Newsmakers

The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, a new book by Bard alumnus Andrew Durbin ’12, was reviewed in the Atlantic and the Guardian. As Peter Hujar’s photography enters the mainstream, Durbin’s new biography reconsiders the artistic couple’s legacy. Thek and Hujar were a couple for two decades, and their photography and sculpture was admired by artists like Andy Warhol and Susan Sontag. The Guardian calls the biography “intimate and vibrant” and “a tender yet unflinching view of their choices, thoughts, feelings, what made them lovable, and what made them difficult to be with.” “Durbin’s careful analysis, especially of Thek’s work, is essential,” the Atlantic writes.

M. Gessen, distinguished visiting writer at Bard College, and Bard alumna Juliana Spahr ’88 have been awarded Pulitzer Prizes. The Pulitzer committee awarded Gessen a prize in Opinion Writing for their “illuminating collection of reported essays on rising authoritarian regimes that draw on history and personal experience to probe timely themes of oppression, belonging and exile.” Spahr was awarded a prize in Poetry for Ars Poeticas, a poetry collection examining her relationship to her art form, community, and politics. This year’s Pulitzer Prize recipients will constitute the 109th class of Pulitzer Prize winners.

The Pulitzer Prize in Opinion Writing is awarded for distinguished editorials, columns or other written commentary containing well-reasoned and compelling arguments on topics of public interest, whether originally researched and reported or informed by personal experience. Gessen’s series of New York Times Opinion articles, including “This Is the Feeling of Losing a Country. I Know It Well,” “How to be a Good Citizen When Your Country Does Bad Things,” and “The Chilling Consequences of Going Along With Trump,” demonstrate clarity, moral purpose, sound logic, engaging prose, and power to influence public opinion.

The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, conferred for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, recognizes Spahr’s collection of lyric meditations on writing poetry in a time of ecological crisis and right wing populism. “In both her poetry and her academic work, Spahr takes as her central concern the relationship between literature and the state,” writes the New York Times about Ars Poeticas. “Accordingly, in this book, her sixth collection of poems, she writes about everything from climate change to the rise of the alt-right.”

M. Gessen is a distinguished visiting writer at Bard College and an Opinion columnist for the New York Times. They won a George Polk Award for opinion writing in 2024, and are the author of 11 non-fiction books, including most recently Surviving Autocracy (Riverhead Books, June 2020); The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, which won the 2017 National Book Award for Nonfiction; The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy, a 2015 award-winning account of the Boston Marathon bombers; and The Man without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, a 2012 portrait of the Russian leader that Foreign Affairs said, “shines a piercing light into every dark corner of Putin’s story.” They are the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Nieman Fellowship, the John Chancellor Award, the Hitchens Prize, and the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Commentary. After more than twenty years as a journalist and editor in Moscow, Gessen has been living in New York since 2013.

The 2026 Venice Biennale, the renowned international cultural exhibition, will feature works by Bard faculty members and Center for Curatorial Studies alumnae. Walid Raad, professor of photography at Bard, is featured in the main exhibition, In Minor Keys, and will also participate in two mixed media installations in the Arsenale and in the Giardini, Postscript to the Arabic Edition and Far from quieting. Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard, and Ruba Katrib CCS ’07 are cocurators of the show Untitled (a gathering of remarkable people) in the National Pavilion of Qatar in the Giardini. Additionally, Josefina Barcia CCS ’24 is curating the Argentine Pavilion, Do Tuong Linh CCS ’25 is curating the Vietnamese Pavilion, and Dermis León CCS ’01 is cocurating the Chilean Pavilion.

The Venice Biennale is an international arts and cultural exhibition which has been hosted every two years in Venice, Italy, since 1895. Its 61st International Art Exhibition, Biennale Arte 2026, runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026.

Two Bard College seniors, Celeste Connell ’26 and Peter Fields ’26, and Bard alum Coulson Matto ’25, have received full scholarships to the Classics graduate program at University of Colorado Boulder. All three scholarships include full tuition, as well as stipends for teaching assistantships. “As well as being academically successful, all three have been fantastic student leaders in the Classics program,” said Lauren Curtis, associate professor of Classics at Bard. “Between them they have worked as tutors, organized program events, participated in faculty searches, and more. I couldn't imagine better ambassadors for Bard.” 

Connell’s area of interest lies in ancient literature's portrayals of social interaction, particularly in subjects like friendship, performance, education, exile, and alienation, with a focus on connecting Greco-Roman literature with other literary traditions. “Fully funded MA programs in the humanities are incredibly rare. Especially at a time like this, when many programs are drastically cutting funding due to federal pressure, I'm grateful beyond words to study at the exceptional program offered by CU Boulder, where Classics is thriving,” said Connell. 

Fields’ historical work on the notion of “Romanness” takes him into modern European intellectual history. He is pursuing his masters in Classics in the Latin language track, but is interested in studying ancient ethnography and the Roman imperial period. “I’m grateful to all of Bard’s Classics faculty for getting me to where I am today and excited to continue studying what I am so passionate about,” said Fields. 

Matto, who currently works as a Latin teacher in New York City, focuses on ancient gender and sexuality studies, and looks forward to learning more archaeology-influenced methodology at Boulder to inform the strong literary training received from Bard. “It's deeply meaningful to me to be accepted into this program,” said Matto. “Last year I also attempted to go through the graduate school admissions process, but hit a number of roadblocks because of federal budget cuts and program closures. It is immensely satisfying—and exciting!—to see two years of work pay off. I'm also very grateful to all of my advisors at Bard who helped me work within these circumstances and truly put so much effort into my success.” 

Bard’s Classical Studies Program seeks to understand the languages, literatures, histories, and visual and material cultures of the premodern Mediterranean world. The program approaches these ancient societies from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including linguistics, art history, archaeology, anthropology, and philosophy, while also considering the long and complex legacies of ancient Greece and Rome in art, language, politics, and culture from antiquity to the present day.

Two Bard College alumnae, Alva Rogers MAT ’12 and Sadie Wechsler ’07, have been awarded 2026 Guggenheim Fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Rogers was awarded as a fellow in Drama and Performance Art, and Wechsler was awarded as a fellow in the field of Photography. Chosen through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants, 2026 Guggenheim fellows were tapped based on both prior career achievement and exceptional promise, and each receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under the freest possible conditions. Edward Hirsch, president of the Guggenheim Foundation, wrote that this “new class of Guggenheim Fellows is representative of the world’s best thinkers, innovators, and creators in art, science, and scholarship,” adding that the Foundation is “honored to support their visionary contributions.” 

MAT Alva Rogers ’12 is a dramatist, vocalist, puppeteer, and founder of Alva Puppet Theater. She creates theatrical work that fearlessly addresses the often hidden, unacknowledged emotional and physical labor of people of color, particularly women. Rogers’ work has been presented on stages including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Here Arts Center, Dixon Place, Seattle Repertory Theater, Actor’s Express Theater, The O’ Neill Puppetry Conference and others; exhibited in selected museums and festivals including the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, Walker Art Center, The New Museum and the Spoleto Festival, USA. She has been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jim Henson Foundation, Meet the Composer, and received fellowships in performance and playwriting from The New York Foundation for the Arts and a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award.
  
Sadie Wechsler ’07 is an artist working primarily with photography. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and was included in Format Festival England and Beijing and Out of Sight Seattle. She has been included in group shows at SAD gallery, Johalla Gallery, Aperture Gallery, Belfast School of Art, Photoville, and Newspace Center for Photography, and has had solo shows at DeSoto Gallery and Gallery 4Culture. Wechsler has received the smArt Ventures Grant from the City of Seattle, Arts3C, and Make Learn Build Grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council. She has been an artist in residence at PLAYA at Summer Lake, Anderson Ranch Art Center, the Arctic Circle Expedition, and the USCG Healy. Her work can be found in the collections of the Yale University Library, the Hammer Art Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Frye Art Museum, and the King County Portable Collection.
 

The New York Times published a retrospective on the restoration premiere of No Picnic, a film written and directed by Bard alumnus Phil Hartman ’79. The film, which was originally released in 1987, follows a musician living in the East Village as he searches for a mysterious woman. The restoration of No Picnic premiered at the Museum of Modern Art’s annual To Save and Project series and was shown at Film Forum in New York City for a week this April. “The East Village’s seedy glamour has never been more lovingly presented,” the Times writes.

No Picnic won the Best Cinematography Award in 1987 for filming by the late Peter Hutton, former Bard professor. Cast members include Bard alumni/ae Andy Aaron ’76, Tim Allen ’84, Martha Atwell ’85, Margaret DeWys, Sharon Garbe ’83, Leon Hartman ’08, Manon Hutton-DeWys ’06, Josefa Mulaire ’79, Paul Marcus ’76, Jeff Preiss ’79, Rebecca Quaytman ’83, Emily Rubin ’78, and Lewis Schaffer ’79. The film is screening at Time & Space Limited in Hudson NY on May 2 through 4, 2026.

Abigail Wilson ’23, Bard College alumna and graduate student in chemical synthesis at UCLA, has been announced as a recipient of a 2026 Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, a federal agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the nonmedical fields of science and engineering. Since 1952, the Graduate Research Fellowship Program has recognized and supported outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in STEM fields, including STEM education. Each fellowship provides three years of support over a five-year fellowship period. 

The Chemistry and Biochemistry Program at Bard is geared toward meeting the needs of students planning to do graduate and/or professional work in a variety of chemistry, biochemistry, and engineering subfields. During their course of study, students receive research training in modern methods in chemistry, including extensive hands-on experience with contemporary instruments and equipment. 

Bard alumna Lindsey Aldrich Jordan ’24 and Bard students Tessa Ni ’28, Anna Gaylord ’27, and Myla Allen ’27 each wrote about their experiences attending a three day reading event in Vienna, coordinated by the Hannah Arendt Center. The Hannah Arendt Lesen event focused on the “Irreversibility and the Power to Forgive” chapter of Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition and its counterpart “die Unwiderruflichkeit des Getanen und die Macht zu verzeihen” in Arendt’s German translation, titled Vita Activa. “What moved me most during the weekend, was not only the intellectual content of our discussion, but the way the event itself enacted what the text describes,” writes Ni. “We were not gathered merely to analyze forgiveness as a concept. We were speaking, responding, risking our thoughts in front of others. In Arendt’s sense, we were acting.”

The event was hosted by the translation collective Versatorium, in partnership with Transletting, a translation project formed by a group of students from Leipzig, Germany. Over the course of three days, the participants examined Arendt’s metaphors and imagery, her linguistic networks, and how the differences and similarities between the two translations could expand their reading of Arendt’s work. “There are words or whole sentences in the German that don’t appear in the English version,” writes Jordan. “This is a big reason reading the two chapters side by side was of interest to Transletting and, I would learn in the course of the weekend, to the Versatorium, too. It offered an opportunity to discuss not only what Arendt meant when she wrote about forgiveness but to compare the language, metaphors, and images in English versus German. How did they differ and how did they resemble one another across the two versions? What did English allow her to say, and how did the German language require her to say it differently, and vice versa?” 

The mission of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College is to create and nurture an institutional space for bold, risky, and provocative thinking about our political world in the spirit of Hannah Arendt. Its vision is to empower people to discover their unique opinions and political agency and also find common ground to build together a shared world through thinking, listening, and talking with one another.
 

Bard alumna Kate McNamara MA-CCS ’07 has been named director of the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University. The Carpenter Center develops programming like artist talks, curator Q&As, and workshops that involve the community in artistic practice. Previously, McNamara curated cross-genre art exhibitions and served as interim director of Providence College Galleries. “What excites me most about this moment is the opportunity to deepen the Carpenter Center’s role as a leading contemporary art space,” said McNamara. “We are building an ecosystem where artists, students, scholars, and local residents encounter art as a living, shared practice.”

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.

Sculptor and painter Tschabalala Self '12, Bard alumna and visiting artist in residence in studio arts, was profiled in the New York Times and Elle Decor to commemorate her piece “Art Lovers” being included on the facade of the New Museum in NYC. “Art Lovers” was unveiled at the museum’s reopening earlier this year, at which Cultural Affairs Commissioner Diya Vij '08 spoke. This follows her 2024 London’s Fourth Plinth Commission win, when her sculpture “Lady in Blue” was displayed in Trafalgar Square.

Speaking to Gazelle Mba for the New York Times series Solo Show, Self says she imagines the couple in "Art Lovers" as “museum patrons, possibly admiring one of their favorite works.” To Elle, she expressed that public art “allows everyone to have some transcendent second with the artwork, even when they’re not anticipating it.”

Bard alumna Sonita Alizadeh ’23, a Rhodes Scholar and human rights activist, was profiled in Forbes magazine. Born under Taliban rule, Alizadeh faced the threat of child marriage at the ages of 10 and 16 before finding her voice through music. She has since performed on global stages and collaborated with artists and organizations that share her mission, and she has also addressed world leaders and worked with NGOs such as the UN, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International to push for change. “Today, Sonita’s message is simple but profound: never underestimate the power of your voice,” writes Mandeep Rai for Forbes. “Dreams, she insists, are the ultimate weapon. Her journey is more than a story—it is a committed call to action, urging women to support one another and the world to take responsibility for girls in Iran, Afghanistan, and beyond.”
 

Works by two Bard College alumni/ae, Ei Arakawa-Nash MFA '07 and Lotus L. Kang MFA ’15, will be featured in the 2026 Venice Biennale, which will run from May 9 to November 22. Arakawa-Nash, a performance artist and member of Fac Xtra Retreat (FXR), a collective of seven LA–based Asian American artists, will represent Japan at the Biennale. He is collaborating with other FXR members on a performance project coproduced by the Getty Center and the Japanese Foundation for the Biennale’s Japan Pavilion. “Ei Arakawa-Nash and FXR bring together irreverence, generosity, and collective experimentation in ways that feel both intimate and expansive,” said Sarah Cooper, performance programs specialist at the J. Paul Getty Museum. “These performances contribute to the wider story of Asian diasporas in Greater Los Angeles … while embodying his distinctive alchemy of humor and truth that unsettles fixed roles, challenges social and institutional norms and honors the multiplicities we all hold.” Additionally, alumna Talullah Pratt ’24 was chosen as one of five electronic musicians under 30 for a residency at the Venice Biennale Musica College 2026 by curator Caterina Barbieri.

Sculptor Lotus L. Kang MFA ’15 has been commissioned to produce a major new installation for the inaugural Bulgari Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Kang’s artistic practice utilizes sculpture, photography and site-responsive installation to communicate themes drawn from industrial and architectural forms, familial and social histories, poetry, and non-human figures. “Known for her complexly layered environments that meld organic, structural and metabolic languages, Lotus L. Kang’s works give poetic form to reflections on themes spanning inheritance, impermanence, memory, and translation,” writes ArtDaily. “Working fluidly between sculpture, photography and site-responsive installation, she frequently draws on unfixed, unstable materials and forms in her practice, giving evocative, often expansive shape to questions of ‘becoming.’” 

Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts is a graduate program for interdisciplinary study in the visual and creative arts. Bard MFA takes place over two years and two months, with students in residence on campus during three consecutive summers, and two winter sessions of independent study completed off campus.  

Actress and Bard alumna Lola Kirke ’12 was profiled in the New York Times following her role in the 2025 film Sinners and the release of her book Wild West Village: Not a Memoir. Kirke discussed her childhood in New York City and her family relationships, as well as her work since moving to Nashville in 2020 including her country album Trailblazer. Kirke says all of her work is about embracing the imperfect. “‘Should I conform? Or is what makes me special the ways in which I don’t conform? I am much more interested in the latter,” she says.

Kirke studied in the Film and Electronic Arts Program at Bard, which encourages interest in a wide range of expressive modes in film and electronic arts including animation, narrative and non-narrative filmmaking, documentary, performance, and installation practices. The program emphasizes imaginative engagement and the cultivation of an individual voice that has command over the entire creative process.

Diya Vij ’08, Bard alumna and a vice president at Powerhouse Arts, has been named as the Mamdani administration’s leader of New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Vij, who was profiled in the New York Times, is a veteran of creative communities throughout the city and was praised by Mamdani as a “visionary and deeply thoughtful leader who understands that art is not ornamental to this city—it is essential to it.” The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs is the largest municipal funder of culture in the country, supporting 1,000 nonprofit cultural organizations and providing $245 million in funding in the last fiscal year to give access to art and culture for all New Yorkers. “I’m excited to apply my political lens to strengthening the systems that make open, accessible, and sometimes radical cultural activities possible,” Vij said. 

Mira Dancy ’01, painter and Bard College alumna, was featured in the Financial Times in an article about how artists are still navigating the effects of the Los Angeles fires a year later. Dancy spoke about how for her, the devastation of the fires is an artistic dividing line. The paintings in her studio were damaged permanently, and she vividly remembers the hills glowing red around her house, which was left uninhabitable after the disaster. “There is just no way I can go back to work on a painting that I was making before the fire,” Dancy told the Times. “My whole world changed.” Her latest exhibit, Mourning’s Orbit, opens at Night Gallery during Frieze week, and takes emotional stock of the last year while her family had to relocate between hotels and homes for nearly a year. The paintings reference places that had been damaged in the fires which she has visited in the aftermath, yet relay an element of hope despite the devastation. “I feel that these paintings are a little bit of an antidote to those images of burned houses,” Dancy says.  

Cecilia Alemani MA-CCS ’05 has been announced as the curator of the first nomadic iteration of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, taking place through 2027, reports Artsy. The prize, founded in 2005, supports women artists at pivotal points in their careers. In its new nomadic model, artists will travel to a different country for each edition, during which the winning artist will present the work at a partner institution. Alemani, who previously served as the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 and curated the New York City High Line, said the award is “evolving into a full-fledged tool of cultural diplomacy and international dialogue.” She noted that the nomadic iteration of the prize comes at a “time of fragmentation,” and this new model signifies the award’s commitment “to building the kind of solid, lasting ties that are essential not only for the blossoming of individual careers, but for the growth and reinvention of the entire ecosystem of contemporary art.”

Henry Mielarczyk ’25 contributed to the winter issue of the Stennis Center for Public Service’s Public Service Review. He interviewed Ben Rich, chief of staff to Congressional Representative Nellie Pou, about the legacy of his former employer Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., a lifelong resident of New Jersey who established the first federal program to deliver grant money directly to firefighters. Rich said working for his hometown representative meant, “I was able to better understand the needs of the district because I knew it intimately.” He says his approach as chief of staff is still to execute good policies and “make sure [they] help people.”

Mielarczyk was recently elected to the New Jersey Democratic State Committee as its youngest member. He currently works with the New York State Assembly as a graduate scholar, and is a student in the Levy Master of Science program. Last summer, he joined the Stennis Program for Congressional Interns.

The Open Society Foundations today welcome Bard College’s successful completion of a landmark endowment challenge first issued in 2021 by Open Society Founder George Soros. By meeting the challenge, Bard has established the first endowment in its history, positioning the College to sustain and expand its mission as an independent institution of higher education centered on the liberal arts and sciences and dedicated to the public interest for generations to come.

The challenge invited Bard to match a $500 million commitment from Open Society by raising an additional $500 million from other donors, securing a $1 billion endowment to support the college’s undergraduate and graduate programs, faculty, student scholarships, the arts, and international engagement. Bard’s success marks a significant moment for an institution long recognized for its commitment to educational access, academic rigor, and public service. It also reflects Open Society’s historical support for higher education and the role of critical thinking in public life.

At a time when American democracy is under strain and colleges and universities face growing political and financial pressure, Bard’s endowment underscores the importance of investing in independent higher education as a cornerstone of democratic life.

“Higher education is essential to the future of American democracy,” said Alex Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations. “Bard will continue to be a place where critical thinking flourishes and students learn why the liberal arts are more important to freedom and the rule of law than ever in today’s embattled moment.”

Located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Bard College has played a leading role in advancing liberal arts and sciences education and expanding access to higher education. Its programs include the Bard Prison Initiative, which provides college education to incarcerated students; Bard Early Colleges, which enable public high school students to earn college degrees tuition free in supportive environments; and a wide range of international partnerships focused on expanding educational opportunity for underserved communities.

“Bard is profoundly grateful to George Soros, Alex Soros, and the Open Society Foundations,” said Leon Botstein, president of Bard College. “The response of our donor community, which has given and pledged over $500 million to meet the OSF challenge, affirms George Soros’s belief in Bard and its mission. This outpouring of support endorses Bard’s excellence and innovation and bodes well for the future of the College.”

The Ask, a podcast by Bard alumnus Waise Azimi ’05, brought Bard Chief of Staff Malia Du Mont ’95, Vice President for Student Affairs Dumaine Williams ’03, and Associate Director of the Human Rights Project Danielle Riou to discuss the ongoing detention of Bard student Ali Faqirzada ’28. Alongside Anwen Hughes, director of legal strategy for refugee programs at Human Rights First, the five discussed the ongoing efforts to advocate for Faqirzada’s return to his studies at Bard, the current legal and political environment for asylum seekers, and more. Speaking to the College’s support of Faqirzada, Du Mont said, “Nobody here at Bard thought twice about any of it. There was no question in my mind.”

To learn more about Faqirzada’s case and to share media coverage of his story, visit go.bard.edu/take-action. With initiatives like the Human Rights Program, the Center for Human Rights and the Arts, and the launch of GHEA21, Bard has a storied history of supporting academic freedom and human rights around the world. To learn more about how Bard supports displaced students and students in need, please visit cce.bard.edu/engaged-learning/the-sanctuary-fund.

Three Bard College alumni/ae will be among the 56 artists and collectives selected to participate in this year’s Whitney Biennial, the 82nd installment of the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States. Works by multimedia artist Sula Bermudez-Silverman ’15, sculptural artist Cooper Jacoby ’11, and artist and filmmaker Jordan Strafer MFA ’20 will be featured in the exhibition series. The Whitney Biennial 2026, which opens on March 8, offers a vivid atmospheric survey of contemporary American art shaped by a moment of profound transition by inviting visitors into environments that evoke tension, tenderness, humor, and unease. Together, the works capture the complexity of the present and propose imaginative and unexpected forms of coexistence. “We are giving platforms to artists that we felt were making major contributions to the field,” curator Drew Sawyer told the New York Times.

American theater and opera director and cofounder of SITI Company Anne Bogart ’74 was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame on November 17. In order to receive the award, the only nationally recognized hall of fame honoring lifetime achievement in the American theater, the awardee must have given 25 years distinguished service to the American theater and at least five major production credits on Broadway. Bogart, who studied drama and dance at Bard and received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the College in 2014, teaches at Columbia University, where she is a professor and head of the directing concentration.

In December 2022, Bard’s Fisher Center presented the world premiere of SITI Company’s reimagining of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, codirected by Anne Bogart and Tony Award winner Darron L West. The work, commissioned by the Fisher Center, was the final production in SITI Company’s 30th anniversary “Finale Season.” 

Bard’s Theater and Performance Program offers an interdisciplinary, liberal arts-based approach to the making and study of theater and performance, and embraces a wide range of performance practices, from live art and interactive installation to classical theater from around the globe.

Composer and Bard alumnus Prokhor Protasov MM-Conducting ’20 has been announced as the winner of the Peace Symphony Concours, a conducting award conferred by County Hall Arts for works written as a musical representation of and inspiration for humanity's quest for global peace. “We appreciated Prokhor’s melodic gift and how his symphony explores humanity’s search for peace in a fractured world—tracing a journey from grief and cruelty toward hope and reconciliation across its four movements,” said County Hall Arts. The charity received 83 entries in total and commissioned a short-list of gifted composers, including Prokhor, to create symphonies to illustrate the pursuit of peace.

“I am deeply grateful for County Hall Arts’ trust and for the extraordinary opportunity to compose an orchestral work on such an important theme—one which I feel a personal connection to,” Protasov said. “At a time when division and indifference prevail, the values of humanity, reconciliation, and compassion cannot be overstated. I hope that my art may offer consolation and support to those seeking it.”

The mission of the Bard College Conservatory of Music is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.

On Monday, November 17, Bard College Margaret and John Bard Society members, staff, and students gathered in New York City for this year’s annual luncheon. The special occasion serves as a heartfelt recognition of the generous contributions made by members through their estate plans. Their forward-thinking and commitment to Bard College's mission not only enrich the lives of current students but also ensure a vibrant future for generations to come. Bard is deeply appreciative of the generosity and foresight that the members of the Margaret and John Bard Society have, and their belief in Bard’s mission and their commitment to future planning are instrumental in fostering a nurturing environment for both students and faculty alike.

“It is always wonderful to welcome and bring together so many generations of Bardians,” said Debra Pemstein, vice president of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs. “Margaret and John Bard Society members help the College plan for a vibrant future with their generosity.”
 

Bard College alumna Leslie Kean ’73 has coauthored an article in the New York Times about The Age of Disclosure, a film in which 34 former and current senior members of US government, military and intelligence groups discuss what they can disclose about unidentified aerial phenomena, also known as UAP or UFOs. The controversial documentary—which debuted at South by Southwest earlier this year to mixed reactions—was screened for a bipartisan group of members of the House of Representatives, who later discussed their support for legislation to increase transparency. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, did not attend but sent a statement calling for greater transparency and saying she would work to “reduce the stigma around reporting, strengthen our national security, and ensure UAP records are being properly disclosed.”

Bard College has concluded a month-long celebration honoring our exceptional Student Scholars and the generous donors who support their educational journeys. In line with National Scholarship Month, the Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs shared inspiring testimonials from our students, illustrating how their Bard experiences have profoundly shaped both their academic and personal lives. A standout moment of the month was the Annual Scholarship Reception, where faculty and staff united to applaud the significant influence scholarships have on our students’ lives. One student spoke of the opportunities given to them at Bard, saying, "Everybody here has really enriched me and helped me in my journey and my educational journey—my journey as a person—and I’m just very grateful overall.”

Speeches from faculty and institutional leaders, including President Leon Botstein, reinforced the critical importance of philanthropy in enriching the educational landscape at Bard. This gathering served as a powerful reminder of our shared commitment to education and the incredible impact of generosity, creating a night filled with gratitude, and connection.

Learn more about Giving at Bard:
giving.bard.edu/donor-impact/
giving.bard.edu/scholarships/
giving.bard.edu/stories-of-impact/

A Bard College Music Program faculty member and three Conservatory of Music alumni/ae have been nominated for the 2026 GRAMMY Awards. Gwen Laster, visiting artist in residence, is nominated in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Lights on a Satellite recorded with Sun Ra Arkestra. Devony Smith VAP ’14, is nominated in the category of Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for her album In This Short Life with pianist Danny Zelibor. Julia Bullock VAP ’11, is also a featured artist on the album Schubert/Beatles, nominated in the same category. Eri Nakamura CPF ’15, a member of the Neave Trio, is nominated in the category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album, La Mer: French Piano Trios. The 2026 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 68th GRAMMY Awards, will take place on Sunday, February 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. 

The Bard College campus is awash in music—by all accounts, one of the school’s most distinctive features. The Music Program, one of the largest programs on campus, provides a wide range of musical concentrations, and the Bard Conservatory aims to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.

When Bard Baccalaureate student and Afghan asylum seeker Ali Faqirzada ’28 was detained on October 14 after a routine hearing in New York, officials from Bard College and the Episcopal Diocese mobilized their networks to help. Dionne Searcey for the New York Times reports on these ongoing efforts. “The only chance of rescuing this individual from injustice is to make it visible,” President Leon Botstein told the Times. “If you stand for the truth and for learning and all the virtues of a serious education and an examined life and you believe in the idea of justice, you have to act.” 

Immediately following his detainment, Bard Vice President for Strategy and Policy and Chief of Staff Malia Du Mont ’95 and Vice President for Student Affairs Dumaine Williams ’03 visited Faqirzada at Delaney Hall, the ICE detention facility in New Jersey where he is being held. “I would describe it as feeling like a member of the family had been taken,” said Du Mont, a US veteran of the Afghan War.

The College, alongside Human Rights First and the Episcopal Diocese of New York, has worked to enlist bipartisan federal, state, and local elected officials in efforts to organize and advocate for Faqirzada’s release. Two Bard alumni/ae at the law firm Quinn Emanuel have offered pro bono legal services to represent Faqirzada in his asylum case.
 

In a conversation with Jack Stripling on College Matters, a podcast produced by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate Kenneth Stern ’75 discussed what he saw as the “weaponization of the definition” of anti-Semitism that he helped to create. “I’m not ever saying don't combat speech or contest speech that you don’t like,” Stern said, “but I’m saying don’t use instruments of the state to suppress what teachers can teach and what students can hear.” College, ideally, should be a place where you go “to spend the rest of your life recalibrating how you think about things,” Stern said. “We want to make you critical thinkers. We want to encourage you to try on ideas.” Policing, through university policy, what can and can’t be said diminishes this essential capacity of higher education, Stern argued. “I want to create the environment on a campus in particular where people can have productive discussions.”

The Bard Center for the Study of Hate (BCSH) works to increase the serious study of human hatred, and ways to combat it. The Center supports faculty and students throughout the Bard network who want to study and/or combat hatred and its various manifestations. BCSH brings scholars from diverse disciplines to Bard College and all of its campuses to speak about the human capacity to hate and demonize others. The Bard Center for the Study of Hate was established in 2018 with a generous endowment from the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation and is a program of Bard’s Human Rights Project.

Poetry helped BHSEC Newark alumna Rashanna James-Frison BHSEC ’25 cope with the loss of her parents, and now she’s looking to share that feeling with other teens in Newark, New Jersey. “My first poem was actually to my biological father, that passed,” James-Frison told NJ.com. “It was just to remember him in a way, and also put how I was feeling about the situation on paper.” Now a first-year junior at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania after earning her associate’s degree at BHSEC Newark, James-Frison published her first book of poetry, The Black Unicorn: A Daughter From Newark. Hoping to share her experiences with the next generation of young women from Newark, she’s launched a campaign to assist in distributing 1,000 copies to eighth-graders.

Bard Early College is a multi-campus network with nine degree-granting campuses established to provide adolescents in American public school systems with the chance to go farther and faster than the status quo allows.

For Interview magazine, writer and director Jordan Tannahill spoke with Bard alumnus Arthur Tress ’62 about his new book of photography, The Ramble. The book is a collection of photographs from the 1960s of an “overgrown stretch of Central Park that’s served as a cruising ground for gay men for nearly a century,” Tannahill writes. The photographs, Tress says, weren’t initially taken with any kind of publication in mind, given their subject and the politics of the time. “Well, at that time, there really was no audience or publications that would show gay photography,” Tress said. “They were mostly for myself, but I had a sense that they were historically important.” Some of the photographs were taken “surreptitiously,” Tress said, but others were semiposed: “My work has always been a little bit of improvised, stage-directed imagery, especially in portraits, so it’s kind of a combination. I call it a sort of ‘poetic documentary.’” The Ramble, published by Stanley/Barker, will be released November 1, 2025.

Rolling Stone has named the song “Maps” by the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, in which Bard alumnus Nick Zinner ’96 plays guitar and keyboard, as number two in their list of the 250 Greatest Songs of the Century So Far. “What remains in ‘Maps’ is pure feeling, so much so that the song has reappeared as musical inspiration for artists from Kelly Clarkson to Beyoncé over the years,” writes Rolling Stone about the band’s 2003 song. “Still, the original has held out strongest through the decades, speaking to anyone who has understood whispered pleas in the face of cruel timing and inevitable goodbyes — and what it means to hold on even when it hurts.” The list draws on 25 years worth of classics and hits from across the world.

Jessica Mah SR ’06, an entrepreneur and alumna of Simon's Rock at Bard College, was profiled in a piece by the San Francisco Examiner, which looks back on her history of exploring and building businesses, from when she was a young teenager through her latest venture. Her first major breakthrough came in 2009 when she cofounded the software inDinero to make accounting and financial management accessible for small businesses, and then again in 2012 when she was named as one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in the Enterprise Technology category. She later embarked on projects such as internshipIN, a platform that aimed to connect employers and aspiring interns, and Mahway, a women-led investment firm created to build world-changing companies. “Mah’s story is proof that the entrepreneurial path is open to anyone willing to think differently and persevere,” writes the Examiner. “She’s shown time and time again that early ideas can blossom into industry-shaking companies and that true innovators never stop building.”

Bard College alumni/ae Catherine Lamb MFA ’12, Berlin-based composer, and Ben Richter ’08, director of Ghost Ensemble, have released a new collaborative album called interius/exterius, which was engineered by Bard music faculty Matt Sargent and mixed at Bard’s recording studio. The work, which Igloo Magazine calls “a vast, resonant world of sound, where every listening reveals infinite layers of beauty,” is currently in first-round Grammy consideration in the categories of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and Best Engineered Album, Classical. “A stellar recording,” wrote Peter Margasak for Bandcamp’s Best Contemporary Classical roundup about Catherine Lamb x Ghost Ensemble’s LP. “This stands as one of more electrifying accounts of [Lamb’s] sound world. It’s thrilling to witness over the last few years how Lamb’s harmonic imagination and compositional voice have been reinforcing one another as they grow inexorably more refined and powerful.” The first round of Grammy voting ends on Oct 15.

The Naming Song, the newest novel by author and Bard alumnus Jedediah Berry ’99, was awarded the 2025 Massachusetts Book Award for fiction. The Massachusetts Book Awards recognize works by current Commonwealth residents in multiple categories. “I was so pleased to see my book included among a list of so many extraordinary writers’ works who I admire,” Berry said to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. “Winning it was just an astonishing thing. I felt incredibly grateful.”

The Naming Song, also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, is a fabulist novel that takes place after an apocalyptic event makes names disappear. The novel’s protagonist works for “the Names Committee” as a courier, delivering names to their proper places. “I came to love these characters and the strange journey that they’re on in the book,” Berry said. “Living with that for so long and knowing that it’s finally out of the world is kind of a strange experience. It’s like finally introducing people to these old friends.”

Hosted by the Levy Economics Institute, Bard alumna Erika McEntarfer ’95, former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), spoke to an audience of Bard students, faculty, staff, and community members in Olin Hall on September 16. She recounted the day of her abrupt dismissal following the release of the July jobs report and discussed the ways that nonpartisan statisticians affect our everyday lives as Americans. McEntarfer compared the efforts of the BLS to the work of city planners involved in transportation infrastructure. “Real-time economic data is like live traffic updates—helpful for making quick decisions—like adjusting interest rates quickly to avoid an economic downturn,” she said. The data produced by BLS is used widely, from top officials in the federal government to traders on Wall Street, whose decisions have real consequences for Americans. “The decisions they make—to adjust interest rates to avoid a recession, to build a new plant in your city, to sell stocks or bonds—impact how easy it will be for you to find a good job, how affordable it will be for you to buy a house and raise a family, and how comfortable your retirement will be.”

Introducing McEntarfer, Pavlina Tcherneva, president of the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, noted that this event was more than just an academic talk. “This is our community gathering to champion a vital idea: that truth and rigorous analysis matter,” Tcherneva said. “That our ability to solve problems and find common ground depends on a shared commitment to facts and honest inquiry.” She emphasized that the work done at the Levy Institute relies on “reliable, trustworthy data,” and that without that, “We would lose our capacity to truly understand the economic forces shaping our communities and our country.”

McEntarfer warned of the potential costs of politicization of economic data. “Economic data must be free from partisan influence. That is essential to the mission of the agency. Markets have to trust that the data are not manipulated,” she said. “Firing your chief statisticians for releasing data you do not like will have serious economic consequences.” After the talk concluded, she took the time to answer questions from the audience, including from current students on topics ranging from data science, job prospects, and their Senior Projects. The talk was widely covered across all major news outlets, from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg to CNN.

The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization that encourages diversity of opinion in the examination of economic policy issues while striving to transform ideological arguments into informed debate. The Levy Institute is home to two Master's degree programs—a one-year MA and two-year MS—in Economic Theory and Policy.
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• New York Times: “Fired by Trump, a Former Labor Official Warns Against Politicizing Economic Data”
• Wall Street Journal: “Fired BLS Chief Breaks Silence, Calls Her Dismissal a ‘Dangerous Step’”
• CNN: “Former BLS commissioner says firing her was a ‘dangerous’ step for the US economy”
• Financial Times: “Fired BLS chief calls Donald Trump’s attack on US data agency a ‘dangerous step’”
• Bloomberg: “Former BLS Chief Recounts Shock of Getting Fired Over Jobs Data”
• Politico: “Ex-BLS chief said she was blindsided by Trump firing Erika McEntarfer said she is fearful about the possible loss of the statistical agency’s independence from political actors.”
• The Hill: “BLS chief fired by Trump over jobs report comments publicly for first time”
• The Guardian: “Labor statistics chief fired by Trump sounds alarm over White House’s ‘dangerous’ interference”
• Daily Mail: “Fired federal employee warns Trump he made a 'dangerous' misstep when he publicly terminated her”
• Business Insider: “The fired head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is warning about data manipulation”
• Reuters: “Ex-BLS chief says her firing by Trump marked 'dangerous step' for economy”
• The Independent: “Former BLS chair breaks silence on being fired by Trump and going from unknown to ‘household name’”
• The Huffington Post: “Official Fired By Trump For Poor Jobs Report Breaks Silence On Shocking Ouster”

This October, Bard College presents renowned tenor and musical scholar Ian Bostridge delivering the Anthony Hecht Lectures in the Humanities in honor of preeminent poet, alumnus, and former Bard faculty member Anthony Hecht ’44. In his lecture series, “Ancestral Voices Prophesying: Notes on Britten's War Requiem,” Bostridge—who has performed War Requiem nearly a hundred times since 1994—will examine the layers of meaning and context in the piece, one of the most important works of classical music written after 1945.

The first lecture in the series, “Requiem,” takes place on Monday, October 27 at 5:00 pm, and the second, “Anthem,” will be held on Tuesday, October 28 at 5:00 pm.  A reception precedes both lectures, which will take place in Olin Auditorium on Bard’s Annandale campus. The final lecture in the series, “Akedah,” will be held on Friday, October 31 at 6:00 pm in the Irving Posner and Herman Ackman Space at Kaufman Music Center located at 129 West 67th Street, NYC.  All lectures are free and open to the public. For more information about this lecture series, please call (845) 758-7405.

Ian Bostridge’s extraordinary career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras and opera houses in the world, and his recordings have been nominated for 15 Grammys. An internationally celebrated author and academic, Bostridge published his book Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession in 2014, and his most recent book Song and Self was published in 2023. In 2004, he was made a CBE, or Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a prestigious British honor recognizing individuals for their significant contributions to their field or community.

Last Thursday, August 28, Bard College celebrated its annual Thank-a-Donor event, hosted by the Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs. Thank-a-Donor events encourage students to write a thank you note to some of the College’s dedicated and generous donors who have supported the Bard College Fund. 

The Bard College Fund plays a vital role in supporting the annual costs of the undergraduate College. By providing essential resources for scholarships, academic programs, faculty support, and campus facilities, the Bard College Fund ensures that students receive a world-class liberal arts and sciences education in an environment that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and social engagement, and is where every gift—from $5 a month to $50,000—is welcome.

First-year students participated enthusiastically, handwriting messages on postcards featuring a photo of Bard students in an outdoor class or by creating short videos, while learning about the important role philanthropic support plays in making Bard possible. These freshly matriculated students sat down and shared a bit about themselves and what they already appreciate about Bard and hope to do with their time here. Donors will receive those cards in the next few weeks. 

Part of the Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs' mission is to recognize the vital role that donors play in supporting the College, and making them feel good about their decision to contribute to Bard. Thank-a-Donor is designed to help with this, as well as introduce students to the vital role philanthropy plays in their Bard journey, and that there is a community of people who believe in them and the power of a Bard liberal arts and sciences education. 
 
Explore the impact of Bard’s generous donors on our website at giving.bard.edu/donor-impact 

Associate Professor of Photography Tanya Marcuse was interviewed by her former student Emma Ressel ’16 in Lenscratch. They discussed how Marcuse’s work is inspired by the ecology of the Hudson Valley, with her projects ranging from photographs of local apple trees to images of fantastical structures she built with natural material gathered in the region. They also discussed their individual approaches to photographing nature. In photography “sometimes things truly, fully come together,” Marcuse said. “You get a random reward, which isn’t so random, because it’s about continually showing up and paying attention.”

Ressel was a Lenscratch Student Prize winner in 2024. She attended Bard’s Photography Program and has held solo exhibits in New Mexico and is on the shortlist for the 2025 Aperture Portfolio Prize. Marcuse has taught at Bard since 2012. She recently completed her 14-year, three-part project Fruitless | Fallen | Woven, inspired by the Biblical story of the fall from Eden.

Sonita Alizada ’23, a rapper and human rights activist, will embark on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford beginning this fall. She joins Ronan Farrow ’04 as the second Rhodes winner from Bard College in Annandale. (Nawara Alaboud ’23, originally from Syria, is the first Bard College Berlin student to receive a Rhodes Scholarship.)

Alizada, who double-majored in human rights and music, says Bard played a “crucial” part in her award. “The faculty here have been incredibly supportive, offering guidance, mentorship, and resources that helped me refine my academic and professional goals. They provided encouragement and constructive feedback throughout my application process and helped me navigate each step with confidence.”

She looks forward to continuing her work supporting Afghan women and children by combining “academic research with practical impact.” She looks forward to taking public policy classes at Oxford and focusing specifically on women and children's rights. “I’m deeply honored to receive the Rhodes scholarship, [and] I hope to bring back insights that can further support vulnerable communities,” she said.

Photography Program Director and Susan Weber Professor in the Arts Stephen Shore was profiled by the New York Times. Photographer and Bard alumnus Gus Aronson ’20 shot a video that accompanies the profile of Shore, who has headed the photography program at Bard for over 40 years. The profile celebrates the publication of his new collection Early Work, containing photography he took from the ages of 12 to 17. The photos show Shore’s early street photography in Manhattan, shaped by inspirations like Walker Evans and Bruce Davidson; “I was looking a lot and had a lot of influences,” Shore says. Several years later, at 24, Shore would have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Shore has had many exhibitions around the world since then, in Milan, Cologne, Chicago, and more. He has taught in Bard’s Photography Program since 1982. He says these early photos reflect concerns he’s addressed through his entire practice: “I see a formal awareness from the beginning. I’m framing, not pointing.”

Jazz pianist and Bard College alumnus Ran Blake ’60 was interviewed by the Boston Globe for an article covering the artist’s career, which has spanned more than 60 years, and how he at 90 is preparing to perform a solo concert in Brookline, MA, this September. Blake, whose career has yielded over 40 recording credits on jazz albums, has also spent over 40 years teaching jazz at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he cofounded and led the Department of Third Stream, now called the Department of Contemporary Improvisation. “Ran gave me the freedom to find myself in jazz standards,” said Portuguese singer Sara Serpa, who studied with Blake at NEC and collaborated on an album with him, adding that he “really gave me permission to find myself in the songs, to create my own stories.”Blake also spent years bringing music programming to the public as NEC’s community services director, telling the Globe, “It was very important to send music to where the people are and encourage them to play.”
 

Max Maslansky ’99, artist and Bard College alumnus, was interviewed by ArtNews for the article “Why Are So Many Artists Becoming Therapists?” Emily Watlington writes about the long connection between artists and psychotherapy, questioning why so many are talking about being in both careers now and noting that, “the practices involve many of the same skills: soul-searching, analyzing, and embracing complexities of life that cannot be easily resolved.”

Maslansky was interviewed along with three other artists about his choice to become a therapist. Since graduating from Bard’s Studio Arts program, his work has included paintings, photography, and sculpture. He went back to school in his 40s for counseling after deciding he wanted a stable career that could also give back to society. Asked how working as a therapist changed his art, he reflected, “It’s made my practice feel much more open-minded and expansive, less concerned with distinct purposes and goals in mind.”

In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bard alumna Sarah Rogers Morris MA ’13 examines how the practice of visual comparison in art allows us to cultivate thinking skills that are vital to public and political life. Drawing on her memories of art history lectures—in which a projector was used to beam two images side by side upon the wall—Morris posits that the learning process of analyzing two visually disparate entities engenders a capacity for a larger search for coherence across disparity and differences in an increasingly polarized world. “Within the classroom, comparing works of art based on formal characteristics encourages students to find meaning in the space where things that do not belong together meet,” Morris writes. “This activity translates beyond the classroom as a lesson in pluralism, a way of engaging in the public sphere where people, who by nature act and think differently from one another, must coexist and work together to build a world in common.” Morris holds an MA in the history of design, decorative arts, and material culture from the Bard Graduate Center. 

Susan D’Agostino ’91, Bard alumna and former Language and Thinking faculty member, has released the first installment of her new column, The Public Scholar, to be published monthly in Inside Higher Ed. The column will focus on helping academics share their expertise with the wider world by giving practical advice for getting their research into leading newspapers and magazines, discussing how to navigate the publishing world, and sharing other strategies for experts in their fields to shape public conversations that matter. “Academia often trains scholars to seek approval—through grants, press offices and peer-reviewed publications,” D’Agostino writes in her new column. “But the reality is that institutional support often follows after a scholar gains visibility. You already have the credentials to write for the public in your area of expertise. Now you need the courage and practical tips for doing so.”
 

Peter Criswell ’89, the chair of the county legislature for Ulster County, was interviewed by the Hudson Valley One for a piece on the arts scene in Kingston. Interviewing artists from radio coordinators to clowns, the article discusses how the county’s art scene has room to grow. Challenges like rising costs and gentrification contribute to artist displacement, a problem Criswell and others want to solve.

Criswell majored in anthropology and theater at Bard and spent a decade doing live theater. He says that experience made him appreciate how artists have to work on a budget. “I see a lot of what we’re trying to do as being connectors,” he said. “We’d like to try and encourage more arts commissions around the county.”

A new book by Bard alumnus Howard Megdal ’07, about professional basketball player Caitlin Clark, has been reviewed in the Washington Post. In June, Megdal—a longtime follower of women’s basketball and the WNBA—published his book, Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar, which spans 100 years and traces the arc between the revered women who played the wildly popular game of six-on-six basketball in the 1920s and Clark in the 2020s, examining her fame and style of play in the context of her predecessors, while telling the story of the basketball-loving community that rallied behind her in college and beyond. “Megdal sees a transformative figure who arrived after the work of generations of women was starting to bear fruit,” writes Ben Strauss for the Post. “Megdal has been reporting on the WNBA for more than a decade, and his book reflects that.”

Sonita Alizadeh ’23, Bard College alumna and human rights activist, has released a memoir chronicling how she avoided child marriage twice, escaped Afghanistan to pursue her dreams, and evolved into a woman who is changing the world. Born under Taliban rule, Alizadeh faced the threat of child marriage at the ages of 10 and 16, before finding her voice through music. She has since performed on global stages and collaborated with artists and organisations that share her mission, and has addressed world leaders and worked with NGOs such as the UN, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International to push for change. In Sonita: My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom, she shares incredible highlights of her life, like winning the songwriting contest that gave her the opportunity of a lifetime, as well as harrowing chapters, like when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, and how some of her family escaped while others were left behind.

Bard alumnus Vladimir Nahitchevansky ’15 was featured in the Albany Times-Union which covered his small press, 1080 Press, based in Kingston. Working closely with individual artists, Nahitchevansky has printed works by Richard Hell, Fred Moten, and Bernadette Mayer as well as several Bard alumni/ae. His printings focus on adding human touches, which he describes as “an object rife with error and chance and happy coincidences and mistakes. When you open them, you feel like there was a deep sense of thinking behind each component.”

Nahitchevansky established 1080 Press in 2022 after many years of making printed matter on his own. When he graduated from Bard’s Written Arts program, he worked at small presses throughout New York. He eventually started the print house from his apartment and began mailing out physical, printed newsletters to patrons. ​​He sees this process as what small presses are truly about: “You use the space that you have, you start out printing your friends, then you expand out of that space.”

Bard alumnus Alhassan Susso MAT ’12, was profiled in a piece for the New York Times covering how he is self-funding a teaching prize in Gambia after grant funding from the State Department for it was cut. Born and raised in the Gambia, Susso moved to the United States when he was 16 years old and has become an educator who has won numerous prizes, including a national teacher-of-the-year prize in 2020, for his work. His most recent recognition as one of six winners of the Flag Awards, which recognize teachers in New York City “who inspire learning through creativity, passion and commitment,” came with a $25,000 award. This was coincidentally the same amount that was eliminated from the public diplomacy grant through the US Embassy in Banjul, the Gambian capital, for which he had spent months preparing an application before the website with the grant program disappeared. Susso, who has already spent thousands of dollars of his own retirement to underwrite similar projects supporting teachers in Gambia, told the Times that using his prize money to keep the project going was “a no-brainer.”

Bard Vice President for Strategy and Policy and Chief of Staff Malia Du Mont ’95 was recently appointed by Governor Hochul to the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). Appointed to three-year terms, council members make up the governing body of NYSCA, and, among other responsibilities, vote on or support initiatives which further the state’s policy to stimulate and encourage the study and presentation of the arts for the benefit of NYS’s communities, citizens and visitors.

“New Yorkers deserve to be served by our state’s best and brightest,” Governor Hochul said. “These dedicated public servants are leaders in their fields and have made countless contributions to their local communities. I am confident they will now use their many talents to benefit residents across the state.”