BCB is a community full of people who are highly engaged with politics. Many of us take classes on theoretical or practical aspects of the public sphere, many of us want to pursue politics-related careers, one civic engagement initiative comes after the other, and our cafeteria gives place to countless post-Socratic dialogues on the ideal
CategoryAcademic Events
From the Archives – Portraits
What do alumni Aya Ibrahim and Tuvshinzaya Gantulga have in common with students Wafa Mustafa (BA3), Mais Hriesh (who has since graduated from Bard NY) and the once-neighboring “Family Without Borders” who now resides in Budapest? Aside from the fact that they all appear in this email, at some point in the past three years
Don’t Bother with SparkNotes (the Book is Better)
Tomorrow the reading is due. Flipping through the required pages reveals it as lengthy, dense, and probably confusing. Upcoming essays, presentations, and group projects have buried you up to your neck and, of course, to stay afloat a shortcut seems necessary. It’s a waste of time to read when a summary can be found with
You are your grades – the quantified self
The Chinese government intends to create a social credit system by the year 2020. Data about the behavior of each individual from all social spheres of life shall be collected, evaluated and transformed into a personal score. Consumption, traffic offenses, activities on the internet, employment contracts, ratings at school and work, conflicts with the landlord
Comedy in Crazy Blood: Satire, Stereotypes, and the Hypocrisy of “Enlightenment Values”
Last spring, I studied abroad in Berlin and had the opportunity to see a hilarious and thought-provoking piece of original theatre: Verrücktes Blut. The morally ambiguous play was, suffice to say, one of the most intelligent and funniest plays I’ve seen in a long time. I had the chance to see it as part of
On Reading the Application: Andrés Martínez de Velasco
“On Reading the Application” is a recurring series that goes behind the scenes in the Admissions Office at Bard College Berlin. When applying to colleges, it’s easy to forget there are human beings on the other side of the application portal. Not all college admissions offices are alike, and Bard College Berlin’s approach to college
Found Fragments of a “Language and Thinking” Notebook
This past May, I moved out of my first non-dorm housing in Berlin. Behind a dense pile of important documents that had been pressed tightly (carelessly?) against my bedroom wall, I rediscovered my Language and Thinking notebook, about half-filled and bound in red Bard College Berlin cardstock. I also found the course reader, stuffed with
LESC 2018: So (now) What?
One of the privileges and pains of a Liberal Education is that it both encourages and necessitates continual inquiry into its nature and value. Rooted in a rich historical tradition of confusing origins and seemingly contradictory intentions, making sense of a so-called “Liberal Education” is a daunting task that no student should undertake alone… and,