the flute, the grandchildren, and working on a book, heaven help me! Good<br />
health is enjoyed, but not taken for granted. Greetings to all.”<br />
Pierre Joris, who commutes between his Bay Ridge home and Albany, where<br />
he teaches Heidegger and the poets, often stops at Bard for lunch with his<br />
son, Miles ’14.<br />
Eugene Kahn is working on a novel about the gay scene in Williamsburg,<br />
Brooklyn.<br />
Liz Larkin is serving as president of the Faculty Advisory Council at the<br />
Sarasota-Manatee campus of the University of South Florida.<br />
Peter Minichiello has relocated to New York City from Boston, where for more<br />
than five years he was the director of development for the Boston Symphony<br />
Orchestra, Inc. He is now senior vice president for development at New York<br />
Downtown Hospital, part of the New York–Presbyterian Healthcare System.<br />
He also has a home in Stuyvesant Falls, New York, in Columbia County.<br />
Norman Weinstein’s “Introduction to Humanities” course at the College of<br />
Western Idaho is Bard-oriented. He begins with Steely Dan’s “Caves of<br />
Altamira,” uses Tom Meyer’s translation of the Dao de Jing, and concludes<br />
with Pierre Joris’s essay on the poetry of the diaspora.<br />
’63<br />
Class correspondent: Penny Axelrod, drpennyaxelrod@fairpoint.net<br />
20th Century Fox has purchased the rights to The Locator novels by Richard<br />
Greener. The main character in the book series, Walter Sherman, will be<br />
introduced as a character in the FOX television series Bones early in <strong>2011</strong>. A<br />
spin-off series featuring Sherman and using Greener’s novels is planned for<br />
the following season.<br />
’62<br />
Eve Sullivan, founder of Parents Forum (www.parentsforum.org), was named<br />
the Arminta Jacobson Parenting Education Professional of the Year by the<br />
Texas Association of Parent Educators. Eve writes that she is “delighted to be<br />
a grandmother of two darling little girls,” both living in the Boston area, close<br />
to her home in Cambridge.<br />
’59<br />
Carolee Schneemann was honored with one of six Lifetime Achievement<br />
Awards for <strong>2011</strong> by the Women’s Caucus for Art, putting her in the company<br />
of past recipients Georgia O’Keeffe, Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel, and many<br />
other distinguished visual artists.<br />
’57<br />
In the fall of 2010 Mari Lyons had her 14th one-person exhibition, Sunsets/Hillsides,<br />
at the First Street Gallery in New York, receiving a glowing review in the Wall<br />
Street Journal. She continues to live and work in both New York City and Woodstock.<br />
’52<br />
Class correspondent: Kit Ellenbogen, max4794@netzero.net<br />
While on a visit to New York City from Menlo Park, California, last November,<br />
Mort Besen found himself just in time to attend the big 150th Bard bash and<br />
Leon’s 35th anniversary at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Great was his surprise when<br />
he found himself pictured in a Bard chemistry lab in one of the many archival<br />
photographs exhibited for the occasion.<br />
class notes 39
In early <strong>2011</strong> Kit Ellenbogen attempted to retire from her work as a lawyer at<br />
Advocates for the Children of New Jersey, but they insisted that, at least until<br />
this June, she work from home for 10 hours a month. She will retire one day!<br />
After living most of his life in New Jersey, Bob Stempel and his wife, Ray,<br />
relocated to Highland Beach, Florida, in 2008. Bob has already begun planning<br />
for his 60th Bard reunion in May 2012, where he hopes the class of ’52 will be<br />
well represented.<br />
’51<br />
60th Reunion: May 20–22, <strong>2011</strong><br />
Staff contact: Anne Canzonetti ’84, 845-758-7187 or canzonet@bard.edu<br />
George Coulter is very busy, although he has retired from his work as a<br />
dentist. He lives in Pawling, New York, where he has served on the Village<br />
Planning Board, is president of the cemetery board of advisors, is involved in<br />
the Chamber of Commerce, and is director emeritus of the library. In the fall<br />
of 2010 the library board dedicated the library’s main building to George and<br />
his mother.<br />
’40<br />
Class correspondent: Dick Koch, dickkoch88@gmail.com or 510-526-3731<br />
Neil Gray is an Episcopal priest, retired. He has Parkinson’s disease, but is still<br />
able to use a computer.<br />
Dick Koch is happy to report that he will be awarded the Bard Medal this<br />
May. The ceremony will take place at the President’s Dinner during<br />
Commencement and Alumni/ae Weekend. Dick and his wife, Gladys, look<br />
forward to making the trip east from their home in Berkeley, California.<br />
’39<br />
Jack Honey writes that he is “still fortunate in having Mary,” his wife of about<br />
65 years. As a Rhinebeck resident, Jack can be driven to the Bard campus,<br />
and enjoys looking around.<br />
Domenick Papendrea reports that his physical health is poor, but his mind is<br />
good. He loves Bard.<br />
Joe Pickard lives in an assisted care facility, where he has been for six years.<br />
He has happy memories of Bard, which he last visited for his 60th reunion,<br />
and sends his best wishes to all <strong>Bardian</strong>s.<br />
George Rosenberg lives in Tucson, Arizona, with “the same loving room-mate<br />
of 55 years (wife #1).” He also enjoys his five children, ten grandchildren, and<br />
one great-grandchild.<br />
’38<br />
Lou Koenig reports that he has been retired for 22 years from New York<br />
University, where he taught political science. He is still writing in his field.<br />
Lou is happy to have attended Reunion Weekend 2010.<br />
Charlie McManus only attended Bard for two years, but still has happy<br />
memories of his time here.<br />
’35<br />
The Rev. John Mears is an Episcopal priest serving at two churches. He visited<br />
the Bard campus in the fall of 2010—his first visit since his graduation 75 years<br />
before. He enjoyed meeting the alumni/ae affairs staff, and numerous members<br />
of the Bard faculty during his day of touring both the old and the new Bard.<br />
Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts<br />
’12<br />
Dustin Hodges (painting), Andrew Lampert (film/video), Adam Marnie<br />
(sculpture), Ed Steck (writing), and Nathan Baker ’13 (photography) were all<br />
represented in the College Art Association New York Area MFA Exhibition, which<br />
ran from February 9 to April 9 at the Hunter College/Times Square Gallery.<br />
Two of their 2012 MFA classmates, Sergei Tcherepnin (music/sound) and<br />
Lucy Dodd (sculpture), were also represented, with a collaborative piece.<br />
’11<br />
Trisha Baga performed her piece Madonna y El Niño at the Housatonic<br />
Museum of Art in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on October 14. The performance<br />
was in conjunction with the exhibition In the company of . . . curated by Terri C.<br />
Smith CCS ’08.<br />
Richard Garet created a nearly one-hour-long projected installation titled<br />
Electrochroma and presented it as part of the Crossing the Line Festival organized<br />
by the French Institute Alliance Française. The piece was installed last<br />
September in The Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn and was reviewed by<br />
Robert Shuster in the Village Voice.<br />
Duron Jackson had a solo exhibition, Selected Works, at 1 GAP Gallery in<br />
Brooklyn from October 8 to January 23.<br />
Caitlin Keogh and Joanne Cheung ’13 were part of Another Romance: The 2010<br />
New Wight Biennial Exhibition at UCLA in September.<br />
Tim Ridlen had a video installation at Renwick Gallery in New York in September.<br />
Sara Wintz and Thom Donovan cocurated The Segue Reading Series at the<br />
Bowery Poetry Club in New York for December and January.<br />
’10<br />
Alisa Baremboym participated in the group shows Real Nonfiction at BRIC<br />
Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn and 179 Canal / Anyways at White Columns in<br />
New York. Also featured in the White Columns show were Caitlin Keogh ’11,<br />
Thomas Torres Cordova ’08, and Charles Mayton ’08.<br />
William Lamson ’07, video still from A Line Describing the Sun, at Pierogi’s The Boiler in<br />
Brooklyn. Photo: courtesy of William Lamson<br />
Paul Branca and Nathan Baker ’13 took part in the small group exhibition A<br />
Knot for Ariadne in December and January at Kavi Gupta Gallery in Berlin.<br />
40
A. K. Burns and Katherine Hubbard collaborated on The Brown Bear: Neither<br />
Particular Nor General, at Recess Activities, Inc., in New York last fall. They<br />
adapted the storefront into a working installation that intentionally conflated<br />
the hair and art salon, and invited other artists to present work in the space<br />
each Saturday, including Joshua Kit Clayton, Corrine Fitzpatrick ’11, and<br />
Sergei Tcherepnin ’12.<br />
Lauren Luloff had an installation in September at Buoy in Kittery, Maine, a<br />
gallery cooperative cofounded in 2008 by Jeremy LeClair. She also participated<br />
in the group exhibition Material Issue and Other Matters at Canada in<br />
New York.<br />
’09<br />
Kabir Carter participated in several European sound art festivals and conferences<br />
in September: Transmissions at Overgaden in Copenhagen; Sound ACTs<br />
at Aarhus University in Denmark; and Full Pull 2010 at Inter Arts Center in<br />
Malmö, Sweden.<br />
Christopher DeLaurenti performed the live surround-sound version of his<br />
piece N30: Live at the WTO Protest November 30, 1999 at INSTAL in Glasgow.<br />
That same month he performed in Seattle as a member of the Seattle<br />
Phonographers Union.<br />
Jeremy Hoevenaar, Brett Price ’10, and Corrine Fitzpatrick ’11 read new work<br />
at MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City in October.<br />
’08<br />
Debra Baxter and Dawn Cerny ’12 were in a three-person exhibition of<br />
Seattle-based artists, Every Distance is Not Near, curated by Marji Vecchio ’01<br />
at Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery in Reno, Nevada.<br />
Corin Hewitt was one of the 25 recipients of the Joan Mitchell Foundation<br />
2010 Painters & Sculptors Grant in the amount of $25,000. Corin is an<br />
assistant professor of sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University.<br />
Alisha Kerlin’s solo show, Cat and Mouse, was on view at Real Fine Arts in<br />
New York last spring, from May 22 to June 27. She also participated in shows<br />
at MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City and Ditch<br />
Projects in Springfield, Oregon.<br />
’07<br />
An article on Corinne May Botz appeared in the November 3, 2010, issue of<br />
the New York Times. Corinne also did several lectures and readings surrounding<br />
the publication of her book Haunted Houses (The Monacelli Press, 2010).<br />
William Lamson had a solo show, A Line Describing the Sun, at Pierogi’s The<br />
Boiler in Brooklyn in September. A two-channel video and sculpture created in<br />
the Mojave Desert, the installation was a record of two daylong performances<br />
in which Lamson imprinted a hemispherical arc into the desert floor.<br />
Sreshta Rit Premnath had a solo show, LEO (procedures in search of an original<br />
index), at Galleryske in Bangalore, India, from October 22 to December 4.<br />
Dominique Rey’s solo show Pilgrims, on view at the University of Winnipeg<br />
last fall, featured her oil paintings and ink drawings, and she also gave a public<br />
talk and performance. Dominique was Winnipeg’s Visual Arts Ambassador<br />
for the duration of the city’s designation as Cultural Capital of Canada in 2010.<br />
Chris Sollars presented the solo exhibitions Trouble Everyday at Booklyn Artists<br />
Alliance in Brooklyn and ri-FLEKT at WEartspace in Oakland, California.<br />
Anna Vitale got a lot of press in 2010: her chapbook Anna Vitale’s Pop Poems was<br />
published by OMG; her story “She-Boxes” was published in an issue of Vanitas;<br />
and the online journal textsound, which she cofounded, was featured in a special<br />
section on “Indie Innovators” in the November/December Poets & Writers.<br />
’06<br />
Joshua Thorson curated The Sense Ritual as part of the Mix 23 New York<br />
Queer Experimental Film Festival in November. A screening of eight videos by<br />
various artists, it included works by Glen Fogel ’10 and MFA faculty member<br />
Cecilia Dougherty.<br />
Annette Wehrhahn, Munro Galloway, Paul Branca ’10, and Pat Palermo<br />
opened a gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last August called Soloway.<br />
As of this writing, they’d held five exhibitions, including a solo show by Fawn<br />
Krieger ’05 and the small group show Dirty Hands, which featured Wehrhahn<br />
and Jessie Stead ’07.<br />
’05<br />
Wynne Greenwood presented Strap-on TVs at Lawrimore Project in Seattle in<br />
December. It was the fourth installment in an ongoing series of exhibitions in<br />
which artists are paired with a writer and a page from Stéphane Mallarmé’s<br />
Un Coup de Dés. Greenwood was paired with Amra Brooks.<br />
’04<br />
Sue Havens showed new work in the group exhibition Hand’s Tide at Regina<br />
Rex in Queens. She is also featured on the website artinbrooklyn.com.<br />
Matt King had a solo exhibition, Fall Solos 2010, at Arlington Arts Center in<br />
Arlington, Virginia, last fall.<br />
Carlos Motta took part in How to Do Things with Words, an exhibition of radical<br />
speech acts presented by The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons<br />
The New School for Design. His piece Six Acts: An Experiment in Narrative<br />
Justice (2010) reenacted a series of speeches concerning the concept of<br />
peace, originally delivered by six liberal Colombian presidential candidates<br />
from the last century who were assassinated because of their ideologies.<br />
Laurel Sparks participated in the inaugural exhibition Dramatis Personae at<br />
DODGEgallery in New York last September.<br />
Mark Swanson had a solo show, Acquisitions in Context, at the Kemper<br />
Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The show provided<br />
context for his sculpture Descent of Civilization, which pays homage to the<br />
herds of Plains bison that were killed off in the 19th century. The sculpture<br />
stands in downtown Kansas City and was commissioned by the Kemper<br />
Museum in partnership with DST Systems, Inc.<br />
’03<br />
Samuael Topiary’s multimedia performance piece Landscape with the Fall of<br />
Icarus was presented at Abrons Arts Center in New York in November.<br />
’02<br />
Carrie Moyer, in conversation with Mira Schor, presented “How to Paint,<br />
Write, Teach, Be an Activist, and Generally Try to Stay Sane” as part of the<br />
SkowheganTALKS lecture series in October.<br />
’00<br />
Jan Baracz presented a solo show, How to Float Above the Psychic Stampede<br />
and Other Traditional Remedies, at Stephan Stoyanov Gallery in New York.<br />
class notes 41
’95<br />
Tim Griffin received a 2010 Arts Writers Grant for his book Compression. The<br />
Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program awarded a<br />
total of $600,000 to 20 individual writers in four categories—articles, blogs,<br />
books, and short-form writing—to support projects addressing both general<br />
and specialized art audiences.<br />
’93<br />
Derek Haffar was part of the three-person exhibition A State of Flux from<br />
September 12 to October 10 at FiveMyles in Brooklyn.<br />
Jill Vasileff participated in two group shows last summer: Sensory Overload at<br />
Corcoran Gallery of Art/Gallery 31 and Flower (Re) Power at the Housatonic<br />
Museum of Art in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which was curated by Terri C.<br />
Smith CCS ’08.<br />
’04<br />
Jennifer Dindinger is a regional watershed restoration specialist in the Sea<br />
Grant Extension Program at the University of Maryland.<br />
Maureen Flores was appointed sustainability manager for the 2016 Olympic<br />
Games in Brazil.<br />
Jon Griesser and his wife, Sarah, welcomed a daughter, Anya Claire Griesser,<br />
on Wednesday, January 5, <strong>2011</strong>. Anya Claire is named for Sarah’s maternal<br />
grandmother, Anita, and Jon’s paternal grandmother, Clara.<br />
’87<br />
Maddy Rosenberg had an installation based on her artist’s book, Berlin Bestiary,<br />
in Space and Sequence at the Free Library in Philadelphia; she had pieces in two<br />
shows in London. She curated Chemical Reactions at Central Booking in Brooklyn.<br />
Bard Center for Environmental Policy<br />
’10<br />
Kristina Connolly works as a quality control analyst in the chemistry department<br />
at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.<br />
Emily Fischer is an energy program associate for Environment America, based<br />
in Boston.<br />
As an energy analyst with the Energy Studies Institute at the National<br />
University of Singapore, Matthew Guenther is conducting research on how<br />
Singapore is affected by the Cancun Agreements.<br />
Victor Pierre Melendez works as an environmental associate and community<br />
project leader for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., in its Environmental<br />
Action Department.<br />
Kaleena Miller had the opportunity to take an all-expense-paid trip to play<br />
volleyball in the Maldives, where she is also researching the Maldivian<br />
president’s efforts to combat the effects of climate change.<br />
’08<br />
Kate Rosenfeld is the senior director of government affairs at D.C. Legislative<br />
and Regulatory Services.<br />
’07<br />
Lindsey Lusher Shute is now the director of state policy at Transportation<br />
Alternatives. She also directs the National Young Farmers Coalition.<br />
’06<br />
Ben Hoen coauthored a federal study on the impact of wind farms on property<br />
values, which was released in November by Lawrence Berkeley National<br />
Laboratory, where he works.<br />
’05<br />
Rachel Baker and her sustainability team at Kaiser Permanente were recognized<br />
as sustainable business leaders by Supply & Demand Chain Executive.<br />
She and the team received the 2010 Green Supply Chain Award.<br />
Steven Wilcox is a habitat biologist for the USDA Natural Resources<br />
Conservation Service in the Division of Wildlife Resources.<br />
Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History,<br />
Material Culture<br />
’06<br />
In spring 2010, Jacquelann Killian completed her stint as the Eleanor<br />
Norcross Fellow in Decorative Arts at Fitchburg Art Museum in Fitchburg,<br />
Massachusetts, where she helped the museum acquire a Louis C. Tiffany<br />
Favrile glass vase and a Philadelphia rococo silver cream jug.<br />
Kate Montlack is the registrar and manager of museum records at the<br />
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.<br />
Monica Obniski, assistant curator of American decorative arts at the Art<br />
Institute of Chicago, passed her preliminary doctoral exams in architectural<br />
and design history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her dissertation will<br />
examine the postwar design projects of Alexander Girard.<br />
Rebecca Tilles is a curatorial research associate for decorative arts<br />
and sculpture in the Art of Europe Department at the Museum of Fine<br />
Arts, Boston. She is currently working on the reinstallation of 18th-century<br />
English period rooms, which will open in 2012.<br />
’05<br />
Having marked her first year as a survivor of cancer, Erika Brandt is approaching<br />
life from a new perspective. She plans to move to Berlin in the spring, and will<br />
take a year to read, write, and travel with her partner, Joe.<br />
Martina Grünewald completed her doctoral studies at the University of<br />
Applied Arts Vienna, Austria. She successfully defended her dissertation,<br />
“Doing Design, Practicing Thrift: Material Culture and the Social Construction<br />
of Value at Auctions in Vienna,” in November 2010.<br />
Jen Larson is the collections specialist for the Center for Book Arts, New York<br />
City, where she has compiled an in-house database and online digital collections<br />
catalogue of the Center’s fine art, reference materials, and institutional<br />
archive. Jen is also a project archivist at Parsons The New School of Design’s<br />
Kellen Design Archives, where she is processing the archival holdings of<br />
designer and educator Michael Kalil (1943–91).<br />
’00<br />
Ayesha Abdur-Rahman has launched Lanka Decorative Arts (LDA), a society<br />
for the study and appreciation of the decorative arts of Sri Lanka. This August,<br />
in Colombo, LDA is scheduled to present its first international Symposium on<br />
42
the Decorative Arts of Sri Lanka: “The Interconnected World of Eurasia.” For<br />
details, e-mail lankadecorativearts@gmail.<br />
Caroline Hannah gave a talk last fall titled “Henry Varnum Poor, Wharton Esherick,<br />
and Modern Craft in the USA” at the Second Annual Anne d’Harnoncourt<br />
Symposium, which was held at the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction<br />
with the exhibition Wharton Esherick and the Birth of the American Modern.<br />
Center for Curatorial Studies<br />
’10<br />
Michał Jachuła, a curator at the Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok, Poland, curated<br />
Ana Ostoya: Autopis, Notes, Copies, and Masterpieces at Galeria Foksal in Warsaw.<br />
Ginny Kollak was selected as one of three participants in the <strong>2011</strong> edition<br />
of the Young Curator’s Residency program at Fondazione Sandretto Re<br />
Rebaudengo in Turín. She has been traveling throughout Italy and Sicily,<br />
visiting artists, curators, and institutions.<br />
Daniel Mason curated Broom: The Full Sweep at Stevenson Library, Bard College.<br />
The exhibition presented all 21 volumes of Broom, the seminal avant-garde<br />
magazine published from 1921 to 1924.<br />
Gabi Ngcobo returned to Johannesburg, where she has been working on a<br />
project with Manifesta 8 and the Manifesta Foundation, heading a team to<br />
examine the usefulness of a Manifesta model for Africa.<br />
Mackenzie Schneider continues to work on the AS-AP project with Ann<br />
Butler, director of the CCS Library and Archives, and also works part-time<br />
at Renwick Gallery in SoHo, Manhattan.<br />
Yulia Tikhonova, founder of the ART4BrightonBeach initiative, was the<br />
moderator between four women’s art collectives—A Feminist Tea Party,<br />
The Brainstormers, For the Birds, and The Projects—at the College Art<br />
Association’s annual conference in February.<br />
Andrea Torreblanca and Carlos Palacios are both on the arts faculty in the masters<br />
in visual arts program at Morelos State University in Cuernavaca, Mexico.<br />
’09<br />
Mireille Bourgeois, formerly programmer/curator at Saw Video in Ottawa, is<br />
now the director at the Centre for Art Tapes in Halifax, Nova Scotia.<br />
Katerina Ilanes is the curator of an ongoing series, “Queers on Film,” at the<br />
LGBT Center in New York City.<br />
Christina Linden curated About the Object—which was first presented as her<br />
thesis exhibition at the Center for Curatorial Studies—at Ramapo College in<br />
Mahwah, New Jersey. The art gallery in Ramapo’s Berrie Center for the<br />
Performing and Visual Arts is directed by Sydney Jenkins ’96.<br />
Bartholomew Ryan, after working for a year as a curatorial fellow, is the new<br />
assistant curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.<br />
’08<br />
Tyler Emerson-Dorsch, a partner at Dorsch Gallery in Miami, presented<br />
Clifton Childree’s Orchestrated Gestures, a solo show of new sculptures in the<br />
form of old arcade machines, with film and audio components.<br />
A text by Milena Hoegsberg, an independent curator in New York City, was<br />
included in The Biennial Reader, an anthology of large-scale perennial exhibitions<br />
of contemporary art.<br />
Terri Smith curated “It’s for You”: Conceptual Art and the Telephone at the<br />
Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she is curator<br />
and collections manager.<br />
’07<br />
Kate McNamara is the director and chief curator of Boston University Art<br />
Gallery. She was formerly a curatorial assistant at P.S.1.<br />
Chen Tamir, an independent curator and critic and director of Flux Factory in<br />
Manhattan, curated Into the Eye of the Storm at the Israeli Center for Digital<br />
Art, Holon.<br />
’06<br />
Montserrat Albores Gleason, an independent curator in Mexico City, helped<br />
to organize Clarisse Hahn at PETRA, a space where she organizes projects<br />
with Pablo Sigg.<br />
Zeljka Himbele-Kozul curated Carey Young: Uncertain Contracts at the Museum<br />
of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, where she is curatorial assistant of contemporary<br />
art. Zeljka and William Heath cocurated My Little / Membrane, two<br />
exhibitions in one that open May 9 at NURTUREart in New York City.<br />
After three years as curatorial associate at the New Museum in Manhattan,<br />
Amy Mackie is now director of visual arts at the Contemporary Arts Center in<br />
New Orleans.<br />
’05<br />
Aubrey Reeves is an artist, curator, and arts manager based in Toronto. Her<br />
dual-screen, 16 mm film installation, Glide, had its international premiere at<br />
the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival in Kassel, Germany.<br />
Erin Riley-Lopez, an independent curator in New York, curated Acting Out at<br />
the Bronx River Art Center.<br />
Yasmeen Siddiqui organized a book launch for A Contingent Object of<br />
Research. She edited the book for Do Ho Suh’s The Bridge Project at the<br />
Storefront for Art and Architecture, where she was formerly curator at large.<br />
’03<br />
Ingrid Chu, codirector of Forever & Today in New York City, cocurated O Zhang:<br />
A Splendid Future for the Passed, an installation by Zhang, a New York–based<br />
Chinese artist.<br />
’02<br />
Cassandra Coblentz curated Unlocking, an exploration of the key by artist<br />
Jean Shin and architect Brian Ripel, at the Scottsdale Museum of<br />
Contemporary Art in Arizona, where she is associate curator.<br />
Jenni Sorkin, postdoctoral residential fellow at the Getty Research Institute in<br />
Los Angeles, was invited to participate in a special Centennial Session on<br />
Feminism at the College Art Association’s conference in February.<br />
’01<br />
Cecilia Brunson cofounded AMA Fellowship, a grant facilitating art residencies<br />
abroad for Chilean artists. After moving to London in 2010 and curating a<br />
series of monographic shows on contemporary Chilean artists for House of<br />
Propellers, she was invited by Phillips de Pury and Saatchi gallery to organize<br />
Tectonic Shifts: Contemporary Art from Chile.<br />
Dermis León, an art critic, curator, and art historian, curated Des-Habitable,<br />
an exhibition about architecture and urbanism in Latin America, in Peru.<br />
class notes 43
’00<br />
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy is the curator of contemporary art for the<br />
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, based in New York and Caracas. She<br />
is responsible for collection growth, exhibitions, grants, and other projects<br />
related to the institution’s mission to enhance appreciation of the diversity,<br />
sophistication, and range of art from Latin America.<br />
’98<br />
A text by Sarah Cook, “The behaviors of new media—towards a post-hype<br />
‘hospitality’ aesthetics?” was recently published in Art Lies. Sarah is the<br />
coeditor of CRUMB and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of<br />
Sunderland, UK.<br />
’97<br />
Brian Wallace curated From Huguenot to Microwave: New and Recent Works by<br />
Marco Maggi at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz, where<br />
he has been curator since 2006.<br />
’96<br />
Regine Basha, an independent curator living in New York City, curated<br />
An Exchange with Sol LeWitt, a huge, two-part exhibition that was jointly<br />
presented by MASS MoCA and Cabinet.<br />
Rachel Gugelberger, an independent curator/writer living in New York City,<br />
curated What Is Left at the Curatorial Research Lab at Winkleman Gallery in<br />
New York.<br />
Graduate Vocal Arts Program<br />
’11<br />
Julia Bullock will debut at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony<br />
Orchestra in 2012, singing Délage’s Quatre Poèmes Hindous.<br />
Jeffrey Hill, tenor, was a winner of the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal<br />
Competition in July, and sang a recital in Weill Recital Hall in January. He’ll<br />
also perform in Mozart’s Zaide at Zankel Hall with Maestro David Robertson<br />
and Ensemble ACJW.<br />
’10<br />
Mary Bonhag, soprano, teaches at Johnston State College in Vermont and has<br />
founded a new chamber music series, Scrag Mountain Music, with her husband,<br />
bassist Evan Premo. She returned to Bard in February to perform Sibelius’s<br />
Luonnotar and Handel’s “Let the Bright Seraphim” with the American<br />
Symphony Orchestra at the Fisher Center.<br />
Ariadne Greif, soprano, founded Uncommon Temperament, “a bold new<br />
Baroque collective based in Manhattan,” and performed in Le Poisson Rouge,<br />
earning a great review in the New York Times.<br />
Katarzyna S˛adej, mezzo-soprano, will give a recital of French, American, Polish,<br />
and Spanish songs at Arlington Street Church in Boston this spring. Recent performances<br />
have included a September 2010 debut with the Lviv Philharmonic in<br />
Ukraine, and a concert with Marianna Humetska and Nada Kolundzija, pianists,<br />
and Lynn Kuo, violin, at the Tchaikovsky National Museum Academy in Kiev.<br />
Megan (Taylor) Weikleenget, soprano, is a vocalist for the U.S. Coast Guard<br />
Band. She will be touring nationally and internationally, performing a wide<br />
variety of music, from patriotic to popular to classical.<br />
’09<br />
Solange Merdinian, mezzo-soprano, this season performs at the Argentinian<br />
Consulate for the Atahualpa Yupanqui Foundation, as Bradamante in Handel’s<br />
Alcina with Pocket Opera New York, at WMP Concert Hall in the Armenian<br />
Journey series, and in Argentinian folk music concerts in Washington, D.C.<br />
’08<br />
Yulia van Doren, soprano, became the first singer to win all four North American<br />
Bach vocal competitions. During the 2010–11 season she was featured artist at<br />
the Cartagena International Music Festival, Colombia, where she performed<br />
Bach’s B-minor Mass with soprano Dawn Upshaw, artistic director of the<br />
Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and the Orchestra Sinfonia of London.<br />
Yohan Yi, bass-baritone, is a member of the Los Angeles Opera Young Artists<br />
program. Yohan returned to Bard in April to perform as soloist in Brahms’s Ein<br />
deutsches Requiem (German Requiem) with Leon Boststein and the American<br />
Symphony Orchestra, Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, and Bard College<br />
Chamber Singers at the Fisher Center.<br />
In Memoriam<br />
’03<br />
Luke J. Gabler, 30, died on November 6, 2010. After attending Simon’s Rock<br />
College of Bard, he majored in film and electronic arts at Bard. His family and<br />
many friends will remember him always as a gifted artist who left a huge<br />
archive of drawings, paintings, films, photos, and lively dispatches from all<br />
corners of the globe. In recent years, he traveled and worked on film and photo<br />
projects in Indonesia, Haiti, Los Angeles, and New York. Until the earthquake in<br />
2010, much of his energy was focused on working with local children to sow<br />
and care for the Jardin Exotique in Jacmel, Haiti, as a showcase for baobab trees<br />
and other plants to promote reforestation of the island he loved so much. His<br />
survivors include his parents, Mirko and Ann Gabler, and his older brother, Alec.<br />
’02<br />
Mauricio Mora Lindo died February 16, <strong>2011</strong>, in a kayaking accident in his<br />
native Costa Rica. He was a gifted writer and poet, performing readings in<br />
both his native Spanish and his adopted language of English. Mauricio studied<br />
languages and literature and creative writing at Bard, where his mentor was<br />
the celebrated American poet and retired Bard professor, John Ashbery. He<br />
loved the outdoors—he could often be found reading in Blithewood Garden or<br />
walking through Tivoli Bays, and he also enjoyed hiking and climbing in<br />
Colorado and in the jungles near his home in San José. He had a large group<br />
of friends at Bard, and he was generous with his laughter, compliments, and<br />
affection. “When you were around Mau, you were always laughing, either<br />
with him or at him,” noted Paul Vranicar ’01, a close friend. “To Mau, the distinction<br />
was insignificant—as long as his friends were laughing, he was<br />
happy.” He dreamed of living in New York and publishing his writing, but he<br />
had difficulty obtaining permanent residence and returned to Costa Rica in<br />
2003 to become a river guide. He is survived by his parents, Carlos Mora and<br />
Martha Lindo, and his two older brothers, Ricardo and Carlos.<br />
’01<br />
Mara Alyse Ciereszynski, 32, died on June 19, 2010. After studying at Bard, she<br />
moved to San Francisco, where she worked for the Exploratorium for more than<br />
10 years. She is survived by her mother, Susan Ciereszynski; a brother, Adam; her<br />
maternal grandmother, Gloria; her longtime friend and companion, Guy; a nephew,<br />
Ezra, and a niece, Alexandra; and many aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.<br />
44
’97<br />
Amy Kathryn “Rion” Chesbro of Ypsilanti, Michigan, died on December 17,<br />
2010. A native of Alaska, she studied poetry at Bard and later earned a master’s<br />
degree in information science at the University of Michigan. At the time of her<br />
death, she was a teacher at Cleary Business School and Washtenaw Community<br />
College and was seeking an M.B.A. to further her career. She is survived by her<br />
fiance, PJ Two Ravens; her parents, James and Patricia; three sisters, Carrie,<br />
Jennifer, and Heidi; two brothers, Jim and Mark; and her grandmother, Helen.<br />
’93<br />
Portia Tsehai “Poppy” Shapiro died on January 1, <strong>2011</strong>. She was born in<br />
Brattleboro, Vermont, and attended Bard for the 1989–90 academic year. She<br />
worked for several years in the family business in Northampton, Massachusetts,<br />
and then moved to San Francisco in 1995. She is survived by her mother,<br />
Dianne; a brother, Noah; and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.<br />
’86<br />
Edwin Rosado died on December 27, 2008. A sociology major at Bard, he went<br />
on to earn a master’s degree in media studies from The New School for Social<br />
Research in New York City. He spent many years working with a local “I Have a<br />
Dream” program, mentoring more than 100 young students. He also worked for<br />
the national “I Have a Dream” Foundation for a time, and then for the American<br />
Civil Liberties Union. At the time of his death, he was the managing partner of<br />
the company DPM Events. He is survived by his parents, Mercedes and Clemente;<br />
his brothers, Raul and Ivan; and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. A number of his<br />
1986 classmates are raising funds to establish a Bard scholarship in his memory.<br />
’79<br />
Ruth Maxwell Hill died on September 24, 2010. A lifelong resident of New<br />
York, she was a studio arts major at Bard, and completed a master of fine arts<br />
degree at New York University. She pursued artistic interests in painting, silk<br />
screening, photography, video, and music. She participated in group shows and<br />
taught art in underprivileged schools in the Bronx. Her survivors include her<br />
dearest friend, Timothy Druckrey; a half-brother, Peter Hill; and many cousins.<br />
’74<br />
Ruben Nelson Bennett died on February 17, 2010. He lived in Houston, and<br />
was a laboratory supervisor at Baylor College of Medicine.<br />
’71<br />
Deborah Davidson Kaas died on January 10, <strong>2011</strong>, after a long illness. A math<br />
major at Bard, she went on to a long and dedicated career supporting victims<br />
of domestic violence. She spoke at police officer trainings, testified at the state<br />
and national level, and, for nearly 20 years, volunteered as a court advocate<br />
for victims of domestic violence, seeking orders of protection in two county<br />
courts in Pennsylvania. She and her former roommate, Wendy Weldon, were<br />
instrumental in creating the Alumni/ae Memorial Bar at the Fisher Center for<br />
Performing Arts, with panels dedicated to beloved classmates and professors<br />
who had died. She served for many years on the Board of Governors of the<br />
Bard–St. Stephen’s Alumni/ae Association; during her tenure, she started the<br />
Life After Bard program, bringing together alumni/ae and current students, as<br />
well as the Bard Oral History project, recording Bard stories by alumni/ae<br />
during reunion weekends. Over the years, during graduation ceremonies,<br />
she provided gourmet snacks and exotic beverages to friends and strangers<br />
camped out on the lawn in front of Stone Row. Her sense of humor, intellectual<br />
prowess, and generosity will be missed by many <strong>Bardian</strong>s who knew and loved<br />
her. She is survived by her husband, Donald Kaas.<br />
’69<br />
Anne Phillips died at home on June 30, 2010. She was a literature/creative<br />
writing major at Bard, and went on to become a well-loved teacher in the<br />
Frederick County School System in Maryland. She is survived by her husband,<br />
Donald Franz ’70; her daughter, Laura, and son, Joshua; a sister, Leslie Phillips ’73;<br />
and a grandson, Gavin.<br />
’62<br />
Abner Symons died on October 14, 2010. He is survived by his wife, Susan A.<br />
Symons.<br />
’58<br />
Maxine Wynkoop died on May 10, 2010, in Florida. She majored in psychology<br />
at Bard. Her husband, John, writes, “She adored Bard. Her memories of Bard<br />
were very special to her.” She is also survived by her daughters, Holly and<br />
Hilary, and a granddaughter, Nicole.<br />
’57<br />
Carlisle Chandler “Chan” McIvor died in January <strong>2011</strong>. He lived in Bermuda,<br />
and was a journalist for many years, writing for the Mid Ocean News. More<br />
recently he started and ran the Bermuda Macintosh Users Group and was<br />
helpful to many in creating websites.<br />
’55<br />
Dan Norman Butt died on August 24, 2010. After graduating from Bard, he<br />
had a long career in the performing arts field, working as a stage and production<br />
manager for the American Ballet Theatre, New York City Opera, Joffrey<br />
Ballet, and other dance, theater, opera, and music organizations. A blues<br />
pianist himself, Butt was also a lifelong auto racing enthusiast with a love of<br />
vintage sports cars. He is survived by his children—Peter, Elizabeth, Jeff, and<br />
Michael—and six grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife, Sari.<br />
Gail Sudler Rockwell died on December 1, 2010. The daughter of artists Arthur<br />
Emory Sudler and Janet Starr Whitson Sudler, she was born in New York City and<br />
spent her childhood in Douglaston, on Long Island. She was a gifted singer, but<br />
decided to pursue art instead, and became a well-known illustrator of children’s<br />
books—including three by her husband, Thomas Rockwell ’56: Rackety-Bang,<br />
The Thief, and The Portmanteau Book. The Rockwells lived in a renovated barn<br />
in LaGrange, New York, and had two children, Barnaby and Abigail.<br />
’52<br />
Peter W. Price died on November 19, 2010, after a short illness. His son<br />
writes: “He was very proud of his association with Bard College and enjoyed<br />
maintaining those contacts until his death. He particularly enjoyed returning<br />
to the college a few years ago and revisiting many of the places he had first<br />
visited when he spent a year there.” He lived in the United Kingdom, and was<br />
“the dearly loved husband of Margery, and a much loved father and grandpa.”<br />
Joyce Lasky Reed, 76, an author, editor, and foreign policy adviser to the U.S.<br />
State Department, died on September 12, 2010, after a long battle with lung<br />
cancer. She attended Bard for a semester in the early 1950s, and earned a<br />
bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and a master’s degree in political<br />
affairs from Georgetown University. At the time of her death she was on the<br />
Board of Overseers of Smolny College, Russia’s first liberal arts college, created<br />
as a partnership between Bard and Saint Petersburg State University.<br />
With her first husband, Anatole Shub, a journalist who worked for the<br />
New York Times and the Washington Post, she was expelled from the Soviet<br />
Union in 1969; her novel Moscow by Nightmare (1973) was a widely read<br />
class notes 45
indictment of the Soviet system. She later worked as a foreign policy assistant<br />
on Capitol Hill, eventually joining the staff of then Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-Del.)<br />
and later serving as a special adviser to the State Department under Lawrence<br />
S. Eagleburger and Michael H. Armacost. For the last two decades of her life,<br />
she worked for the nonprofit Fabergé Arts Foundation, organizing major exhibitions<br />
and coediting Fabergé Flowers (2004), a book that documented Peter<br />
Carl Fabergé’s botanically inspired jewelry. She was predeceased by Shub and<br />
by her second husband, Leonard Reed. Her survivors include two children<br />
from her first marriage, Rachel Shub and Adam Shub, and two grandchildren.<br />
’51<br />
Steven John Covey died on January 30, 2010, in his home in Broomfield,<br />
Colorado. He was the son of Lois Lenski Covey, a renowned children’s book<br />
author, and Arthur Covey, an artist and muralist. After graduating from Bard,<br />
he earned a master’s degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Upon leaving<br />
the army in 1955 he met his first wife, Yolanthe, in Holland; they were<br />
married in Paris and settled in Phoenix. He was employed by the city’s park<br />
and recreation department for more than 30 years as an art teacher and<br />
supervisor of the arts and crafts program. His children with Yolanthe—<br />
Michael, Vivian, and Jeanine—survive him. He is also survived by his wife,<br />
Joy, and four grandchildren.<br />
’50<br />
Isabella von Glatz died on August 4, 2010, in Maryland. She was raised in<br />
New Jersey, then attended Bard and Columbia University, where she met her<br />
husband of 58 years, Richard A. von Glatz. They lived in the Chicago area for<br />
the 10 years, where their children were born. Richard then joined the foreign<br />
service, and together they spent the next 25 years living in India, Sri Lanka,<br />
Turkey, and Pakistan. In addition to her husband, she is survived by two<br />
daughters, Adrienne and Jocelyn, and two grandchildren, Lewis and Natalie.<br />
Reporter Anthony Hart Harrigan died on May 28, 2010, in Charlottesville,<br />
Virginia. He started his career in 1948 with The News and Courier (now The<br />
Post and Courier) in Charleston, South Carolina, working there for 20 years<br />
and eventually becoming associate editor. After retiring from the newspaper<br />
business, Harrigan enjoyed success as a columnist, author, and contributing<br />
editor to the National Review. He wrote several books and dozens of essays on<br />
military affairs, foreign policy, and domestic issues, particularly economics.<br />
He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; four children, Anthony, Elliott, Chardon,<br />
and Mary; a sister; and 12 grandchildren.<br />
’49<br />
Charlotte Hahn Arner died on February 21, <strong>2011</strong>. She was a native of Germany,<br />
where her family survived Kristallnacht in Berlin before fleeing to the United<br />
States in 1938. She majored in sculpture, and was among the earliest women<br />
to graduate from Bard. She went on to study in New York and Paris, and had a<br />
one-woman show in Italy in the mid-’50s. She married her classmate Robert<br />
Arner, whose paintings are in collections throughout the world, including two<br />
paintings on permanent exhibit at Bard. They had two children, Charlotte and<br />
Franz. She maintained close ties to Outward Bound, the organization founded<br />
by her late uncle, Dr. Kurt Hahn. After Robert’s death in 2002, she began<br />
working with a neighbor to document her husband’s life and work, as well as<br />
her own family’s story of survival, in words, photographs, and documents.<br />
Hundreds of pages had been completed at the time of her death.<br />
’48<br />
Morton Leventhal died on April 23, 2010. He majored in psychology at Bard<br />
and went on to earn a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. He had a long career,<br />
including work as a consulting psychologist for the U.S. Navy, a therapist at<br />
the Hines VA clinic in Chicago, and as chief of psychological services at the<br />
VA Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. He was also a therapist in private practice<br />
in Chicago, Louisville, and Ft. Myers, Florida. He is survived by his wife, Elaine;<br />
a son, Mitchell; a daughter, Valerie; and a sister, Lucille.<br />
Janet Reinthal Nash died on May 29, 2010. She majored in social studies<br />
at Bard. She was the mother of David and Daniel Nash; grandmother of<br />
Benjamin, Lucas, Julia, and Hannah; and sister of the late Robert Reinthal.<br />
’47<br />
Christina Frerichs Person died August 9, 2010, after a long illness. She studied<br />
drama/dance at Bard, and went on to be a dancer on the Jimmy Durante Show;<br />
a June Taylor dancer on the Jackie Gleason Show; a Rockette at Radio City Music<br />
Hall; and a dancer in Broadway and vaudeville productions. She later taught<br />
at Calvin Leete School, an elementary school in Guilford, Connecticut. She is<br />
survived by three daughters, Sarah, Martha, and Abigail; five grandchildren;<br />
and her dear companion, George Hatch.<br />
Elaine Postal died on October 10, 2010, in Palm Beach, Florida. After majoring<br />
in economics at Bard, she attended the Columbia School of Business and<br />
went on to a career that culminated in her position as chairman and chief<br />
merchant of Judy Bond, Inc. She is survived by her husband of 64 years,<br />
Bob Postal; their children Andrew, Louise, and Debora; and six grandchildren.<br />
’44<br />
Jin Kinoshita died on August 20, 2010, in San José, California. His research<br />
focused on treating diabetic cataracts, and he was internationally recognized<br />
as a researcher, administrator, professor, and adviser to many young scientists.<br />
He was a pioneer in the biochemical study of cataracts and his research<br />
continues to have a profound influence on ophthalmic biochemistry.<br />
During World War II, the Kinoshita family was relocated from San<br />
Francisco to Santa Anita Assembly Center and then to Topaz Relocation<br />
Camp in Utah. He was allowed to leave camp to attend Bard. He then<br />
received his Ph.D. in biological chemistry from Harvard University and joined<br />
the Harvard Medical School faculty. In 1967 he was awarded an honorary<br />
doctor of science degree from Bard.<br />
In 1971, Kinoshita was appointed chief of the Laboratory of Vision<br />
Research in the newly formed National Eye Institute, where he later became<br />
scientific director of basic and clinical research. He retired from NEI in 1990<br />
and moved to California to be a clinical research professor of ophthalmology<br />
at UC Davis. His awards include the Friedenwald Award, Proctor Medal,<br />
Alcon Research Institute Award, and the Distinguished Service Award of the<br />
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He was also a two-time<br />
nominee for the Nobel Prize and a recipient of Japan’s medal of honor, The<br />
Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays. His wife, Kay Kimura Kinoshita, predeceased<br />
him, as did his brothers Reiju, Satoshi, and Tadashi. He is survived by<br />
his sister, Emiko Chino.<br />
’43<br />
Henry C. Hopewell Jr. died on May 19, 2010. A native of Massachusetts, he<br />
graduated from The Choate School, then studied for two years at Bard before<br />
enlisting in the U.S. Navy. He served in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, then<br />
returned to his childhood summer home of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire,<br />
where he pursued multiple business interests. In the 1960s, he moved to<br />
Maine to continue real estate development and building projects. He is survived<br />
by his wife, Vicki Cahill Madden; two daughters from a previous marriage,<br />
Hillary and BlakeLee; a brother, Frank; two stepsisters, Margaret and<br />
46
Sally; three stepsons, Gregory, Glenn, and Christopher; seven grandchildren;<br />
and several nieces and nephews.<br />
James Casper Silvan died on December 3, 2009, after a long illness. He was<br />
born in Toledo, Ohio, and studied at Bard before serving in the U.S. Army during<br />
World War II. After the war, he received graduate degrees in biology from<br />
Teacher’s College Graduate School of Education, Columbia University. He moved<br />
to Baltimore in the mid-’60s to work as an editor for Johns Hopkins University<br />
Press. After retiring, he founded York Press, and published scholarly books. His<br />
only surviving relatives are a niece, a nephew, and first and second cousins.<br />
’40<br />
John Frank Goldsmith died on October 14, 2010. He graduated from Bronxville<br />
High School in 1936, attended Bard for two years, and graduated from University<br />
of Colorado in 1940. In World War II, he led an infantry platoon in Italy and<br />
France. He was wounded in action and awarded a Purple Heart. He enjoyed a<br />
long and successful writing and editorial career—he was on staff at Factory<br />
magazine, managing editor of Fleet Owner, and chief editor of Housing magazine<br />
(now House & Home). He maintained connection with Bard over the years, most<br />
recently with the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program in New<br />
York City. He was predeceased by his wife, Caroline Steinholz Lerner. His survivors<br />
include his children, Katherine, Elizabeth, and John; a stepson, David;<br />
three grandchildren; and his dear friend Margot Tallmer.<br />
After a brief illness, Peter Hobbs died on January 2, <strong>2011</strong>. Born in Etretat, France,<br />
he was raised in New York City, and majored in drama at Bard. In World War II<br />
he served as a sergeant in combat engineering and fought at the Battle of the<br />
Bulge. After the war, he enjoyed a 50-year career as an actor, performing on<br />
Broadway (notably, Teahouse of the August Moon and Billy Budd); on television<br />
(from his role as Peter Ames in Secret Storm from 1954 to 1962, to Perry Mason,<br />
The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, All in the Family, The<br />
Odd Couple, Streets of San Francisco, Barney Miller, Lou Grant, M*A*S*H, L.A. Law,<br />
and dozens more); and in films (Sleeper, The Man with Two Brains, 9 to 5,<br />
Andromeda Strain, and The Lady in Red). He is survived by his wife, Carolyn<br />
Adams Hobbs; three daughters, Anna, Jennifer, and Nancy; two stepsons,<br />
Mark and Adam; and six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.<br />
Faculty<br />
Beth A. Casey, 73, died on August 23, 2010, in Toledo, Ohio. She had been an<br />
assistant professor of English at Bard from 1972 to 1973. Beginning in 1978, she<br />
embarked upon a lengthy career at Bowling Green State University in Ohio,<br />
serving as an instructor in literature and Canadian studies and later as an<br />
administrator, creating and directing the university’s first general studies<br />
curriculum. She also taught at the University of Rochester and Empire State<br />
College, and was briefly an associate dean at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.<br />
She had a B.A. from Penn State University and master’s and Ph.D. degrees<br />
from Columbia University.<br />
Stephen Pace, 91, a noted second-generation Abstract Expressionist painter<br />
who served as an assistant professor of art at Bard for one semester (1970–<br />
71), died on September 23, 2010, in New Harmony, Indiana. A friend of Milton<br />
Avery, whom he met in Mexico, Pace moved to New York in 1947 and studied<br />
at the Art Students League and with Hans Hofmann. During the heyday of<br />
Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, he exhibited in several Whitney<br />
Annuals, had his first New York show at the Artists Gallery in 1954, and was<br />
represented by the Poindexter Gallery and later the A. M. Sachs Gallery. By<br />
1963, he had “developed a broad-brushed representational style and a range<br />
of subjects that celebrated everyday life and labor . . . [resulting in] a<br />
magnified Fauvism or Post-Impressionism that takes inspiration from Avery,<br />
Matisse, and Bonnard, as well as Chinese painting,” according to his obituary<br />
in the New York Times. His wife of 61 years, Palmina Natalini, is his only<br />
survivor.<br />
Garry Reigenborn, 58, a dancer, choreographer, and teacher who taught at<br />
Bard for nine years, died on March 10, <strong>2011</strong>, in Pueblo, Colorado, his home<br />
state. He was an assistant professor of dance at the College from the fall of<br />
1998 through May 2004, after which he served as artist in residence in the<br />
Dance Program from the fall of 2004 through the spring of 2007. Over a long<br />
and distinguished career in modern dance, he was a principal dancer with<br />
Andy De Groat and Dancers from 1977 to 1979; a member of the Lucinda<br />
Childs Dance Company and its assistant choreographer from 1984 to 2000;<br />
a faculty member at Merce Cunningham Dance Studio from 1995 to 2004;<br />
and artistic director of Round 2 Dance in New York City for nearly 15 years,<br />
beginning in 1996. His choreographic work was presented throughout the<br />
United States and Europe, including several collaborations with Robert<br />
Wilson, most recently in two revivals of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach,<br />
in 1984 and 1992. He had a B.F.A. from the University of Utah, and was the<br />
recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Foundation<br />
for Contemporary Performance Arts, and Jerome Robbins Foundation. He is<br />
survived by his mother, Ellen Mae Reigenborn of Sterling, Colorado; a sister,<br />
Carol Lauer; two brothers, Alan and Clarke; and many nieces and nephews.<br />
Staff<br />
Isabelle Clum, 90, a 20-year employee of Bard, died on December 14, 2010.<br />
She worked in the housekeeping department, which was part of Bard’s<br />
Buildings & Grounds (B&G), from 1969 through 1989. Her survivors include<br />
two sons—Randy Clum Sr., assistant director of B&G, and Edwin Clum; three<br />
daughters, Nancy Rose, Jeanette Bushnell, and Roberta Coons; 12 grandchildren;<br />
and 15 great-grandchildren.<br />
Shirley M. Minkler, 80, who worked in Bard’s Central Services Department for<br />
more than 25 years until her retirement in 2006, died on January 28, <strong>2011</strong>. A<br />
lifelong resident of Tivoli, she served as a secretary for St. Sylvia’s Parish prior<br />
to her employment at the College, and was a 62-year member of the Tivoli<br />
Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary. Her survivors include a son, James, and his<br />
wife, Linda; four sisters; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and<br />
several nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband of 47 years,<br />
Gordon; and three sisters and two brothers.<br />
Friends<br />
Anne Botstein, M.D., 98, a distinguished pediatrician and the mother of<br />
Bard president Leon Botstein, died on Sunday, October 17, 2010. Born Ania<br />
Wyszewianska in Poland and educated at the University of Zurich, Dr.<br />
Botstein was a pioneer in pediatrics, both in Switzerland and the United<br />
States. During her studies in Switzerland as the chief resident of Guido<br />
Fanconi, who discovered cystic fibrosis, she was the first to show that cystic<br />
fibrosis is inherited. She spent most of her career in this country at<br />
Montefiore Hospital, where she worked at one of the first HMOs in New York<br />
and was chief of pediatrics for 25 years, and Albert Einstein College of<br />
Medicine, where she was professor emerita. Since the death of her husband,<br />
Dr. Charles Botstein, a professor at Albert Einstein, she lived on the Bard<br />
College campus. In addition to her son Leon, she is survived by another son,<br />
Dr. David Botstein; a daughter, Dr. Eva Griepp; and six grandchildren.<br />
class notes 47
Untitled by Chris Fedorak ‘08, an image from his project 33 Mill Street. Fedorak, a native of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, has been technical director of the<br />
Photography Program at Bard for three years. He begins an M.F.A. program in photography at California College of the Arts in San Francisco this fall.<br />
Board of Trustees of Bard College<br />
David E. Schwab II ’52, Chair Emeritus<br />
Charles P. Stevenson Jr., Chair<br />
Emily H. Fisher, Vice Chair<br />
Elizabeth Ely ’65, Secretary<br />
Stanley A. Reichel ’65, Treasurer<br />
Fiona Angelini<br />
Roland J. Augustine<br />
Leon Botstein, President of the College +<br />
David C. Clapp<br />
Marcelle Clements ’69*<br />
Asher B. Edelman ’61<br />
Robert S. Epstein ’63<br />
Barbara S. Grossman ’73*<br />
Sally Hambrecht<br />
Ernest F. Henderson III, Life Trustee<br />
Marieluise Hessel<br />
John C. Honey ’39, Life Trustee<br />
Charles S. Johnson III ’70<br />
Mark N. Kaplan<br />
George A. Kellner<br />
Cynthia Hirsch Levy ’65<br />
Murray Liebowitz<br />
Marc S. Lipschultz<br />
Peter H. Maguire ’88<br />
James H. Ottaway Jr.<br />
Martin Peretz<br />
Bruce C. Ratner<br />
Stewart Resnick<br />
Roger N. Scotland ’93*<br />
The Rt. Rev. Mark S. Sisk,<br />
Honorary Trustee<br />
Martin T. Sosnoff<br />
Susan Weber<br />
Patricia Ross Weis ’52<br />
+ ex officio<br />
* alumni/ae trustee<br />
Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs<br />
Debra Pemstein, Vice President for Development and Alumni/ae Affairs,<br />
845-758-7405, pemstein@bard.edu<br />
Jane Brien ’89, Director of Alumni/ae Affairs, 845-758-7406, brien@bard.edu<br />
Tricia Fleming, Assistant Director of Alumni/ae Affairs, 845-758-7089, fleming@bard.edu<br />
Anne Canzonetti ’84, Assistant Director of Alumni/ae Affairs, 845-758-7187, canzonet@bard.edu<br />
Published by the Bard Publications Office<br />
Mary Smith, Director; Ginger Shore, Consultant; Leslie Coons Bostian, Mikhail Horowitz,<br />
Ellen Liebowitz, Cynthia Werthamer, Editors; Diane Rosasco, Production Manager;<br />
Francie Soosman ’90, Designer<br />
©<strong>2011</strong> Bard College. All rights reserved.<br />
1-800-BARDCOL<br />
annandaleonline.org
john bard society news<br />
It may seem strange to write a will at 28, but even if you have only $1,000 in<br />
the bank, don’t you want to make sure it goes to a place that’s important to<br />
you? I’ve always wanted to give back to Bard in a larger capacity than the<br />
amount I’m able to give annually. As a young alum I don’t have a lot, but I want<br />
what I have to go to institutions that have had meaningful impacts on my life.<br />
Bard has deeply influenced who I am, and I want my money to contribute to<br />
the great things that Bard has done and will continue to do.<br />
—Sarah Mosbacher ’03<br />
This spring the John Bard Society (JBS) welcomed two new members,<br />
Sarah Mosbacher ’03 and Brandon Grove ’50. Sarah made the choice to<br />
join this very special group of <strong>Bardian</strong>s because she believes in planning<br />
for the future—her own and that of Bard College. Brandon joined to<br />
demonstrate his commitment to a place that changed his life; he remembers<br />
his time at Bard, he says, as one of “enlightenment, enjoyment, and<br />
inspiration.” Both Brandon and Sarah now belong to a club that is<br />
delighted to have them as members—and they are in good company.<br />
The JBS is made up of loyal alumni/ae, faculty, and friends of the<br />
College who have included Bard in their estate plans. JBS members share<br />
the belief that Bard provides an outstanding liberal arts education and continues<br />
to be a courageous, ambitious, and innovative institution, worthy<br />
and deserving of their support.<br />
JBS members have provided for Bard’s future, and in some instances,<br />
for their own. Some have included a bequest to Bard in their will, some<br />
have contributed to Bard’s Pooled Income Fund and some have even<br />
established a Charitable Gift Annuity with the College. Both the Pooled<br />
Income Fund and Charitable Gift Annuity provide an income to you for<br />
your lifetime or the lifetime of someone you designate, thereby providing<br />
for their future and for the future of the next generation of <strong>Bardian</strong>s.<br />
If you are making estate plans, we encourage you to consider including<br />
Bard. By making this important decision during our 150th Anniversary<br />
Campaign for Bard College, you are helping to ensure the success of Bard<br />
for another 150 years.<br />
For further information on the JBS please contact Debra Pemstein, vice<br />
president for development and alumni/ae affairs, at pemstein@bard.edu<br />
or by calling 845-758-7405. All inquiries are confidential.<br />
Photo: ©Mark Peterson/Corbis
Bard College<br />
PO Box 5000<br />
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000<br />
Nonprofit Organization<br />
U.S. Postage Paid<br />
Bard College<br />
Address Service Requested<br />
BARDSUMMERSCAPE<br />
JULY 7 – AUGUST 21, <strong>2011</strong><br />
dance July 7–10<br />
Tero Saarinen Company<br />
A triple bill of dances by one of Europe’s most<br />
innovative and daring dance artists<br />
theater July 13–24<br />
The Wild Duck<br />
By Henrik Ibsen<br />
Directed by Caitriona McLaughlin<br />
A masterful tragic comedy about the lies that<br />
sustain existence<br />
opera July 29 – August 7<br />
Die Liebe der Danae<br />
By Richard Strauss<br />
American Symphony Orchestra,<br />
conducted by Leon Botstein, music director<br />
Directed by Kevin Newbury<br />
A Mozartean blend of comedy, romance, and drama<br />
operetta August 4–14<br />
Bitter Sweet<br />
By Noël Coward<br />
Directed by Michael Gieleta<br />
Conducted by James Bagwell<br />
The charming tale of a soprano’s elopement<br />
with her music teacher<br />
film festival July 14 – August 18<br />
Before and After Bergman:<br />
The Best of Nordic Film<br />
From "golden age" Swedish silents to Bergman and<br />
Kaurismäki<br />
spiegeltent July 7 – August 21<br />
Cabaret and more<br />
Afternoon family entertainment, rollicking late-night<br />
performances, dancing, and intimate dining<br />
twenty-second season<br />
bard music festival August 12–14 and 19–21<br />
Sibelius and His World<br />
Two weekends of concerts, panels, and other events<br />
bring the musical world of Jean Sibelius vividly to life<br />
Special SummerScape discount for Bard alumni/ae:<br />
order by phone and save 20% on most Bard SummerScape<br />
programs. Offer limited to 2 tickets per buyer and cannot<br />
be combined with other discounts.<br />
The <strong>2011</strong> SummerScape season is made possible in part through the generous<br />
support of the Board of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at<br />
Bard College, the Board of the Bard Music Festival, and the Friends of the Fisher<br />
Center, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York<br />
State Council on the Arts, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and Consulate<br />
General of Finland, New York. The honorary patron for SummerScape <strong>2011</strong> and<br />
the 22nd annual Bard Music Festival is Martti Ahtisaari, Nobel Peace Prize<br />
laureate and former president of Finland.<br />
Box Office 845-758-7900 | fishercenter.bard.edu<br />
Photo: ©Peter Aaron ’68/Esto