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
TagCivic Engagement
Pankumenta – Giving Opportunities to Young Artists
We meet early in the morning. I roll in on my bike with breakfast for Danny. He looks sleepy but greets me with a warm smile, and I know we are both exhausted but excited. We unroll some canvases, tape them onto the Ikea painting frames belonging to the café, and hang them up.
Uniting behind a cause? On trying to turn frustration into political action at the ‘Rescue the Rescuers’ demonstration
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
On Reading the Application: Xenia Muth
“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
A Reflection on “Get Engaged: Student Action & Youth Leadership Conference”
I was enjoying a cup of espresso macchiato with conference-provided sandwiches next to the Danube river while you, my fellow schoolmates, were being crushed under the heavy burden of midterms. Before you start feeling jealous of my one-week privilege, let me clarify two things: The conference was busy enough that we were not able to
Getting Dirt-y with “Prost to Compost”
“So you begin to wonder if [the city’s] true passion is the enjoyment of new and different things, and not, instead, the joy of expelling, discarding, cleansing itself of a recurrent impurity… Street cleaners are welcomed like angels, and their task of removing the residue of yesterday’s existence is surrounded by a respectful silence, like
#6 Let’s Talk About Pankow Conversations
The first of the three planned Pankow Conversations took place on October 9th, 2017. This civic engagement project is a collaboration between BCB students, faculty, staff and alumni, various activists across Berlin (such as the Berlin Storytelling Arena), and the Pankow Bezirksamt. Every event is translated into German, English and Arabic. In this podcast, we
The Continued Adventures of a Clown: A follow up with Veronika Rišnovská
A few days ago I followed up with Veronika Rišnovská about her clowning project. The project is part of the Civic Engagement initiative at Bard College Berlin. It aims to train students as medical and social clowns so they can bring joy to children in hospitals, orphanages, and refugee camps in Berlin. Since our last