Newsmakers

Ralph Nader interviewed environmental writer and Bard alumna Elizabeth Royte '81 on why vultures are critical to the ecosystem.

Founded at Bard in 2010 and led by alumni/ae, Contemporaneous now makes its home in New York City. The ensemble plays Murray's in Tivoli on February 2.

Arthur Holland Michel investigated how a small team of engineers built the first lethal Predator drone and created the basis for modern drone warfare leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Bard MFA alumna Robin Coste Lewis discusses her book Voyage of the Sable Venus, which won the National Book Award last year.

The fourth annual Bard Works program runs from Sunday, January 24, to Friday, January 29, offering opportunities for students to gain valuable career tools as they near graduation. Juniors and seniors participate in a series of workshops, networking events, and other professional development activities. With the support of mentors from the campus community and beyond, students hone their business etiquette and job searching skills, work on public speaking and workplace leadership, and explore how to translate their undergraduate education to the global marketplace. Participants include 65 students and more than 50 alumni/ae, parents, and local professionals.

Jedamiah Wolf, alumnus of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, coauthors this examination of how and why Congress removed sustainability concerns from the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Eight Bard alumni/ae are involved in the production of Bieber Bathos Elegy, created by Felix Bernstein '13, which will premiere at the Whitney Museum in New York City on January 15. This hybrid work by New York–based artist, poet, and writer Bernstein combines musical performance, poetry, cabaret drag, and opera to explore the concept of bathos—the failure to achieve pathos—and illuminate issues of identity and persona through the character of Justin Bieber. The work is directed by Gabe Rubin '14 with assistant director Clara Lipfert MFA '18, composed by Rron Karahoda '13, with production design by George Dupont '14 and sound design by Cammisa Buerhaus MFA '18, and features musical performances by Leila Bordreuil '13 and Lazar Bozic '14.

"At a time when many people question the value of a liberal-arts education, Max Kenner believes — fervently — that studying the humanities and sciences can transform lives."

Films by Film and Electronic Arts faculty members So Yong Kim and Kelly Reichardt as well as alumnus Miles Joris-Peyrafitte '14 will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, later this month. Reichardt's Certain Women features Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and James Le Gros. The film follows the intersecting lives of three women in small-town America, and is based on short stories by Maile Meloy. In Kim's Lovesong, with Jena Malone, Riley Keough, and Brooklyn Decker, the relationship between two friends deepens during an impromptu road trip. Joris-Peyrafitte's As You Are is the telling and retelling of a relationship between three teenagers through a construction of disparate memories prompted by a police investigation, with Owen Campbell, Charlie Heaton, Amandla Stenberg, John Scurti, Scott Cohen, and Mary Stuart Masterson.