The Division of Social Studies offers academic programs in anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, politics, religion, and sociology. Additional courses of study are available through interdivisional and area studies programs and concentrations. Students are encouraged to take courses from multiple fields in the division in order to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on fundamental questions about the human experience that is historically rooted but geared toward contemporary issues. Students draw on the interpretive strategies and analytic methods of multiple disciplines to develop a critical perspective on various aspects of society, politics, thought, and culture. Although the main emphasis in the division is interdisciplinary, students are encouraged to design programs of study that address particular areas of inquiry that are personally meaningful and can also provide pathways for graduate or professional work or a future career.
Photo by Karl Rabe
Our Programs
The Division of Social Studies includes the following academic programs:
- Anthropology
- Economics
- Economics and Finance
- Historical Studies
- Interdisciplinary Study of Religions
- Philosophy
- Politics
- Sociology
Coursework and Requirements
Typically, courses in the Upper College are seminars, in which the student is expected to participate actively. Advisory conferences, tutorials, fieldwork, and independent research prepare the student for the Senior Project. The Senior Project may take any form appropriate to the student’s field, subject, and methodology; most are research projects, but a project may take the form of a critical review of literature, a close textual analysis, a series of related essays, or even a translation.
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Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization that encourages a diversity of opinion in the examination of economic issues. The Institute offers graduate programs in economic theory and policy, as well as 3+2 and 4+1 dual-degree options for undergraduates. Bard undergraduates also have the opportunity to meet the prominent figures who serve on the Levy Institute’s research staff and attend its conferences. Integrated activities of the Institute and Bard College include the Levy Economics Institute Prize, awarded annually to a graduating senior; annual scholarships for students majoring in economics; and an endowed professorship, the Jerome Levy Professor of Economics.
Social Studies News and Events
Featured News
James Romm on Thebes for Classical Wisdom Podcast
“This was an epochal event in Greek history.”
James Romm on Thebes for Classical Wisdom Podcast
James Romm, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics.
Post Date: 12-12-2024
Recent News
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Omar Encarnación Speaks with Reuters About the Political Fates of Trump and Bolsonaro
Omar Encarnación Speaks with Reuters About the Political Fates of Trump and Bolsonaro
Omar G. Encarnación, Charles Flint Kellogg Professor of Politics in the Division of Social Studies at Bard, was interviewed in Reuters in an article discussing how the political fortunes of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, and former US president Donald Trump have sharply diverged despite having long been aligned. That Trump will return to the White House despite several court cases while Bolsonaro is sidelined from upcoming elections is due to starkly different tools each country has for holding politicians accountable, Encarnación told Reuters. Trump was impeached twice by a Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives, but his Republican allies in the Senate held enough seats to acquit him. “It's one party out of only two, it buys enormous coverage for Trump, quite in contrast to Bolsonaro,” Encarnación said.Omar G. Encarnación.
Post Date: 11-25-2024
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Bard College Celebrates Student Excellence at Annual Scholarship Reception
Bard College Celebrates Student Excellence at Annual Scholarship Reception
Bard College faculty, staff, and students gathered at Blithewood Manor for this year's Annual Scholarship Reception on Monday, November 11. This annual event honors students who have excelled in their studies and contributed to academic and campus life. The evening’s awardees, who were nominated by faculty from across the four divisions of the College, represent excellence in the arts; social studies; languages and literature; and science, mathematics, and computing.2024 Annual Scholarship Reception. Photo by Karl Rabe
“We are pleased to recognize this year’s Bard Scholars, who represent the very best of what we are and what we do,” said Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Studies David Shein. “These students, who were selected by their faculty and deans in recognition of their contributions in the classroom and to the campus community, have demonstrated not only excellence in their work but deep care and commitment to that work and to the life of the College. We are proud of them and look forward to seeing what they will do next.”
Many of the named scholarships are made possible by generous contributions from Bard donors. Thank you to all supporters for believing in the value of a college education, and for investing in the future of Bard students.
Further reading:
Learn More about Postgraduate Scholarships and Fellowships through Bard's Dean of Studies Office
Learn More about Scholarships, Prizes, and Awards at Bard
Post Date: 11-15-2024
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Pavlina Tcherneva Writes Levy Policy Note on Election Outcome
Pavlina Tcherneva Writes Levy Policy Note on Election Outcome
Pavlina Tcherneva, president of the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, professor of economics, and director of OSUN’s Economic Democracy Initiative, posted a policy note on the outcome of the US presidential election and how many Americans voted for progressive policies, such as state ballot measures to increase minimum wage and require paid sick leave, despite Donald Trump having won the presidential bid. She addresses how numerous issues, including economic concerns, wages, immigration policy, and reproductive health rights, among many other factors, affected the way voters responded, particularly in states that voted Republican. “All polls—whatever one’s feelings about their reliability—kept pointing to the same defining issue in this (as in every other) election: the economy,” writes Tcherneva. “Critical issues of democracy, abortion, and immigration filled the airwaves and political speeches, but the economy remained once again more powerful than any one of them.”Pavlina Tcherneva.
Post Date: 11-12-2024
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Omar G. Encarnación Published in History Today
Omar G. Encarnación Published in History Today
Omar G. Encarnación, Charles Flint Kellogg Professor of Politics in the Division of Social Studies at Bard, contributed to “Is It Possible to Forgive and Forget,” a group article published in History Today that examines how policies of remembrance and education, versus those that actively promote forgetting problematic pasts, have been used in approaching how countries grapple with their own fraught national histories. In his excerpt, Encarnación explores how Spain’s decision to enact the Pact of Forgetting from 1975 to 2007, intended to avoid confronting directly the authoritarian legacy of Francoism, meant adopting practices that promoted political amnesia. “Spain’s experience suggests that forgetting need not mean condemning the past to eternal oblivion, but rather setting it aside until society is ready to deal with it,” he writes.Omar G. Encarnación.
Post Date: 11-05-2024
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Bard College Students Attend HBCU Democracy Day at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro as Part of Course on Student Voting
Bard College Students Attend HBCU Democracy Day at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro as Part of Course on Student Voting
A group of Bard students, enrolled in a course titled Student Voting: Power, Politics and Race in the Fight for American Democracy, attended HBCU Democracy Day at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T) on Wednesday, October 16 in Greensboro, North Carolina. The course on student voting, which is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Open Society University Network (OSUN), is collaboratively taught by faculty from Bard College, North Carolina A&T, Prairie View A&M University, and Tuskegee University. Students meet virtually every week to discuss issues in the course, including case studies which explore histories of student voting at each institution. Students from each of the campuses attended the HBCU Democracy Day conference.Students and faculty from Bard College, North Carolina A&T, and Tuskegee University stand in front of a statue of the A&T (Greensboro) Four on North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Photo by Seamus Heady
The conference featured a panel with five of the professors who teach the course: Jelani Favors (North Carolina A&T) who organized Democracy Day and heads North Carolina A&T’s Center of Excellence for Social Justice; Jonathan Becker (Bard College); Melanye Price (Prairie View A&M University); Lisa Bratton (Tuskegee University); and Yael Bromberg, who is a senior fellow at the Bard Center for Civic Engagement and a leading scholar on the history of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.
The conference also included an array of distinguished speakers, including: David Dennis Sr., author and civil rights movement veteran; Martha Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, professor of history and director of graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University; and Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor of history at Ohio State University.
North Carolina A&T Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professor of History Jelani Favors said: “It was great to see the inaugural HBCU Democracy Day come into fruition at North Carolina A&T State University and to have visiting students join us from Bard, Wesleyan, Tuskegee, Prairie View A&M, and High Point University. Black colleges have been critical incubators for idealism and civic engagement since their inceptions in 1837, and the purpose of this program was to lean into that tradition and to foster healthy discourse and dialogue that will inspire students to continue the fight in interrogating, defending, and expanding democracy for the next generation. We look forward to hosting this program again next year and hopefully encouraging HBCUs across the country to implement similar programming.”
Bard College Professor of Political Studies and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jonathan Becker said: “It was an incredible educational experience for Bard students to be able to meet and engage in lively discussions with professors and students from some of the nation’s leading HBCUs on critical issues facing the country on the eve of the presidential election. It was even more meaningful, because the conference was held at North Carolina A&T, the home of the A&T (Greensboro) Four and so many other distinguished figures from the civil rights movement.”
The attending Bard students expressed tremendous enthusiasm about their experience. “It was amazing to see faculty and students that were so connected to their local community and to witness their pride in the role of their institution in the fight for civil rights,” said Emily O’Rourke ’25, a senior majoring in anthropology who is pursuing a certificate in civic engagement. “It was incredibly meaningful to meet face-to-face with students from the other campuses and together to participate in these necessary and important conversations about the history and future of democracy.”
Panhavotey Chea ’28, a first-year student, said: “Everyone on campus at North Carolina A&T was very welcoming, and Democracy Day was extremely informative. As an international student, I found it particularly interesting because I had the opportunity to be exposed to different perspectives on issues of voting and democracy.”
Kay Bell ’26, a junior global and international studies major, said, “It was an amazing experience to be able to go to an HBCU, to be able collaborate with students from other schools like North Carolina A&T, Tuskegee, and Prairie View A&M, and to hear firsthand about their efforts to support voting and democracy. It makes me hopeful for the future of the country knowing that there are so many students involved in the fight for democracy.”
The student voting course includes both written and video-documentary case studies about each of the participating campuses. Seamus Heady, a digital media specialist at OSUN who directed short documentary films on each of the participating campuses for the course, said: “Democracy Day made tangible the legacy of HBCU students’ participation in the process of democracy and gave a glimmer of hope for the future.”
Masha Pankova, a graduate of Bard’s Center Human Rights and the Arts Master’s program who helped produce the documentary films, said: “It was incredibly fulfilling to see the illustrious campus of North Carolina A &T and to visit Greensboro’s International Civil Rights Museum, which exposed me to the history that changed the nation. It’s one thing to read about it and another thing to see it firsthand.”
Post Date: 10-22-2024
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Roger Berkowitz Joins Other Arendt Center Conference Speakers on WAMC’s Roundtable to Discuss Tribalism and Cosmopolitanism
Roger Berkowitz Joins Other Arendt Center Conference Speakers on WAMC’s Roundtable to Discuss Tribalism and Cosmopolitanism
Roger Berkowitz, professor of political studies and human rights, and academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, Bard College, joins other Hannah Arendt Center conference speakers Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center Uday Singh Mehta, Arendtian scholar Lyndsey Stonebridge, and Director of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University Shai Lavi, among other panelists, on WAMC’s Roundtable to discuss tribalism and cosmopolitanism. Opening up the discussion, Lavi asks: “Is there a way to talk about belonging to a community, belonging to a group, or belonging to a people without using the term ‘tribalism’? Are there other ways of belonging that are not tribal? Similarly, what the term ‘cosmopolitanism’ is trying to get at is the question of our shared humanity. So is cosmopolitanism, which is an abstraction, the best way to talk about our shared humanity?” The Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College will host its 16th annual international conference on “Tribalism and Cosmopolitanism: How Can We Imagine a Pluralist Politics?” on October 17–18, 2024.L–R: Joe Donahue, JP Miller, Mike Spain, and Professor Roger Berkowitz.
Learn more and register here.
Post Date: 10-08-2024