Divided Cities

Professor: Jeff Jurgens  

Course Number: ANTH 219

CRN Number: 10339

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 102

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

Crosslists: Environmental & Urban Studies

This class offers an introduction to modern cities and everyday urban life, with a central focus on cities that are both socially and spatially divided. On the one hand, we will examine how political-economic inequalities and collective differences (organized in relation to race, color, gender, sexuality, class, [dis]ability, and other social categories) are expressed in geographic boundaries and other aspects of the built environment. On the other, we will explore how state agencies, real estate developers, activists, residents, and other social actors make and remake city spaces in ways that reinforce, rework, challenge, and refuse the existing terms of inequality and difference. The class will revolve around case studies of cities around the world (e.g., Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv) as well as cities in the US (e.g., Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and St. Louis). More broadly, we will trace the history of urban segregation from a perspective that is both transnational and committed to the pursuit of racial justice (as well as other forms of societal transformation). This class builds on assigned reading in anthropology and other disciplines, critical writing and discussion, and focused film viewing. At the same time, it is an Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences (ELAS) class that provides students with an opportunity to reflect on urban theorizing through collaborations with community partners in Kingston and other cities.

Archaeology of African American Farms, Yards, and Gardens

Professor: Christopher Lindner  

Course Number: ANTH 290

CRN Number: 10342

Class cap: 12

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Hegeman 201

    Fri   1:30 PM - 4:30 PM Hegeman 201

Distributional Area:

LS  Laboratory Science   

Crosslists: Africana Studies; Environmental Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Historical Studies

How can we use archaeological methods to identify, analyze, and interpret places where the growing of plants by African Americans flourished. How can we contextualize our findings on these sites to help counter racism in the present? The laboratory science aspect of this ELAS course will derive from protocols and strategies of exploratory sampling excavations. Our goal will be identification of deposits that remain relatively undisturbed and contain artifacts that represent particularly relevant eras in the past. On Thursdays, seminars will take place in person &/or by videoconference. In the winter labs on Friday, we’ll examine artifacts excavated nearby in Germantown, at the Reformed Parsonage, to prepare for excavations there in spring. Our focus is the family headed by a free African American farmer, Henry Person. His wife, Mary, was likely born to a bondswoman at the house in 1805. Their children lived there until 1911. Evidence of African American spiritual practices have been found in the cellar of the house and its yard. We’ll strive to involve community colleagues from the neighboring towns and the city of Hudson. The Bard Archaeology Field School will take place for three weeks in the summer at the Germantown Parsonage, for 4 credits in Anthropology at the 200-level. Scholarships are available to cover tuition charges. For an online application and further information, go to https://www.bard.edu/archaeology/fieldschool/ and/or speak with Prof Lindner during registration.

The Art of Life. Social Sculpture actualized

Professor: Tatjana Myoko von Prittwitz und Gaffron  

Course Number: ART 124

CRN Number: 10591

Class cap: 12

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

Mon       2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Resnick A: Center for Spiritual Life

Distributional Area:

PA  Practicing Arts   

How can we feel part of a larger net of complete interconnection and in fact share our insights of ecological, social-political and communal dependencies? In this interdisciplinary class we will use our creative energy for both self investigation as well as a means to visualize and realize the reality of our shared community. “Everybody is an artist" stated conceptual artist Joseph Beuys. His vision of "social sculpture" pointed not only to our creative power but also to everyone's responsibility to shape the conditions of society. Art becomes a healing force in everyday life. This is an ELAS class (Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences), thus linking artistic creation, intellectual study, and community engagement together. We will use various artistic means in order to create collaborative art projects to support our community in the process of realized interconnection. Weekly homework consists of practical explorations (drawing, sewing, mindful photography, performance, awareness exercises) and readings (Beuys concept of social sculpture, Buddhist ecology, Zen philosophy, community art projects). We will also spend some time outside (Bard Farm) to realize the coexistence with our Mother Earth.

Extended Media: AI in Art

Professor: Suzanne Kite  

Course Number: ART 150 SK

CRN Number: 10589

Class cap: 12

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

Mon       2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Fisher Studio Arts 161

Distributional Area:

PA  Practicing Arts   

This course, "Extended Media: AI in Art," spans 15 weeks and offers an exploration of the intersection of art that engages with extended media, artificial intelligence (AI), and Indigenous methodologies. The curriculum covers experimental approaches to the use of machine learning tools, the influence of traditional technologies on emerging ones, Indigenous and creative methodologies in artistic research, thinking through collaboration with nonhuman entities, and fundamental questions such as the origins of art, and the ethics of creating. Students will engage in experiments with digital collage, machine learning, proposing projects, and workshops with guest speakers. They will also delve into critical readings on topics like Indigenous perspectives on AI, computational biases, and the role of artists in AI development. Throughout the course, students will incrementally develop creative projects that showcase their understanding of AI in contemporary art. The semester culminates in presentations where students showcase their innovative projects, demonstrating the diverse and dynamic possibilities at the intersection of art and AI.

Ceramics, FREE CLAY!

Professor: Lauren Anderson  

Course Number: ART 205 LA

CRN Number: 10608

Class cap: 12

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    2:00 PM - 5:00 PM UBS Studio

Distributional Area:

PA  Practicing Arts   

This course will serve to  introduce (or further) students’ understanding of clay as a medium and material. Emphasizing how artists use clay in formal, social, and experimental ways, and looking at how we can explore this in our own bodies of work. Demos and assignments will investigate the following: techniques of building and structure (or lack thereof), color (inherent and applied), sources (is this clay local?), collaboration (human and material), and ways of firing (or non-firing). Prerequisite: any 100 level art class, previous clay experience (with a strong willingness to break tradition), or permission of the instructor.

Extended Media II: Physical / Digital

Professor: Julia Weist  

Course Number: ART 250 JW

CRN Number: 10586

Class cap: 12

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

Mon       10:10 AM - 1:10 PM Fisher Studio Arts 161

Distributional Area:

PA  Practicing Arts   

Not all physical artmaking is tangible and not all digital artmaking is immaterial. Increasingly, hardware and software tools are interwoven into the production of art objects and allow artists to expand or augment their creative practices. In this course we will experiment with digital processes that can be used to create sculptures, prints, drawings and installations. Students will create projects utilizing large format printing, laser cutting, 3D printing, projection mapping, video sculpture and other media applications. Class discussions will focus on how production choices support an artist’s concept and execution. Weekly presentations will expose students to artists who have blurred the boundary between traditional and emerging artistic techniques. Prerequisite: any level 1 course in Studio Art, Photography or Film/Electronic Arts or by permission of the instructor.

Politics of Modern Craft

Professor: Heeryoon Shin  

Course Number: ARTH 399

CRN Number: 10100

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      9:10 AM - 11:30 AM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

Distributional Area:

AA  Analysis of Art   

Crosslists: Asian Studies

This course examines the ways in which craft practices and objects became intertwined with issues of national identity, class, gender, and political resistance throughout the twentieth century. While the focus of the course will be on the history of craft and its contradictions in South Asia, case studies from the Japanese Empire and its colonies in East Asia will provide a comparative perspective beyond the boundaries of a single empire or nation-state. Beginning with the rise of the Arts and Crafts movement in late nineteenth-century Britain in response to the growth of industrial production and consumer culture, we will trace the spread of craft ideology and practice across the British Empire and beyond. In some cases, political leaders drew on issues of craft to drive national policy and define national identity, while in other cases, resistance movements transformed the nostalgia and exoticism underlying the idea of craft into a critique against imperial authority. A special emphasis will be placed on the materials and techniques of production and the actual craft objects, including textiles, ceramics, silver and base metal, and wood. Topics include representations of the craftsman, colonial exhibitions and art education, craft as protest in Gandhi’s homespun movement, the Japanese folk arts (mingei) movement and Orientalism, embroidery and weaving as gendered craft, and craft and tourism.

Food Microbiology

Professor: Gabriel Perron  

Course Number: BIO 102

CRN Number: 10003

Class cap: 18

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

    Fri   1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Reem Kayden Center 111/112

Distributional Area:

LS  Laboratory Science   

Crosslists: Experimental Humanities

In this course designed for non-majors, we will study the microorganisms that inhabit, create, or contaminate food. The first half of the course will introduce students to topics in food safety such as food spoilage, food borne infections, and antibiotic resistance. In the second half of the course, students will learn how to harness the capabilities of the many microbes present in our environment to turn rotting vegetables or spoiling milk into delicious food. Students will also learn how next-generation technologies are revealing the important ecological dynamics shaping microbial communities in transforming food with possible beneficial effects on human health. Throughout the course, students will learn how to design, conduct, and analyze simple experiments while working with microbiology techniques, including DNA sequencing. No prerequisite.

Dancing Migrations: Tracing Mexico's Points of Access and Departure

Professor: Yebel Gallegos  

Course Number: DAN 360

CRN Number: 10428

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Fisher Performing Arts Center CONFERENCE

Distributional Area:

AA  Analysis of Art   

Crosslists:

Latin American/Iberian Studies

Human migration has been a constant force shaping history. In many ways, human movement has created opportunities for culture to evolve and thrive. Together, we will examine how dance as a resilient art form has adapted and transformed due to migration and cross-cultural exchanges. This course moves away from a traditional Euro-U.S.-centric approach to dance history and explores ritual and concert dance from a Mexican perspective. Offered as a seminar-style course, readings by Diana Taylor, Gloria Anzaldúa, Elizabeth Schwall, and David Delgado Shorter, among others, combined with discussions, movement explorations, and visits by guest speakers will deepen our knowledge and understanding of dance as a global art form. There will be weekly writing, a mid-term project proposal, and a final project.

Public Access / Local Groove

Professor: Ben Coonley  

Course Number: FILM 367

CRN Number: 10465

Class cap: 12

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    1:30 PM - 4:30 PM Avery Film Center 117

Distributional Area:

PA  Practicing Arts   

In this course, students will collaborate on the production of a bi-weekly video art program to be broadcast on PANDA TV, Northern Dutchess County’s local public access cable television station. With reference to the 50-year history of amateur "narrowcasting" and artists whose work has been exhibited on television, we will engage with methods for creating and distributing episodic artwork for a local audience. Students will collaborate in a studio setting designed to mimic and update the small production studios used by public access television stations, using both analog and digital video production tools. To take this course, students must have previously taken at least one other 200-level Film and Electronic Arts production course or have comparable videomaking experience and the permission of the instructor.

Introduction to Disability Studies

Professor: Erin Braselmann  

Course Number: HR 109

CRN Number: 10204

Class cap: 20

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Reem Kayden Center 102

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis  D+J Difference and Justice

This course will serve as an introduction to disability studies as an interdisciplinary field. The intent is to provide an overview of different conceptions and construction of disability throughout society and how disabled people are affected by such. The course will take an intersectional approach in analyzing and critiquing social systems and manifestations of disability through critical disability theory. Specifically, the course will focus on the history of disability and the disability rights movement, medical and social models of disability, accessibility and accommodations, disability policy and the legal landscape, representations of people with disabilities in culture, and more. Students will learn to think critically about disability in a variety of contexts. Students will also develop a better understanding of systems of power and oppression as they relate to disability and accessibility. Course readings may include, but not be limited to, works by: Judy Heumann, Alice Wong, Keith A. Mayes, Sonya Huber, Eli Clare, Simi Linton, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Robert McRuer, Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer, Jasbir K. Puar, David J. Connor, and Ronald J. Berger. Course content will include narratives, essays, articles, podcasts, and film or other media.

Asylum

Professor: Peter Rosenblum and Danielle Riou

Course Number: HR 282

CRN Number: 10295

Class cap: 16

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 307

Distributional Area:

MBV  Meaning, Being, Value  D+J Difference and Justice

Crosslists: Global & International Studies; Politics

Asylum is an ancient practice by which a persecuted individual claims protection from another sovereign power. Today, asylum is enshrined in international law and in the laws of most countries. Asylum, however, is anything but given: it must be claimed; and to do this, an asylum seeker's lived experience must be carefully translated into law's idiosyncratic language. In the past 12 months, more than 130,000 potential asylum applicants have arrived in New York State, but only a small fraction will get the full legal support necessary to do this effectively. This course is a direct response to our current situation: It is an intensive introduction to - and practical training in – asylum in the United States. In addition to classes devoted to the history, law and politics of asylum, students will work on individual asylum applications in collaboration with a legal services provider in the Hudson Valley.  Interested students should send a note indicating their language skill (if any), their interest, and any relevant experience to the instructors prosenbl@bard.edu and riou@bard.edu. Students with competence in Spanish, Arabic, Russian, French, Portuguese, or Turkish are particularly encouraged.

American Anthropocenes and the Politics of Nature

Professor: Bill Dixon  

Course Number: PS 286

CRN Number: 10275

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Olin 205

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis   

Crosslists: Environmental Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Philosophy; Science, Technology, Society

This course will reconsider the politics of climate change by way of an inquiry into ancient, early modern, and contemporary conceptions of “nature.” In the first part of the course, we will rethink the nature/politics relationship in conversation with some canonical texts and thinkers, including Genesis, Prometheus Bound, Aristotle, Lucretius, Saint Paul, Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Emma Goldman, among others. In the second part of the course, we will consider three contemporary accounts of politics and nature – cosmopolitanism (Martha Nussbaum), post-secularism (Jacques Derrida), and “the new materialism” (Jane Bennett and Bruno Latour) – and focus on their respective understandings of democracy and the ethical status of nonhuman animals. In the final part of the course, we will shift our attention to the present-day United States and critically examine how various social movements, zoos, corporations, religions, digital media, films, and several American Presidents have imagined themselves to be agents for - and against – climate policy. We will ask what difference the idea of nature – situated as a philosophically, religiously, and politically contested concept – might make to the lived experience of citizenship in the US, as both climate change and climate politics are accelerating and globalizing. 

Labor and Democracy

Professor: Mie Inouye  

Course Number: PS 308

CRN Number: 10281

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      3:10 PM - 5:30 PM Olin 308

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis   

Crosslists: American & Indigenous Studies; Human Rights

Ongoing unionization efforts at Starbucks and Amazon, the United Auto Workers’ recent successful “stand up” strike, and a narrowly-averted strike by UPS workers last summer mark a period of historic resurgence in the U.S. labor movement. These efforts have been profoundly shaped by decades-long attempts by left-wing labor organizers to foment rank-and-file activism within the labor movement, even as they also illustrate the challenges workers face as they attempt to form and maintain internally democratic labor unions. What does democracy mean, and what can it look like within a labor union? And what is the relationship between the internal democracy of labor unions and their external effects? This seminar begins from these four sites of contemporary labor resurgence (Amazon, Starbucks, the UAW, and UPS) to trace the reform movements and theoretical traditions that helped shape them. We will also study scholarly accounts of the relationship between labor unions and democracy produced by political scientists and sociologists. This course is accompanied by a speaker series, which will give students the opportunity to discuss our guiding questions with experienced labor organizers and scholars. Authors include Robert Michels, Seymour Martin Lipset, Jake Grumbach and Paul Frymer, Bill Fletcher Jr., William Z. Foster, James Boggs, Jane McAlevey, and Kim Moody.