Newsmakers

Kenner talks about BPI's reentry program, which provides career counseling and helps students transition to life after prison, and emphasizes the practical value of a liberal arts education.

Opus 40 is the masterwork of the late Bard professor and alumnus Harvey Fite '30, the product of his "ceaseless vision" and 37 years of labor.

Professor An-My Lê urged Emma Ressel to send a portfolio from her Senior Project to New York Magazine. The result is Ressel's ornate and vibrant photo spread.

Alexandra Bettina '11, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, has made a discovery that could make waves in wiping out drug-resistant bacteria.

Florida International University biology professor and Bard alumnus Matthew DeGennaro discusses his work modifying mosquitos to reduce the transmission of diseases like dengue and Zika.

Bard High School Early College Manhattan alumna Sophia Van Valkenburg is part of the team that's made it possible to view the Times archive in a new, mobile-friendly design.

Cristol, senior fellow at Bard's Center for Civic Engagement, predicts a more "assertive and interventionist" approach in a Hillary Clinton administration.

New York Times commentators consider the phenomenon of Marie Kondo's popular books on tidying up. Alumna Elizabeth Royte urges readers to start by buying less stuff.

After 20 years exhibiting her work internationally, visual artist Amy Granat '98 returned to her native St. Louis, opening an intimate, salon-like gallery intent on "art meeting life."

Writer and artist Rikki Ducornet, recipient of the Bard College Arts and Letters award, constructs a series of paper scrolls in response to Margie McDonald's whimsical sculptures.

Bard researcher, alumnus, and Hudsonia director Erik Kiviat '76 has made a career out of understanding and protecting the natural environment of the Hudson Valley.

Salisbury makes his directorial debut with Everything's OK, a postapocalyptic live action/animated hybrid, which was accepted to the Cannes short film program.

Carusone and Gardner opened Republic Restoratives in May in the Ivy City neighborhood, which has several distilleries and breweries. Women are still relatively rare in the industry.

Hanusik's poignant photos of southern communities grappling with the effects of climate change have been published in Oxford American's "Eyes on the South" series.

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation has unveiled its biennial list of 2015 grantees. Among them are two Bard MFA faculty members, Pam Lins and A. L. Steiner, and three MFA alumni/ae: Jared Buckhiester '13, Rochelle Goldberg '15, and Kelly Kaczynski '03. More on Arforum

Artist Kate Stone '09 and writer Hannah Schneider '09 met at Bard; now they've created a "poignant and witty" collection of illustrated short stories.

On the eve of her second solo exhibition at the Rachel Uffner Gallery, Greenbaum discussed the profound influence of her Bard mentor, Elizabeth Murray.

In the late 1970s, Atwood was living in Paris and had a chance encounter with blind students, from that stemmed her award-winning series of photographs.

The success of incarcerated students should move education leaders to rethink college admission and the values and purpose of higher education, says Kenner.

Troy Simon, once a troubled, illiterate teenager, has now graduated from Bard and is on his way to Yale.

Bard alumna and La Voz cofounder and editor Mariel Fiori has been named to the inaugural class of the etsy.org Hudson Valley Good Work Program.

Chris Claremont has written more X-Men comics than anyone else, and his work has had a major impact on the franchise and the superhero genre generally.

Bard Prison Initiative alumnus George Chochos started his college education behind bars. Last week he graduated with his master of divinity from Yale Divinity School.

"I found myself going back to my childhood at Bard," writes Ducornet. "That campus had provided me so many amazing experiences."

BPI students are "some of the most driven and talented undergraduates we have anywhere in the United States," says Max Kenner, Bard Prison Initiative founder and director.

Bard College students and alumnae have won several prestigious awards and honors. Julia Tinneny ’18 has been awarded a 2016 Davis Projects for Peace Prize. Tinneny will spend the summer in Senegal, where she will work on a grassroots project to promote economic empowerment for women. Her project, called “Jappal,” the Wolof affirmative that translates to “hold on,” focuses on education and skill building for poor women living in the rural community of Sandiara. Through the development of economic independence within their own community, these women are able to break an aggressive cycle of poverty leading to domestic servitude or marriage far from their home village. The $10,000 Davis prize will support a two-year course that provides training for women in tailoring, artisanal skills, and the production of sellable goods. Tinneny is focusing on global and international studies at Bard. Projects for Peace was created in 2007 through the generosity of Kathryn W. Davis, a lifelong internationalist and philanthropist who believed that today’s youth—tomorrow’s leaders—ought to be challenged to formulate and test their own ideas.
 
Sophie Lazar ’15 has won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Ukraine for 2016–2017. Lazar is one of four ETA Fulbright recipients who will be placed in Ukraine to help teach English at the university level while serving as cultural ambassadors for the United States. Virginia Hanusik ’14 has been named an alternate recipient of the U.S. Fulbright Scholarship to the London School of Economics, where she has been accepted into the City Design and Social Science Master’s program.
 
Angie Del Arca ’16 has won a 2016 Humanity in Action Fellowship. Del Arca is one of 48 students selected from a nationwide pool of 513 applicants. The Humanity in Action Fellowship program brings together an international group of undergraduates and recent graduates from colleges including William and Mary, New York University, Harvard, and Duke, as well as students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, and Ukraine, to explore past and present examples of resistance to intolerance, with a goal of encouraging future leaders to be engaged citizens and responsible decision makers. Del Arca’s fellowship will take her to Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Sarajevo, and Warsaw. An orientation workshop in Washington, D.C., will focus on American civil rights, Holocaust education, European security and political issues, as well as how to engage human rights work in innovative and artistic ways.
 
Kayla Adams ‘19 and Corrina Gross ‘19 have both won Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships to study abroad this summer in Qingdao, China. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Gilman scholars receive up to $5,000 toward study abroad or internship costs. The program aims to diversify the students who study abroad and the countries and regions where they go. Congressman Gilman, who retired in 2002 after serving in the House of Representatives for 30 years and chairing the House Foreign Relations Committee, commented, “Study abroad is a special experience for every student who participates. Living and learning in a vastly different environment of another nation not only exposes our students to alternate views, but also adds an enriching social and cultural experience. It also provides our students with the opportunity to return home with a deeper understanding of their place in the world, encouraging them to be a contributor, rather than a spectator in the international community.”
 
Dariel Vasquez ’17 was named a finalist out of a record number of 775 nominees nationwide for the prestigious Truman Scholarship. The Truman Scholarship Foundation, established by Congress in 1975 as the federal memorial to our 33rd president, awards scholarships for students demonstrating outstanding leadership potential and communication skills, academic excellence, and a commitment to careers in government or the nonprofit sector.
 

Bard College students and alumnae have won several prestigious awards and honors. Among them are two Fulbrights, two Gilman Scholarships, a Davis Project for Peace Prize, a Humanity in Action Fellowship, and a Truman Scholarship finalist.

The Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce 40 Under 40 Shaker Awards were presented on April 28, recognizing the next generation of leaders in the region.

The Bard College community packed the Bertelsmann Campus Center and other campus venues for Teach-In 2016 on Tuesday, April 19, and Wednesday, April 20. The Teach-In featured lectures, workshops, performances, and exhibitions designed to educate and engage the campus.

Schapiro speaks about the Bowie photo shoot that would produce some of the most iconic album art and magazine images of the 1970s, now collected in his new book, Bowie.

Bard alum Felix Walworth '13 plays music in four New York City bands, and is releasing an album on June 17 for Told Slant, a band formed on the Bard campus.

Max Kenner '01, Bard College alumnus and Bard Prison Initiative founder and executive director, has been named an honoree of the Tribeca Film Festival's 2016 Disruptive Innovation Awards.

The "Shakespeare-steeped" poetry of distinguished poet, Bard College alumnus, and former Bard faculty member Anthony Hecht '44 is praised in the New Criterion.

Conductor David Bloom '13, M.M. '15 offers tips on leading youth orchestras and reveals what it’s like to work with Courtney Love.

Artistic Director Fionn Meade CCS '09 called de Bellis and fellow new hire Adrienne Edwards "two of the most exciting and dynamic curators in contemporary interdisciplinary practice."

"The tattered history of the Ojibway people of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is redeemed through punk-rock humor" in Adam and Zack Khalil's INAATE/SE/.

Madeleine Wise '12, Milo Cramer '12, and Morgan Green ’12 of the New Saloon appear in the upcoming Minor Character: Six Translations of Uncle Vanya at the Same Time.

Arthur Holland Michel, cofounder and codirector of Bard's Center for the Study of the Drone, talks about the public fascination with, and fear of, drones.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has awarded Bard alumnus and composer Dylan Mattingly a Charles Ives Scholarship of $7,500, which is given to composition students of great promise.

Virginia Hanusik's photography project focuses on coastal land loss in Louisiana, which relates to work she began during her sophomore year at Bard.

BPI founder Max Kenner '01 and alumnus George Chochos '08 speak about the program's history, expansion, and its profound impact on students.

Ben Hopkins ’14 and Liv Bruce ’15, who make up the punk band PWR BTTM, require that every venue where they perform have gender-neutral bathrooms.

J. p. Lawrence '14, an Army National Guard member who was deployed to Iraq, reports on an American lawyer who defends Ugandans wounded on American bases in Iraq.

Elizabeth Royte '81 wrote the cover story for the March issue of National Geographic on how one third of global food is wasted, and the people who are working to change that.

"Apple’s marketing promises that each new product will help us live up to our highest ideals; however, more often than not, the products ... enable our basest impulses," Marrs writes.

Arthur Holland Michel '13, cofounder and codirector of Bard's Center for the Study of the Drone, gives input on the use of drones to prevent rhino poaching in South Africa.

"Worm Loves Worm ... brilliantly explores the idea of love between two beings, regardless of gender (or species) and despite societal ­pressures."

Nguyen Khoi Nguyen, video and multimedia editor at Science magazine, created this video on last week's monumental, first-time detection of gravitational waves.

Cekala found beauty in the salt used to keep Boston roads safe. Her curiosity has led to an exhibition of photography and video, now on view for the second time in the city.

Cynthia Conti-Cook will receive the Michele S. Maxian Award for Outstanding Public Defense Practitioner for her instrumental role in the Eric Garner case.