Bard’s highly selective, unique, and specialized graduate programs have attracted incredible artists, scholars, curators, and policymakers—all of whom now make up an integral part of the Bard community. Everyone with a Bard degree is a Bardian—from an early college AA graduate to a PhD recipient. We are glad you are here. This is a place where all Bardians can connect, find news of their fellow alumni/ae, and get involved in volunteer opportunities.
Photo by Pete Mauney ’93 MFA ’00
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Keep your records up to date in the alumni/ae directory. The Alumni/ae Association sends out a monthly e-newsletter, The Triangle, which is filled with alumni/ae news, news of the College, and upcoming events. We also send important messages from the College and news on networking events and alumni/ae achievements. Alumni/ae receive snail mail invitations to reunions, holiday parties, and our biannual magazine, The Bardian. Email [email protected] to receive the Triangle or the What's New at Bard weekly update, sent by the Office of Communications. Follow us on social media to make sure you are getting the most out of your Alumni/ae Association.
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Professor Christian Crouch.
Photo by Chris Bertholf
Photo by Chris Bertholf
Christian Crouch, Dean of Graduate Studies at Bard College
Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of History and American and Indigenous Studies Christian Ayne Crouch has been teaching at Bard since 2014. Her work focuses on the histories of the early modern Atlantic, comparative slavery, American material culture, and Native American and Indigenous Studies. She holds a PhD and an MA with distinction in Atlantic history from New York University, and an AB cum laude in history from Princeton University.
Graduate Alumni/ae News
Tom Eccles Quoted in the New York Times
Eccles spoke about how new proposed federal guidelines are threatening graduate arts programs.
Tom Eccles Quoted in the New York Times
Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies. Photo by Liam Gillick
The Center for Curatorial Studies is an incubator for experimentation in exhibition-making and the leading institution dedicated exclusively to curatorial studies. It includes the Graduate Program for Curatorial Studies, an intensive course of study in the history of contemporary art, the institutions and practices of exhibition making, and the theory and criticism of contemporary art since the 1960s.
Post Date: 06-10-2026
Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Speaks with Marketplace About Inflation
“I expect that these price shocks will ripple through the economy in coming months,” said Tcherneva.
Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Speaks with Marketplace About Inflation
Pavlina Tcherneva, president of the Levy Economics Institute.
The Levy Economics Institute Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy were created to offer students an alternative to mainstream programs in economics and finance. These programs combine a rigorous course of study with the exceptional opportunity to participate in advanced economics research alongside Institute scholars. The Levy Institute’s programs also give Bard College undergraduates the opportunity to meet prominent figures who give seminars, attend conferences, and serve on the research staff.
Post Date: 06-09-2026
Bard College Holds One Hundred Sixty-Sixth Commencement on Saturday, May 23, 2026
The Undergraduate Commencement address will be given by journalist and bestselling author Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s flagship international affairs program and a prominent columnist for The Washington Post.
Bard College Holds One Hundred Sixty-Sixth Commencement on Saturday, May 23, 2026
Fareed Zakaria. Photo courtesy of CNN
The Undergraduate Commencement address will be given by journalist and bestselling author Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s flagship international affairs program and a prominent columnist for The Washington Post. Honorary degrees will be awarded to Fareed Zakaria, lawyer Jack Arthur Blum ’62, business owner Patricia L. Bowman, public health researcher and activist Robert E. Fullilove, philanthropist Marieluise Hessel, Bard High School Early College founding principal Raymond Peterson, historian Oliver Rathkolb, physicist Thomas F. Rosenbaum, musicologist Elaine Sisman, immunologist Kathryn E. Stein ’66, and composer Richard Wilson.
The Graduate Commencement address will be given by Thomas F. Rosenbaum, president of the California Institute of Technology. Graduate degrees conferred will be doctor of philosophy, master of philosophy, and master of arts degrees in decorative arts, design history, material culture; master of fine arts; master of science degrees in environmental policy, climate science and policy, and master of education degrees in environmental education; master of arts degrees in curatorial studies; master of arts degrees in teaching; master of music degrees in vocal arts and master of music degrees in conducting; master of business administration degrees in sustainability; master of science degrees and master of arts degrees in economic theory and policy; master of music degrees in curatorial, critical, and performance studies; master of arts degrees in global studies; master of arts degrees in human rights and the arts; master of arts degrees in Chinese music and culture; master of music degrees in instrumental studies; and master of arts degrees in public humanities.
Bard College Awards will also be presented on Commencement Weekend: The Bard Medal will be awarded to Olivia B. Carino and Audrey Lasher Smith ’78; the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science to Amy Bernard ’91 and Matthew DeGennaro ’96; the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters to Youssef Kerkour ’00; the John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service to Kevin Barbosa ’18 and Eva-Marie Quinones ’17; the Mary McCarthy Award to Marilynne Robinson; the Laszlo Z. Bito Award for Humanitarian Service to Imran Ahmed ’02; and a Bardian Award to Sven Anderson.
ABOUT THE COMMENCEMENT SPEAKERS
Fareed Zakaria hosts CNN’s flagship international affairs program, Fareed Zakaria GPS, and produces documentaries for the network. He has interviewed Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, among others.
Zakaria is a columnist for The Washington Post and has written five New York Times bestsellers: The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (2003), The Post-American World (2008), In Defense of a Liberal Education (2015), Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World (2020), and Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present (2024).
Zakaria was named a Top 10 Global Thinker of the Last 10 Years by Foreign Policy magazine in 2019. He has received a Peabody Award and three Emmys for his television work, and a National Magazine Award for his writing. In 2010, India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, and, in 2022, Ukraine awarded him the Order of Merit. He holds a BA from Yale and a PhD from Harvard.
Thomas F. Rosenbaum is the ninth president of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he is also professor of physics. He is an expert on the quantum-mechanical nature of materials, and has conducted research at Bell Laboratories, INC.; the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center; Argonne National Laboratory; and the University of Chicago. At the last, he served as vice president for research and then as provost before moving to Caltech in 2014. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics with honors from Harvard University and a PhD in physics from Princeton University. He serves as the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Society for Science, as a board member of the Aspen Center for Physics, and on the Los Angeles Committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Post Date: 05-21-2026