The place is Berlin, and the time, the week before spring break. Midterms are almost over! My last assignment to complete before break is the performance project my partner and I prepared for our Intro to Performance Studies course, taught by the awesome Prof. Dr. Nina Tecklenburg. As its title suggests, the first half of
CategoryStudent Academic Life
Acts of Resistance against Hegemony: Student Activism in Professor Hanan Toukan’s PS186 Class
TW: Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual Harassment and Assault, Violence, Murder BCB Politics Professor Hanan Toukan, was recently interviewed by the college’s Civic Engagement Office and shared insights on the topic of civic engagement and activism. Before coming to BCB, Hanan was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at Brown University (2016-2018) and Visiting
A Language of Common Belonging
Berlin is foreign. Berlin is new. Berlin speaks to me in voices that I do not yet understand. It is loud, and alienating, and frustratingly unfamiliar. German signs and words are thrown at me left and right, clouding my surroundings and ensuring that I am merely an observer incapable of deciphering the simplest of phrases.
From the Archives: Reflections on Writing
Die Bärliner revisits some of our favorite pieces on the topic of writing; students explore different writing processes, approaches, and why they write. From political and advocacy journalism to faculty interviews, reflections from BCB student writing tutors to creative writing in times of Covid-19 uncertainty, we invite you to look back on what our authors
Adox Rodinal 500ml
This series of analog photographs is a sort of mash-up of images created throughout the past semester as part of the Beginners Black and White Photography course taught by April Gertler. Although seemingly unrelated, they do all picture interesting moments in time within our beloved Berlin. Tackled are thoughts on the changing environment, industrialization, and surveillance—and me
A Campaign for Uyghur Scholars at Risk
This semester, the Critical Human Rights and Humanitarian Advocacy class in partnership with Scholars at Risk and taught by Prof. Dr. Kerry Bystrom, worked on designing an advocacy campaign to support detained and disappeared Uyghur scholars in the Xinjiang Autonomous region in China. The campaign consisted of the production of this short film and a
The Best (socially distanced) Study Spots in Berlin
In the midst of Mumbai’s scorching hot summer under a strict COVID-19 lockdown, I found myself longing for an M1 tram ride across Berlin. So much so, that I started watching eight-minute long YouTube videos of the M1 tram going from Pastor Niemöller Platz to Am Kupfergraben on loop. This longing also prompted me to
The First Years’ First Months at BCB
When you hear the word “college”, many things spring to mind: late nights, gallons of coffee, mountains of textbooks, new friends. For many teenagers, going to university represents a new chapter in their life, as for many it’s their first time living away from home. Countless film and TV scenes depict young adults heading off