Bardian SPRING 2011

Human Rights Lectures Focus on Corporate Complicity
Several speakers came to campus in February as guests of the Human Rights
Project Lecture and Film Series. Valentina Azarov, lecturer in human rights
and international law at Al-Quds University and the Al-Quds Bard Honors
College in Liberal Arts and Sciences, presented “Corporate Complicity in
Human Rights Violations.” Susie Linfield, associate professor of journalism
and associate director of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program at
New York University, gave a talk titled “The Cruel Radiance: Photography and
Political Violence.” Her appearance was cosponsored by the Hannah Arendt
Center for Politics and the Humanities.
Tower Named Composer of Year
Joan Tower, Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts, has been honored as the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s 2010–11 Composer of the Year. The orchestra
will perform six of her works this season, and she will lead master classes
with the university’s composition students.
Scholars Review Future of Anglo-American Relationship
Richard Aldous, Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature,
and Ted Bromund, senior research fellow at the Margaret Thatcher Center
for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, delivered a joint lecture, “Cameron,
Obama, and the Future of the Anglo-American Relationship” as part of the
James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series. The Bard College Globalization
and International Affairs Program and Foreign Affairs magazine presented the
event in February at the SUNY Global Center in New York City.
Prose Wins Distinguished Literary Award
Francine Prose, Distinguished Writer in Residence at the College, received the
Washington University International Humanities Medal. The $25,000 prize is
among the largest literary awards in the United States and honors the lifetime
work of a noted scholar, writer, or artist who has made a significant and
sustained contribution to the world of letters or the arts.
Alumni Share Their Learning, Talents
In celebration of the International Year of Chemistry, the Bard Chemistry
Program brought two alumni back to campus. Mahmud Hussain ’05 and James
Morris ’07 spoke to students on their individual research in organometallic
chemistry. Hussain earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and
is now a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard. Morris is completing a Ph.D.
at the University of Rochester.
Composer-pianist Bruce Wolosoff ’77 returned to campus in early
February to perform a recital of original works at Bard Hall.
Alumni/ae Power Thought-Provoking Blog
A number of Bardians are behind a blog that is starting to make a name for
itself. Established in March 2010, The Busy Signal (TheBusySignal.com) posts
new original essays, short or long, focused on issues of the day—politics, policy,
culture, and ideas—with the intention of starting conversations.
Active in the venture are executive editor Jesse Myerson ’08, editor-inchief
Henry Casey ’06, managing editor Julia Wentzel ’09, and staff writers
including Akie Bermiss ’05, Andrea Greco ’06, Jacqueline Moss ’06, Meg
Gatza ’07, Genya Shimkin ’08, Brian Fabry Dorsam ’09, and Katy Kelleher ’09;
and guest contributors Colin Lissandrello ’08 and Dan Wilbur ’09. The Busy
Signal has also featured interviews with Jonathan Cristol ’00, director of the
Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, and author Mat Johnson,
who formerly taught at Bard.
Distillations and Siphonings
by Jonathan Greene ’65
broadstone books
Jonathan Greene’s 30th collection in a career spanning five decades
represents a poet at the peak of his art: minimal verse appears on the
page in elegant simplicity, chronicling the pleasures and trials of rural
life with idiosyncratic observations and sly humor.
Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same:
The Musical Moment in Film
by Amy Herzog ’94
university of minnesota press
Drawing upon an eclectic selection of films, from French musicals
and Scopitone jukebox films (forerunners to music videos) to
Taiwanese cinema, Herzog investigates the power of music to
disrupt and transform the formulaic and predictable narrative.
Three Ladies Beside the Sea
by Rhoda Levine ’53, drawings by Edward Gorey
new york review books
In sophisticated and darkly humorous rhyme, this illustrated children’s
tale tells of three eccentric Edwardian ladies living by the sea and
their pursuit to find the sad reason one spends her life up in a tree.
Zone
by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell ’90
open letter
Widely acclaimed in France, Énard’s epic novel—written as one long,
compulsive sentence, which Mandell translates vividly into English—
takes place within the mind of a Croatian soldier turned French spy
on an overnight train journey.
The Diviner’s Tale
by Bradford Morrow, professor of literature
houghton mifflin harcourt
In Morrow’s newest novel, a literary thriller, struggling single mother
Cassandra Brooks is gifted by bizarre divinations that eerily foretell the
future while propelling her into a troubling past, forcing her to take
control of her life and finally face off with a real-life, long-lost killer.
Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian
Intellectual History
by Andrew J. Nicholson ’94
columbia university press
Challenging the postcolonial theory that the belief system known as
Hinduism was created by 19th-century British imperialists, Nicholson
posits that a unified Hinduism has its roots between the 12th and
16th centuries C.E.
The Elgar Companion to Hyman Minsky
edited by Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, president, Levy Economics Institute,
and Jerome Levy Professor of Economics; and L. Randall Wray, Levy
senior scholar
edward elgar
These essays are by economists whose ideas and research have been
influenced by the work of Hyman P. Minsky, who was a Distinguished
Scholar at Bard’s Levy Economics Institute. Minsky’s work has seen a
resurgence in light of the worldwide financial meltdown.
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