Bardian SUMMER 2006

Bardian
Bard College Summer 2006
Online Access to Arendt Archive
The Rise of Chinese Power
Darwinism v. Intelligent Design
Commencement 2006

THIS AND OPPOSITE PAGE Commencement 2006
COVER Hannah Arendt, University of Chicago, 1966
Board of Governors of the Bard–St. Stephen’s Alumni/ae Association
Dr. Ingrid Spatt ’69, President
Michael DeWitt ’65, Executive Vice President
Walter Swett ’96, Vice President
Maggie Hopp ’67, Secretary
Olivier teBoekhorst ’93, Treasurer
Robert Amsterdam ’53
Claire Angelozzi ’74
Judi Arner ’68
David Avallone ’87
Dr. Penny Axelrod ’63
Cathy Thiele Baker ’68, Nominations and Awards
Committee Cochairperson
Belinha Rowley Beatty ’69
Eva Thal Belefant ’49
Dr. Miriam Roskin Berger ’56
Jack Blum ’62
Carla Bolte ’71
Erin Boyer ’00
Randy Buckingham ’73, Events Committee Cochairperson
Jamie Callan ’75
Cathaline Cantalupo ’67
Charles Clancy ’69, Development Committee
Cochairperson
Peter Criswell ’89, Career Connections Committee
Chairperson
Arnold Davis ’44, Nominations and Awards
Committee Cochairperson
Elizabeth Dempsey BHSEC ’03, Bard ’05
Kit Kauders Ellenbogen ’52
Joan Elliott ’67
Naomi Bellinson Feldman ’53
Barbara Grossman Flanagan ’60
Connie Bard Fowle ’80, Career Connections Committee
Cochairperson
Diana Hirsch Friedman ’68
R. Michael Glass ’75
Eric Warren Goldman ’98, Alumni/ae House
Committee Cochairperson

Rebecca Granato ’99, Young Alumni/ae Committee
Cochairperson
Ann Ho ’62
Charles Hollander ’65
Dr. John C. Honey ’39
Deborah Davidson Kaas ’71, Oral History Committee
Chairperson
Richard Koch ’40
Erin Law ’93, Development Committee Cochairperson
Cynthia Hirsch Levy ’65
Dr. William V. Lewit ’52
Michelle Dunn Marsh ’95
Peter F. McCabe ’70, Nominations and Awards
Committee Cochairperson
Steven Miller ’70, Development Committee Cochairperson
Abigail Morgan ’96
Molly Northrup Bloom ’94
Jennifer Novik ’98, Young Alumni/ae Committee
Cochairperson
Karen Olah ’65, Alumni/ae House Committee
Cochairperson
Matt Phillips ’91
Susan Playfair ’62, Bard Associated Research
Donation (BARD) Committee Chairperson
Arthur “Scott” Porter Jr. ’79
Allison Radzin ’88, Events Committee Cochairperson
Penelope Rowlands ’73
Reva Minkin Sanders ’56
Roger Scotland ’93
Benedict S. Seidman ’40
Donna Shepper ’73
George Smith ’82, Events Committee CoChairperson
Andrea J. Stein ’92
Dr. Toni-Michelle Travis ’69
Jill Vasileff MFA ’93, MFA Liaison
Marjorie Vecchio MFA ’01, MFA Liaison
Samir B. Vural ’98
Barbara Wigren ’68
Ron Wilson ’75, Men and Women of Color Network
Liaison
Sung Jee Yoo ’01

Board of Governors of the Bard–St. Stephen’s Alumni/ae Association at Commencement 2006
The work of the Bard–St. Stephen’s Alumni/ae Association
is led by its Board of Governors and committees. If you
would like to help with one of the committees noted on the
preceding pages, or organize your reunion, please contact
Ingrid Spatt ’69, president of the Alumni/ae Association, at
alumni@bard.edu or Jessica Kemm ’74, director of alumni/ae
affairs, at kemm@bard.edu or 1-800-BARD-COL.
1 Michael DeWitt ’65
2 Eva Thal Belefant ’49
3 Eric Warren Goldman ’98
4 Naomi Bellinson Feldman ’53
5 Barbara Grossman Flanagan ’60
6 Ingrid Spatt ’69
7 Kit Kanders Ellenbogen ’52
8 Walter Swett ’96
9 Maggie Hopp ’67
10 Jack Blum ’62
11 R. Michael Glass ’75
12 Cynthia Hirsch Levy ’65
13 Charles Clancy ’69
14 Diana Hirsch Friedman ’68
15 Sung Jee Yoo ’01
16 Elizabeth Dempsey BHSEC ’03,
Bard ’05
17 Richard Koch ’40
18 Penny Axelrod ’63
19 Peter Criswell ’89
20 George Smith ’82
21 Arthur “Scott” Porter ’79
22 Rebecca Granato ’99
23 Susan Playfair ’62
24 Andrea Stein ’92
25 Ann Ho ’62
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Bardian
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SUMMER 2006
Features
Departments
4 Arendt Archive Made Accessible:
Online Texts to Celebrate Centennial
10 A Transformative Experience:
Recognizing 20 Years of
EEC Program Scholarships
40 Books by Bardians
44 On and Off Campus
60 Class Notes
80 Faculty Notes
14 Darwinism v. Intelligent Design
20 The Rise of Chinese Power
24 Smolny College at Bobrinskiy Palace
By Judson Levin ’52
26 The Senior Project:
The Continuing Process of
Learning How to Learn
30 Commencement 2006

ARENDT ARCHIVE MADE
ACCESSIBLE
Online Texts to Celebrate Centennial
As the intellectual world prepares to commemorate the
100th anniversary of the birth of political philosopher and
theorist Hannah Arendt, so does Bard College, which claims
a special place in the Arendt galaxy. Arendt, known for her
insights into and writings on political, social, and moral
issues, often lectured at Bard, where her second husband,
Heinrich Bluecher, taught philosophy for 17 years. Bluecher,
“We have an historic place. Colleges rarely have the opportunity, unlike universities,
to be the locus for major scholarship. . . . Arendt had a more than 20-year
association with us. She left her library to us, and we can play a role
we otherwise wouldn’t be able to. That does us proud.” —LEON BOTSTEIN
founder of the Common Course (the precursor of First-Year
Seminar), used many of Arendt’s notes and thoughts in his
creation of the course. At her death (she and Bluecher are
both buried in the Bard Cemetery), Arendt left a portion of
her large library to the College. That legacy comprises books,
papers, and other documents, some annotated by Arendt and
some inscribed to her by various scholarly luminaries of the
20th century. Bard is celebrating the Arendt centennial with
the launch of an online exhibition of the works she left to
the College.
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Hannah Arendt, 1930
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Arendt’s books addressed the conscience of her generation.
Her publications include The Origins of Totalitarianism
(1951), The Human Condition (1958), On Revolution (1963),
and, perhaps her most famous, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963).
The last began as articles Arendt wrote on the Eichmann trial
for The New Yorker.
The online posting will fill a gap
in Arendt scholarship, especially for
those researchers who may not
be able to travel to Bard.
The creation of the online project is both stimulating
and challenging the staff and scholars involved. “There are
things here that people have never seen,” says Jeffrey Katz,
Bard’s dean of information services and director of libraries.
“It’s a very exciting opportunity, and a responsibility, to provide
information from which people can benefit.”
That’s one side of the coin. The other side is that the
scholars involved must possess technical prowess and diligence
in order to succeed at several tasks, “the simplest of
which—and it’s turning out not to be so simple—is a full cataloguing
of the collection,” Katz says. “Many of the books
represent unique materials, with Arendt’s annotations, underlinings,
and corrections in a half-dozen languages, which
makes this more than a basic cataloguing job.”
Of the estimated 4,000 volumes in Bard’s Arendt collection,
more than 3,000 have been indexed so far. While the
College already hosts a comprehensive online archive
of Bluecher’s lectures, scholarship, and time at Bard
(www.bard.edu/bluecher), the goal is to have the Arendt site
serve as “a curated exhibition with links to other sites,”
according to Katz. “This is a chance to enrich the records of
these important materials by adding fuller descriptions of the
markings and other indications—such as dates and dedications.
We are now experimenting with the creation of links
from the catalogue record to digitized reproductions of
selected passages, ephemera, and inscriptions.” The online
posting will fill a gap in Arendt scholarship, especially for
those researchers who may not be able to travel to Bard. As
Katz notes: “A month doesn’t go by without calls from people
doing their dissertations and other work. I’m hopeful
there’s a unique contribution we can make to expanding the
knowledge of Arendt’s work.” (For example, Vanderbilt
University, which is mounting an Arendt exhibition that will
travel to Frankfurt and Munich, has asked Katz for reproductions
of notes from the collection, as well as books.)
There’s also the challenge of placing the Arendt collection
in the context of her life and scholarship. “We want to
understand the place these objects held in her thinking and
the development of her thought,” Katz says. “What’s interesting
in here is the reconstruction of her thinking, based on her
notes in the books. . . . That’s not usually the task of the
librarian.” In the spring of 2005, the library brought in, as an
intern, a German scholar, Reinhard Laube, who was recommended
by David Kettler, Research Professor in Social
Studies. Laube spent a month poring over the collection. His
first impression was that the collection is “tremendous,” both
in size and import. “It opens up the world of a philosophical
reader and the background of Arendt’s oeuvre,” he says.
Hannah Arendt, year unknown
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Hannah Arendt and her second husband, Heinrich Bluecher, 1941
Laube’s first undertaking was to select those as-yetuncatalogued
works that seemed most important, as well as
those whose delicate physical condition required that they be
repaired and carefully stored. “While doing this technical
work,” says Laube, “I found out that the collection not only
includes Arendt’s own gifts and purchases, but items identifiable
as having originated in the libraries of her first husband,
Guenther Stern [who wrote under the name Guenther
“With the help of the Bard holdings, it is now possible to
answer previously unanswered questions in the study of this
important relationship,” Laube says. He cites a published edition
of the Arendt-Heidegger correspondence that includes
this note, written to Arendt on February 27, 1925: “The
demonic has struck me. . . . As a symbol of my gratitude, take
this small book. It shall also serve as a representation of this
semester.” The book had been unidentified until now. It is a
copy of Plato’s Symposium, translated into German by Rudolf
Kassner, which Heidegger inscribed, “Marburger W[inter]
S[emester] 1924/5. M.” Laube adds that in Arendt’s marginalia
to an English translation of The Republic, also in the
Bard holdings, “she highlights precisely the key Greek concepts
that were central to Martin Heidegger’s interpretation
of Plato.” These are significant discoveries, because much of
Plato’s work, including his ideas regarding the separation of
philosophy from practical politics, held an important place in
the theories of Heidegger and Arendt alike.
Arendt was born October 14, 1906, in Hannover,
Germany, the only child of Russian-Jewish parents. She began
to study at Marburg with Rudolf Bultmann, one of the 20th
century’s most influential theologians and biblical scholars.
She went on to study at the University of Heidelberg with
Karl Jaspers, a psychiatrist-philosopher, who became her mentor.
Several of his books are in Arendt’s collection at Bard.
“A month doesn’t go by without calls from people doing their dissertations
and other work. I’m hopeful there’s a unique contribution we can make
to expanding the knowledge of Arendt’s work.” —JEFFREY KATZ
Anders]; his father, William Stern; Arendt’s mother [Martha
Arendt], and Bluecher. As far as I know, these distinct layers
had never before been identified.”
The detective work followed. Laube set out to discover
what the Bard collection could disclose about what he calls
“the Arendt network.” As a young philosophy student at the
University of Marburg, Arendt studied—and had a brief, passionate
affair—with philosopher Martin Heidegger. Laube
notes that the Bard collection contains “numerous” off-prints
(separately published excerpts) of Heidegger’s works, as well
as books by others, which Heidegger had given Arendt.
In 1929 she married Stern and completed her doctoral
dissertation on the concept of love in the writings of St.
Augustine. Opposed to the rise of Nazism, she became a political
activist and was arrested by the Gestapo for her involvement
in the German Zionist movement. Released from jail,
she fled with her husband to Paris, where she worked with
Youth Aliyah to help youngsters escape the Nazis and move to
Palestine. In Paris she met Bluecher, a communist non-Jew
from Berlin, whom she married in January 1940, after divorcing
from Stern. The couple escaped to the United States in
1941, after the German invasion of France. Once settled in
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New York City, Arendt was research director for the
Conference on Jewish Relations (1944–46), chief editor for
Schocken Books (1946–48), and executive director of Jewish
Cultural Reconstruction (1949–52). She returned to Europe
in 1949 to inspect and record remaining Jewish cultural treasures.
While there, she rekindled a friendship with Heidegger,
who had joined the Nazi Party in 1933. Bard College president
Leon Botstein, who studied with Arendt at the
University of Chicago and later wrote about her work, considers
her allegiance to Heidegger to have been “loyalty to the
dominant relationship in her coming of age.” Botstein adds,
“It doesn’t constitute a whitewash of Heidegger’s Nazism.”
The Origins of Totalitarianism was published at the start
of the Cold War, a decade after Arendt arrived in America,
and the year she became a U.S. citizen. The book made her
an intellectual celebrity. Its premise of “radical evil” argued
that totalitarianism was a novel form of autocracy whose
subscriber countries used terror in a way that distinguished
them from other societies. Her later coinage of the phrase
“banality of evil”—part of the subtitle of Eichmann in
Jerusalem—entered the language mainstream. In contrast to
“radical evil,” the “banality of evil” codified her startling
notion that Eichmann was the embodiment of an ordinary
bureaucrat rather than a demonic presence, as many wanted
to believe.
Martin Heidegger
In 1963 Arendt became a professor at the University of
Chicago. From 1967 until her death in 1975, she taught at
the New School for Social Research in New York City, with
lectureships at several American colleges and universities,
including Bard. She was known to be encouraging to her
students, as well as blunt in her judgments. In Hannah
Arendt: For Love of the World, biographer Elisabeth Young-
Bruehl relates one comment that Arendt gave to a doctoral
student: “Well, my dear, if this was right, it would be revolutionary,
but I am afraid it is just wrong.”
Botstein, who attended Arendt’s seminars on political
theory, recalls her “charming and charismatic personality” and
says that “she was a brilliant improviser as a teacher.” Arendt
wrote to Jaspers suggesting that he speak to 18-year-old
Botstein, who “made an excellent impression” on her, about
Botstein’s senior honors thesis on Max Weber. Arendt later
became a reader and adviser on that thesis. She eventually
encouraged Botstein to accept the position of president at
Bard. “She believed in the potential of the College . . . and
was very grateful to Bard for its treatment of Bluecher,” says
Botstein, who is excited about the prospect of the online
archive. “We have an historic place,” Botstein says. “Colleges
rarely have the opportunity, unlike universities, to be the
locus for major scholarship. Because of the accident of history
that placed Heinrich [Bluecher] here, Arendt had a
more than 20-year association with us. She left her library to
us, and we can play a role we otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
That does us proud.”
Alexander Bazelow ’71, now an engineer, is another former
student of Arendt’s, albeit indirectly. He came to Bard
in 1968, in large part to study with Bluecher, but that fall was
Bluecher’s last semester of teaching before retiring. Bluecher
invited the first-year student to sit in on a senior seminar and
to chat in his office. One day, while in the library, Bazelow
noticed tapes of Bluecher’s Common Course lectures “just
lying around,” and decided to transcribe them. After
Bluecher died in 1970, Bazelow continued the transcription
project with Arendt, with whom he worked on a regular
basis at her office and apartment in New York City. Bazelow
sees Heidegger and Bluecher as the biggest influences on
Arendt, and says, “It was clear that she and Bluecher talked
about everything.” Bazelow also sheds light on yet another
challenge present in cataloguing the Arendt collection at
Bard: “Someone would give Arendt a book, and it was always
Bluecher who read it first. He would annotate each of the
books.” But from the days when the Nazis were looking for
Illustration: Min Jae Hong
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Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem, ca. 1960
him, Bluecher, the erstwhile communist, had developed a
habit of disguising his handwriting. “That habit might have
persisted,” Bazelow says. If that is the case, definitive cataloguing
of Arendt’s library becomes more difficult.
Laube’s sleuthing revealed gifts and dedications to
Arendt from “a dense network of people,” among them,
Jaspers, Bultmann, Jewish scholar Gershom Scholem, Greek
philosophy interpreter Karl Reinhardt, and other German,
French, and American friends. Some of the dedications honor
Arendt’s finer qualities. For example, in a volume of Rilke, an
inscription signed “P” (identifiable, by the handwriting, as
theologian Paul Tillich), lauds her generosity. Laube also
found, in one of the collection’s volumes, what he believes to
be a previously unknown poem by Friedrich Gundolf.
Anne Bertheau, a scholar in Paris who studied Bard’s
Arendt library in late 2004, considers the collection—and its
accessibility online—important for two kinds of researchers.
Scholars will be able to see Arendt’s personal taste in books
and the “conversations” she has written in the margins with
the books’ authors. Potential biographers will gain a clearer
perspective on which books Arendt bought, which ones she
deemed worth lugging through emigration, which ones were
dedicated to her by other writers, and which ones were left
to her by friends. “In some way the library is the materialization
of her life, her connection to others,” Bertheau says. By
providing online access to the Arendt collection, Bard will
guarantee the continuity of that connection.
—Cynthia Werthamer
Bard College is planning a celebration of Hannah Arendt's centennial during Family Weekend,
October 27–28, 2006, with a conference on her life and work. Visit www.bard.edu for more information.
9

A Transformative Experience
Recognizing 20 Years of EEC Program Scholarships

In 1986, the median household income in the United States
was just under $25,000, the average price of a new home was
$111,000, and 93 cents bought a gallon of regular unleaded
gasoline. The annual bill for a student attending a public college
or university—tuition, plus room and board and fees—
was about $5,000.
A lot has changed since 1986. Tuition at public colleges
and universities now averages $15,000 per year. And the
annual cost of attending a private college—Bard, for example—adds
up to nearly $42,000. Many families find it impossible
to pay for four years at that rate, and the prospect of
staggering loans keeps many qualified students from applying
to private colleges.
That’s why the Excellence and Equal Cost (EEC) program
was created in 1986: to make it possible for highachieving
public high school students to consider attending
Bard, regardless of their ability to pay.
Public high school seniors whose cumulative grade
point average (GPA) places them among the top 10 in their
graduating class are eligible to attend Bard on a four-year
EEC scholarship. The scholarship allows these students to
attend Bard for the price of attending an appropriate fouryear
public college or university in their home state. During
their four years at Bard, EEC students are required to maintain
a GPA of at least 3.3, complete 28 credits each academic
year, and remain in good standing.
“It’s a method of funding the top-tier student who, for
a variety of reasons, can’t consider private colleges,” says
Mary Backlund, vice president for student affairs and director
of admission. Backlund points out that the program is,
and always has been, competitive. “We’ve never offered an
EEC scholarship to all applicants in the top 10 of their class.
We find that we’re really choosing from the top 5 or 6 rather
than the top 10. . . . What’s changed recently is that more
and more high schools are not ranking their students. We’ve
thought about the impact of this on EEC, but at this point
we haven’t altered anything.”
Bard has been ranked among “highly competitive” private
colleges for many years, but recently, with an increase in the
number of applicants as well as a general increase in applicants’
individual and collective qualifications, it’s become even
more difficult to gain admission. Requests for EEC scholarships
are also on the rise, and EEC scholarships are offered to
fewer and fewer of the students who qualify and apply for
them. Why the increase in EEC-related applications to Bard?
Backlund thinks it has something to do with increased knowledge:
“Generally speaking, I believe the college-bound population
is more aware of funding opportunities now than they
were in 1986.” The increased awareness seems to be due to a
combination of guidance from high school counselors and college
advisers who have heard about EEC—either through
Bard literature or by word of mouth—along with the fact that
high school students themselves are doing more research into
funding opportunities. All of these factors add up to a more
competitive field for the EEC program.
Denise Ackerman, the College’s director of financial aid,
says that, judging from the number of phone calls her office
receives, the EEC program is well known. “Students and parents
call us with all sorts of questions,” she says. “There are
misunderstandings about the ‘top 10’ criterion. For EEC, it
means the top 10 students in the high school class, not the
top 10 percent. And we have to remind people that the scholarship
is for public school students. The idea is that private
school students are more likely to be directed to a private college
to begin with—it’s the nature of the system—whereas
students from public high schools are more likely to be
directed to state schools.”
Most EEC program alumni/ae say that, without the
scholarship, they would not have attended Bard. Says Ben
Lackey ’91, who is now an attorney in Portland, Oregon,
“Were it not for the EEC program, I wouldn’t have considered
Bard at all. I learned about it almost by accident, from
a brochure I received in the mail after taking the SATs. As I
recall, there was a small paragraph about the program, buried
near the end of the brochure. At first I thought there had to
be a mistake. It sounded almost too good to be true.”
After leaving Bard, Laurie (Curry) Molnar ’95 received
a master’s degree in Russian and East European studies
from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at
Georgetown University; she now works in Washington, D.C.,
on U.S.–Eastern European trade issues. Molnar recounts a
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Shannon Miller ’90, Stephanie Chasteen ’95
tale similar to Lackey’s. “My dad said to me, ‘We’re not going
to take out thousands and thousands of dollars in loans—it’s
just not going to happen. So either you can go to the state college
down the road, or we can get really creative.’ Fortunately,
a friend of the family, who was a guidance counselor, tipped us
off about the EEC program.”
It’s not only the generous scholarship that attracts EEC
students to Bard. Several EEC alumni/ae who were in a position
to choose between Bard and other private colleges that
offered them significant financial aid packages cite a visit to
Bard as the deciding factor. A member of the first group of
EEC students, Shannon (Bass) Miller ’90 came to Bard
from suburban southeast Florida; after graduating, she earned
her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in psychology from the
University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She now lives
the field at night and heard the crickets chirping and then
talked with Frank Oja [professor emeritus of psychology]
about the psychology department, I felt a rush of excitement.
It felt homey, and full of possibilities, all at once. I fell in love
with Bard right then.”
Assimilating into college life is often a difficult experience
for first-year students. For EEC scholarship recipients,
many of whom come to Bard from small towns, the entry
can be particularly bumpy. Christie Seaver ’06, a native of
Lewis County, New York, describes her initial transition into
life at Bard as a “transformative experience, both positive and
negative. I’m from a sheltered, conservative, rural area. Bard
students and faculty are liberal, intelligent, and academically
motivated—to some degree, it’s an intellectual elite. At first
it seemed that everyone had read and done so much more
than I had. As time went by, though, I felt less intimidated,
and no one ever made me feel stupid for asking questions.
On the contrary, people love to talk about what interests
them. That’s helped me. I have much more knowledge and
confidence than I had when I arrived.”
The assimilation of EEC students also fostered a change
in the Bard population. Molnar, who came to Bard from a
small town in northwestern Pennsylvania, says, “EEC was a
kind of diversity program for Bard . . . the prevailing demographic
at Bard was not people like me. We EEC students—
we brought people from the Midwest (and even farther-flung
Several EEC alumni/ae who were in a position to choose between Bard
and other private colleges offering them significant financial aid packages
cite a visit to Bard as the deciding factor.
in Red Hook, New York, and works as a school psychologist
in a nearby town. Miller remembers her first visit to campus
as eye-opening. “All the other colleges I’d applied to were
huge places in big cities. Bard was just so lovely. I also realized
that I liked the idea of being somewhere smaller. That
hadn’t occurred to me originally.”
Stephanie Chasteen ’95, now a physicist in California,
had an analogous experience: “Wesleyan matched my vision
of what I had seen for myself for college. But when I visited
Bard for the second time and saw the string of lights across
places) to Bard, and we changed it. I’d say we deepened it,
broadened its horizons.”
It’s probably not surprising that students who finished
within the top 10 of their high school classes have little
difficulty with Bard’s GPA-maintenance requirement.
Something EEC program alumni/ae have in common is the
fact that few of them seem to recall that there even was such
a requirement. As Molnar explains, “To be in the top 10 of
your high school class, you have to be on top of a lot of different
things. You can’t have a major weak spot. Given that this
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scholarship is to a school as good as Bard is, and that it’s not
a loan, I think it’s very fair that you’re expected to keep up your
GPA. If you’re being given that much money, you should be
performing.”
However, a question about the fairness of the top-10
requirement did give pause to some EEC alumni/ae. Lackey’s
response is representative of these. “I generally viewed the
qualification criteria as fair,” he says. “But I have to say that,
although it didn’t affect me, I was sympathetic to the argument
that using a percentage-based criterion, such as top 10
percent or top 5 percent, would be fairer. Limiting it to the
top 10 students was somewhat arbitrary and unfair to students
from very large high schools.” Current student Melissa
Hardy ’07, a native of Boulder City, Nevada, agrees. “It seems
to me that this bestows an extra, and perhaps undeserved,
advantage on those from smaller schools. Being one of the top
10 in a class of 100 is very different from being one of the top
Christie Seaver ’06, Melissa Hardy ’07
change disciplines,” he says. “In the long run, EEC gave me
many career options that otherwise I might not have had.”
Molnar particularly appreciated Bard’s low studentteacher
ratio. “I had two or three classes where I was the only
student,” she recalls. “That was a tremendous opportunity.
When you’re the only student, you’re on. You’re expected to
“To have the experience of being in such a small environment,
academically—it was invaluable. I don’t think I realized it until I went to graduate
school, where most of the other students had come from state universities.
The difference between my experience and theirs was startling.”
10 in a class of 500. However, I do like the fact that the award
is intraschool based.” She believes that the top-10 requirement
benefits students from small towns whose high schools cannot
compete on an equal footing with schools in larger towns or
cities. “The EEC program gives that student the opportunity
to outweigh their earlier disadvantage,” says Hardy.
Today, the EEC program continues to do what it was
created to do. It offers otherwise unattainable
academic opportunities to
promising high school students. Those
who have had the oppor- tunity
acknowledge its influence on their lives.
Eric Swanson ’97 concentrated in
Russian literature at Bard; he is currently
a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy
at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“Not being in debt when I graduated
Eric Swanson ’97 from college made it easier for me to
have your homework done and your opinion formulated.
That’s something I never would have experienced elsewhere.”
Miller concurs: “To have the experience of being in such
a small environment, academically—it was invaluable. I don’t
think I realized it until I went to graduate school, where
most of the other students had come from state universities.
The difference between my experience and theirs was startling.
Many of them talked about how hard it had been for
them, when they were gathering recommendations for graduate
school, to find a professor who even knew them. Many
of them had never been in a class where they were expected
to speak out loud. They had never had a conversation with a
professor about something they’d written. That really struck
me—how special Bard was, academically, that I’d had the
experience of feeling confident, as a learner.”
—Kelly Spencer
13

DARWINISM v.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Evolution of an Argument
In April 2006, as part of Bard’s Distinguished Scientist Lecture
Series and First-Year Seminar, biologist Kenneth Miller gave a
talk, “Debating Darwin’s God,” on the implications of introducing
intelligent design into the science curriculum. Miller is professor
of molecular biology, cell biology, and biochemistry at
Brown University, author of Finding Darwin’s God: The
Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and
Evolution, and coauthor of several high school and college biology
textbooks, some of which have been opposed by advocates of intelligent
design. Due to publication schedules, this article is based
not on Miller’s presentation at Bard, but on his recent lecture at
Case Western Reserve University.
We live in interesting times, when some of the basic tenets
of science are under systematic attack in our schools. As a
place to begin our discussion, we might choose the year 1999,
when the Kansas board of education deleted all mention of
evolution from the state’s science standards. About a year
later, the voters of Kansas corrected that mistake by voting
most of the board out of office and restoring an authentic science
curriculum. Then, in 2004, an antievolution majority
regained control of the board and resumed redrafting science
standards, with the overt purpose of undermining teaching of
the theory of evolution. This attack on evolution has since
spread to other school districts. It’s now a nationwide issue.
Why is evolution under attack? If you’re going to take
one thing out of the biology curriculum, why would it be evolution
and not cell biology, physiology, or organic chemistry?
Opponents of evolution will say that it’s because evolution is
shaky science, not sufficiently supported by evidence, but if
you go to the website of Answers in Genesis, the leading
antievolution organization in the United States, you’ll find
different reasons. Graphics on that website depict evolution
as the foundation of everything they regard as evil in society,
including lawlessness, homosexuality, pornography, and abortion.
If you regard evolution as the foundation of everything
wrong and evil in society, you’re going to oppose evolution
deeply, whether it’s right or not in the scientific sense. That’s
what is happening in the United States today.
14

About four years ago, the board of education in Cobb
County, Georgia, thought that the district’s new biology
textbook was so dangerous in the way it presents evolution
that it needed a special warning sticker that read:
“This textbook contains material on evolution.
Evolution is a theory, not a fact,
regarding the origin of living things. This
material should be approached with an
open mind, studied carefully, and critically
considered.”
As a coauthor of this textbook, I was asked by a reporter
for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “What do you think of
this sticker on your books?” Being in a bit of a flippant mood,
but wanting to make a deadly serious point, I said, “I think
the stickers are great. Just great. My only problem with them
is that they don’t go far enough.” Which, in a sense, is true.
Shouldn’t a warning apply to all textbooks? Why single
out evolution? A sticker on earth science books might point
out that a lot of people think that the earth can’t be four million
years old. A physics textbook sticker could point out
that gravity is a theory, not a fact.
Yes, evolution is a theory, not a fact. This may sound as
if we’re sure of facts and not so sure of theories, but “theory”
in science actually implies a higher level of understanding
than fact. Scientific theories explain facts and unite them. In
the same way that atomic theory unites hundreds of thousands
of experimental facts and observations, evolutionary
theory ties together a great mass of observation and experiment
on the origin of living species.
What bothers me the most about the wording of the
Cobb County sticker is that it implies that we are certain of
everything in that textbook except evolution and that you
don’t need an open mind to study biochemistry, ecology, or
cell biology. I’d rewrite that sticker like this:
“This textbook contains material on science.
Science is built around theories, which
are strongly supported by factual evidence.
Everything in science should be approached
with an open mind, studied carefully, and
critically considered.”
Six parents in Georgia recognized that these warning
stickers were an attempt to promote a religious point of view,
and they filed a federal lawsuit. The plaintiffs prevailed, and
the stickers were ordered removed.
This story didn’t end in Georgia. Next was Dover,
Pennsylvania, where the local board of education decided
that they would like to teach something called “intelligent
design” (ID). They ordered their biology teachers to prepare
an intelligent design curriculum. The teachers refused, citing
a provision of the Pennsylvania teachers’ code of ethics that
says that a teacher should never knowingly present false
information to a student. The board then ordered its superintendent
and assistant superintendent to go into classes and
read a one-minute statement about intelligent design. That
led a number of parents to complain and bring a federal lawsuit.
That lawsuit was tried in fall 2005, and I was the lead
witness for the plaintiffs.
Meanwhile, Dover voters ousted all members of that
board before the case even came to trial, which is a wonderful
testament to the fact that people can understand the
issues and make intelligent choices. Democracy works. The
legal system worked as well. In a sweeping verdict, Judge
John Jones ruled that teaching intelligent design, as science,
was unconstitutional. He not only ruled on the narrow issue
of whether teaching ID was appropriate, but also on the
broader issue of whether intelligent design is a legitimate scientific
idea that belongs in the classroom at all.
Judge Jones hardly fits the mold of a liberal activist judge.
He’s a Bush-appointed churchgoing Republican judge, a political
protégé of former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, and
he was supported for the bench by Senator Rick Santorum.
Jones is a judicial conservative, but a conservative who understands
the meaning of the Constitution.
Similar ID cases emerged in Ohio and Kansas. In Kansas,
the board of education held a series of sham hearings to which
many scientists, including myself, were invited. Three presiding
board members announced in advance that they were
against evolution. Following the hearings the board decided
that they would de-emphasize evolution and introduce socalled
“criticisms of evolution” to the curriculum. A more serious
threat followed. The state board of education rewrote the
definition of science itself, undermining not just biology
teaching, but all science disciplines in the curriculum.
Before it was rewritten, the definition of science in the
Kansas school standards was, “Science is the human activity
of seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the
world around us.” That’s pretty straightforward. The board
rewrote it as, “Science is a systematic method of continuing
16

investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement,
experimentation, logical argument, and theorybuilding
to lead to more adequate explanations of natural
phenomena.”
Why did they prefer “more adequate” to “natural” explanations
of natural phenomena? The board explained that it
wanted to get rid of the concept of methodological naturalism
that is used in physics and chemistry, because, they said,
Why is evolution under attack?
If you’re going to take one thing out of the biology curriculum,
why would it be evolution and not cell biology, physiology, or organic chemistry?
it limits inquiry and permissible explanations and promotes
the philosophy of naturalism. In short, they wanted to open
science up to nonnatural explanations. Think about that for
a second. What, exactly, is a nonnatural explanation? It can
only mean a supernatural explanation.
This idea was explored at the Dover trial. The court was
trying to ascertain where intelligent design would take science
teaching. Michael Behe, a proponent of intelligent
design who teaches biochemistry at Lehigh University, is a
leading advocate of what he calls “the biochemical challenge
to evolution.” Under oath, Behe admitted that his definition
of scientific theory was so broad that it would include astrology.
Under Behe’s definition, science would include not only
intelligent design but alchemy, phrenology, mysticism, and
maybe even pyramid power. Once you open science to intelligent
design, you also have to let in other pseudoscientific
beliefs. This came through loud and clear in the Dover case.
Despite the hopes of ID advocates, the Dover trial saw
the complete collapse of any suggestion that intelligent
design is a scientific theory. Intelligent design advocates, for
example, argued that the fossil record doesn’t support evolution
because it doesn’t have the necessary intermediate
forms. In fact, the National Academy of Sciences has said
that there are so many intermediate forms between species
that it’s often difficult to identify where the transition occurs
from one species to another. I asked my friend Christine
Janis, a paleontologist at Brown University, about this business
of transitional forms, and she said, “Are you kidding? I
just came back from a meeting where 11 or 12 new fossils
from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming were introduced,
and fistfights almost broke out among the scientists arguing
as to whether these fossils should be called mammal-like
reptiles or reptile-like mammals.” There are innumerable
intermediate and transitional forms in the fossil record.
For example, we’ve known for a long time that whales
and dolphins evolved from terrestrial mammals because there
are unmistakable markers in their genes and in their skeletons.
Critics of evolution used to ask, where are the intermediate
fossil forms? Then about 10 or 12 years ago skeletons of
exactly such creatures were found, including a remarkable
species now known as Ambulocetus natans, or “the walking
whale who swims.” We now have five intermediate forms that
fill this gap, all found in the last two decades.
Further evidence is even stronger. In this evolutionary
fossil series the middle ear would have completely changed
in the transition from land to water. A paper published a year
and a half ago in Nature shows exactly how the apparatus in
the middle ear evolved through a series of intermediate
forms, from an apparatus for hearing in the air to an intermediate
apparatus to an apparatus for hearing underwater.
The more complete the fossil record becomes, the more
powerful it is as evidence for evolution.
At the Dover trial, I and another witness testified on
whole-genome sequencing, which is virtually a map of how
species are related. We weren’t cross-examined at all, which
is extraordinary given that genome sequencing is some of the
most powerful evidence in support of evolution. Yet none of
our testimony was challenged.
For example, evolution maintains that we share a common
ancestor with the other great apes—which include the
chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orangutan—so there should
be genetic similarities between us and them. Genome
sequencing enables us to compare the human genome to the
chimpanzee’s, and those similarities are there. However, one
point might seem at first glance to contradict evolutionary
common ancestry: humans have two fewer chromosomes
than the other great apes. We have 46 (or 23 pairs), and they
all have 48 (or 24 pairs). The additional pair could not have
17

Kenneth Miller
gotten lost, because the loss of a complete primate chromosome
would be lethal. There are only two possibilities if we
share a common ancestor: that ancestor either had 24 chromosome
pairs or 23. Since most of the great apes have 24
pairs, that’s the most likely number for a common ancestor,
and it implies that a pair of chromosomes became fused in the
lineage leading to our species. That is a testable hypothesis.
Chromosomes have little markers called centromeres,
which are DNA sequences used to separate them during
mitosis, and they have DNA sequences, called telomeres, on
their ends. If two chromosomes were to become fused, the
fusion would put telomeres where they don’t belong, in the
center of the chromosome, and the resulting chromosome
would have two centromeres. One of those might be inactivated,
but it should still be there.
Well, guess what? It is there. It’s chromosome number
two, unique to humans. Our second chromosome emerged
as a result of head-to-head fusion of two chromosomes that
remain separate in other primates. As a 2005 paper in Nature
pointed out, the precise fusion site has been located.
How would intelligent design explain this? Well, it
can’t—unless it claims that a designer designed human chromosome
number two to look as though it was formed by the
fusion of chromosomes of a primate ancestor—in short, a
designer who was determined to fool us. That’s an odd
notion—one that is supported by neither science nor theology.
At Dover another of the central ideas of intelligent
design—irreducible complexity—fell apart. This is the concept
that some complicated biochemical structures, such as
the bacterial flagellum, couldn’t have been produced by evolution.
Behe says “an irreducibly complex system can’t be
produced the way that evolution works, by numerous successive
slight modifications of a precursor system, because any
precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a
part is by definition nonfunctional.” In other words, a complex,
multipart biochemical machine can’t be the result of
evolution because the individual parts have no function of
their own. Intelligent design’s poster child for this argument
is the bacterial flagellum. At Dover, Behe argued that the 30
or 40 proteins in a bacterial flagellum all have to be present
or there’s no function.
Is that the case? Well, let’s take the 10 proteins in the
base of the flagellum. In other bacteria, these 10 proteins
form a structure known as the type III secretory system,
which is fully functional. The system is a molecular syringe
with which some types of bacteria grab cells and inject toxic
proteins. The bacterium that causes bubonic plague works
this way. So the core statement of intelligent design, that
some organisms are irreducibly complex, is wrong. Analysis
of the flagellum shows a system that fully matches evolutionary
theory. The parts do have functions of their own.
Behe made similar arguments about the immune system,
in spite of the fact that recent research has shown
exactly how the gene-shuffling system in the immune system
evolved. On the stand Dr. Behe was presented with 58 peerreviewed
publications, nine books, and several immunology
textbook chapters about the evolution of the immune system.
He insisted that all of this wasn’t sufficient. He determinedly
ignored the empirical evidence.
At the Dover trial, intelligent design was exposed as a
religious doctrine masquerading as science. You may be thinking,
“But ID doesn’t even mention religion.” This is a part of
the Dover judge’s decision that bears close attention. The federal
legal test for actions of a government that might infringe
on the First Amendment is known as the Lemon test, formulated
by Chief Justice Warren Burger in Lemon v. Kurtzman.
The proposed statute must have a secular legislative purpose;
its principal effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion;
and the statute must not foster “an excessive government
entanglement with religion.” Judge Jones found that the
actions of the Dover board failed all three prongs of the test.
First, there was no legitimate secular purpose in teaching
intelligent design. As Judge Jones pointed out, introducing
intelligent design into the classroom would set up what
will be perceived by students as two sciences: a God-friendly
18

science that explicitly mentions an intelligent designer, and
another science, evolution, that takes no position. This false
duality would force students to choose God on the side of
intelligent design or to choose science on the side of evolution
and reject God. The judge wrote that introducing such
religious conflict into the classroom is very dangerous
because it forces students to choose between God and science,
not a choice that schools should be forcing on students.
An examination of the ID textbook, Of Pandas and
People, promoted by the Dover school board, showed the
intention of ID advocates to promote a religious agenda.
Lawyers subpoenaed an earlier draft of the text, and it was
largely identical to the later text except that the word “creator”
was changed to “designer” and “creation” to “intelligent
design.” A 1987 Supreme Court decision known as Edwards
v. Aguillard identified creationism as a religious doctrine,
and, within a month of that decision, the publisher changed
“creation” and “creator” to “intelligent design” and “designer.”
In his decision, Judge Jones observed that the definition
of “creation science” in these earlier books is identical to that
of “intelligent design.” He also wrote, “The citizens of Dover
were very poorly served by members of the board who voted
for ID policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals,
who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions
in public, would time and time again lie to cover their
tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID policy.”
Next, we go to Ohio. A lesson plan recently adopted by
the Ohio board of education gives the ID story an interesting
twist. The plan proposes teaching the intelligent design
controversy rather than teaching intelligent design itself.
That may sound neutral, but is it really any different from
the Dover approach? It is clearly a backdoor effort to sneak
ID into the classroom. Four out of five of the proposed Ohio
lesson plans come directly from Of Pandas and People, and
the fifth comes directly from Michael Behe’s book Darwin’s
Black Box, the sourcebooks for intelligent design. In his decision,
Judge Jones wrote something that applies directly to
Ohio: “This tactic is at best disingenuous and at worst a
canard. The goal of the intelligent design movement isn’t to
encourage critical thought, but to foment a revolution which
would supplant evolutionary theory with ID.”
Some say that the scientific community is biased against
intelligent design and is suppressing it. Exploring and
accepting novel scientific ideas is an important part of the
scientific process. We do it all the time. But the field
demands real research to back up claims, to submit them to
peer review, to engage in the give-and-take of scientific argument,
to win a scientific consensus. If enough evidence supports
an idea, that idea will find its way into classrooms and
textbooks. I’d like to see intelligent design advocates give
presentations at cell biology and earth science meetings,
argue their ideas, discuss their experiments, and present their
evidence. Instead, they prefer to bypass that process and
attempt to inject ID directly into classrooms, with the aid of
the political process. This is why they’ve concentrated their
efforts on public relations and political pressure, rather than
on research, peer review, and scientific consensus. You might
want to investigate how many scientific organizations
around the country have criticized these efforts. Americans
United for Separation of Church and State is a good place to
start. I encourage you to do some reading, make your own
decisions as to whether admitting intelligent design into the
curriculum is good for education.
What’s at stake in this? It isn’t whether students will learn
evolution or not. What’s at risk is far greater—whether a generation
of Americans grows up with a wedge driven between
it and science. What we have taken for granted during our
lifetime—that the United States is the world leader in scientific
research and technology—is at risk. If we put that mantle
down, a dozen nations around the world are eager to take
scientific leadership from us, and we will never get it back.
Resources and Further Reading
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
www.au.org
Answers in Genesis
www.answersingenesis.org
Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District
http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/
kitzmiller_342.pdf
Lemon v. Kurtzman
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.
pl?court=US&vol=403&invol=602
Selman v. Cobb County
http://files.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/cnn/
docs/religion/selmancobb11305ord.pdf
19

In 1978, when it began economic reforms, the People’s Republic of China accounted for less
than 1 percent of the world economy. By 2005, China accounted for 4 percent of the world
economy and its foreign trade had grown from $20.6 billion to $821 billion, the third-largest
national total. Last November, the Bard Program on Globalization and International Affairs
hosted a discussion on the political, strategic, and military repercussions of China’s economic
rise. Elizabeth C. Economy, C. V. Starr Senior Fellow and director for Asia Studies at the
Council on Foreign Relations, and Dan Blumenthal, Resident Fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, were the featured speakers.
Economy’s expertise includes Chinese domestic and foreign policy, U.S.-China relations,
and global environmental issues. She is the award-winning author of The River Runs
Black: The Environmental Challenges to China’s Future and editor of China Joins the
World: Progress and Prospects. Blumenthal previously served as senior director for China,
Taiwan, and Mongolia in the Office of International Security Affairs, Department of Defense.
A summary of their remarks follows.
THE RISE OF
CHINESE
POWER
with Elizabeth C. Economy
and Dan Blumenthal
20

ELIZABETH C. ECONOMY
Over the past 10 years there have been many theories about
China’s rise. We heard that it was going to be as disruptive
to the international system as was Nazi Germany or imperial
Japan. That it was going to disintegrate along the lines of the
former Soviet Union. That it was going to surpass the
United States, perhaps by 2020. And then we have what the
Chinese themselves say, which is that they are committed to
a peaceful rise. A recent Foreign Affairs article by a top
Chinese political adviser articulated this idea, stating that,
unlike Europe or even the United States, China will not colonize
other countries, will not go to war for resources, and
will not mix business with politics.
China’s approach to the outside world is “win-win”
cooperation. When President Hu Jintao or any member of
the Chinese elite goes abroad, which they do frequently, they
talk about “win-win” strategies and China as the rising tide
that will lift all boats. China also listens to the needs of other
countries. When Mexico expressed concern about the impact
of China’s might on its textile industry, Premier Wen Jiabao
sat down with President Vicente Fox and said, “Let’s form a
joint working committee to figure out how we can make a
win-win situation.”
A second part of China’s rise—and its strategy—is the
idea of not mixing business with politics. This is set forth as
a contrast to the way the United States does business. And
China has been an engine of growth for much of the world.
Mostly, its drive is for the natural resources needed to continue
to fuel its growth. More than 50 percent of China’s investment
is in extractive industries. It’s in Cuba for nickel, Brazil for
iron ore, Chile and Angola for copper, and Indonesia for natural
gas. Still, it has rejuvenated a number of what had been
moribund industries.
China has also become a powerful player in developing
the infrastructure of many of these economies. In their meetings
with international leaders, President Hu and Premier
Wen don’t simply promote Chinese industry, they bring a
whole package of low-interest loans and promises to help
build courts, railroads, power plants, and telecommunications
infrastructure.
And then there is simply the trade. Chinese trade with
the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries,
for example, increased from $54 billion in 2002 to more
than $100 billion by 2004. U.S. trade with the region—about
$136 billion—has remained flat for the past two years.
A third part of China’s strategy is that it engages not
only bilaterally, but regionally. One could understand this,
too, as an effort to keep the United States out. If regions
can address regional problems, you don’t need the United
States to intervene, whether in the Middle East, Africa, or
Southeast Asia.
The fourth aspect of China’s rise is as purveyor of soft
power. In Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa, China
is building hospitals and training local doctors and nurses. At
a university in Indonesia, where the United States had just
completed an English-language corner in the library, China
built its own language area—with twice as many donated
computers.
If you were to consider only what I have sketched out,
you might have a positive picture of China’s rise. Look beneath
the surface, however, and there are a number of challenges.
I was recently at a conference about China’s presence in
Africa. Despite the positive economic impact China has had
in the region, many African representatives were concerned
about exploitative practices. When it comes to extracting
resources, the Chinese are among the worst in the world on
safety, environmental, and health issues. In Peru, for instance,
a Chinese multinational company manages a mine where,
despite soaring profits, worker incomes have fallen, and there
has been an enormous increase in mining accidents.
Another concern is lack of transparency. At the conference,
a representative from Namibia said that, when his country
gets international loans, it is possible to track the assistance
through the national budget for every country, except China.
China has articulated a policy of not mixing business with
politics, but in no way is that the case. China supplies light
arms to President Mugabe in Zimbabwe, is deeply engaged in
the conflict in Sudan, and has undermined efforts to permit
greater transparency in Angola.
There is the possibility that China will overreach—as it
did when it promised to support Brazil’s bid for a seat on the
UN Security Council—and thereby undercut its positive trajectory.
Or there could be a domestic hiccup. We still don’t
know exactly what is going on in the Chinese economy, but
we do know that there were 74,000 protests last year in
China, including one in which 100,000 people protested
resettlement issues. So it is a relatively fragile regime, and we
can’t ignore the possibility that, for economic or political reasons,
the trajectory of Chinese economic growth and global
influence may veer off course.
21

A protest at the Babaoshan Cemetery, Beijing, during a visit by municipal
leaders attending the Qingming Festival
Japan, and South Korea, or responding to contingencies in
the Korean peninsula. Look at any map, and you’ll see the
challenge. The Pacific Ocean is huge. We rely heavily on
bases in Japan, but to get a lot of capability to places in this
area quickly, we also need to come from Guam and Hawaii
and California. And you see the Chinese investigating capabilities
like air defenses that can shoot down U.S. aircraft,
China has articulated a policy of not mixing business with politics,
but in no way is that the case. China supplies light arms to President Mugabe
in Zimbabwe, is deeply engaged in the conflict in Sudan, and has undermined efforts
to permit greater transparency in Angola.
DAN BLUMENTHAL
There is today a deep bipartisan anxiety about China. I’ll start
with a typically blunt quote from Donald Rumsfeld. “Since
no nation threatens China,” the secretary of defense recently
asked, “why this growing investment in military capabilities?
Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases?”
In testimony before Congress, Franklin Kramer, assistant secretary
of defense under President Clinton, said, “There’s no
question the Chinese military is a potential adversary of the
United States across the Taiwan Strait. Improvements in
antiship cruise missiles potentially challenge the U.S. Navy in
ways not seen since the end of the Cold War.” And a Rand
Corporation report estimated that, over the past six years,
Chinese spending on defense has doubled—and probably is
70 percent higher than what China says it is spending.
I believe Washington’s anxiety stems from three things—
and a lot of it is justified. The first thing is transparency, the
gap between what China says it’s doing and what it is actually
doing. Another thing is the destructive history of rising powers.
And the third thing has to do with U.S. strategy itself.
Let’s consider the perception gap. If you talk to any
Chinese official about military issues, you’ll hear, “Americans
are overstating the China threat. We’re not spending that
much, and you spend so much more.” If you press a little,
they’ll say, “Well, we do have to deter Taiwan’s independence,
so the 700 missiles that we’re deploying are to deter
that.” If you press a bit more, they’ll say, “Japan is troublesome,
too. Obviously, we have to defend ourselves against
these nationalistic Japanese.” The party line only compounds
anxiety in Washington, because what is really going on, as far
as we can piece together, is an ambitious program of military
modernization.
Particularly worrisome are capabilities the U.S. military
calls “antiaccess.” They are aimed at preventing the United
States from meeting its defense commitments to Taiwan,
diesel submarines that can make it very complicated for U.S.
carrier battle groups to get into the region, and information
operations. You see Chinese investment in antisatellite
weaponry and ballistic missiles that could target U.S. bases in
Japan. As a trump card, you have investment in intercontinental
ballistic missiles and a nuclear force that could deter
the United States from coming into the region to begin with.
The focus of a lot of this is Taiwan. Chinese planners want
American decision makers to wonder: Are you really going to
risk a carrier for Taiwan? Are you going to risk the alliance with
22

Japan for these troublemakers in Taiwan? China is trying to
raise the cost to the United States of meeting its commitments.
Some might say, “If it buys us peace with China, let them
have Taiwan.” But this would be a moral as well as a strategic
mistake—our alliance with Japan would probably end the next
day. [Last year the United States and Japan declared in a joint
agreement that Taiwan was a mutual security concern.] And
Rising powers tend to want to rearrange things.
The question is whether China wants to rearrange things or
become an international stakeholder in the system as is.
consider this: after spending a decade building its military
forces, would China really draw down its military and go back
to focusing on social needs? The history of other powers
shows that it’s highly unlikely.
You’re also seeing China’s military increasingly push out
past its borders. In the past couple of years, there have been
a number of naval incursions into the Sea of Japan. Chinese
aircraft have done flybys over Japanese territory. They’ve
done surveillance around our facilities in Guam.
Beyond this “we’re a power and we’re going to test our
limits” kind of thing is energy security. It’s clear that China
is not satisfied with the current energy security arrangement,
in which the United States patrols the sea-lanes and provides
security to the Persian Gulf. Japan and South Korea are satisfied
with the current energy security. Why isn’t China?
China now gets more than 50 percent of its energy needs
from the Middle East. It comes in tankers through the Indian
Ocean, and that’s a big vulnerability. The Chinese are afraid
they will do something in the Asia Pacific region—with
“Peace Mission 2005,” a joint military exercise with Russian troops
Taiwan or Japan—that will cause the United States to hold
their oil at risk. One way they’re hedging against this is by
forming relationships with countries like Iran. They’re also
developing a “string of pearls” strategy around the Indian
Ocean. They have made heavy investments in infrastructure,
rail, and naval facilities in Pakistan, Cambodia, and Burma
[Myanmar]. China’s idea is to give itself an option to transport
oil by land. Over time, the Chinese hope to develop a
military capability that would give them the option to say to
the United States, “If you hold our tankers at risk, we’ll hold
your tankers at risk.”
Then you have the history of destabilizing rises in
power. There haven’t been many happy endings in these situations,
especially with authoritarian regimes. People often
cite Japan and Germany as examples, but even the United
States was a prickly power as it was rising. Rising powers
tend to want to rearrange things. The question is whether
China wants to rearrange things or become an international
stakeholder in the system as is.
The third reason for anxiety is American strategy. We
have been the guarantor of security in Asia since World War
II, and it’s worked out pretty well for us and for a lot of countries
in the region.There is a bipartisan consensus that America
needs to maintain its security primacy. When somebody is rising
to challenge that primacy, anxiety is to be expected.
Look around the region. Despite the positive aspects of
Chinese growth, people in Asia are throwing money into
defense, very much with China on their minds. You will also
see that the United States is shoring up its alliances. We don’t
say we’re out there counterbalancing China, but it’s quite
obvious that once you shore up your alliances with Japan, you
shore up your alliances with Singapore and Australia. You
form a new partnership with India or Vietnam, and people
are pretty aware of what you’re doing—and why.
A clash is not inevitable. I think an accommodation
will be worked out. But for that to happen, it is important
for the Chinese government to liberalize and become more
transparent.
23

Smolny College at Bobrinskiy Palace
By Judson Levin ’52
You feel a heavy presence of history as you walk the two very
long blocks that make up Galernaya Street in St. Petersburg,
past myriad buildings—some being renovated, some run-down
but holding their contours after more than two centuries—to
Bobrinskiy Palace. My little Pocket Atlas, with its often-obsolete
maps of trolley, trolleybus, and bus routes in St. Petersburg,
shows
where Galernaya
comes to a dead end at the New Admiralty Canal. Bobrinskiy
Palace is about as far from the east bank of the Neva as
Blithewood mansion is from the east bank of the Hudson.
On the canal side, for most of the block between Galernaya
and the street called Admiralty Canal Embankment, a monumental
stone wall with a balustrade and busts of famous
Romans protects the enclosed 8,524 square meters of palace
and a capacious park. Walk another block north to the English
Embankment, look right (toward Lieutenant Schmidt
Bridge) and across the Neva (toward Menshikov Palace and
the Palace Bridge), and you enjoy one of the great cityscapes
of the world. A short walk in the other direction brings you
to the celebrated Mariinskiy Theater, where some of the
world’s best ballet and music is performed.
If the funding for restoration of Bobrinskiy Palace continues,
if winters are not too severe for construction work, and
if she can continue to navigate past the KGIOP (the local
landmarks commission), Natalia Nikulina, associate director
for finances and administration of Smolny College, will soon
present the school with its own permanent campus. Smolny,
a joint enterprise of Bard College and Saint Petersburg State
University, is Russia’s first liberal arts college. Graduates earn
two B.A. degrees simultaneously, from Bard and from Saint
Petersburg. With the physical features of an American campus
appropriate for a liberal arts education, Smolny College
will be a new step for Saint Petersburg State University and
for Russia. Last autumn, on my third trip to Russia, I had the
privilege of seeing this exciting architectural work in
progress.

Bobrinskiy Palace is within walking distance of the
Hermitage, Nevsky Prospekt, and Saint Petersburg State
University. The palace complex, which incorporates a separate
structure that was originally a freestanding house, consists of
a main building and three wings, two on the east side and
one on the west. The addition, long ago, of the wings raised
Bobrinskiy’s status from mansion to palace.
An early owner was A. B. Khrapovitskiy, secretary to
Catherine the Great (1729–96). In 1762 a building consisting
of 10 rooms stood on the site. In 1798, by decree of Empress
Maria Fyodorovna, the estate passed to Aleksei Grigorievich
Bobrinskiy, the son of Catherine the Great and Count G. G.
Orlov. Emperor Paul I, a half brother of Bobrinskiy, elevated
him to the rank of count. In the 1820s and 1830s, the countess
Bobrinskiy hosted one of the best-known salons in St.
Petersburg; among frequent visitors were Pushkin and
Emperor Nicholas.
When Ellie, my wife, and I informed friends of our plans
for a week in St. Petersburg, my classmate Kit Ellenbogen ’52
mentioned Smolny in an e-mail. I soon learned that Smolny,
founded in 1999, will move into Bobrinskiy Palace, once renovation
is completed. A palace! Where was it? Could we see
it? Cordial e-mails from Susan Gillespie, director of the
Institute for International Liberal Education (IILE) at Bard,
followed with an invitation to enter the palace.
Natalia Nikulina met Ellie and me in the rubble-filled
courtyard at Bobrinskiy. Nikulina’s knowledge is clearly more
than financial. She is conversant with the palace’s original,
restored, and added appointments. Accompanied by Gillespie
and Laura Greene ’02, the Russian-speaking Bard College
representative to Smolny, we walked past the four-columned
Ionic portico, topped with statues of the four elements of the
universe, and into the palace.
A large entrance chamber occupies much of the ground
floor, beneath a huge, ornate domed ceiling. We walked up an
exquisite, curved formal stairway to the first story (second
story to Americans), where we stood on magnificent, original
parquet floors. Here will be classrooms, a library, theater, concert
hall, fine arts gallery, and dance studio. Parts of doors and
walls in several chambers are richly gilded, and several wall
areas are covered with opulent woven fabric. A large round
room at the southwest corner of the palace, where cherubs
holding musical instruments embellish a domed ceiling, will
be the Andrei Gagarin Center for Human Rights.
Numerous classrooms and offices were under construction
in the wings. In one of them, the existing television connection
will continue to allow students at Bard to take courses
together with their peers at Smolny, and vice versa.
The view of the palace from the large enclosed park
behind it is said to be exceptional. It was difficult to see the
entire rear façade because of tall trees in gloriously yellow leaf.
At the corner of the park near the New Admiralty Canal
stands a small, octagonal two-story structure, reminiscent of
the Ottaway Gatehouse at Bard, which is home to the IILE
offices. From the upper story is a priceless view of the
Admiralty Canal, the 18th-century New Holland monument,
and the Moika River.
I foresee an inaugural celebration when the work at
Bobrinskiy Palace is complete. I would like to be there. I
would like to stroll past the trees in the park, go up to the first
story of that small octagonal building, take in the view of the
Moika as it disappears behind New Holland, and share in the
excitement of what this campus makes possible. As Susan
Gillespie wrote in Liberal Education (Winter 2003), “We are
only beginning to understand what happens in the intercultural
educational spaces we are creating.”
Judson Levin learned Russian in the U.S. Army and translated
intercepted Russian military documents. He left the Army
Reserve with the rank of captain. After practicing law in
Michigan and New Jersey, he began to write plays and act in
community theater. His old interest in Russia was revived when
he acted the part of Sorin in The Seagull. He and his wife,
Elinor, live in Manhattan.
25

The Continuing Process
of Learning How to Learn
TheSeniorProject
Cassio de Oliveira came to Bard College from Brazil and
was beguiled by Russia. Amelia Clune tried to right wrongs
she saw in her hometown police department. Jonathan
Helfgott spent an internship with the United Steelworkers
of America, an experience that influenced his Senior Project
research. Zarni Htun translated the cultural alienation she
experienced as a child from Myanmar (Burma), who lived in
various countries, into examinations of literature. While
applying to medical schools, Peter Milano worked to synthesize
and characterize a series of novel platinum complexes.
Prudence Munkittrick studied in Senegal and wrote about
the role of Mauritania in the war on terror.
These are just a few examples of the hundreds of ways
Bard students transform themselves in the process of planning,
and then completing, their Senior Projects. In pursuit of
this astounding range of interests and topics, these and myriad
other Bard students in the Class of 2006 share the experience
of tackling a huge assignment that requires organization,
patience, critical thinking, and a variety of other skills they
may not have honed previously. Add to that the pressure of
knowing that the project turns the key to graduation, and
you’ve got the recipe for an intense learning process.
Senior Project was born from ideas expressed in a 1934
tract, Educational Program for Bard College, by Donald George
Tewksbury, dean of the college from 1933 to 1937. One of
the principles Tewksbury set forth was that “college education,
following the lines of expanding interest and changing
purpose, should culminate in a broad cultural outlook” and,
therefore, students should undertake “a final demonstration”
at the end of four years. That final demonstration became the
Senior Project.
De Oliveira came to Bard as a sophomore in 2003,
planning to study film. In the summer of 2004, he spent five
weeks in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he was part of a group
that put on a play, Petersburg Impressions, at Smolny College.
The experience turned his focus toward Russian, which
became his concentration. He found himself drawn to the
“uniqueness of Russian art and the country itself ” and,
through that interest, discovered parallels to his native
Brazil. Both Russia and Brazil, he says, “are influenced by
European standards, yet at the same time both countries
have another power from nature itself. Huge contrasts exist
between the countryside and the cities.” Upon returning to
Bard, de Oliveira studied with Jennifer Day, assistant professor
of Russian, who became his project adviser.
In his Senior Project, “Zamyatin’s We: Enlightenment and
Dystopia in Saint Petersburg,” de Oliveira wrote about the juxtaposition,
in Evgeny Zamyatin’s 1921 novel, of freedom and
the restrictions imposed by the state. Though the dystopian
metropolis described in the novel is not named, de Oliveira
makes a convincing case for its being St. Petersburg, and,
according to Day, identifies “implications of such a reading for
the Petersburg tradition in literature.” She continues, “Cassio
has opened a substantially new avenue in St. Petersburg studies;
his is the first long work I know of that deals with Zamyatin’s
city as Petersburg.” Adds de Oliveira, “My approach was to
focus on Petersburg as a place that influences the relationship
between the individual and ideology. . . . But the end was different
from what I expected.” Initially, he had anticipated that
his conclusion would be “something more related to dystopia
and utopia.” His conclusion turned out to be that writing is
itself a subversive action, “a manifestation of one’s freedom.”
27

Perhaps that productive uncertainty, or fluidity, is as it
should be in the creation of a Senior Project. Notes Dorothy
Crane, writing consultant in the Academic Resources Center,
“One of the things that makes the Senior Project different
from all the other papers done here at Bard is that you have
to start it without a narrowed focus or well-defined argument.
At the beginning, you don’t know where you’re going
or where you’ll end up. How do you know when to stop reading
and start writing? It’s not a very comfortable place.”
Such was Clune’s experience when she began writing
about the police department in the New Hampshire city
where she grew up. “At first I was going to start with a time
line of policy trends in policing, nationally, post–World War
II,” recalls Clune, who concentrated in political studies. “It was
just too much. But even though I abandoned it, it was really
useful, because I then organized my categorized sections from
it.” She began with the premise that “I live in a police state
in New Hampshire; ‘Live free or die’ [the state’s motto] is
an irony, really.” Her critique of community policing was
based on historical and demographic research and interviews
of local police officers, the chief of police, teenagers who had
been harassed by cops, and parents of those teenagers. “Amelia
started her Senior Project [‘Policing a Small New England
Town in a Big City Way:The Dismantling of the Community’]
with a strong perspective about the role of police in her town,”
says Mark Lindeman, assistant professor of political studies
and Clune’s project adviser. “One virtue of her research was
that she was open to learning things that didn’t fit into her
initial ideas. She moved from a relatively stark critique to a
much more nuanced view of how and why police practices had
changed in her town and around the country. She remains
very critical of the police, but the critique is more compelling
because it is more fully informed.”
Helfgott—who has won a prestigious Watson Fellowship
for postgraduation research (see page 54)—found the transition
from working with the United Steelworkers union to
writing about 19th-century revolutionary Thomas Skidmore
quite natural. With the Steelworkers, Helfgott helped create a
tracking and outreach program for laid-off union members. “I
was interested in labor history, and both my internship and my
project involved that interest in organized labor,” Helfgott
says. He returned to Bard to research Skidmore, who spearheaded
a movement to bring about radical working-class
reform in New York State starting in 1829. “There was very
little written about Skidmore, the central figure of this movement,”
Helfgott says.
Helfgott’s double concentration in political studies and
historical studies was reflected in his examination of Skidmore’s
political thought. Of the project, “Thomas Skidmore and the
New York City Working Men’s Movement, 1829–1830,” Myra
Young Armstead, professor of history and Helfgott’s adviser,
says, “Jon’s analysis involved an ambitiously thorough reading
of all primary materials and secondary materials on Skidmore.
Jon provided a sketch of a quirky, maverick thinker who was
brilliant, visionary, yet ultimately unpragmatic, in his conceptions
of egalitarianism and its connections to the founding
principles of American republicanism. On top of this, Jon
delivered his findings in lucid, fluid, and well-organized
prose.” Not surprising from a student who also cofounded
Bard’s debate team.
Htun’s literature project, “Estrangement, Redemption, and
Love: The Space of Home,” deals with internal and external
exile, homelessness, and alienation. Htun focused on stories by
Dostoevsky and E. T. A. Hoffman, novels by Milan Kundera
and Zadie Smith, and the theories of Freud, John Berger, Jessica
Benjamin, Eva Hoffman, Peter Brook, and André Aciman.
That’s a lot of citation. “The length of the project was a
hurdle,” Htun admits. “I had to divide it into three different
documents and then weave it all together. I also had to leave
out a lot, or I would have been here an extra semester.”
Deirdre d’Albertis, associate dean of the college, associate
professor of English, and Htun’s adviser, says that Htun,
by discussing two authors rarely discussed in tandem
(Kundera and Smith), ended up connecting “two very different
traditions of ‘homelessness,’ which also allowed her to
think through her own relation to ideas of home, as both the
place one comes from and the nation/state with which one
may or may not identify oneself.”
With a concentration in chemistry and the goal of becoming
a physician, Milano spent the summer after his junior year
volunteering in the laboratory of an orthopedic oncologist at
Cedars Medical Center in Miami, Florida, his hometown. He
spent the summer after his sophomore year performing synthetic
organic chemistry research at the University of Arkansas,
through a National Science Foundation grant. He was accepted
at several medical schools by the middle of his senior year;
he has decided to attend the University of Florida College of
Medicine.
Of the process of conducting his Senior Project, “Synthesis
and characterization of iminic and heterocyclic ligands and their
mono- and di-orthometallated platinum(II) complexes,” Milano
says, “Even though I had been involved in research in the
28

Cassio de Oliveira, Amelia Clune, Jonathan Helfgott, Zarni Htun, Peter Milano, Prudence Munkittrick
sciences before my senior year, Bard’s Senior Project was the
first time the direction of my research was guided purely by
my own interests and goals—it’s a very valuable and enjoyable
experience.”
What animates Munkittrick is her love of Africa. The
Middletown, Connecticut, native got hooked when she traveled
to Ghana during high school, then took a class at Bard
on African history. After spending her junior year studying
in Senegal, she forged a connection with an underground
Mauritanian refugee organization (an unknown number of
Mauritanian refugees have been living in Senegal since the
two countries clashed in 1989). She intended her project to
focus on the plight of the refugees, but that changed when
she learned that Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya—who led
a bloodless coup in Mauritania in 1981 and was elected that
country’s president despite protests of election fraud in
1992—had close ties to Saddam Hussein. Nevertheless, Taya
professed democracy and established diplomatic relations
with Israel. “The United States offered Mauritania not only
economic but military aid,” says Munkittrick, who graduated
from the Human Rights Program. “Africa has never been a
high priority for U.S. strategists, but since the start of the war
on terror, interest has skyrocketed.” She had to restructure
her project somewhat after Taya was overthrown in August
2005, but she found her underlying thesis was intact: “We
[the United States] are looking to make Mauritania the basis
for our West African military operations.”
Her project adviser, Caleb Carr, visiting professor of history
in the fall of 2005, says Munkittrick “did not allow herself
to put ideas before the facts, which gave her an extraordinary
capacity to see what she needed to do.” Munkittrick’s work, he
says, displayed “an air of authority,” which it received from her
interviews of Africa experts at the Pentagon—with whom Carr
had put her in touch.
“I love the idea of a Senior Project, because it really allows
you to become fully invested in a subject,” Munkittrick says.
“During my studies at Bard, we were encouraged to learn about
lots of things. To cap that, it’s important to delve deeply into
one subject, hopefully something you’re really passionate about.
Senior Project sets Bard apart from a lot of other places.”
Lindeman has thoughts about the “cap” concept. “I
encourage students to think of the Senior Project as a platform
for further work, not a magnum opus in which they say
everything there is to be said. . . . Ambitious projects should
raise as least as many questions as they answer. We want students
not only to learn facts and form opinions, but to grasp
the limits of their present understanding—to go forth as
curious, passionate skeptics.”
Adds Celia Bland, dean of studies and director of the
Academic Resources Center,“I often think that Senior Projects
test far more than the student’s knowledge. Projects—whether
they’re critical inquiries, novels, theater pieces, films, or biology
experiments—require planning, fortitude, intensive research,
inspiration, and extensive revision. And that’s not all. The
Senior Project Board, in which the students are asked to
defend their thesis and their methods and their results, is
perhaps as valuable a learning experience as any other they’ve
had at Bard. I often sit on boards, and I’m amazed by how
well spoken the students are; the way they can parry questions
with confidence. If anything sets our students apart from
those at other colleges, it’s the project, which instills in each of
them the confidence of having truly learned to communicate
in a new vocabulary, the language of their field of interest.”
—Cynthia Werthamer
29

ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SIXTH
COMMENCEMENT

Speaking truth—and incorporating it into one’s life and
work—was the theme that emerged from Bard’s 146th
Commencement on May 20, and it shone through despite the
cold and windy weather in which the 441 graduates walked.
During Commencement ceremonies, honorary degrees
were awarded to Frances D. Fergusson, architectural historian
and president of Vassar College; Nancy Folbre, economist,
author, and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship;
Lukas Foss, composer, pianist, educator, and conductor;
David Hillel Gelernter, professor of computer science at
Yale University and pioneer in the field of parallel computing;
Mark Morris, choreographer and dancer; and Bryan A.
Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama.

EXCERPTS FROM BRYAN A. STEVENSON’S ADDRESS
I’m extremely honored to be invited to speak to you, to be
invited to share this moment with you. Graduation really is a
life-changing experience. Every day we work on creating identities
for ourselves. . . .And our identities are important, because
when we create an identity that has meaning, that has value, we
get to say things to other people, and, after today, whenever you
say anything you’ll be saying it as a college graduate. . . . To
employers, to graduate schools, to a whole host of institutions,
that’s very, very meaningful, and so this is exciting. I hope most
of you are sharing this excitement with your families, because
family is absolutely crucial in creating the understanding of
what identity can really become. And, as Bard graduates, you
should appreciate that your identities and the things you say
are going to have special meaning. Because in a Bard graduate,
we expect people who are prepared to be provocative,
who are prepared to challenge things that concern us, who are
prepared to stand up when everyone else is sitting down. . . .
What I came here to share with you is that we all have the
power to say something. And, what I hope you’ll do is to say
something that you believe. As Bard graduates, you’ve got lots
of ideas in your mind about how to change the world, how to
think critically about a whole host of issues. . . . But what I
came here this afternoon to share with you is that those ideas
in your mind are not enough.To actually say things that change

Nancy Folbre, Doctor of Humane Letters
Bryan A. Stevenson, Commencement speaker, Doctor of Laws
the world, those ideas in your mind have to be fueled by some
conviction in your heart. . . .
But, know this: there is this incredible resonance in creating
community with people who are compassionate, in creating
community with people who are looking for hope, in
creating community with people who are looking past difference
and bigotry and discrimination. I believe we have to judge
our society not by how we treat the rich and the privileged and
the favored and the empowered. We judge the civility and the
quality of our society by how we treat the poor, the condemned,
the imprisoned. . . .
Well, more than anything, I’ve come to Bard College to
tell those of you who have not only ideas in your mind but conviction
in your heart—who want to say things that can make
the world a better place, who are prepared to go someplace and
say, “I’m here”—that I’m proud of you, and keep your eyes on
the prize, and hold on.
Lukas Foss, Doctor of Fine Arts
David H. Gelernter, Doctor of Science
Editor’s Note: Bryan A. Stevenson is founder and executive
director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama. Stevenson, who
received an honorary doctor of laws degree, was not much older
than the graduating Bardians when a defining experience set him
on his life’s path. While attending Harvard Law School, he spent a
month helping to represent prisoners on death row in Atlanta.That
apprenticeship led to his current work: overturning or reducing
wrongful capital sentences, fighting racial bias in the U.S. criminal
justice system, and speaking out on issues of poverty and injustice.
Frances D. Fergusson, Doctor of Humane Letters
Mark Morris, Doctor of Fine Arts
33

THE PRESIDENT’S CHARGE
In 1959, nearly 50 years ago, the philosopher Hannah Arendt—
whose centenary we celebrate this year, and who is buried just
over that hill in the Bard Cemetery, next to her husband,
Heinrich Bluecher (a legendary member of Bard’s faculty two
generations ago)— was awarded the Lessing Prize of the City
of Hamburg, given in honor of [Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]
the great writer and thinker, a symbol of enlightenment and
tolerance, the author of Nathan the Wise, and a friend of Moses
Mendelssohn.
Arendt titled her acceptance speech “On Humanity in
Dark Times.” Her question was, how might we prevent the
idea of humanity from being reduced to an empty phrase or a
phantom? That question, still unanswered, remains the central
question of our time. The idea of humanity—an abiding sense
of a common history and destiny shared throughout the world
despite all differences—could lead us to deflect hatred; resist
neglect and callousness; and shun violence, torture, and massacre.
But humanity, or humanism—words both familiar and
frequently invoked—have proven to be either empty phrases
or phantoms, whether one looks to Darfur and Rwanda; the
34

Balkans; the war in Iraq; our domestic failures, including the
response to Katrina, the state of public education and our
immigration policy; or whether one chooses to cast a spotlight
elsewhere, on the Iranian government or the Russia of
Vladimir Putin. We must, therefore, consider again, as did
Arendt, what might rescue the idea of humanity in these
times, darker than those Arendt herself experienced.
Modern history has not been without its alluring and
brief moments of light and optimism—after World War I,
with the creation of the League of Nations; after World War
II, at the founding of the United Nations, and in the lifetime
of this graduating class when, a decade and a half ago, the
Soviet empire fell. At these crossroads a sense of triumph
and the memory of suffering combined to create a moment
of hope and opportunity. The unspeakable and unbearable
pain inflicted inspired a resolve to make progress in ethics
and politics. But just as the hope generated by our annual
calls to a renewed idealism, at these and other commencement
ceremonies, fades quickly—just as the spirit of neighborly
love we routinely express in the 48 hours surrounding
Christmas Day evaporates, leaving no lasting mark whatsoever
on how we live our lives—these opportunities for
progress passed without progress. We forget the horrors
quickly and become absorbed with the everyday. Our failure,
however, seems ever more dissonant when placed alongside
the rapid advances we experience in the extension of literacy,
in the understanding of science and our instruments of communication
and technology. The worse it gets, the more cruel
are the fictions we invent, such as the notion that we are part
of that ugly and misleading metaphor, the so-called “global
village” on the so-called “flat earth.”
What can dispel the darkness that surrounds humanity?
What paths can we build that could realistically lead us to
work in harmony to preserve the earth for future generations,
prevent war and cruelty, and reduce disease and poverty?
First and foremost we must, as Arendt argued in 1959,
become clear as to how we understand truth and lay claim to
it. If the truths we hold dear become separated from our
sense of the human and impervious to argument, final,
immune from skepticism and criticism, absolute, resistant to
disagreement and doubt, then they become high-minded
justifications for distancing ourselves from—if not destroying—human
beings who do not agree. But if we understand
all truth, from science to religion, as human, as contingent on
35

human language and susceptible, if not to revision, then to
augmentation through the human conduct of inquiry and
speech, we have a chance. When principles governing our
public lives become slogans that invoke uncontested truths
whose evidence and premises are shielded from us, either by
an appeal to higher authority or by mysticism and secrecy,
they become pretexts for evil. Truth is emptied of its essential
human and necessarily incomplete character, justifying
the inhumane.
Second, we must not retreat into the false security and
insularity of intimacy. Each of you today has acquired good
friends here at Bard. We see how you are gathered together
surrounded by families. But if we construe friendship and
family as exceptional, separate, and exclusive, we become satisfied
with the private worlds we construct. Our capacity for
intimacy, our ability to love someone and be a friend, do not
lead spontaneously to a more humane world. The loving parent
has been a mass murderer, just as the good spouse, the
lover of animals, has collaborated actively with tyranny. The
flip side of intimacy concerns not how we give it, but how we
withhold it. As Lessing himself demonstrated in the conduct
of his life, no disagreement, about any religious
belief or claim to truth—the linguistic abstractions
that formulate the principles of zealots—can be
justified as preventing friendship or breaking
friendship or as seemingly impersonal objective
grounds for casting someone into the role of a
mortal enemy.
This is not a plea for pacifism or relativism,
or a call to restraint of the right to self-defense,
but a demand for a human politics. Our political
life must assume that there is no ideological basis,
no human-made argument in language, for denying
the objective common character of the
human nature we all share. Our commonality justifies
the right to freedom and underlies our capacity for
friendship; it rests in the now eloquently and well understood
overwhelming preponderance of a universal genetic
inheritance. The separate identities we cherish may emerge
from our intimate lives. They may be cast in the form of
seemingly innocent categories of nation, ethnicity, gender,
sexual preference, or religious persuasion. They are the private
prejudices that define personal happiness. But they cannot
be extended as a basis of politics or surrogate for politics.
The accumulation of private pleasures alone has not created
a peaceful, harmonious world. Private virtue is no substitute
for the hard task of forging civil virtue and acting on behalf
of the public good alongside those who disagree and seem
different. Politics and the public realm, not private lives, will
dispel the darkness that surrounds us.
Third and last, we must cultivate a love of beauty. It is
in the arena of aesthetics that we have been best at reconciling
an allegiance to truth, to what we cherish, with the
recognition that there are legitimate claims by others about
beauty that we will never share. In no arena of the aesthetic
is the devotion to beauty more important than in the use of
language. An attachment to language as the source of our
thoughts—to its unique beauty of clarity and eloquence—
can generate a resistance to ugliness. That ugliness assumes
the shape of jargon, obfuscations, lies, and sheer nonsense
most audible in journalism. Becoming critical about the ways
in which we can use language inspires humility and restraint
in using words to divide human beings from one another.
So to this fine and distinguished Class of 2006 I place
this charge, on behalf of the faculty of this College, to use
what you have learned here to continue to refine your allegiance
to the truth, by speaking the truth without losing the
sense of how truth is always human, defined by humans, and
36

spoken by humans. Truth, therefore, can never be used
against our fellow human beings. You must pursue that lifelong
engagement with thought as action alongside others in
the open arena of politics. Do not retreat into the personal
alone, for that refuge permits public violence. Since the key
instrument of politics is language, be self-critical about what
you say. Make sure that you say what you mean and mean
what you say. Struggle with language’s power and limits. The
cruel paradox located in this admonition is that nothing
seems so simple, but is actually so daunting, as using language
to communicate. Language is heralded for its supposed
power to make oneself understood but it is, after all,
through language that misunderstanding and enmity thrive.
Cultivate, therefore, your sense of the beautiful. It will inspire
a love of clarity and refined simplicity, a love of the earth, the
wonders of nature, and the sanctity of all who speak. The
beautiful and the sublime are their unpredictable creations,
from the imagination that resides in every one of us.
These are obligations that derive from your Bard education.
If you act to encourage, as Lessing put it, each human
being to say what he or she deems the truth, you will sustain
a human dialogue, help chart a future history of humanity,
sustain the hope of its renewal, and deny any apocalyptic
vision of the redemptive end to a flawed humanity.
Congratulations to you all.
37

The President’s Dinner
THE PRESIDENT’S DINNER
Good company and lively conversation marked the 2006
President’s Dinner. Six honorees were feted.
Stanley A. Reichel ’65 received the Bard Medal, the
Bard–St. Stephen’s Alumni/ae Association’s highest award, for
his outstanding service to the College. He has been active in
alumni/ae affairs for many years and has served on Bard’s
Board of Trustees since 1991. He and his wife, Elaine, have
endowed the Stanley and Elaine Reichel Science Scholarship
and the Stanley and Elaine Reichel Fund for the Future of
Science at Bard. They have also contributed generously to
numerous on-campus capital projects. Stanley Reichel is president
of Banner Chemical Corporation and director of the
Foundation for Diabetes Research, Livingston, New Jersey.
The John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and
Science went to Albert R. Matlin ’77. He is chair of the
Chemistry Department at Oberlin College and, in addition
to his teaching duties, actively continues his research.
Roy L. Herrmann ’76 received the John Dewey Award
for Distinguished Public Service for his work as an official for
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This
work has taken him to Africa, Asia, and Central America.
Christopher Guest ’70 accepted the Charles Flint Kellogg
Award in Arts and Letters. Guest, a satirist and actor, has
appeared in This is Spinal Tap and Mrs. Henderson Presents and
on Saturday Night Live. He is cowriter and director of Waiting
for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and several other
“mockumentaries.” Guest approached his acceptance speech
with his characteristic wit and self-deprecation, asking the
audience to imagine a young man arriving at Bard in the fall
of 1966, eager to learn, and ready to soak up knowledge. After
a well-timed pause, Guest quipped, “That wasn’t me.”
Upon receiving the Mary McCarthy Award, noted author
Joan Didion personally acknowledged McCarthy’s “great
influence” and stature as writer and teacher. Didion’s own
stature is equally significant. New York Times critic Michiko
Kakutani has referred to her four-decade contribution to letters
as the work of a “prescient witness.” Didion has also received an
honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the College.
This year’s recipient of the Bardian Award was
Elizabeth “Betty” Shea, who was honored for more than 50
years of dedication and loyalty to the College, as organizer
and manager of the campus’s Central Services.
38

Stanley A. Reichel ’65 (left), Bard Medal, is congratulated by President
Botstein
Joan Didion, Mary McCarthy Award
Albert R. Matlin ’77, John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science,
with daughter Anastasia
Elizabeth “Betty” Shea, Bardian Award, accompanied by Stuart
Stritzler-Levine (left) and Patrick Jones, her nephew
Roy L. Herrmann ’76, John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service
Four Bard Medal recipients from the class of 1965 (left to right): Stanley
A. Reichel, 2006; Cynthia Hirsch Levy, 1998; Michael DeWitt, 2002;
Elizabeth Ely, 1990
39

B O O K S B Y B A R D I A N S
The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition
by Roger Berkowitz
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
“Justice has fled our world,” Roger Berkowitz’s book begins. “We have not noticed, however,
because law has taken its place.” He argues that true justice requires involvement in an ethical
community; but it has been replaced by “positive law,” an idea drawn from Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz’s scientific metaphysics, which led to the move to codify the legal system. Berkowitz is
visiting assistant professor of political studies and human rights.
True-Born Maroons
by Kenneth M. Bilby ’76
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA
More than two centuries ago, several hundred African slaves in Jamaica formed militias and
fought their British masters to a stalemate. The rebels were allowed to create self-governing territories
on the lands they won; their descendants, known as Maroons, still think of themselves
as a people apart. Kenneth Bilby’s research compiles many narratives of what it means to be a
“true-born Maroon.” Bilby is a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution.
Living Room
by Geoff Bouvier MFA ’99
THE AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW
Look closely, and the words of the poems—and even the title—of Geoff Bouvier’s first book
take on varying shades of meaning. His prose poems switch points of view, and words play off
each other (“April, and all that precipitates”). Poet Heather McHugh, in her introduction, calls
Bouvier “the contemporary offspring of Gertrude Stein and Paul Valéry.” The book won the
American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize.
The Blue Geography: A Romance
by Eve La Salle Caram ’56
PLAIN VIEW PRESS
Describing and celebrating “a lifetime of journeys,” this novel continues the story of the characters
from Eve La Salle Caram’s acclaimed short novel, Wintershine. The new book is narrated in
several voices: that of Bea; her mother, Louise; and her uncle Robin. The tales weave family histories
from Scotland to Texas and regale the reader with descriptions of emotional and magical
landscapes. Caram teaches writing at the University of California, Los Angeles, and California
State University, Northridge.
The Sleep of Four Cities
by Jen Currin ’95
ANVIL PRESS
A sense of transience and a love of the richness of language permeate these poems by Jen
Currin. She employs images of impermanence from nature (“The wind blows ahead/and gives
no details on the ditty”) and the heavens (“O temporary stars”), while also exulting in the joy of
creating (“In the deepest desert I make snow”). Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Currin
lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her wife, Christine Leclerc.
40

Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti
by Michael Deibert ’96
SEVEN STORIES PRESS
After several years as a Reuters correspondent in Port-au-Prince, Michael Deibert has written
a book about Haiti. Combining history, social analysis, and personal memoir, Deibert examines
a democratic movement that went wrong, details political assassinations and treacheries, and
talks with common people and government officials alike to supplement his extensive research.
Deibert also discusses the rise and fall of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the
future of this troubled country.
Exploring Digital Workflow: An Introduction to Managing Graphic Content in a Cross-
Media World
by Penny Ann Dolin ’77
THOMSON DELMAR LEARNING
Penny Ann Dolin asserts that her goal in this textbook—for college graphic design programs—
is not to make the reader an expert in a specific version of software, but to make someone who
is already somewhat familiar with website design comfortable with basic concepts needed to
adapt the inevitable changes in software. Dolin explores concepts such as digital content, the
PDF file format, and mapping and tracking projects, and includes stories from designers “in the
trenches.” She teaches at the College of Technology and Applied Science at Arizona State
University.
The Jewish Story Finder: A Guide to 363 Tales, Listing Subjects and Sources
by Sharon Barcan Elswit ’68
McFARLAND & COMPANY
Sharon Barcan Elswit has tried to make sense of the mountain of sources for folk tales, religious
parables, apocrypha, and other universal stories of wisdom and wit. She has chosen timeless short
stories about the Jewish people, whether set in biblical times or yesterday, organized by theme
and with cross-listings to variations told elsewhere. The chapter headings range from “God,
Faith, and Prayer” to “Talking Animal Tales and Fables.” Elswit is head librarian at Rodeph
Sholom School in New York City.
Music Downtown: Writings from the Village Voice
by Kyle Gann
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Twenty-five years ago, Uptown music meant compositions with heavily European, 12-tone
influences. Downtown music was less complicated, drawing on conceptualism, minimalism,
and improvisation. Kyle Gann began writing about the Downtown scene and in 1986 landed a
job as the Village Voice’s Downtown music critic—a gig he still holds. This collection embodies
some of the best of Gann’s writing on cutting-edge music. Gann is associate professor of music.
West Pullman
by Carolyn Guinzio ’97
BORDIGHERA PRESS
“What happens when we press/so close to the unfamiliar?” This line from Carolyn Guinzio’s
first book of poems sums up the view she takes toward her subjects—people, factories, even
cemeteries in this south Chicago neighborhood—in order to reinvent them and see them in
fresh ways. She plays with syntax and logic, creating linguistic sleight of hand (“There is more
missing here/than is here”). The poems in the volume, which won the Bordighera Poetry Prize,
have Italian translations by Franco Nasi on facing pages.
41

Inner China
by Eva Sjödin, translated by Jennifer Hayashida MFA ’03
LITMUS PRESS
The sparse lines of this long poem tell the story of a childhood, from the point of view of a girl
who describes her feelings about, and relationship with, her younger sister. The story draws on
Scandinavian folk tales, nature, and a book about two boys in China. It is translated from
Swedish by Jennifer Hayashida, who received a 2004 Witter Bynner Foundation poetry translator
residency.
New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader
edited by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Keenan
ROUTLEDGE
What is called “new media” is as hard to define as the terms used, sometimes interchangeably, to
define it: multimedia, emerging media, cyberstudies. This book’s goal is to connect forms of
media analysis that usually are separate: multimedia history, archives, programming languages,
networking, and digital theory. In his afterword, Thomas Keenan, associate professor of comparative
literature and director of the Human Rights Project, discusses “the old medium of writing”
and “the contemporary politics of free media.”
Undergarments and Armor
by Tanya Marcuse, Simon’s Rock ’81*
NAZRAELI PRESS
This striking three-book set displays Tanya Marcuse’s eye for detail, structure, and irony, not to
mention steel and silk. Her stark photographs of corsets, hoops, and bustles, juxtaposed with those
of breastplates and chain mail, emphasize the structural similarities between the interior and exterior
body coverings that shape and protect the human form. Marcuse, a former faculty member at
the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, teaches at Simon’s Rock College of Bard.
*A class year at Simon’s Rock indicates the year an alumnus/a started at the College.
Altruism in World Religions
edited by Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton ’71
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS
What is the value of altruism in religion? How do the world’s religions define “others,” and dictate
treatment of them? These essays explore the concept of altruism in philosophical and religious
thought from Greco-Roman society to Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and
the religions of China. Jacob Neusner is Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism; Bruce
Chilton is Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion and chaplain of the College.
Italians Then, Mexicans Now: Immigrant Origins and Second-Generation Progress,
1890 to 2000
by Joel Perlmann
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION/THE LEVY ECONOMICS INSTITUTE OF BARD COLLEGE
Joel Perlmann compares the large waves of immigration that came to America a century ago and
now. Between 1890 and 1914, the immigrants were primarily Italians, Poles and other Slavs, and
eastern European Jews. These groups slowly climbed the socioeconomic ladder, in spite of their
adopted country’s fears that they would overwhelm class, political, and infrastructure systems.
Today’s equivalent immigrant population consists of Mexicans; Perlmann examines whether the
same upward mobility is possible for these immigrants and their descendants. Perlmann is Levy
Institute Research Professor and a senior scholar at The Levy Economics Institute of Bard
College.
42

Poetry and Pedagogy: The Challenge of the Contemporary
edited by Joan Retallack and Juliana Spahr ’88
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
This book of essays by poets and professors deals with the interaction of students and texts. The
works address the possibilities, pleasures, and risks of teaching intercultural poetries, from
avant-garde to international, and how to invent “a living poetry classroom” by keeping education
in touch with the world. Joan Retallack is John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor
of Humanities and director of the Workshop in Language and Thinking. Juliana Spahr is a poet,
teacher, and coeditor of the literary and visual journal Chain.
Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons
by Jonathan Rosenbaum ’66
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
To many intellectuals, the idea of canons, in any field, has become passé. Jonathan Rosenbaum,
film critic for the Chicago Reader, argues that film canons are important, especially in an age
when Hollywood publicists and sound-bite specialists dictate the terms of debate. Discussion
about great films—and what makes them great—is essential to creating a context in which to
view new and old films, Rosenbaum says. He separates his book into sections, including
“Classics” and “Disputable Contenders,” and ends with a “personal canon” of 1,000 favorites.
A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Art, and Letters
by Penelope Rowlands ’73
ATRIA BOOKS
Carmel Snow, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar from 1934 to 1958, was almost a force of
nature: she transformed the magazine; launched or influenced the careers of a constellation of
writers, actors, and artists; and reconfigured the fashion world for “well-dressed women with
well-dressed minds.” In detailing Snow’s life as “a revolutionary in a pillbox hat,” Penelope
Rowlands fills this lively biography with anecdotes—many never told before—of Snow’s relationships
with the likes of Truman Capote, Lauren (née Betty) Bacall, Jean Cocteau, and Diana
Vreeland, among many others.
The Way Home
by Bibi Wein ’65
TUPELO PRESS
This memoir follows Bibi Wein’s inner and outer journey from New York City toward, and into,
the Adirondacks. As she describes her first experience of hiking—and getting lost in the
woods—with a new man in her life, she builds on the connections between human relationships
and relationships in nature. Harking back to the tradition of Walden, Wein meditates on
the ways nature can open the human heart and help us find our place in the order of things.
The book received the Tupelo Literary Fiction/Nonfiction Award.
Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Xu Bing & Cai Guo-Qiang
by Zhang Zhaohui CCS ’98
TIMEZONE 8
In 1998, Zhang Zhaohui brought together the work of two leading artists from China, Xu Bing
and Cai Guo-Qiang. Born and educated in different parts of China, both men moved to New
York City, where Xu Bing received a prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and Cai
Guo-Qiang created a publicly commissioned project in Central Park. The book, in English and
Chinese, examines both artists’ styles; it is the supporting catalogue for the exhibition Zhang
curated as part of his master’s degree project at Bard’s Center for Curatorial Studies.
43

O N A N D O F F C A M P U S
BHSEC students and their Turkish guests take in the New York skyline.
Turkish Exchange Augments BHSEC Studies
An exchange with the Kabatas Erkek Lisesi School in
Istanbul brought six Turkish students to Bard High School
Early College (BHSEC) for three weeks in January and took
the six BHSEC host students to Turkey for three weeks in
March. Two Kabatas School teachers accompanied their students
to New York, and Rene Marion and Mary Ellen
Lennon, the BHSEC faculty who organized the exchange,
accompanied their students to the Kabatas School.
In January each Turkish student was paired with a
BHSEC student, with whom they lived. The visit was organized
around the theme of “Rights and Responsibilities of
Democracy.” The goal was to have BHSEC students learn
about Turkish ideas of democracy while the Turks explored
U.S. history and ideals. Each week’s activities were organized
around one of three themes.
The first week explored religious divisions in a democracy
and examined what it means to be a secular nation with
religious freedom. Classroom activities included a debate by
BHSEC Year II students: “Should Intelligent Design Be
Taught in High School Science Classrooms?” and a presentation
by Steven Mazie, BHSEC faculty, on the Amish and
liberalism. Students went to the Darwin exhibition at the
American Museum of Natural History and visited the
neighboring Eldridge Street Synagogue (1887), the first
major house of worship built by Eastern European Jews in
the United States.
The second week’s focus was on civil liberties in a
democracy. The third week investigated the democratic balance
between liberty and security. Students visited New York
City criminal courts and the UN.
The Turkish students also participated in student life
at BHSEC and explored New York City. They took in the
BHSEC Coffee House, watched the BHSEC step team
perform, visited Lower East Side community organizations,
and made the requisite tourist stops, including the Statue of
Liberty, Ellis Island, and a Broadway show (Hairspray).
The visit was arranged as part of an LINC (Linking
Individuals, Knowledge, and Culture) Program in Youth
Leadership cosponsored by the U.S. Department of State
and The American Forum for Global Education, a private,
not-for-profit organization.
44

SEEN & HEARD
JANUARY
Over the January 27–29 weekend, the Bard Debate Team
presented “The Pros and Cons of United States Pressure on
China,” a panel discussion featuring Ian Buruma, Walter
Russell Mead, and College president Leon Botstein as
moderator, as well as a policy debate tournament that
included teams from Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia, the
U.S. Military Academy, and Oklahoma University, among
other institutions. All events took place at Olin Hall.
Edie Meidav, Bard Fiction Prize winner and author of
Crawl Space and The Far Field: A Novel of Ceylon, read
from recent work on January 30 at Weis Cinema in the
Bertelsmann Campus Center.
Helene Tieger ’85 is now College archivist. She also continues her duties as a reference
librarian at the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library. Here she holds a 19th-century
photo album of St. Stephen’s College students.
The Studio Arts Senior Seminar presented a lecture and
presentation by visiting artist Rachel Harrison on January
31 at Weis Cinema.
FEBRUARY
Alumna Lisa Katzman ’81 screened Tootie’s Last Suit, her
documentary portrait of New Orleans Mardi Gras culture,
on February 1 at Preston Theater.
A panel featuring writers Helon Habila, Gabeba
Baderoon, and Binyavanga Wainaina discussed “African
Literary Arts and Alternative Modernities.” Ato Quayson
of the University of Toronto moderated the February 2
event at the Campus Center.
On February 3 and 4, the American Symphony Orchestra,
with music director Leon Botstein, performed Richard
Strauss’s Don Quixote and Ein Heldenleben at the Richard B.
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts.
The Bard College Conservatory of Music sponsored a
concert by renowned pianist Boris Berman on February 5
at Olin Hall.
Six Raptors were named scholar athletes by the Basketball Coaches Association of
New York. The honorees are (left to right) Collin Orcutt, Andrew McCormack,
Josef Woldense, Sascha Goldhor, and Adam Turner, all Class of 2006; and Heidi
Hallenbeck ’09. Woldense, Turner, and Hallenbeck were also named to the North
Eastern Athletic Conference’s All-Conference Honorable Mention Teams.
The Bard Prison Initiative presented a lecture by Alec
Ewald of Union College, “Inside and Outside: The Debate
over the Voting Rights of Prisoners,” on February 7 at the
Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building.
45

Recipients of the first Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts Alumni/ae
Scholarship were Corinne May Botz (right), a photographer based in
Brooklyn, and Libby Hux, a videomaker from Los Angeles. Both are Class of
2007. Botz, author of The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death
(Monacelli Press, 2004) is at work on two long-term projects, one photographing
haunted houses and recording firsthand accounts of ghostly encounters,
the other a series about individuals with agoraphobia. Hux’s video How
I Learned to Become an Assertive Human Being was screened at the San
Francisco Cinematheque. She is now at work on video projects that address
her fascination with home tourism and mapping one’s physical and psychological
geography. The scholarship, created in 2004 with donations from Milton
Avery Graduate School of the Arts alumni/ae, goes toward the independent
study (winter) tuition of the Avery program. It is based on merit and given
to students chosen by the Avery Graduate Committee.
Simon’s Rock College of Bard graduates enjoy Commencement.
Thirteen men received associate in arts degrees from the College, in the second
Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) Commencement ever held; a fourteenth graduate
received his degree in absentia. The ceremony took place June 3 on the grounds
of the Woodbourne Correctional Facility. Also in attendance were the families of
the incarcerated students, BPI administrators, and a large number of representatives
from Bard. President Leon Botstein gave the charge to the graduates.
David Miller, recipient of a 2006 John Dewey Award for Distinguished
Public Service, gave the Commencement address. BPI currently serves a total
of approximately 100 students at Woodbourne and at Eastern New York
Correctional Facility.
46

New Chair Honors Neusner
Bard has received a $2 million gift for the creation of an endowed
chair in honor of Jacob Neusner, the internationally known scholar
of religion. Neusner, who has taught at Bard since 1994, was
Research Professor of Religion and Theology and a Bard Center
Fellow. Beginning July 1, he holds the new chair as Professor of
the History and Theology of Judaism. Upon Neusner’s retirement,
the endowed chair will be named for him.
Arboretum Begins to Bloom at Bard
Located on land that once belonged to several historic estates,
replete with majestic trees in a park-like atmosphere, Bard
College is in an ideal position to realize a long-held dream of an
arboretum. Amy Foster ’99, horticulture supervisor, has begun the
process by presiding over planning meetings and establishing an
online map of the campus’s significant arboreal and ornamental
sites (http://inside.bard. edu/horticulture/).
Among the goals of the Bard College Landscape and
Arboretum Committee are stewardship of natural and landscaped
resources, promoting knowledge and appreciation of horticulture
and conservation, and providing a botanically diverse and beautiful
campus environment that can be readily enjoyed by the
College and surrounding community. Elizabeth Ely ’65, secretary
of the Board of Trustees of Bard College and a member of the
arboretum committee, says the initial priorities are to gain support
through membership and other means and cultivate the
existing campus landscape.
Once a master plan is in place, plants will be inventoried and
landscape restoration will begin. Tree-identification signs,
brochures for self-guided landscape tours, and refinement of public
garden areas are among the planned projects. Foster and other
committee members hope to attract more visitors to the College’s
outstanding scenery. Visitors already enjoy allées near the Richard
B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, as well as the gardens
at Blithewood (see Summer 2005 Bardian) and alongside the
Chapel of the Holy Innocents and Bertelsmann Campus Center.
The arboretum could also serve as a classroom for curricula as
diverse as the Biology Program, Bard Center for Environmental
Policy, Master of Arts in Teaching Program, and Bard Graduate
Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture.
“The arboretum would become part of the College’s legacy,”
Foster says.
For more information, contact Foster at 845-758-7179 or
afoster@bard.edu.
Internationally acclaimed soprano Dawn Upshaw and pianist
Richard Goode performed works by Debussy, Ives, Bach,
Berg, and Schoenberg in a February 9 recital at the Richard
B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, to benefit the
scholarship fund of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
The Bard Center and Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society
presented a concert by the Czech Nonet at Olin Hall. The
February 12 program featured works by Mozart, Jiri Jaroch,
and Anton Reicha.
Patricia Spencer and Tara O’Connor performed works for
flute in a Bard Center concert on February 15 at Olin Hall.
On February 16 at the Campus Center, acclaimed poets
and Bard College professors John Ashbery and Joan
Retallack read from recent work to kick off the John
Ashbery Poetry Series. The series continued on February
23 with readings by Robert Kelly and Ann Lauterbach.
Filmmaker David Zeiger attended an Avery Center screening
of his documentary about the GI movement against the
Vietnam War, Sir! No Sir! Also on hand for the February 19
event was Jose Velasquez of Iraq Veterans against the War.
Janet Garvey, director of the State Department’s Office of
North Central European Affairs, visited the College on
February 20 to speak about NATO, the European Union,
and democratization.
Western novelist Andrew Wingfieldread from his most recent
work, Hear Him Roar, on February 21 at Preston Theater
as part of the Nature/Culture Borderlands Lecture Series.
The Bard College Conservatory of Music sponsored a
lecture by musicologist Joseph Horowitz on “The Classical
Music ‘Crisis’ and What Comes Next.” The February 22
talk took place at Olin Hall.
“Investigating Saddam Hussein: Lessons Learned from
the Balkans” was the semester’s first James Clarke Chace
Memorial Speaker Series lecture. Richard Dicker, director
of the International Justice Program at Human Rights
Watch, and Tom Parker, former investigator for the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,
spoke at the February 23 event at Bard Hall in New York.
On February 25, Jazz at Bard presented an evening with
the Henry Grimes Trio at Olin Hall.
47

Jennifer Watson goes over game strategy with her players.
Watson, Women Cagers Focus on Positives
Women’s basketball coach Jennifer Watson came to Bard in
2004 fresh from a four-year stint as a professional player in
England. In her first year, the Raptors finished with their
best ever record, thanks in part to Watson’s knowledge of the
game, the structure she brought to practices, and her high
expectations. In 2005–06, Bard moved up to the more competitive
North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) and,
Watson says, the team’s record (5-18) didn’t reflect the
strong basketball they were playing.
However, Watson’s experience and expertise helped her
help the Raptors stay focused on the positive. As a 6’ 3” center
at Southern New Hampshire University, she had suffered
through an 0-27 season, learning about stress and adversity
in the process. She graduated with a B.A. in psychology and
is currently pursuing a master’s degree in athletic counseling
and sports psychology.
In turned out that there were plenty of positives to stay
focused on. First-year forward/center Heidi Hallenbeck was
named to the all-conference honorable mention team and was
among the NEAC’s top 25 scorers, as were Amy Engelson ’09
and Elyse Rivas ’08. Hallenbeck and Engelson, both recruited
by Watson, also broke Bard records for rebounds in a game
and season assists, respectively. Watson believes her young
team—Sascha Goldhor, named to a state All-Academic team,
was the lone senior—is one player away from being a contender,
and she can’t wait until next season.
Says Watson, “My commitment is to have a team that
plays hard and graduates with the best GPA possible, and I
have no worries with this group. They’re a real mix of
scholar-athletes with their focus on the future.” She points to
New Orleans native Hannah Timmons ’07, who used her
expertise as a film and video major to create a DVD on life
at Bard that will be sent to prospective student-athletes.
Other members of the team who are expected to return
are Claire Byers ’07, Melissa Kutner ’07, Rosemary Winter ’09,
and two players who learned the game while growing up in
Asia, Amanda Gurung ’07 from Nepal and Ayesha Bari ’07
from Pakistan.
In addition to her coaching duties, Watson is coordinator
of the RAPTORS (Reaching Academic Potential through
Outreach in Recreation and Sport) program. She oversees
community outreach and mentoring programs, youth clinics,
and the volunteer projects that are required of all varsity teams.
You can keep up with Bard athletics online at www.
bard.edu/athletics.
Bardians Offer Eels a Step Up
Biology students Mer Mietzelfeld ’07 and Andras Huttl ’07 helped
install an “eel ladder” in the Saw Kill on Bard campus.The Saw Kill Eel
Passage Project attempts to restore upstream passage for the American
eel’s extraordinary migratory cycle originating in the Sargasso Sea.
Funded by N.Y. State Department of Environmental Conservation’s
(NYSDEC) Hudson River Estuary Program, NYSDEC Division of
Water, U.S. Department of Interior–U.S. Geological Survey, and
Bard College, through a grant from the N.Y. State Water Resources
Institute at Cornell University, the $10,000 ladder is the first in the
Hudson River watershed—aiding elvers (young eels) over a dam.
48

Harold Farberman conducted the Bard Chamber
Orchestra, with soprano Kendra Colton, at the Richard B.
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. The February 26
program included works by Mahler, Farberman, and Ives.
Attorney Jack Blum ’62, an expert in international criminal
law, returned to campus on February 27 to talk about
the Bush wiretap program.
The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra made its Annandale debut on March 11, to
an overflow crowd in the Sosnoff Theater. Under the baton of its musical director,
Bard College president Leon Botstein, the orchestra played Bohuslav Martinů’s
Memorial to Lidice; Richard Strauss’s Concerto in D Major for Oboe and Orchestra
(with soloist Laura Ahlbeck); and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op.
100. The orchestra was called back for two encores, and then embarked for Carnegie
Hall, where it presented the same program the following night. This concert was made
possible by grants from the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in
New York; The Irving & Gloria Schlossberg Family Fund of The Community
Foundation of Dutchess County; Jewish Federation of Dutchess County; Jewish
Federation of Ulster County; and Anonymous Friends of the Fisher Center.
Investigative journalist Christine Dolan, a veteran of ABC,
CNN, and NBC broadcast news, addressed the global
problem of human trafficking on February 28 at the
Campus Center. SSTOP (Students Stopping Trafficking
of People) sponsored the talk.
MARCH
Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and
author of The Future of Freedom, delivered a lecture at Bard
Hall in New York City on March 2, as part of the Bard
Globalization and International Affairs Program’s James
Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series.
The Da Capo Chamber Players performed at Olin Hall
on March 5 in a special Bard Center concert that featured
the world premieres of works by six contemporary Russian
composers.
On March 6 at the Fisher Center, Bard in China presented
Thousand Years Waiting, a trans-Pacific collaboration of
storytelling, dance, and puppetry written by Chiori
Miyagawa, associate professor of theater at the College.
Bruce Chilton ’71, executive director of the Institute of
Advanced Theology, discussed “The Bible as Literatures”
on March 8 in the first of five weekly Lenten Luncheon
Lectures at the Bertelsmann Campus Center.
Havana-born photographer Abelardo Morell addressed
students on March 8 at the Preston Theater in an event
sponsored by the Photography Program.
The Jewish Studies and Anthropology programs presented
two events with literary scholar, poet, and essayist Ammiel
Alcalay on March 9.
Winners of the first Concerto Competition presented by The Bard College Conservatory
of Music were (left to right) Shuangshuang Liu (second place), Nan Jia, (first place)
and Luosha Fang (third place). The three Conservatory students (Class of 2010) came
to Bard from the People’s Republic of China, Liu and Fang from Shanghai, Jia from
Beijing. Their instruments are, respectively, viola, cello, and violin. As a result of the
Concerto Competition, Jia and Liu will each solo during a performance of the
American Symphony Orchestra’s 2006 subscription series, and Fang played on May 11
with the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, all conducted by Leon Botstein.
In cooperation with The Bard Center, the Woodstock
Chamber Orchestra presented “Magic in Vienna,” a
March 10 concert at Olin Hall that featured the works of
Mozart, Johann Strauss, and Richard Strauss.
49

Top Cruise by Mike Bouchet, from Uncertain States of America—American Art in the 3rd Millennium
The (Uncertain) State of the Art at CCS
An ambitious exhibition at the Center for Curatorial Studies
is providing entrée to the public for the work of a new generation
of American artists. The show, titled Uncertain States
of America—American Art in the 3rd Millennium, features
41 artists whose work can be characterized as narrative, with
strong social and political content. Organized by three
distinguished curators—Daniel Birnbaum, director of the
Städelschule Art Academy and its Portikus Gallery in
Frankfurt; Gunnar B. Kvaran, director of the Astrup
Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo; and Hans Ulrich
Obrist, curator for contemporary art at the Musée d’Art
Moderne de la Ville de Paris—the exhibition opened on
June 24 and will run through September 10.
In other CCS news, the Center’s ninth annual Award
for Curatorial Excellence was bestowed upon two recipients
this year: Lynne Cooke, curator at Dia Art Foundation in
New York, and Vasif Kortun, director of Platform Garanti
Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul (and the first director
of the CCS Museum). Richard Serra, the internationally
acclaimed sculptor, and Roland Augustine, co-owner of
Luhring Augustine Gallery and a trustee of Bard College,
presented the awards at a gala dinner at the Central Park
Boathouse in New York City on April 5.
Lynne Cooke and Richard Serra
Vasif Kortun
50

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, with music director
Leon Botstein, performed works by Sergey Prokofiev,
Bohuslav Martinů, and Richard Strauss in a concert at the
Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater on March 11.
The Center for Curatorial Studies hosted an opening
reception for its spring student exhibitions on March 12.
The first four shows—Sellout, Art for Our Sake, Making the
Band, and Tales of Places—were on view through March 26.
Lion, probably North German, 12th century. Copper alloy, glass inlay. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964.
BGC Presents Aquamanilia and Woven Miniatures
A fascinating display of medieval aquamanilia—hollow-cast vessels,
often in the shape of fabulous animals, that were used by
priests to pour water for hand washing before Mass and by the
laity at mealtimes—opened in July at the Bard Graduate Center
for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture (BGC).
The vessels, which collectively represent the entire extensive collection
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will remain on view
at the BGC through October 15.
Aquamanilia most commonly assumed the forms of lions
(thanks to that animal’s associations with royalty and power), but
also took the semblance of dragons, rams, griffons, and occasionally
knights and horsemen. While the objects possess an undeniable
whimsy, the exhibition takes pains to place them in the context of
the history, culture, and everyday practices of the Middle Ages.
Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle
Ages, Vessels for Church and Table was organized by Peter Barnet, head
curator at the Metropolitan’s Department of Medieval Art and
The Cloisters, and Pete Dandridge, conservator at the museum’s
Sherman Fairfield Center for Objects Conservation. BGC students
collaborated with the organizers to conduct research and produce a
gallery guide. A full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition,
and related programs, including lectures and panels, will take place
throughout its run.
Concurrent with the aquamanilia collection is the BGC’s
first exhibition devoted to a contemporary artist, Sheila Hicks:
Weaving as Metaphor. A Midwesterner who has lived and worked
in Paris since 1964, Hicks is internationally recognized as a leading
figure in textile art. The exhibition assembles approximately
150 of her works, culled from public and private collections, along
with her notebooks, drawings, photographs, and handmade loom.
For details on both shows, call the BGC Gallery at 212-501-
3013, or e-mail gallery@bgc.bard.edu.
The annual Andrew Jay Bernstein [’68] Memorial
Lecture, held in the Franklin W. Olin Humanities
Building on March 13, featured Princeton University’s
Susan T. Fiske, who discussed “The Perils of Prejudice:
Emotional Biases in Brain, Mind, and Culture.”
Uday Singh Mehta, professor at Amherst College and one
of the foremost theorists of empire, compared the constitutions
of India, South Africa, and Israel in a March 14
lecture that was part of a yearlong Human Rights Project
series, “The Constitutional Ideal.”
Comedian Bernie McGrenahan, who has been featured
on the Late Show with David Letterman and has opened
for REM, performed at the Bertelsmann Campus Center
on March 14.
American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow
opened at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City
on March 16 and ran through June 11.
Ugandan American artist Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine
performed his multimedia piece Biro at the Fisher Center
on March 15 as part of a special two-day event. He also
screened Beware of Time, his award-winning film chronicling
the lives of HIV-positive Ugandans.
Bard in China hosted a screening of the 1933 Chinese film
The Goddess at the Olin Language Center on March 15.
In addition, Kristine Harris, history professor at SUNY
New Paltz, gave a lecture, “Women in Early 20th-Century
Chinese Cinema.”
The Life after Bard Dinner on March 15 featured talks by
Web developer Joe Stanco ’99; science writer Lisa Jarvis ’97;
Robert Lee ’03, who is working in financial services; and
Christopher Pryslopski ’97 of the Hudson River Valley
Institute, Marist College.
London-born poet Tom Raworth, whose recent works
include Tottering State and Landscaping the Future, gave a
reading at Weis Cinema on March 16 as part of the John
Ashbery Poetry Series at Bard.
51

Bard Debate Team Wins National Recognition
Founded in 2004 by director of debate Ruth Zisman and
assistant coach Stephen Davis ’05, Bard’s debate team had a
stellar 2005–06 year. In March, Bard sent six students to the
Novice/JV Nationals tournament at West Virginia University,
which was attended by teams from more than 80 colleges and
universities nationwide. Of 200 speakers, Nathan Sweed ’08
was named top junior varsity speaker, and his debating partner,
Ravenna Wilson ’07, was named fourth. Cassie Cornell
’09 was named 18th novice speaker. Sweed and Wilson won
the highest combined points of any team in the competition.
In April, Bard sent two teams—Sweed and Wilson, as
well as Cornell and Rushaine McKenzie ’07—to Dallas for
the varsity-level Cross Examination Debate Association
(CEDA) Nationals in which 200 teams competed for the
national championship. Sweed was named 36th out of 400
debaters. Sweed and Wilson advanced farther in the competition
than all other teams in their region. Zisman points out
that Cornell and McKenzie advanced the farthest compared
to novice teams in their region.
This year’s debates centered on the topic of U.S. foreign
policy toward China, for which Sweed and Wilson ran a
nihilism debate, using chaos theory and writings by Nietzsche
as evidence to erode the philosophical underpinnings of the
other teams’ more policy-oriented arguments. Their rounds,
characterized by an innovative, performative style that
included original slam poetry and music, drew overflow audiences.
Cornell and McKenzie favored a feminist critique of
opponents’ arguments. Next year’s CEDA topic will be the
U.S. court system.
Bard’s 2006 debate team: (left to right, front row) Cassie Cornell ’09; Ruth
Zisman, director; Stephen Davis ’05, assistant coach; Rushaine McKenzie ’07;
(middle row) Nathan Sweed ’08; David Duckler ’09; Reanna Blackford ’07;
Neesha Fakir ’09; Travis Rubury ’08; (back row) Lisa Dratch ’09; Litta
Naukushu ’07, captain; Noah Weston ’07; Ravenna Wilson ’07; Kelly DeToy
’07; Brad Powles ’07; Beverley Annan ’07. Missing from photo: Angelina
Fox ’09.
Bard Hosts Bartók Conference
“From the Wellspring to the Ocean: Béla Bartók’s
Musicological Legacy in Today’s World,” a conference and
concert, took place at Bard on June 3 and 4, thanks to the
vision and generosity of Laszlo Bito ’60 and Olivia Carino.
The conference brought together a panel of distinguished
European and U.S. scholars, who discussed Bartók’s contributions
to the study of folk music and his work’s impact on
the discipline of musical folklore.
Bartók’s idea of modern music inspired by folk music
has found echoes in the work of younger composers all over
the world. Two of these, Bright Sheng and Roberto Sierra,
participated in the conference and had chamber works performed
at the concert. They use their ethnic heritages
(Chinese and Puerto Rican, respectively) in ways that parallel
Bartók’s use of his native Hungarian tradition. The
concert also juxtaposed Bartók’s music with the folk music
that inspired it. Performers included Hungarian folksinger
Beáta Palya, who sang some of the folk melodies arranged
by Bartók.
BCEP Works with Peace Corps
The Peace Corps, signed into law by President John F.
Kennedy in 1961, celebrates its 45th anniversary throughout
2006, beginning with Peace Corps Week, which was
February 27 to March 5.
Bard College collaborates with the Peace Corps
through the Master’s International (MI) program offered by
the Bard Center for Environmental Policy (BCEP). In this
partnership, students can incorporate the internationally
focused, hands-on experience of Peace Corps service into
BCEP’s master’s degree program. BCEP currently has two
students in the MI program. One has received a Peace Corps
assignment to do environmental planning in Bulgaria. The
other will take on an environmental education project in El
Salvador.
BCEP, founded in 1999, offers an innovative graduate
program leading to either the master of science degree, or a
professional certificate, in environmental policy.
52

Guggenheim Fellowships to Graduate Faculty
The list of recipients of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation Fellowships for 2006 includes two names associated
with Bard: Marco Breuer and Lynne Tillman.
Breuer, a faculty member in Bard’s Milton Avery Graduate
School of the Arts MFA program since 2000, is known for the
innovative “photographs” he creates without the use of a camera.
He places everyday objects in contact with, for example, commercially
available silver gelatin paper that is then exposed to
light or other factors. The resulting startling images bridge
and/or blur the boundary between the mundane and the
abstract. Breuer’s work is in the permanent collections of the
Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Tillman, a faculty member in the MFA program from 1993
to 2005, is the author of the novels Haunted Houses, Motion
Sickness, Cast in Doubt, and No Lease on Life. The latter was a New
York Times Notable Book of 1998 and a finalist for the National
Book Critics Circle Award. She has also written three collections
of short stories; one collection of essays; two nonfiction books; a
film, Committed; and she is known for her cultural criticism. The
Los Angeles Reader called her writing “so striking and original it
transforms the way you see the world, the way you think about
and interact with your surroundings.”
Guggenheim Fellows are selected through an annual competition
among “advanced professionals.” Approximately 220 fellowships
are granted from a pool of 3,500 to 4,000 applicants.
The Bard College Conservatory of Music sponsored a
recital by pianist and associate director Melvin Chen at
Olin Hall on March 19.
Why do some birds have webbed feet and others do not?
Shai Shaham of The Rockefeller University discussed “programmed
cell death” and his own roundworm research on
March 20 as part of the Frontiers in Science Lecture Series.
John Haught, Distinguished Research Professor at
Georgetown University, lectured on “Intelligent Design” in
a March 21 luncheon event at the Campus Center. The
talk was sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Theology.
A panel discussion on the history and future of politics in
Zimbabwe, held at the Campus Center on March 21, featured
Augustine Hungwe, professor at the University of
Zimbabwe; Geoffrey Nyarota, visiting professor of political
studies and human rights; Yuka Suzuki, assistant professor
of anthropology; Wendy Urban-Mead, faculty, Bard’s
Master of Arts in Teaching Program; and moderator Jesse
Shipley, director of Africana studies.
Olin Hall was the setting for a March 22 concert, “Music
and the Spoken Word,” a collaboration of jazz and poetry
by Thurman Barker, associate professor of music, and
performance artist Mikhail Horowitz. The evening also
featured the Trinity Trio and Bard College Orchestra.
APRIL
Bard in China presented a lecture by Columbia University
professor Eugenia Lean, “Global Commodity, Local
Desire: Creating a Need for Lux Soap in 1930s China,” on
April 4 at the Olin Language Center.
Marco Breuer
Lynne Tillman
Karim Nashashibi, of the International Monetary Fund,
discussed creating a banking system under conflict conditions
in the West Bank and Gaza, during a lecture on April
6 at Blithewood, home of The Levy Economics Institute
of Bard College.
The Colorado Quartet performed Katherine Hoover’s
String Quartet No. 2, as well as works by Beethoven and
Schubert, at Olin Hall on April 9.
The John Ashbery Poetry Series presented readings by
Redell Olsen, Drew Milne, and Juliana Spahr ’88 on
April 10 at the Bertelsmann Campus Center.
“Streamlining Tomorrow: World’s Fairs of the 1930s,” was
the title of architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson’s
lecture at the Bard Graduate Center on April 11.
53

Christophe Chung ’06 (left) and Jonathan Helfgott ’06 (right) are recipients
of the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship 2006–07. Each
fellow is awarded $25,000 for one year of independent exploration and travel
outside of the United States. Chung will explore rural terrace farming in
Peru, Vietnam, Laos, China, and India. Helfgott will look at baseball
through the lens of cultural exchange in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela,
Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, and Japan.
Student Presentation on Hurricane Relief Efforts
During the January intersession, more than 130 Bard student
volunteers—almost one-tenth of the student body—traveled
to New Orleans to help rebuild. On February 6, those Bardians
shared their experiences at a student-sponsored presentation
for the community.
The walls of the Old Gym were lined with student photographs
showing images of Hurricane Katrina’s vast destruction,
even five months after the catastrophe. Student testimony
addressed the complexities of political, economic, physical,
emotional, and ethical issues involved in the rehabilitation
efforts. The Bardians focused on the question of what individuals
can do to aid this vital rebuilding process.
While in New Orleans students worked in diverse
capacities, from removing rubbish to volunteering at local
mental health and emergency medical clinics. Many of the
Bardians also conducted research—examining the city’s dysfunctional
property tax assessment system; compiling an
unofficial resource guide to poststorm emergency and primary
care medical services; and studying the effect on public
infrastructure of a massive FEMA–established trailer park
near Baker, Louisiana, about 10 miles north of Baton Rouge.
Other students spoke about their experiences working alongside
generations-deep New Orleans families in the Ninth
Ward and their frustration at the uncertain future those residents
faced. Another group of students, which had camped
and shared facilities with the National Guard and the
Salvation Army while working with the Carrollton Avenue
Church of Christ in Mid-City, expressed optimism at that
neighborhood’s ability to recover. Under the leadership of
Miki Glasser ’06, Jennifer Hendrix ’06, and Stephen
Tremaine ’07, an estimated 175 Bardians plan to return to
New Orleans this summer to continue their volunteer efforts.
Student presenters: (left to right, front row) Emma Alabaster ’08; Adam Janos
’06; Alana Siegel ’07; Lauren Stutzbach ’07; (back row) Parris Humphrey ’06;
Matt Wing ’06; Stephen Tremaine ’07; Miki Glasser ’06; Lucy Kaminsky ’09;
Owen Thompson ’06
54

New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly talked about (and
signed copies of ) her new book, Funny Ladies: The New
Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons, on
April 19 at the Bertelsmann Campus Center. An exhibition
of Donnelly’s work was on view at the Center through
April 23.
The American Symphony Orchestra, with music director
Leon Botstein, performed works by Brahms, George
Tsontakis, and Schumann in concerts at the Richard B.
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on April 21 and 22.
Trustee Leader Scholar Megan Kerins ’06 (fourth from left)) with children at an
orphanage in Burma
Four Students Bring Expressive Arts to Orphans
in Burma
Kaythee Hlaing ’06, Megan Kerins ’06, Leah Schrader ’07, and
Thomas Arndt ’07 spent two weeks during the January intersession
traveling in Burma [Myanmar] and teaching expressive arts
to orphans. Founded in 2003 by Bard student and Burmese citizen
Hlaing, the Children’s Expressive Arts Project (CEAP) consists
of a group of Bard students trained to use play, paint, clay,
writing, dance, music, sound, storytelling, and other modes to
help children express and understand their feelings as a tool in
coping with hardship.
Bringing 400 pounds of art supplies to Burma with them,
Hlaing, Kerins, Schrader, and Arndt worked at 14 orphanages
that are sponsored by Asia Compassion Project, a Christian
umbrella organization based in Colorado. Harassment of nongovernment
organizations by Burma’s totalitarian regime forced
CEAP to work under the radar of local and national authorities.
Each day, the Bardians rode in the back of a dusty pickup truck,
mostly to rural areas outside of Rangoon. There, CEAP held
workshops, beginning with warm-up exercises and moving into
their main activity, which always included visual, sound, and
movement components. Workshops ended with a cooldown exercise
and an exchange of songs. At each site, CEAP left art supplies
for the children.
“The kids were hungry for creative interaction. They met us
with such readiness for play and imagination. They’d rush out and
grab our bags; shake our hands; say ‘hello, it’s good to see you’; or
smile and say ‘min-gala ba,’ a polite greeting,” says Arndt.
Currently a Trustee Leader Scholar project, CEAP is taking
steps to become a legal nonprofit organization.
The First-Year Seminar presented a free lecture and concert
by Leon Botstein and the American Symphony
Orchestra at the Fisher Arts Center on April 24. The program,
“Romanticism and History in Music and
Architecture,” featured a performance of Schumann’s
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 (“Rhenish”).
The Office of the Dean hosted a reception at the Ward
Manor parlor on April 24 to celebrate recent publications
by Bard photography professors Tim Davis ’91, Larry
Fink, An-My Lê, and Stephen Shore.
The Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Biology
Program presented “Creativity in Music and Science,” a
conversation with Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-
Kettering Cancer Center and Melvin Chen, pianist and
associate director of the Conservatory, on April 25 at Olin
Hall.
On April 25, Alan Keenan, of the University of
Pennsylvania’s Solomon Asch Center for Study of
Ethnopolitical Conflict, discussed human rights, politics,
and conflict resolution in Sri Lanka.
At Weis Cinema on April 25–27, the Institute of
Advanced Theology hosted a conference titled “Historical
Knowledge in Greco-Roman, Judaic, and Christian
Antiquity: What Kinds of Questions Can We Answer?”
On April 27, the Jewish Studies Program presented a symposium,
“Jewish Music: Tradition and Innovation,” featuring
lectures, a panel discussion, and performances by
Bard president Leon Botstein, vocalist Adrienne Cooper,
trumpeter Frank London, and pianist Marilyn Lerner,
among others.
55

Simon’s Rock Ghana Trip Views Grim History
Seven Simon’s Rock students, aged 16 to 18, traveled to Ghana
in January, accompanied by James S. King, faculty in literature
and African American studies at the College. They explored
places associated with civil rights activist W. E. B. DuBois
(1868–1963), a native of Great Barrington, Massachusetts,
where Simon’s Rock College of Bard is located. They visited
the site of NYU in Ghana, a study abroad program that King
hopes to emulate for Simon’s Rock students. The most intense
parts of the trip, however, says King, were visits to key sites of
the slave trade.
The racially diverse group went to Elmina Castle, built
in Cape Coast in 1482 by the Portuguese and used by them,
the Dutch, and the British for securing and transacting slave
trade. Inside a vast fortification, students saw the damp, unlit
dungeons that served as holding areas for human cargo.
Farther inland, the group walked along the Nkonkoso River,
where captured Africans were allowed a last bath before
being sold at market. The students “dealt with serious and
troubling facts with a great degree of grace and the sort of
comportment I would expect from them, but also from older,
The Simon’s Rock tour visited the DuBois Center in Ghana
seasoned scholars,” says King. “They were always exemplary
emissaries from the College.”
King taught a follow-up course that related to the group’s
discoveries in Ghana and scholarly points of inquiry.
Jonathan Raye (in Bard T-shirt), ready to ride
Cycling Club Hits the Road
Jonathan Raye, a first-year student and self-described riding
fanatic from Canton, Connecticut, arrived at Bard last fall
determined to start a cycling club. Ken Cooper, director of
safety and security at the College and an avid rider, was thinking
along the same lines, having noticed a number of racing
bikes atop the cars of incoming students. After a fortuitous
meeting between the two, the Bard Cycling Club was born.
Raye put up posters and tagged bikes around campus
and soon had a mailing list of more than 20 interested riders.
While he hoped to find fellow racers, Raye also wanted
to encourage more students to get involved with cycling. To
that end, the club initiated group rides that were open to the
Bard community—for both serious riders (30–80 miles) and
casual enthusiasts. The racing wing of the club had a more
ambitious, three-rides-a-week training schedule as they prepared
for meets.
This spring Bard competed in road racing for the first
time, as the student-run club participated in half a dozen
Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference races. In addition
to Raye, racers included Elizabeth “Izzy” Sederbaum ’09,
Ryan Houston ’09, Katriel “Kat” Statman ’07, and Glenna
Broderick ’09.
The club has established ties with a local shop and
a racing bike company, for discounted gear and repairs, and
is hoping to find a sponsor to help defray the costs of entry
fees and travel expenses. For more information, check
inside.bard.edu/campus/clubs.
56

Michael T. Klare, a professor at Hampshire College and
author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of
America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum and
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, spoke
about “Water Wars” at Bard Hall in New York City on
April 27. Sponsored by the Bard Globalization and
International Affairs Program, the lecture was part of the
James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series.
A group of renowned economists gathered at Blithewood
over the weekend of April 28–29 for The Levy Economics
Institute’s conference, “Government Spending on the
Elderly.”
The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra’s “Night at the
Opera” featured Verdi’s Il Trovatore, with performances by
Cheryl Warfield, Rebekah Ambrosini, Jeffrey Ambrosini,
and Larry Small. The concert, presented in cooperation
with The Bard Center, was held on April 28 at Olin Hall.
College president Leon Botstein (center) stands between Gabrielle H. Reem (left)
and her husband, Herbert J. Kayden. The three participated in a spring “toppingout”
ceremony at The Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science
and Computation. The ceremony marked the completion of the erection of the steel
frame for the building.
MAY
Nigerian author Helon Habila, Chinua Achebe Fellow at
Bard College, read from his recent essay, “Home, Exile,
and the African Writer,” on May 2 at the Manor Lounge.
The Institute of Advanced Theology presented a weekly
lecture series on May 3, 10, and 17, in which Rabbi
Lawrence Troster explored the interaction of science and
religion.
On May 4 at Preston Theater, the Anthropology Program
concluded its Nature/Culture Borderlands Lecture Series
with a discussion of the crisis in Nepal, led by Anne
Rademacher of New York University.
On May 4, the Bard Globalization and International
Affairs Program presented a lecture by Elisabeth Sifton,
“Do Evangelicals Have Too Much Influence in Foreign
Policy?” Sifton is the author of The Serenity Prayer: Faith
and Politics in Times of Peace and War.
All seniors from Bard’s Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing are
required to create posters describing their Senior Projects. The creations are displayed
at the College’s annual science and mathematics poster session, held in May. This
year, students from the Immediate Science Research Opportunity Program and the
Psychology Program also participated.
The Bard Graduate Center offered a day of activities and
discussions geared toward children 8–11 and their families.
The community event, titled “All Aboard: From Speeding
Trains to Sleek New Toys,” was presented on May 6 in conjunction
with the exhibition American Streamlined Design.
57

seventeenth annual bard music festival
Liszt
AND HIS WORLD
August 11–13 and
August 18–20, 2006
The Bard Music Festival’s 17th season explores the musical world of
Franz Liszt (1811–86), the greatest piano virtuoso of his time and a
composer whose life, career, and achievements were central to
19th-century Romanticism. Through concerts, panels, and
special events in the Frank Gehry–designed Fisher Center
and other venues on Bard’s scenic Hudson Valley
campus, this year’s Bard Music Festival promises
to bring Liszt and his world vividly to life.
845-758-7900 or www.bard.edu/bmf
THE HARD NUT
Choreography by Mark Morris
Performed by the Mark Morris Dance Group
Music by P. I. Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker, op. 71)
December 15 at 8 p.m.
December 16 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
December 17 at 3 p.m.
sosnoff theater
The Richard B. Fisher Center
for the Performing Arts at Bard College
In celebration of the Mark Morris Dance Group's 25th anniversary, the Fisher Center presents The Hard Nut at Bard. The Hard
Nut is Morris's whimsical take on the classic Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffman. Morris transports the tale to the 1970s and
infuses it with humor, outrageous costumes, and a set based on the drawings of comic book artist Charles Burns — all the
while remaining faithful to the original Tchaikovsky score.
845-758-7900 or fishercenter.bard.edu

BARDSUMMERSCAPE
j u n e 2 9 – a u g u s t 2 0 , 2 0 0 6
Opera
Theater
Dance
Bard Music Festival
Film Festival
Special Events
Order tickets today: 845-758-7900
BARDSUMMERSCAPE
fishercenter.bard.edu
The Da Capo Chamber Players and guests celebrated
Bard student composers in a May 9 Bard Hall concert
coordinated by Joan Tower, Asher B. Edelman Professor in
the Arts.
Catherine the Great’s influence on Russian classicism and
her acquisitions for the State Hermitage Museum were
discussed by curator Nathalie Bondil in a lecture and book
signing at the Bard Graduate Center on April 18.
Curator and historian Donald Albrecht lectured on
“Streamlining Leisure”—including a look at ocean liners,
movie theaters, and hotels—at the Bard Graduate Center
in New York City on May 11.
Leon Botstein conducted the Bard Conservatory
Chamber Orchestra in a performance of the winning
concerto in the conservatory’s competition. The May 11
concert took place in the Sosnoff Theater at the Richard
B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts.
“Toward Modern: Midtown East,” was the topic of the Bard
Graduate Center walking tour on May 13 in Manhattan.
The Hudson Valley Gamelan Spring Concert on May 13
featured Balinese music and dance with the Chandra
Kancana and Giri Mekar ensembles.
Mezzo-soprano Joan Fuerstman joined students and faculty
in the spring vocal recital at Bard Hall on May 15.
“When Appliances Became Art” was the title of a Bard
Graduate Center–sponsored panel discussion on May 23
that featured 20th-century design expert James Zemaitis;
collectors Eric Brill and John C. Waddell; and Kevin
Tucker, curator of the Dallas Museum of Art.
JUNE
From the Wellspring to the Ocean: Bela Bartók’s
Musicological Legacy in Today’s World took place June
3–4. A highlight of the conference was a concert in
Theater Two of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the
Performing Arts.
The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle performed
on June 3, 10, and 17 in concerts featuring Eugenia
Zukerman, Sharon Robinson, and Jaime Laredo, among
other musicians.
On June 8, the Bard Graduate Center hosted a lecture and
reception for architectural historian John Maciuika upon
publication of Before the Bauhaus: Architecture, Politics, and
the German State, 1890–1920.
59

C L A S S N O T E S
Storm King Art Center
Saturday, September 9, 12:30 p.m.
A docent-led tour of the grounds. Bring a picnic. Fee: $15
Bard Alumni/ae Film Night
Saturday, September 16th, 6:30 p.m.
Third annual outdoor screening of alumni/ae films in the Brooklyn garden
of Walter Swett ’96. For submissions or more information, please contact
Walter Swett ’96 at waltswett@gmail.com
Annual Bard–St. Stephen’s Alumni/ae
Association Holiday Party
Friday, December 15
NOTE NEW LOCATION!
Boylan Studios
601 West 26th Street, 14th floor
New York City
Hungarian Revolution of 1956:
Bard Reunion and Conference
February 13–15, 2007
Bard will welcome back those refugees of the Hungarian uprising
of 1956 who came to Bard during 1956–57. Events will include
a concert, panel discussion, an exhibition, lectures, and films.
For information, contact hungary56@bard.edu.
For more information and to make reservations, call 1-800-BARDCOL
or e-mail alumni@bard.edu.
Check www.bard.edu/alumni for details as they become available.
60

CITIES PARTIES
Alumni/ae celebrated at Annual Cities Parties during the weekend
of April 7–9. Started 11 years ago by the Bard–St. Stephen’s
Alumni/ae Association Young Alumni/ae Committee, the
Annual Cities Parties are held almost simultaneously—in
young-at-heart venues across the country—and attract a
multigenerational crowd. This year’s gatherings were held at
the Model Café in Boston, Moody’s Pub in Chicago, the
Dresden Room in Los Angeles, Link in New York City, the
700 Club in Philadelphia, Kennedy’s Irish Pub and Curry
House in San Francisco, El Camino in Seattle, and the
Capital City Brewery in Washington, D.C. If you would like
to help organize a Cities Party next April in your area, contact
Rebecca Granato ’98 at rebecca.granato@gmail.com.
61

Editor’s Note: Alumni/ae wishing to submit a class note can do so by filling
out the envelope enclosed in the Bardian or going to www.bard.edu/alumni
and clicking on the link for Class Notes.
’37
70th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
’40
Class correspondent:
Dick Koch ’40, 516-599-3489
’42
65th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
’47
60th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
Walter Ligget continues to write haiku and short poems, of which
the following is representative:
Glop in my mailbox
On a cool Tuesday morning.
More glop Wednesday.
’50
Lee Gray moved from Atlanta to St. Augustine, Florida, to be with
his grandchildren. He loves living in the oldest city in the country;
St. Augustine was settled in 1565. He writes that he had a ball at
the 55th reunion.
’52
Class correspondent:
Kit Ellenbogen, max4794@netzero.net
55th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
’53
Class correspondent:
Naomi Feldman, nada1500@comcast.net
Naomi Feldman continues to pursue the pleasures of retirement
with her husband, Dan. She writes that living in Evanston, Illinois,
with easy access to Northwestern’s many concerts, chamber music
programs, and continuing education courses, is almost as good as
living near Bard. She maintains an active life as a pianist and chamber
musician. She and Dan frequently travel to the West Coast to
see their 7 children and 17 grandchildren, and visit more exotic
places as often as they can.
Classes of 1940 through 1951
Left to right: George Coulter ’51, Richard Koch ’40, Paul Munson ’47, Charles Friou ’46, and Francis Whitcomb ’47
62

50th Reunion, Class of 1956
Rhoda Levine’s career as an opera director and teacher continues
unabated. In May 2005, Rhoda and the New York City Opera
Company took her production of Little Women to Tokyo and Nagoya.
She spent much of August 2005 in Princeton, New Jersey, directing
The Barber of Seville for the New Jersey Opera Theater. In September
2005 she went to Atlanta, where she directed La Traviata. In between
gigs, she can be found on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music
and the Manhattan School of Music.
artists, all of whom were involved with the gallery at one time or
another during the past 80 years.
’56
Maxine Duer of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, being “faithful to the
task,” has worked as a licensed psychotherapist, private chef, and
designer of activist blank cards. She lives with her terrier, Nikka.
’57
50th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
Bob Bassler contributed three major sculptures to an exhibition celebrating
the 80th anniversary of the Los Angeles Art Association.
The exhibition, at Gallery 825, included such early modernists as
Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Oskar Fischinger, as well as contemporaries
such as Charles Arnoldi, Wayne Theibaud, Kim Abeles,
and Betye Sarr.
Bob was also selected by the curator to participate on a panel,
with Henry T. Hopkins and June Wayne, to discuss the ’60s. He was
honored to be selected, from among the hundreds of possible candidates,
to participate in this diverse exhibition of highly regarded
63

’59
Susan Wilkins is well, and happily retired. As at Bard, she still
paints and writes poems. She remains an activist for peace and social
and economic justice. She and Arthur Rozen ’53 now have two
grandsons, Stephen and Daniel.
’60
Carole Fink’s recent book, Defending the Rights of Others: The Great
Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection, 1878–1938
(see Books by Bardians, spring 2005) was awarded the George Louis
Beer Prize of the American Historical Association.
’62
45th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
’63
45th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
Richard Greener’s new novel, The Knowland Retribution, was published
by Midnight Ink (an imprint of Llewellyn Publishing) in
March. The second novel in this series, The Lacey Confession, is
scheduled for publication later this year.
40th Reunion, Class of 1966
Rayna Meshorer Harman retired in December 2003, after teaching
for 39 years—32 of them with the Los Angeles County Court schools.
She is married to Dr. A. Jay Harman, professor of economics at
Antelope Valley Community College. They have a blended family of
three children and five grandchildren.
’64
Dick Bell is working on a book about certain cosmological mysteries,
managing land investments in California and Oregon, studying
nutrition, and staying well.
35th Reunion, Class of 1971
64

30th Reunion, Class of 1976
’65
Blythe Danner won an Emmy Award for her supporting role in
Huff on Showtime.
Andrew Marum sent us a remembrance of his friend, Mark
Mellett ’66, whose death in December 2004 was reported in the
Summer 2005 Bardian. Andrew recalls that his friend, who was
memorialized in a “simple ceremony” two years ago, was politically
active while at Bard. After graduation, Mark earned his living as a
freelance photographer in New York City, which provided the great
theme for much of his work, and also conducted extensive research
in photographic archives. He loved to sail and was adept at commanding
the tiller. He was the brother of Rae Mellett ’65. It was
thanks to a conversation with Mark that Andrew eventually
decided to attend a class reunion; at that reunion, Andrew learned
of his friend’s passing.
Rick Smith’s new CD, This World Is Not My Home by the Mescal
Sheiks, is available from Blue Cap Music: www.mescalsheiks.com.
’66
Carole-Jean Smith presented an exhibition of her poetry and
nature-journal sketches at the Armenian Library and Museum of
America in Watertown, Massachusetts, in May 2005. She teaches at
the League School of Greater Boston.
’67
40th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
’68
Class correspondent:
Barbara Crane Wigren, bcwigren@aol.com
’69
Class correspondent:
Belinha Rowley Beatty, belinha@earthlink.net
David Houston is the landlord of an art complex in Oakland. He
performs and does art direction for a circus. He also does studio
photography. Visit his websites: www.davidhoustonart.com and
www.mysticfamilycircus.com.
’72
35th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Jessica Kemm, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu
Catharin Dalpino is a visiting associate professor of Asian studies at
Georgetown University and director of Georgetown’s new Thai
Studies Program. She is also cofounder and coeditor of the Georgetown
Southeast Asia Survey. Her son, Edward, is 14 and undergoing “selfimage
changes related to suddenly being taller than his mom.” She
would be interested in hearing from other Bardians—faculty,
alumni/ae, and students—who have an interest in Southeast Asia; she
can be reached at profdalpino@earthlink.net.
Don Steinmetz has been working on animations of the Hudson
River bathymetry with the Hudson River Research Reserve at the
Bard Field Station. The animations are on display at the Tivoli Bays
Visitor Center.
’74
Jeannie Motherwell and Jim Banks ’72 married on December 23,
2005, and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jeannie, who will
65

25th Reunion, Class of 1981
exhibit new work at the Lyman-Eyer Gallery in Provincetown,
Massachusetts, in August, encourages all interested to visit her website,
www.jeanniemotherwell.com.
Joel Parkes married Sandra Jean Faulkner of Monrovia, California,
on October 1, 2005.
’75
Jamie Callan and her new husband, Bill Thompson, have moved to
Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where Bill is a paleoclimatologist at
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Jamie, a writer, reports that
Chronicle Books bought her kit of writing exercises, informally
dubbed “Julia Cameron Meets ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’” Its real
title is The Writer’s Toolbox.
Jacquelyn Kramer’s latest book, Buddha Mom: The Path of Mindful
Mothering, has earned success. Publishers Weekly dubbed it “a truly
unique celebration of all that motherhood can be . . . an inspiring vision
of child rearing.” Jacquelyn also hosts talks and workshops. She lives
in Sonoma, California, and would love to hear from fellow Bardians:
jacquelynk@vom.com. Visit her website: www.buddhamom.com.
’76
Class correspondent:
Michele Petruzzelli, mapny13@yahoo.com
Janice Storozum left New York City for Paris 15 years ago, ostensibly
for a month, to open a one-woman show of her paintings in Place
des Vosges. She never came back. That summer the United States
Embassy selected her to represent her country in an international
exhibition of paintings at the Musée Grimaldi. She has since shown
her work in galleries in Paris, London, Berlin, and Japan, as well as
all the major cities in France. Janice is known to radio listeners in 30
countries, has been on television all over the world, and has toured
Europe as a “diva” on the blues and jazz festival circuit since she
signed with Warner Brothers in 1998.TV5 (the French version of the
BBC or CNN) is making a documentary about her life, music, and
art. She is traveling to the States for the 2006 “Diva Festivals” on the
West Coast and in Canada. “The adventure continues!” Check out
her website for more information: www.janicederosa.com.
’77
30th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Sasha Boak-Kelly, 845-758-7407 or boak@bard.edu
Bill Averbach moved from Port Aransas, Texas, to the lush,
Piedmont city of Charlotte, North Carolina. He no longer has his
bicycle shop or pizzeria, but still has the oldest klezmer band in the
Southwest, the Austin Klezmorim. He composes, records, and lectures
on klezmer, and tours with his band, whose new CD was
released this spring. Bill would like to hear from anyone who has the
chutzpah to call: 704-537-8898.
Penny Ann Dolin’s second book, Exploring Digital Workflow, was
published in November 2005 by Thomson Delmar (see Books by
Bardians, this issue). The book brings together her years as a commercial
photographer and her experience as a corporate member of
66

American Color Premedia. Penny Ann is a graphic information
technology professor at Arizona State University. She lives in
Gilbert, Arizona, with her husband, Ron Schneider; her daughter,
Sage Ann; and her above-average Aussie, Blue. She welcomes communication
with southwestern Bardians, and can be reached at pd@
asu.edu.
Composer Bruce Wolosoff’s collaboration with New York City
Ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied was presented
at New York’s Joyce Theater from March 14 through March 19. The
work featured dancers Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy.
’81
Meredith Cherven-Holland lives and works in Albany, New York.
She has been an archivist with the New York State Archives for the
past 18 years. Last fall, she traveled to Louisiana to help with recovery
efforts for public records. She is married, with one son, Caedmon,
who is 15.
’78
Vladimir Cubano practices family and cosmetic dentistry in
Albany, New York. He and his wife, Yvonne, have been blessed with
four children. Hello to all his classmates.
John Galczynski has coded a site, rentnet.org, which he plans to
expand to the New York area. The site enables one to list, search,
and locate house rentals in the manner of eBay. He has never taken
a computer course, but the tenacious study regimen he practiced at
Bard has helped.
20th Reunion, Class of 1986
67

15th Reunion, Class of 1991
’82
25th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Matt Soper, 845-758-7505 or soper@bard.edu
’83
Dirck Toll performed his new show, Before and After Intermission, at
the Black Box Theater at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, New
York. The show includes “a deviously inept songwriting scam, the
vegetable clothing craze, and a spokesperson who won’t shut up.”
’84
Noah R. Hargett relocated to the San Francisco Bay area after
spending two years in corporate America. Prior to that, he spent 13
years working in criminal justice and one year in education in the
Hudson Valley. He is looking forward to spending his time on the
West Coast, and making a home with his partner.
’85
Margot Day Mellet’s music is now available online for downloading
at www.margotday.com.
’86
Electra Truman is busy raising two children while dividing her time
between Los Angeles and New York City.
’87
20th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Sasha Boak-Kelly, 845-758-7407 or boak@bard.edu
Kate Cherry is married to Kenneth Ransom and has a 5-monthold
son named Orlando. She is the associate director of the
Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia.
’89
Lisa DeTora is living life in the scenic Poconos, communing with
nature. She also makes trips to Watch Hill, Boston; the Field
Museum, San Francisco; and Washington, D.C. Last year, she spoke
at Family Day at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
in the nation’s capital.
Denise Glover received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the
University of Washington in July 2005. Her dissertation is titled “Up
from the Roots: Contextualizing Medicinal Plant Classifications of
Tibetan Doctors in Rgyalthang, PRC.” Denise lives in the Seattle area
with husband Glen Avantaggio, son August (7), and daughter Saveria
(11 months). She can be contacted at dglover@u.washington.edu.
In June 2005, Dominick Reisen was elected to his third term as
president of the Otsego County Historical Association in Otsego
County, New York.
Jen Ferguson’s show Art in Chaos was exhibited on October 15 and
16, 2005, as part of the DUMBO Arts Festival in Brooklyn.
’90
Jesse Abbot is a full-time instructor in rhetoric and composition at
Tunxis Community College, where he is developing the school’s
philosophy program. He will continue working as a poet and personal
and business consultant, yet is pleased to move his teaching
front and center. Jesse, his wife Yvonne Espinoza, and their 11-
68

year-old daughter, Tasya, recently added a house and a dog to their
lives.
William Wayland was appointed account director for the San
Francisco studio of ATTIK, a global creative agency, in January. His
account management experience includes posts at San Francisco
agencies Publicis & Hal Riney SF, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, and
Foote Cone & Belding.
’91
Kristin Cleveland lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband Davy,
and twin 2-year-old sons, Connor and Spencer. This year, she will
become managing partner of the law firm Klarquist Sparkman LLP.
Karen Feldman’s firm, Artel, was hired by Burberry to design and
manufacture crystal for its home collection this spring and autumn.
She is still in Prague, so if anyone happens to pass through, look her up.
In August 2005, Sarah Rubenstein founded ModernTots, a modern
furnishings store for children. She lives in Brooklyn with her
husband, Adam Sturm ’89, and their son, Maxwell.
Erik Vatne (formerly Thomsen) is completing his master’s of philosophy
at Trinity College in Dublin, and hopes to enroll as a doctoral
candidate next year. His poems have appeared in various print
and online journals and are forthcoming in the Paris Review. He is
completing his second full-length collection of poems, as well as
editing an anthology of modern and contemporary Icelandic poetry.
’92
Class correspondent:
Andrea J. Stein, stein@bard.edu
15th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Sasha Boak-Kelly, 845-758-7407 or boak@bard.edu
Catherine Anderson finalized the adoption of her son, Samuel
Lamoine Anderson, in November 2005. They came together one
day after his birth on December 23, 2004, in Fayetteville, North
Carolina. The Andersons live in Portland, Maine, where Cat
teaches language arts, writes poetry, and had her first play produced
shortly before Samuel arrived last year.
Sarah B. Davis still enjoys the rain in Eugene, Oregon. Her massage
therapy/health consultation practice is thriving, and she finds
that self-employment truly agrees with her. She is starting to
explore teaching in the field of health care, beginning with physiology.
She and John enjoyed their travels to Mexico and Belize this
year and hope to visit Africa in 2007. All is well in their beloved
Northwest, the realm of green life, ocean tides, and beautiful forests.
Bardians can contact Sarah at saraby1@yahoo.com.
Sarah Megan Everitt and her husband moved to Seattle in January
2004. That November, they welcomed the birth of a daughter,
Arabella Jane. Sarah is staying at home for the time being and is
enjoying watching her daughter grow up.
Jonah Gensler is the U.S. director of Trickle Up, an international
microenterprise development organization. He writes, “I’ve been
climbing the same career ladder since I was at Bard—whether it was
in Nicaragua, California, or now New York, I’ve always been involved
with community development. It’s very compelling work.” Jonah lives
in Brooklyn, and can be reached at jonahgensler@gmail.com.
Rob Greenbaum is an associate professor at Ohio State University’s
School of Public Policy and Management. He’s always happy to talk
with anyone interested in the school’s graduate programs.
Barbara Guzman works at the law firm of Englert, Coffey &
McHugh in Schenectady, New York, focusing on family law, matrimonial
law, and a little bit of everything else, including a continuation
of her interest in contracts and not-for-profit corporation law. She,
her husband, and two children moved to Glenville, New York, in
December 2004, and are still unpacking, but enjoying the new place.
Roberta Harper-McIntosh lives in her hometown of Cheyenne,
Wyoming, with her husband and her son, a first-grader. She has cut
way back on activism in favor of longevity. She still claims to be a
writer. Contact her at shaledragon@yahoo.com.
Andrea (Breth) Kulkarni and her family moved back to the San
Francisco Bay Area in 2002 after 10 years in Vancouver, Canada.
She earned a master’s degree in learning design and technology
from Stanford in 2003 and is telecommuting as an instructional
multimedia designer while raising her two daughters, Julia (6) and
Ariana (2). In spare moments, the family works on slowly updating
its little Silicon Valley rancher.
Fiona Lawrence-Paine and Nathan Lawrence-Paine are enjoying
life in New Paltz, New York, where they have lived with their two
children, Lillian (7) and Will (4), since 2002. Nathan teaches social
studies at Poughkeepsie High School. Fiona’s graphic design business,
Fiona Lawrence Design, has grown steadily since it was founded
in 2000. Many of her clients are still in the Baltimore/Washington
area, but she has been getting more local jobs. She designs a Red
Hook publication called AboutTown, as well as a sister publication by
the same name in the Kingston/Woodstock area. She is also working
on a series of trail maps and kiosks for the town of Hyde Park. She
and Nathan are active in Will’s cooperative preschool and with
Lillian’s swim team.
Julian de Marchi and his girlfriend, Cathie Ellis, became lucky parents
on December 8, 2005, with the birth of Kimm Elissa de
Marchi. On the first workday of 2006, Julian started a new job as a
consultant at Altran Technologies, the world’s biggest engineering
consulting firm.
Aaron Phillips lives in downtown Manhattan with his wife,
Yasmeen, and their new daughter, Anoushka. He is a director of
69

photography for music videos, commercials, documentaries, and
films. His work is available for viewing on his agent’s website at
www.sradp.com.
After several years in her hometown of Saratoga, Wyoming,
Kathleen “Keightie” Sherrod quit the “starving freelance” life,
resigned her position on the town council and various other boards,
and moved to Cheyenne to get a real job. She is now a midnight shift
dispatcher for the Wyoming Highway Patrol, telling state troopers,
game wardens, livestock investigators, and the odd brand investigator
“where to go” in the wee hours of the night. She lives with a
prissy border collie named Molly and still writes on the side.
Brian Kim Stefans has two books forthcoming in 2006. What Is
Said to the Poet Concerning Flowers (poems) will be published by the
Factory School in its Heretical Texts series, and Before Starting
Over: Selected Writings and Interviews 1993–2005 will be published
in the U.K. by Salt Publishing. “Circulars,” an essay on his website,
will appear in New Media Poetry: Aesthetics, Institutions, Audiences
from MIT Press. He is a frequent contributor to the Boston Review,
and a poem of his was featured in Best American Poetry 2004.
Currently, he is at Brown University finishing his M.F.A. degree in
electronic writing. After graduating, he plans to either teach poetry
at a university in the United States or Canada, or move to New York
to live with his girlfriend, Rachel Szekely, a linguist, or do both.
Give him a holler at bstefans@earthlink.net.
Robin Leebardt and Stuart Mattingly are proud to announce that
their son, Connor, had his first birthday on January 10. They are all
happily living in the desert in Tucson, Arizona. Robin is in her eighth
year of teaching instrumental music to elementary and middle school
students, while Stuart is prospering in his photography business.
Jennifer Reeves’s film The Time We Killed was shown at the Anthology
Film Archives in 2005 and was selected and screened at the Whitney
2006 Biennial. In addition to the film’s weeklong run at Anthology,
the venue also presented two programs of her short films. A synopsis
from the Anthology’s program reads: “The Time We Killed portrays the
inner life of a writer unable to leave her New York apartment on the
brink of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. As she begins to overcome the
amnesia that afflicted her as an adolescent, she fears coming down
with ‘the amnesia of the American people.’”
’93
10th Reunion, Class of 1996
70

’94
Lesley McClintock loves living in Berkeley, California, where she
attends Buddhist retreats in the Thich Nhat Hahn tradition. She
earned her M.F.A. in film at San Francisco State University and is
now working on a teaching credential at the University of
California, Davis. She plans to continue with environmental and art
education. Last summer, she enjoyed taking inner city girls hiking
55 miles into the Yosemite wilderness.
Jen Silverman, her husband, Ari, and son, Luc, welcomed Milo
Silas into their family on September 11, 2005. They live in Jackson
Heights, Queens. Jen works as a program coordinator at a community
center in Brooklyn, and is a founding member of m*a*m*a (see
www.mama-nyc.org).
’95
Stephanie Chasteen graduated with her Ph.D. in physics from the
University of California, Santa Cruz. She is doing postdoctorate work
at the Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum in San Francisco,
working with teachers to help them teach science in the classroom.
She invites Bardians to come by and see her in her dream job.
Angela (Snyder) Rowan completed her M.S.W. in clinical social
work at Smith College School for Social Work in 2001, married
Jonathan Michael Rowan in 2002, completed an apprenticeship as
an herbalist in 2004, and gave birth to a son, Riley Michael Rowan,
in June 2005. She is a full-time mom and part-time psychotherapist
in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
’96
Class correspondents:
Walter Swett, walter@charlierangel.org, and Abigail Morgan, abigail
morgan@earthlink.net
In May 2005, Brent Armendinger collaborated with Anne Carson,
Megan Pruiett ’97, and artists Kim Anno and Ben Fife for a performance
of Carson’s oratorio Lots of Guns for City Arts and
Lectures in San Francisco. His poems have recently appeared in
magazines such as Good Foot, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Bird Dog.
Katie Davis has moved to Maryland, where her husband, Tony, got
a new job. Their son, Tyler, just turned 1. It has been a busy year!
Matthew DeGennaro is having a wonderful time in the Upper
West Side of Manhattan with his partner, Christian. He is past the
halfway point in completing his Ph.D. in developmental genetics.
Kapil Gupta is a Foreign Service officer with the Department of
State. His first assignment will be in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the fall.
Marni Kotak is studying for an M.F.A. in studio art at Brooklyn
College. Since graduating from Bard, she has been developing and
exhibiting her unique form of performance art. In May 2005 she
performed a solo show titled Pleasure War! at the Naked Duck
Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She lives and works in East
Williamsburg, where she is the landlord and building manager for a
rental property.
Joshua Ledwell married Aimeé Nicole Snyder. They live in
Watertown, Massachusetts. E-mail Josh at jledwell@wiredhound.com.
Talya Rubin moved back to Montréal after seven years in
Melbourne, Australia. She creates and performs solo work for the
stage, and teaches theater and creative writing.
Emily Stuart regrets that she could not make her 10-year reunion,
because on that weekend she was scheduled to graduate once more,
receiving her D.V.M.
’97
10th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Heather Deichler, 845-758-7663 or deichler@bard.edu
Since graduating from Bard, Natalie Ford has lived in England,
Montana, the Canadian Arctic, and Spain. She has volunteered as a
reading specialist, worked in an orchard, traveled, and taught English
as a second language. Several of her poems have been published in
journals in the U.K. and United States. Natalie is now continuing her
creative writing alongside critical work in York, England, where she
earned an M.A. in Renaissance literature in 2002. She is pursuing a
Ph.D., which will examine the fate of
“reverie” in British 19th-century literary and mental science discourses.
Jennifer Hames continues to enjoy teaching at a city high school,
and hopes to begin training as a principal this fall. She married Jon
Winsor ’93 in the summer of 2005.
On May 28, 2005, in Athens, Manos Kypraios married a wonderful
Greek woman from Frankfurt, Germany. They live in Lugano,
Switzerland, where Manos works in the financial sector, as an interbank
broker in equity derivatives. He would be glad to hear from
any old friends through e-mail at mkypraios@yahoo.com.
Rakhel Milstein and Scott Milstein ’96 had a baby boy, Oliver
Louie Milstein, on June 19, 2005.
Gwendolyn Norton has lived in Austin, Texas, since July 2004. She
works as a systems analyst for the University of Texas and spends a
lot of her free time spectating at rock concerts, Roller Derbies, and
art galleries. She has also kept up her personal interest in playing the
guitar, doing black-and-white photography, and bicycling. She
writes that all old friends (and political enemies) are invited to contact
her at gwendolyn8@gmail.com.
’98
Class correspondent:
Jennifer Novik, jnovik@gmail.com
Louis Dobi Jr., an associate with the law firm of Kimmel &
Silverman, was named a “Pennsylvania Rising Star” in a survey con-
71

5th Reunion, Class of 2001
ducted by Law and Politics magazine. The survey, published in the
December 2005 edition of Philadelphia magazine, polled the top
attorneys in Pennsylvania, asking them to identify “extraordinary
lawyers” whom they had personally observed in action. Louis, who
graduated from Bard with a B.A. in philosophy, received his J.D.
from Temple University School of Law.
Susanne Grabowski married Jim Poe on November 17, 2005, at
City Hall in Manhattan. It was their 10th anniversary together.
They met in 1994 as first-year students at Simon’s Rock, started
dating the following year, and transferred to Bard together in 1996.
Susanne is an assistant teacher and the technology specialist at
Brick Church School, a nursery school on the Upper East Side. She
is working on her M.F.A. in creative writing at the New School.
Her story “Alchemy” is forthcoming in the literary journal Salt Hill.
Jim is a software architect, working as a vice president in research
technology at Merrill Lynch. He also plays in a band called The
Paper Plates. Susanne and Jim live in Brooklyn.
In the summer of 2005, Sonja Olson moved from Pittsburgh to
New Jersey, just outside Philadelphia.
’99
Bilyana Dimitrova is the photo editor at Metropolis, a job that also
includes shooting photographs for the magazine. Prior to taking
the job this past winter, she had worked as an architectural photographer
for several years.
Competition, for which he will receive a song-cycle commission,
publication by E. C. Schirmer, and a performance in New York City
by the Joy In Singing Foundation. He is married to a fabulous theater
director and historian, and living in a state of perpetual bliss.
Rachel Israel and her husband, Aavi Rosenfeld, had a son, Michael
Yehuda, on June 4, 2005, in Jerusalem. They now live in Seattle,
where Aavi is in school and Rachel teaches part time. She would
love to hear from any Bardians: rachelisrael@hotmail.com.
Lucia Minervini joined the staff at the Department of Cultural
Affairs of Miami Dade County in 2005, after working for Arts for
Learning in Miami. She has an M.A. in international administration
from the University of Miami and a B.A. in music (vocal performance)
from the New World School of the Arts. As cultural projects
officer, she is involved in many of the department’s projects and education/information
outreach initiatives, including the Golden Ticket
Arts Guide, a program enabling seniors to attend cultural events free
of charge; and the Miami Emerging Arts Leaders, which provides
networking and professional advancement opportunities. She studied
in Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic, and has also worked for
the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe (in Washington,
D.C.). A trained mezzo-soprano, she sings with the Florida Grand
Opera and Seraphic Fire.
Scott Gendel received his D.M.A. in music composition, and is a
freelance composer and pianist in Madison, Wisconsin. Scott won
first prize in the ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle
72

’00
After touring several Asian nations and pronouncing Boston “too
expensive to endure,” Melissa Tremblay ran squiggly into the arms of
the left coast, where she is presently baking bread, writing poetry, reading
books, applying for comic-book grants, challenging unconscious
behaviors, taking classes, and walking down strange roads, singing.
Festival. It was written and performed at the San Francisco Fringe
Festival. Her summer camp, Story Camp, is going well.
Natasha Sweeten’s solo show, titled Recent Paintings, ran from
February 3 to March 11 at Edward Thorp Gallery, New York City.
Bardians can view her work at www.natashasweeten.com.
’01
In 2005, Daniel Kutcher returned from a successful tour of Ireland
with Jolly Ship the Whizbang, a “pirate puppet rock opera.”
Blanca Lista was awarded a Sony Pictures Global Internship
Program in Culver City, California, where she spent three months
working for Sony. Blanca is in her final year of an M.F.A. program
in Brussels, Belgium.
In November 2005, Noah Sheola directed and produced his latest
comedy, Scent and Sentimentality, at the Players’ Ring Theater in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he lives. Noah is a founding
member of the improvisational theater group Stranger than Fiction,
which holds an annual improv festival and retreat in Maine.
’02
5th Reunion: May 25–27, 2007
Staff contact: Heather Deichler, 845-758-7663 or deichler@bard.edu
Hannah Sikorski is in her second year in the English doctoral program
at Brown University. She is focusing on 20th-century British
literature. She would love to hear from any Bard alumni/ae in the
Providence area.
’03
On January 23, Meagan Leatherbury left for two years in Bolivia
as a Peace Corps volunteer in environmental education.
Milton Avery Graduate School
of the Arts
MFA correspondent:
Marjorie Vecchio MFA ’01, ABTOK@aol.com
’87
Maddy Rosenberg was visiting artist at the St. Louis Art Museum
in February. She also worked on a new artist’s book as a shop guest
of Evil Prints Press in St. Louis. A solo exhibition of her paintings
was on view from April 13 to May 13 at Safe-T-Gallery in Brooklyn.
’96
In 2006, Eleanor Scott had a reading of her play Sissy and Pierre Go
to Hell at the Magic Theater, performed at the Bay Area Playwrights
73

’97
Jasmina Danowski had a solo show at Paradigm Art, Inc., in New
York City, from January 12 to March 3.
’00
Mark Wonsidler has been the assistant director of Bard’s MFA
Program since 2001. In September and October of 2005, he exhibited
work in Ghosts of Peekskill (The Peekskill Project), organized by
the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New
York. In 2006–08, he will participate in Outside the Centers/On the
Edge, a group exhibition focusing on Pennsylvania artists who live
outside urban centers and make experimental work. The show will
travel to the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Kutztown
University, Bucknell University, Southern Alleghenies Museum of
Art, and Erie Art Museum, among other venues.
’01
Michelle Handelman participated in PERFORMA 05 in November.
Handelman’s contribution to PERFORMA, billed as the “first visual
art performance biennial,” was The Laughing Lounge, inspired by the
Laughing Clubs in India. The work was shown at Jack the Pelican
Presents in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Xan Palay had a solo exhibition, As Wishing Still Helped, from
September 2 to November 6, 2005, at the Columbus Museum of
Art in Columbus, Ohio.
Jennifer Riley received an award in painting from the Massachusetts
Cultural Council. She participated in a two-person show of large
paintings entitled Less is More at the Dust Gallery in Las Vegas. She
exhibited new works at the ArtLA gallery in Los Angeles and the
Ethan Cohen Gallery in New York City. Some of her new works
were also shown at the Harvard Design School in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. That exhibit was titled Source Material: Rome, and
included works on paper, made over the decade that she taught
drawing in Rome. She was also in a three-person show at OH+T in
Boston. Jennifer teaches as a part-time lecturer in the Critical
Studies Department at the Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Marjorie Vecchio successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis in the philosophy
of communications media and graduated magna cum laude
from the European Graduate School in Switzerland in December
2005. Her dissertation was titled “Genius Envy: Mediocrity and
Epiphany.” She looks forward to reentering the earth’s atmosphere.
’02
Carrie Moyer had two exhibitions this spring. Do You Think I’m
Disco? ran at the Longwood Arts Gallery at Hostos, in the Bronx.
Her other show, Carrie Moyer and Diana Puntar, was hosted by the
Samson Projects in Boston.
six-month residency at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s
Workspace. This spring, Raïssa was in residence for three months in
Berlin while installing two solo exhibitions in Germany. These
exhibitions were hosted by Herrmann & Wagner Gallery in Berlin
and Kunstverein Ulm Museum. The Kunstverein Ulm and Hatje
Cantz Publishers released a catalogue of her work in March.
’04
In 2005 Abbey Williams exhibited in the following shows: Greater
New York, P.S.1 MoMA; Metropolis, The National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; and Musica Video Musica, Reina
Sofia Museum, Madrid. In 2006 her work was included in
Exploding Television: Satellite of Love, a show organized by Witte de
With Center for Contemporary Art, as part of the International
Film Festival Rotterdam.
’05
Jason Burch continues to live and work in New Jersey, although
he also maintains a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He participated
in the Studio Visit exhibition at Exit Art. Last year he was
included in the Greater New York exhibition at the P.S.1 MoMA
Contemporary Art Center.
’06
Please visit Jaime Fennelly at her website: http://www.evolving
ear.com.
Stefany Anne Golberg is the executive director of Flux Factory, a
nonprofit arts organization and artist collective in Long Island City,
Queens. Flux Factory’s show FluxBox opened March 25 and ran
through April 29. FluxBox was a walk-through, interactive, roomsized
“music box” that played a single song. It was created by a group
of sound artists, musicians, and sculpture/installation artists gathered
together by Flux Factory. Each artist created a sculpture that
contributed a musical element to the song. This show was full of
Bard-related folks! For more information, visit www.fluxfactory.org.
Stanya Kahn and Harry Dodge had a exhibition of collaborative
video works at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York in April. This
past year they both published short stories in the LTTR Journal of Art
and Writing and Soft Targets, a journal of art, theory, and literature.
Cynthia Nelson lives in Portland, Oregon, where she writes poetry,
prose, and music. Her new CD is available at www.nonstopco-op.com,
a collaborative record label that she founded with two other artists.
Joshua Thorson premiered his thesis video at the International
Film Festival Rotterdam in January. He is scripting a feature, as well
as completing several new paintings and drawings.
Raïssa Venables had a solo exhibition titled Intimacies at the Jersey
City Museum in the spring of 2005. At that time, she completed a
74

Bard Center for Environmental Policy
’03
Jessica Barry, the residential coordinator for Mid-Hudson Energy
Smart Communities, published four articles on green building in
Upstate House in 2005. She is training with the U.S. Green Building
Council to become a LEED-accredited professional in the field of
green building. LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design.
Lillian Gonzalez is the business development manager at TesTech,
a geotechnical and environmental engineering consulting firm in
Dayton, Ohio.
’04
Catherine Bowes coordinates the Clean the Rain Campaign at the
National Wildlife Federation in Montpelier, Vermont.
Enid Cardinal does contract work for Calvert, a leading firm in the
area of socially responsible investing.
Teresa Rusinek is the commercial and community horticulture
educator at the Ulster County Cornell University Cooperative
Extension.
’05
Colleen Beaty works as an environmental educator for the
Riverbend Environmental Education Center in Philadelphia.
Donald Brooks works for the California Public Utilities Commission
as a public utilities regulatory analyst, level II.
Jessica Butts spent the summer following graduation farming at
the “ecoganic” Potomac Vegetable Farms in Virginia, and now
works at Mangi Environmental Group in that state. The firm conducts
environmental analyses and provides compliance assistance
with construction projects such as a new transmission line through
a national forest, a replacement hospital facility on an Indian reservation,
and oil and gas facilities off the Atlantic coast.
Melissa Head is an associate with the Environmental Careers
Organization in Fairbanks, Alaska, doing Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) work for the Bureau of Land Management. She is
compiling the data used in the planning process for the National
Petroleum Reserve–Alaska.
Guests at gathering hosted by MaraJayne Miller CCS ’96 included (left
to right) Elizabeth Zechella ’04, Mary Katherine Matalon ’04, Joanna
Montoya ’04, and Ingrid Cho’ 03
Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the
Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture
’99
Having published Guide to Period Styles for Interiors (Abrams, 2005),
Judith Gura is finishing up her next book, Scandinavian Furniture:
Designs for the 21st Century, scheduled for publication in the spring
of 2007. She had three major stories in Art + Auction within a threemonth
period in 2005. She also participated in a panel discussion at
the Modernism show at the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York
City in November 2005. The panel was moderated by BGC visiting
professor Kevin Stayton, and included BGC professor Pat Kirkham,
among others.
’03
Scott Perkins is the curator of collections and exhibitions at the Price
Tower Arts Center (PTAC), Bartlesville, Oklahoma. PTAC is
housed in Frank Lloyd Wright’s only realized skyscraper, built in
1956 for the H. C. Price Company. In 2005, Scott coauthored (with
BGC professor Pat Kirkham) an essay on the Price Tower interiors
and furnishings that was published in Prairie Skyscraper: Frank Lloyd
Wright’s Price Tower (Rizzoli, 2005). His first curated exhibition at
PTAC, which took place in April, focused on the work of internationally
acclaimed designer Karim Rashid. Also in April, he presented a
paper in Atlanta to the American Culture Association/Popular
Culture Association national conference on Wright’s 1957 musical
note–shaped home for Duey and Julia Wright (no relation to the
architect) in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Miranda Pildes is making custom-designed jewels and amulets
under the name of Marisol. Her first collection will debut this fall.
’04
Brandy Evans-Culp works at the Art Institute of Chicago as the
Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Department of
American Art. Most recently, her work has focused on the Institute’s
75

late 19th-century and early 20th-century American decorative art
holdings. Brandy’s entry on the museum’s Norman Bel Geddes
“Manhattan” Cocktail Ensemble was included in the acquisitions issue
of Museum Studies, the Art Institute’s scholarly journal. This spring,
she taught a survey class on silver for Northwestern University’s
School of Continuing Studies.
’05
Martina Grünewald is a doctoral student in the Design History
and Theory Department at the University of Applied Arts in
Vienna. She would like to extend a general invitation to all of her
friends at the BGC to come and visit.
Center for Curatorial Studies
’96
Regine Basha, adjunct curator at Arthouse (the oldest statewide
contemporary visual art organization in Texas), curated The Gospel
of Lead, which ran through March 12.
Rachel Gugelberger, an independent curator, organized a small
thematic exhibition in Miami, titled Library Science (a work in
progress), as part of the exhibition co-dependent. The exhibition
examined some of the ways in which our physical relationship to
both the library and the book is changing in tandem with advances
in technology. In January, Rachel and Jeffrey Walkowiak ’00 were
named codirectors of Sara Meltzer Gallery in Manhattan.
MaraJayne Miller graciously hosted a gathering of 33 Center for
Curatorial Studies alumni/ae at Gallery 511 in Manhattan, where she
is director.Tom Eccles, executive director of the CCS, gave an informal
talk, titled “Creative Fundraising for Curators,” which was laced with
practical tips based on his experience at the Public Art Fund in New
York City, where he guided the Fund through a period of major expansion
during his eight-year tenure as director and curator. The “wine
and cheese” was upstaged by the animated discussion that followed.
Goran Tomcic curated The History Place, an exhibition of seven
contemporary painters from different corners of Europe, at Moti
Hasson Gallery in New York City. He also had an essay included
in Next Stop, Kiosk, a catalogue published by Moderna Galerija
Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2003.
Gilbert Vicario curated Indelible Images (trafficking between life and
death) at the International Center for the Arts of the Americas, The
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where he is assistant curator of
Latin American art and Latino coordinator. The exhibition featured
the work of Teresa Margolles, Oscar Muñoz, Daniel Joseph
Martinez, Felix Gonzáles-Torres, and Regina Silveira. Gilbert was
also named to the U.S. Commission for the Cairo International
Biennale, opening in December 2006.
Robbin Zella, director of the Housatonic Museum of Art, organized
two exhibitions, Collateral Damage and Icons of a New Century,
at Housatonic Community College. Both shows delve into the
long-term consequences of war.
’97
Victoria Noorthoorn, an independent curator based in Argentina,
was selected to curate the 29th Bienal de Arte de Pontevedra in
Galicia, Spain. The event, which will include 30 artists in three venues
of the city of Pontevedra, runs from July 13 through September 10.
Tomás Pospiszyl coauthored a monograph on Alen Divis that
accompanied an exhibition at Gallery Rudolfinum, Prague, in the
spring of 2005. He teaches at the Film Academy in Prague, where
he was a doctoral student.
’98
Ian Berry, associate director for curatorial affairs and curator at
the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at
Skidmore College, organized an exhibition at the Tang in collaboration
with artist Kathy Butterly that ran from October 1 to
December 30, 2005. He also curated a retrospective of of Richard
Pettibone’s work in November 2005 at the Tang.
In September 2005 Sarah Cook, postdoctoral curator and
researcher at the University of Sunderland, England, cocurated The
Art Formerly Known as New Media to mark the 10th anniversary of
the Banff New Media Institute. She also cocurated Database
Imaginary, an exhibition at the University of Toronto, in November.
’99
Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, exhibitions coordinator at the Getty
Research Institute (and new mother), organized a screening and
discussion in conjunction with a Julius Shulman exhibition that she
cocurated in December 2005 at the Getty.
Denise Markonish, gallery director/curator at Artspace in New
Haven, was the juror for The 19th Drawing Show at Mills Gallery,
Boston Center for the Arts. The exhibition ran from November 18,
2005, to January 8.
’00
Artists Jennifer Crowe and Scott Paterson created a mobile, audiovisual
project that was installed at the Whitney Museum of American
Art in December 2005. On view through January 29, Follow Through
was created as a site-specific intervention into viewers’ experience of
the Whitney’s fifth-floor permanent collection galleries.
Sofía Hernández, curator and program manager at Art in General in
New York City, was one of three curators for the IX Baltic Triennial
of International Art—BMW. Organized by the Contemporary Art
Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania, the festival—whose theme was “magic,
vampires, enchantments, extreme furtiveness, and other weird but
76

true stories of life and death”—ran from September 23 to November
20.
Tumelo Mosaka cocurated AFRICA WIRED: Youth Culture, Hip
Hop & Digital Culture Remixed, a screening, performance, and exhibition
at the Brooklyn Museum in October 2005. Mosaka works as an
assistant curator in the museum’s Department of Contemporary Art.
Jimena Acosta Romero is the curator of a project room called Lado B
at the Muca/Museo de artes y Ciencias, Mexican National University,
Mexico City. She organized a site-specific video project, Desde el
Cuarto de Edicion (From the Editing Room), at the museum.
Tracee (Williams) Robertson curated Artists Among Us, an exhibition
that featured contemporary work by 10 artists from the Dallas–Fort
Worth area, at the Women’s Museum in Dallas.The exhibition, which
ran from November 17, 2005, to January 29, sought to tell a portion of
each woman’s story, focusing on the spirit of her life as an artist.
Mercedes Vicente curated If It’s Too Bad to Be True, It Could Be
DISINFORMATION, presented at Apexart in New York City. The
exhibition was reviewed by the New York Times and was one of
Artforum’s “critics’ picks.” Mercedes is the curator of contemporary
art at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand.
’02
Kelly Lindner directs the George Adams Gallery in New York City.
An essay by Jenni Sorkin was included in a book on Joan Synder,
published by Harry N. Abrams in the fall of 2005. Jenni is working
on her Ph.D. in art history at Yale University.
Jill Winder is in Berlin, where she is finishing up her fellowship at
the Institute of Current World Affairs. She has been editing a number
of art books and catalogues.
’03
Robert Blackson participated in “Initial Public Offerings (IPO):
New Artists, New Curators,” a series of salon-style dialogues
between curators, artists, and writers working in New York City, at
the Whitney Museum of American Art in November 2005. Robert
is the curator of the Reg Vardy Gallery in Sunderland, England.
Ingrid Chu organized THE GIFT wrap / set / boutique for Red-I
Projects at Julia Friedman Gallery in Manhattan. The exhibition,
which featured work by Alejandro Diaz ’99, ran from November 18
to December 31, 2005. Ingrid is director and curator of Red-I as
well as cultural affairs associate at The Americas Society in New
York City. On November 2, she discussed her CCS thesis project as
part of a panel presentation at Hunter College.
Bree Edwards is the curator of education and media arts at the
Asheville Art Museum, North Carolina.
Kate Green was promoted to curator of education and exhibitions
at Artpace in San Antonio, Texas, in January.
Candice Hopkins is director/curator of exhibitions at the Western
Front Society, an artist-run center in Vancouver. Previously, she was
a curatorial resident at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, where
she cocurated Jimmie Durham: Knew Urk with Robert Blackson.
Elaine “Mimi” Paul Hutchison ’52
Ana Vejzovic Sharp, associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary
Art Cleveland, organized an exhibition of Jon Pylypchuk’s work, which
ran from January 20 to May 7 at the museum.
John Weeden is assistant director of the Center for Outreach and
Development of the Arts (CODA) scholars program at Rhodes
College in Memphis, Tennessee.
’04
Stacey Allan was promoted from gallery manager to director at
Apexart in New York City.
In addition to being assistant director at Moti Hasson Gallery,
Tairone Bastien is a curatorial associate at PERFORMA, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to the research, development, and
presentation of performance by visual artists.
Ryan Rice cocurated Flying Still: Carl Beam, 1943–2005 at the
Carleton University Art Gallery in Ottawa, where he is a curatorial
resident.
Pascal Spengemann, a gallerist and partner with Taxter &
Spengemann, was invited to take part in selecting curatorial projects
for the Scope Art Fair, which featured more than 85 exhibitors from
the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
77

’05
Cecilia Alemani is assistant curator to Francesco Bonami for the
exhibition Human Game, which opened in June at Pitti Foundation,
Florence, Italy.
Judy Ditner is a collection assistant in Ryerson University’s historical
black-and-white photography collection. Many of the photographs
in the collection were taken during the great era of magazine
photojournalism.
Jyeong Yeon ( Janice) Kim has been invited to curate an exhibition
for the Busan Biennale, which will open in September. Her exhibition
will represent 40 young Korean artists.
Jen Mergel is a curatorial assistant at The Institute of Contemporary
Art in Boston, where she works with chief curator Nicholas Baume
as well as curators Bennett Simpson and Emily Moore.
Camilla Pignatti Morano, an assistant curator at Castello di Rivoli
Museo D’Arte Contemporanea, Italy, is working on the museum’s
Triennial, which will open on November 9.
Erin Salazar was offered the permanent position of assistant curator
at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
Yasmeen Siddiqui is assistant curator/programs coordinator at
Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City.
Master of Arts in Teaching Program
’05
In August 2005, Gilana Chelimsky moved to Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, where she teaches seventh-grade humanities at M.S. 582
(Ten Eyck Upper School).
April Howard writes that she has “moved back to the People’s
Republic of Vermont,” where she lives on a dirt road next to a river.
She taught at an “inspiring” summer school in July 2005 and now
teaches Spanish in elementary and high schools. She writes, “I
believe that the Spanish language is an essential part of the secession
movement and the creation of the Second Vermont Republic.”
In Memoriam
’35
Sidney Geist, 91, recipient of Bard’s 1989 Charles Flint Kellogg
Award for Arts and Sciences, died in October 2005. He was a World
War II veteran, prolific sculptor, art writer, teacher, and prominent
authority on Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Recalling his
experience as a private in the war, he wrote: “I spent 1944–45 moving
slowly across Europe and gaining much firsthand experience in rubble
and ruins. I would draw or paint on anything I could get my hands
on. Sometimes I drew on the backs of candy boxes or ration cartons.”
Christopher Black ’96
His first solo sculpture show took place at the Hacker Gallery, and his
last, in 2005, at the Jason McCoy Gallery, also in Manhattan. His
sculptures, made exclusively of natural materials, are known for their
voluptuous, joyous vibrancy, and have been described as “totemic” and
“shockingly colorful.” Hilton Kramer, an art critic and friend of the
artist, claimed that Geist’s bold use of color was his “greatest artistic
achievement.” Geist published his extensively researched book
Brancusi: A Study of the Sculpture in 1968; it was hailed as a success by
historians and critics and “still stands as a seminal Brancusi study,”
according to the New York Times. He taught at the University of
California, Berkeley; Pratt Institute; and Vassar College. His survivors
include a son, a sister, and a brother.
’41
Arnold H. “Bud” Burrough, 88, died on October 4, 2005, in
Falmouth, Massachusetts. During World War II, he served as a
dive-bomb pilot on the USS Lexington aircraft carrier in the Pacific.
In Falmouth, he owned and ran Concrete Products Co. for many
years and was active in town affairs. His son, Arnold H. “Buddy”
Burrough Jr., predeceased him. He is survived by his wife of 63
years, Ruth (Bowman) Burrough; two daughters, Gretchen B.
Morse and Nancy B. Barry; and five grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren.
’52
Elaine “Mimi” Paul Hutchison, 75, died on January 12, 2006. After
majoring in literature at Bard, she moved to the Far East with her
husband, Christopher Walford Magee Sr. ’50, who had joined the
U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service. In Hong Kong, Mimi
began her career as an interior designer and worked on hotels
throughout the Far East. She was also much sought after as a fashion
model. After spending time in England, she moved to Florida,
where she operated an interior design business for 30 years in Delray
Beach. In February 2005, Mimi gathered with her son, Christopher
Jr.; her daughter, Louise Gillespie Magee; and her former husband,
Christopher, and his wife, Miwako, in Los Angeles, to greet her
78

JOHN BARD SOCIETY NEWS
Richard D. Griffiths and his wife, Nancy, join the distinguished ranks
of the John Bard Society. After nearly 45 years as members of the Bard
community, the Griffiths are planning to bequeath to the College a
graceful second home they own near the campus. This Planned Gift,
accepted by the College with deep gratitude, will serve as a permanent
legacy of the Griffiths’ loyalty to and accomplishment at Bard.
The Griffiths have also endowed the Richard D. and Nancy M.
Griffiths Scholarship, which goes to talented and deserving undergraduates
who show a deep appreciation for the Bard campus and an
interest in environmental matters.
Recipient of the Bard Medal in 2003, Richard “Dick” Griffiths,
special assistant to the president, holds a unique place in Bard’s history.
With his young family, he arrived at Bard in 1961—just six
months after President Reamer Kline. With the appointment of
Griffiths as head of buildings and grounds, the College began a campaign
of improvement and expansion that continues to this day.
Griffiths can remember when each campus structure was built or
improved, who laid the foundations, who mortared the bricks, and
who plumbed and wired and painted every inch of every building. In
fact, he and his Bard staff did much of the physical work themselves,
saving the College great expense.
Griffiths has also served the surrounding community. He has
been town justice in the town of Red Hook since 1978 and serves
as justice for the village of Red Hook and the village of Tivoli.
Dutchess County Court monitors have praised his efforts to explain
legal terms in comprehensible language and maintain order in the
court. His court has been notable for its fairness, respect, and courtesy.
Prior to being elected town justice, Griffiths served as a
Dutchess County deputy sheriff and as the zoning enforcement
officer for the town of Red Hook.
Griffiths grew up on a dairy farm in central New York and joined
the Air Force in 1955, training as a pilot in Arizona. Afterwards, he
qualified as a private pilot and for many years kept two planes at Sky
Park, the small airfield in Red Hook.
When they first arrived at Bard, the Griffiths family lived at
Brown–Albee West on Faculty Circle. Nancy Griffiths, a registered
nurse, served as the College nurse for several years. About 250 students
were enrolled at the time, but that number was growing
steadily. More students meant more dormitories, more classrooms,
and more services.
“Just as I arrived, the campus was given the Schuyler mansion
in Rhinebeck,” Griffiths recalls, “and Reamer Kline and I went in
there in a couple of feet of snow, in early 1962. President Kline
wanted it ready as a student dormitory by that fall. The house was
in its original 19th-century condition. No heat, no wiring, not
in good shape. I had it ready for the students six months later,
installing heat and laying out the dormitory rooms for 30 students.
And the next year we had a full house with a minibus running back
and forth from campus.
“While that renovation was happening, the College found it
needed seating for 200 for the incoming class, so I went to work
building Sottery Hall. That was ready on time, too.”
An even more pressing issue of the day was the campus water
supply. “The College was having potable water delivered by truck,”
Griffiths says. “Bard did not have its own water system.” Griffiths
built a water purification plant, near the Saw Kill, which continues
to serve the campus today. A few years later, he and his staff also
built the College’s sewage treatment plant.
Over the next 10 years, the College acquired Ward Manor and
Blithewood, both of which needed renovation. Later, the Kline
Commons dining hall was built, along with more dormitories, and
there were numerous renovations, restorations, and capital projects. As
the campus expanded, Griffiths maintained a policy of respecting historic
structures, while simultaneously adopting innovative and costeffective
engineering. When Bard acquired the old Annandale hamlet,
Griffiths unearthed whatever old photographs he could find and,
wherever possible, restored the buildings to their original condition—
while adding innovations such as geothermal heat. He worked closely
with Frank Gehry’s architectural team in the design and building of
the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Currently,
Griffiths is actively involved in the construction of the Gabrielle H.
Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation.
During its 146th Commencement festivities this spring, the
College held a dedication ceremony, naming the Richard D. Griffiths
Richard D. and Nancy Griffiths (third and second from right, respectively)
and their family (left to right): grandson Dylan, daughter-in-law Arlene, son
David, son-in-law Richard, and daughter Brenda
Gifts of real estate, such as the one made by the Griffiths family, are immensely helpful to the College. If you find that your heirs do not
need or want a property in your estate, please consider donating it to Bard. Doing so could provide you with significant savings on capital
gains taxes. For more information, contact Debra Pemstein at 845-758-7405 or pemstein@bard.edu. All inquiries will be kept confidential.
79

F A C U LT Y N O T E S
Myra Young Armstead, professor of history and faculty member,
Master of Arts in Teaching Program, was reappointed as a speaker
in the humanities for the New York Council on the Humanities, for
2005–07. In that context, she gave a talk on Sojourner Truth at the
Hurley (New York) Heritage Society in February. In April she
spoke at the Wolfsonian Institute at Florida International
University, in a symposium on recreation, in connection with the
Institute’s Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts. Her topic was
African American vacations in the south during the Jim Crow
years. Also in April, Armstead addressed a symposium on servants
at the Clermont (New York) State Historic Site. She discussed the
extensive diaries of James Brown, steward and gardener for the
Gulian family in Beacon, New York.
John Ashbery, Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and
Literature, published new poems in the New Yorker, Brooklyn Rail,
and Paris Review. He had a poem featured on The Writer’s Almanac
on National Public Radio and a selection of 14 poems included in
the new Oxford Book of American Poetry. In New York City, Ashbery
read from his work in “The President’s Writers Series” at Pace
University in March and was honored at The New School in April
with an international “John Ashbery Festival,” a three-day series of
events, including poetry readings, panel discussions, and scholarly
papers, that drew participants from seven countries. New Italian
translations of his poems were published in the periodicals Nuovi
Argomenti and Poesia, and a German literary project based on
his poem “Chinese Whispers” was published as a special feature,
“Chinese Whispers/Stille Poste” in the journal Schreibheft; Zeitschrift
für Literatur. Sections of the feature were recorded and broadcast on
Guido Graf ’s program on German Public Radio.
Ethan Bloch, professor of mathematics, published a paper, “Mod 2
degree and a generalized No Retraction Theorem,” in the journal
Mathematische Nachrichten.
Leon Botstein, president of the college and Leon Levy Professor in
the Arts and Humanities, was nominated for a Grammy Award in
the category of Best Orchestral Performance for his Telarc recording,
with the London Symphony Orchestra, of Gavriil Popov’s
Symphony No. 1 and Dimitri Shostakovich’s Theme and Variations.
The nomination recognizes the artistic contributions of the conductor
and orchestra alike. A second recording, of Ernest Chausson’s
opera Le Roi Arthus, performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
and produced by Thomas C. Moore, was cited in the Grammy
Award category of Classical Producer of the Year. Botstein’s essay
“The Trouble with High School” was published in the January 2006
issue of The School Administrator. In commemoration of the 150th
birthday of the founder of psychoanalysis, he delivered the Sigmund
Freud Lecture (“Freud and Wittgenstein: Language and Human
Nature”) at the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna. He participated
in a symposium, presented by Bard’s Jewish Studies Program,
concerning the traditions and innovations of Jewish music. He
took part in the first of two yearly meetings of the College-wide
Globalization Task Force, comprising trustees, administrators, and
faculty from Bard’s various campuses and programs, whose mission
was to review Bard’s response to globalization as an intellectual and
practical task within higher education. In addition, he fulfilled
regular conducting responsibilities with the American Symphony
Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
Mary Clayton Coleman, assistant professor of philosophy, presented
“Motivation by Decision” at the Southern Society for Philosophy and
Psychology in April. Another paper, “Holistic Directions of Fit and
the Humean Theory of Motivation” was included in the first annual
On-line Philosophy Conference in May. Coleman also was chosen
for a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar,
“Mind and Metaphysics,” at Washington University in St. Louis in
June and July.
Mary Caponegro ’78, Richard B. Fisher Family Professor in
Literature and Writing, read her fiction last fall at Brown
University, Otis College of Art and Design, Occidental College,
and the University of Colorado in Boulder. She participated in the
Lannan Residency Program in Marfa, Texas, during the January
intercession. An excerpt from her novel, Chinese Chocolate, was published
in the fall issue of Conjunctions.
Richard Davis, professor of religion, gave a talk on early Indian
history in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at “Teaching India: A History
Institute for Teachers” cosponsored by the Marvin Wachman Fund
80

for International Education, a division of the Foreign Policy Research
Institute, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Michèle D. Dominy, vice president, dean of the college, and professor
of anthropology, coedited (with Laurence Carucci) “Critical
Ethnography in the Pacific:Transformations in Pacific Moral Orders,”
a special issue of Anthropological Forum published last November. She
was also the author, with Carucci, of “Anthropology ‘in the savage
slot’: Reflections on the Epistemology of Knowledge,” published last
year in Anthropological Forum.
Michael Donnelly, professor of sociology, coedited (with Murray
A. Straus) Corporal Punishment of Children in Theoretical Perspective,
which was published last year by Yale University Press.
“Coming to Terms with Iraq,” an essay by Omar G. Encarnación,
associate professor of political studies, appeared in a recent issue of
Ethics & International Affairs, and “Civil Society Reconsidered” was
published in Comparative Politics. In April, he gave a talk,
“Democratic Crusades: The Lessons for Bush from the Wilsonian
Era,” at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.
Julia Emig, assistant professor of literacy education, the Master of
Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program, presented, with MAT colleague
Derek Furr, “Bringing Literacy Practices and Literary Inquiry
Together in the Professional Development of Urban Secondary
English Teachers” at the 2006 Conference of the International
Reading Association in Chicago in May. Emig gave a paper, “The
Effects of Professional Development in Literacy on Selected
Teachers: A Cross-Case Analysis,” at Boston University in March.
Tabetha Ewing ’89, assistant professor of history, delivered a paper,
“The Threat of Invasion: Rumors, Great Fears, and Foreign Politics
in 1740s Paris,” at a conference honoring Robert Darnton, Shelby
Cullom Davis ’30 Professor of European History at Princeton, in
April at Princeton University.
Maggie Fishman, faculty, Bard High School Early College, is the
editor, with Melissa Checker, of Local Actions: Cultural Activism,
Power and Public Life in America (Columbia University Press), a collection
of essays intended to teach students about American culture
and to be useful to activists and academics. Chapters cover topical
issues of interest to students through anthropological approaches
they are unfamiliar with.
Joanne Fox-Przeworski, director, Bard Center for Environmental
Policy, was asked to be one of four members of the External
Examiners Committee that evaluated the Environmental Science
Department at the University of San Francisco in April. She served,
as she has in the past, on the jury for the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s P3 Award, a student design competition. She
was a judge for university finalists who presented their designs for
sustainability in Washington, D.C., in May.
Cheat and Charmer, the 2004 novel by Elizabeth Frank, Joseph E.
Harry Professor of Modern Languages and Literature, was
reprinted by Random House Trade Paperbacks last fall. Working in
collaboration with Deliana Simeonova, Frank is translating, from
the Bulgarian, two novels by Angel Wagenstein: Isaac’s Torah:
Concerning the Life of Isaac Jacob Blumenfeld through Two World Wars,
Three Concentration Camps and Five Motherlands and Farewell,
Shanghai. Both translations are forthcoming in 2007 from Other
Press in Boston.
Derek Furr, faculty, the Master of Arts in Teaching Program, published
“The Perfect Match: Wordsworth’s ‘The Triad’ and
Coleridge’s ‘The Garden of Boccacio’ in Context” in Romantic
Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780–1840, No. 15.
Cole Heinowitz, assistant professor of literature, presented a paper
(“‘Thy World, Columbus, Shall Be Free’: British Romantic
Deviance and Latin American Revolution”) last August at the
annual conference of the North American Society for the Study of
Romanticism, held in Montreal. The paper was selected for publication
as an essay in the Spring 2006 European Romantic Review.
Another article, “The Allure of the Same: Robert Southey’s Welsh
Indians and the Rhetoric of Good Colonialism,” is being published
this spring in “‘Sullen Fires across the Atlantic’: Essays in British
and American Romanticism,” a special issue of the online Romantic
Circles Praxis Series.
Michael Ives, visiting assistant professor of the humanities, read
from his work at the National Arts Club in New York City, Brown
81

University, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. His book The
External Combustion Engine was selected for the annual design
award/exhibition, 50 Books/50 Covers, sponsored by the American
Institute of Graphic Arts.
Patricia Karetsky, Oskar Munsterberg Lecturer in Art History,
published “Portrait of a Beijing Artist: Yang Jinsong” in Eastern Art
(2005) and “Zhang Dali: ‘The Face of China’” in Yishu: Journal of
Contemporary Chinese Art, December 2005. She chaired the Asian
Art panel at the New York Conference on Asian Studies meeting
held at SUNY New Paltz last October.
David Kettler, Research Professor in Social Studies, wrote “Karl
Mannheim in America: The Loyalty of Kurt H. Wolff ” (with Volker
Meja) in For Kurt H. Wolff (Lexington Books); “Karl Mannheim
(1893–1947)” and “Max Scheler (1874–1928)” in Key Sociologists;
“Utopia as Discovery Process” in Canadian Journal of Sociology Online;
“A German Subject to Recall: Hans Mayer as Internationalist,
Cosmopolitan, Outsider and/or Exile” in New German Critique; and
“Franz L. Neumann (1900–1954)” in International Encyclopedia of
the Social Sciences. His presentations included “Karl Mannheim’s
Research Program” at the Akademie für Politische Bildung in
Tutzing, Germany, and “The Political Philosophy Question in
Political Science: The Straussian School and Its Competitors in the
APSR and Other Bargaining Sites during the Golden Age,
1956–1965” at the Southwestern Political Science Association in San
Antonio, Texas.
Cecile Kuznitz, assistant professor of Jewish history, contributed
“Ans-ky’s Legacy: The Vilna Historic-Ethnographic Society and
the Shaping of Modern Jewish Culture,” to The Worlds of S. An-sky:
A Russian Jewish Intellectual at the Turn of the Century (Stanford
University Press). She presented a paper, “Yiddish Cultural Work
and the Stateless Yiddish Nation,” at the Association for Jewish
Studies, and chaired a panel, “Performing Yiddish Identities,” at the
“Yiddish/Jewish Cultures: Literature, History, Thought in Eastern
European Diasporas” conference at New York University. She also
procured a grant for Bard’s Jewish Studies Program from the Center
for Cultural Judaism.
Mark Lytle, professor of history, gave several presentations this past
spring at University College Dublin: “An Unsteady Friendship:
Europe and the United States in the New World Order” to the faculty
of the History of International Relations Program, and one on
his recent book, America’s Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to
the Fall of Richard Nixon, for the Clinton Institute for American
Studies at University College. In May, Lytle served as an external
examiner for the University of Limerick.
Medrie MacPhee, Sherri Burt Hennessey Artist in Residence, presented
work in an exhibition, Under My Skin, last winter at Michael
Steinberg Fine Art in New York City.
Norman Manea, Francis Flournoy Professor in European Studies
and Culture and writer in residence, spent the fall 2005 semester at
the Hans Arnhold Center in Berlin as a Fellow (recipient of the
Holtzbrinck Berlin Prize) of the American Academy in Wannsee
(Berlin). He delivered the keynote address at the opening of the
DAAD Berlin Symposium on Europe (“Europa erzahlt Geschichte”);
participated in the Berlin Literary Festival and the Nexus Conference
on democracy, held in Amsterdam; and gave several interviews to the
German and Swedish press. Manea’s speech on Cervantes, given at
the spring 2005 New York Literary Festival, was published in the fall
by the German, Romanian, Spanish, and Mexican press. His 1999
interview with Saul Bellow appeared in the magazine Lettre
International in its Italian, Romanian, Spanish, and German editions.
The Italian magazine Diario and the literary magazine Salmagundi
published his essay “Some Thoughts on Saul Bellow,” and his essay
“Exiled Language” appeared in Letras Libres (Spain and Mexico). The
Romanian publishing house Editura Polirom republished three of his
books last fall. The Hooligan’s Return appeared last fall in Spain from
Tusquets Editores and was selected, at the end of 2005, as the best foreign
book of the year in Spain.
Thousand Years Waiting, a play by Chiori Miyagawa (associate professor
of theater), premiered at Performance Space 122 in New York
City for a run in February and March. The production featured a
traditional Otome Bunraku puppet artist from Japan, the first time
that this rare art form had been seen in U.S. theater. In addition,
the International World Theater Series at CUNY dedicated an
evening to Thousand Years Waiting. Miyagawa was awarded a residency
this summer at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study
and Conference Center in Como, Italy; she is working there on a
new play, Forgetting Blue. Another of her plays, Antigone’s Red, was
published, for the second time, in a college textbook—Literature:
Reading, Reacting, Writing (Wadsworth) in February. Another play,
America Dreaming, is forthcoming in an anthology, Global
Foreigners, to be published by Seagull Books in the fall of 2006 with
distribution in the United States, United Kingdom, and India.
Bradford Morrow, professor of literature and Bard Center Fellow,
had a short story, “Gardener of Heart,” anthologized last winter in
ParaSpheres: Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist Stories (Omnidawn). His
story “The Hoarder” was published in Murder in the Rough (Warner
Books) this past spring. In December he participated in Kenneth
Rexroth’s centenary celebration in New York, one of a number of such
readings worldwide. Morrow is Rexroth’s literary executor.
Pierre Ostiguy, assistant professor of political studies and Latin
American and Iberian studies, published two articles last fall:
“Gauches péronistes et non péronistes dans le système de partis
argentin” (“Peronist and Non-Peronist Lefts in the Argentine Party
System”) in the European journal Revue internationale de politique
comparée, and “La transformation du système de partis chilien et la
stabilité politique dans la post-transition” (“The Transformation of
82

the Chilean Party System and Political Stability in the Post-
Transition Era”) in Politique et Sociétés. Both journals are widely circulated
in the francophone world. The first article was part of a
special edition analyzing the changing character of the left that is
increasingly governing in Latin America, while the second was in a
special issue on the transition to democracy and its aftermath in
Chile’s politics.
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, executive vice president of the college,
president of the Levy Economics Institute, and Jerome Levy Professor
of Economics, was interviewed on December 14, regarding the trade
deficit, by Michael E. Kanell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; on
December 28, regarding the economy and the Senate budget bill of
December 22, 2005, by Peter Donalds on The Ben Merens Show,
Wisconsin Public Radio; and on March 14 by David R. Francis of
the Christian Science Monitor, regarding the current account deficit.
Papadimitriou was guest speaker at “Economic Panel: A Check on
Corporate and Consumer Health” at BritishAmerican Business Inc.
in New York City on February 9.
Joel Perlmann, senior scholar at the Levy Institute and Levy
Institute Research Professor at the College, gave two presentations
at the European Social Science History Conference in Amsterdam
in March: an evaluation of The Immigrant Threat, Leo Lucassen’s
new study of European immigration, and “Dissent and Discipline in
Ben-Gurion’s Mapai Party: 1930–32.”
John Pilson, visiting assistant professor of photography, presented a
solo exhibition of new photographs and video in March at Nicole
Klagsbrun Gallery, New York City. A program of recent video work
was shown at Centre Pompidou, Paris, on May 25, as part of the
Prospectif cinéma series.
Susan Fox Rogers, visiting assistant professor of writing and First-
Year Seminar, presented a paper, “The Secret of Silence,” at the annual
conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, held
in Austin in March, as one of five writers who had received Artist and
Writers awards from the National Science Foundation.
Lauren Rose, associate professor of mathematics, received a grant
from the National Security Agency to fund the conference series
“Discrete Math in the Northeast.” The series, for which Rose is
principal investigator, consists of several one-day conferences at
institutions in the northeast, including, in 2006, SUNY Albany,
SUNY Binghamton, and Skidmore College. Last fall Rose gave a
talk, “Piecewise polynomials with boundary conditions,” in the
commutative algebra session of the annual mathematics conference
held at Union College.
Geoffrey Sanborn, associate professor of literature, received the
2005 Foerster Prize from American Literature for the best essay
(“Whence Come You, Queequeg”) published in the journal last year.
Luc Sante, visiting professor of writing and photography, will be
writer in residence at the Free University of Brussels during the fall
semester.
Stephen Shore, Susan Weber Soros Professor in the Arts, presented
work in solo exhibitions at the Worcester Art Museum in
Massachusetts, Galerie Sprüth Magers in Munich, and Seomi
Gallery in Seoul. Another Magazine published a portfolio of his
work in its February issue.
Benjamin Stevens, assistant professor of classics, presented a paper,
“per gestum res est significanda mihi: Thought about Language in
Ovid’s Poetry of Exile,” at the annual meeting of the Classical
Association of the Pacific Northwest, held at Reed College in March.
William Tucker, visiting professor of studio arts, presented William
Tucker, Drawings and Projects at the Marist College Art Gallery,
January 26 – February 25. Two sculptures and two drawings were
included in the Edward R. Broida Collection displayed in the
Museum of Modern Art, New York City, in May. A group of five
bronze sculptures on exhibition at the Ward Pound Ridge
Reservation in Cross River, New York, in 2006 and 2007, also
opened in May. The exhibition William Tucker: Horses 1986–2004
will be shown at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in
Lincoln, Massachusetts, September 7, 2006 – January 7, 2007.
Wendy Urban-Mead, faculty in history, the Master of Arts in
Teaching Program, gave a talk, “An ‘Unwomanly’ Woman and Her
Sons in Christ: Faith, Empire, and Gender in Colonial Rhodesia,
1899–1906” at an international conference, “Competing Kingdoms:
Women, Mission, Nation, and American Empire, 1812–1938,” held
in April at the University of Oxford.
Suzanne Vromen, professor emeritus of sociology (1978–2000),
received a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant to teach at the Free
University of Brussels in the fall of 2006. She presented a paper in
a panel, “Sociological Approaches to the Holocaust,” at the annual
meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, held in Boston in
February. In March she led a workshop for educators at the
Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, in connection with
its exhibition Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust.
Stephen Westfall, faculty and painting cochair at the Milton Avery
Graduate School of the Arts, received a Class of 1932 Fellowship
residency in the Council of Humanities at Princeton University for
the fall of 2005. A 10-year survey of his work on paper ran at Bruno
Marina Gallery in Brooklyn, November 16, 2005 – January 15,
2006, and an exhibition of new paintings opened at the Lennon,
Weinberg Gallery in New York on March 16.
Judith Youett, visiting assistant professor of theater, taught at the
Alexander Technique Center in Amsterdam as guest faculty in the
1,600-hour (three-year) training necessary to qualify for certification
as a teacher of the Alexander Technique.
83

Carousel, Senior Project by Nate Green ’06 and Owen Schoppe ’06
Sunrise Landfill, from a Senior Project by Allison Cekala ’06

Photography
Cover: Courtesy of Hannah Arendt Bluecher
Literary Trust
Inside front cover: Don Hamerman
Page 1: Don Hamerman
Page 2: Karl Rabe
Page 3: (left) Karl Rabe;
(center) Don Hamerman;
(right) Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99
Page 5: Courtesy of Hannah Arendt Bluecher
Literary Trust
Page 6: Courtesy of Hannah Arendt Bluecher
Literary Trust
Page 7: Courtesy of Hannah Arendt Bluecher
Literary Trust
Page 8: ©Bettman/Corbis
Page 9: Courtesy of Hannah Arendt Bluecher
Literary Trust
Page 10: Geoff Brightling/Getty
Page 11: (left) Courtesy of Ben Lackey ’91;
(right) Courtesy of Laurie Molnar ’95
Page 12: (left) Michael Sibilia;
(right) Courtesy of Stephanie Chasteen ’95
Page 13: (left) Michael Sibilia;
(right) Bridget Hurlihy;
(bottom) John Lawler
Page 15: Jada Rowland
Page 18: Karl Rabe
Page 20: ©Jason Lee/Reuters/Corbis
Page 22: AP/Ng Han Guan
Page 23: AP/Wang Jianmin
Page 24: Sergey Grachev
Page 25: (all) Igor Lebedev
Page 26: Francie Soosman ’90
Page 29: (all) Karl Rabe
Page 30–31: Don Hamerman
Page 32: Don Hamerman
Page 33: (top left, top right, bottom right,
2nd from bottom) Don Hamerman
(2nd from top, 3rd from top) Mario Morgado
Page 35: Don Hamerman
Page 36: (all) Don Hamerman
Page 37: Mario Morgado
Page 38: Don Hamerman
Page 39: (top left, 2nd from top left, top right)
Mario Morgado;
(2nd from bottom left, bottom left, 2nd from
top right, bottom right) Don Hamerman
Page 44: Courtesy of BHSEC
Page 45: (top) Karl Rabe;
(bottom) Michael Sibilia
1-800-BARDCOL
www.bard.edu/alumni
Page 46: (top left) Courtesy of Libby Hux;
(top right) Corinne May Botz;
(bottom left) Gregory Cherin;
(bottom right) Karl Rabe
Page 48: (top) James Watson;
(bottom) Karl Rabe
Page 49: (top) Karl Rabe;
(bottom) Bessina Possner-Harrar ’84
Page 50: (top) Mike Bouchet;
(middle and bottom) Star Black
Page 51: Photo by Joe Coscia, The Photographic
Studio, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Page 52: Karl Rabe
Page 53: (left) Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99;
(right) David Hofstra
Page 54: (all) Karl Rabe
Page 55: Courtesy of TLS
Page 56: (top) Courtesy of Simon’s Rock;
(bottom) Courtesy of Cycling Club
Page 57: (all) Karl Rabe
Page 58: (top) Franz Liszt, oil painting by Ary
Scheffer (1795–1858).;
(bottom) Tom Brazil
Page 59: ©Peter Aaron/Esto
Page 60: ©Mark Peterson/Corbis
Page 61: (top left) Rebecca Granato;
(top right) Jenn Novik;
(bottom right and left) Marja-Kristina Akinsha
Page 62: Bessina Possner-Harrar ’84
Page 63: Bessina Possner-Harrar ’84
Page 64: (top) Bessina Possner-Harrar ’84;
(bottom) Karl Rabe
Page 65: Karl Rabe
Page 66: Karl Rabe
Page 67: Tania Barricklo
Page 68: Tania Barricklo
Page 70: Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99
Page 72: Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99
Page 75: Letitia Smith
Page 77: Courtesy of Chris Magee
Page 78: Jonathan O’Beirne
Page 79: Karl Rabe
Page 80: (left) Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99;
(middle) Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99;
(right) Don Hamerman
Page 81: (left) Bessina Possner-Harrar ’84;
(middle) Noah Sheldon;
(right) Karl Rabe
Page 84: (top) Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99;
(bottom) Courtesy of Allison Cekala ’06
Back cover: Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’99
Board of Trustees of Bard College
David E. Schwab II ’52, Chair Emeritus
Charles P. Stevenson Jr., Chair
Emily H. Fisher, Second Vice Chair
Mark Schwartz, Treasurer
Elizabeth Ely ’65, Secretary
Roland J. Augustine
+Leon Botstein, President of the College
David C. Clapp
* Marcelle Clements ’69
Rt. Rev. Herbert A. Donovan Jr., Honorary
Trustee
Asher B. Edelman ’61
Robert S. Epstein ’63
* Philip H. Gordon ’43
* Barbara S. Grossman ’73
Sally Hambrecht
Ernest F. Henderson III
Marieluise Hessel
John C. Honey ’39, Life Trustee
Mark N. Kaplan
George A. Kellner
Cynthia Hirsch Levy ’65
Murray Liebowitz
Peter H. Maguire ’88
James H. Ottaway Jr.
Martin Peretz
Stanley A. Reichel ’65
Stewart Resnick
Susan Weber Soros
Martin T. Sosnoff
Patricia Ross Weis ’52
William Julius Wilson
* alumni/ae trustee
+ex officio
Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs
Debra Pemstein Vice President for Development
and Alumni/ae Affairs 845-758-7405 or pemstein
@bard.edu; Jessica Kemm ’74 Director of Alumni/ae
Affairs, 845-758-7406 or kemm@bard.edu; Sasha
Boak Kelly, Associate Director of Alumni/ae Affairs,
845-758-7407, boak@bard.edu
Published by the Bard Publications Office
René Houtrides MFA’ 97, Editor of the Bardian;
Ginger Shore, Director; Mary Smith, Art Director;
Debby Mayer, Editorial Director; Mikhail
Horowitz, Ellen Liebowitz, Cynthia Werthamer,
Editors; Diane Rosasco, Production Manager;
Jamie Ficker, Bridget Herlihy, Francie Soosman ’90,
Kevin Trabucco, Designers
©2006 Bard College. All rights reserved.
85

SAVE THE DATE
REUNIONS 2007
May 25–27 (Memorial Day Weekend)
Reunion classes: 1937, 1942, 1947, 1952, 1957, 1962–3,
1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002
Would you like to help contact classmates?
Please call Jessica Kemm ’74 at 845-758-7406
or e-mail kemm@bard.edu.
Bard College
PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000
NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
BARD COLLEGE
Address Service Requested
www.bard.edu