Catalogue

Interdivisional Overview

Bard’s approach to the liberal arts curriculum provides students and faculty with the opportunity to rethink traditional boundaries of academic divisions and disciplines. This flexible framework allows students to create plans of study that integrate the content and methodologies of multiple fields.

The areas of study listed in this chapter are interdisciplinary in nature, and draw on faculty, courses, and resources of the four academic divisions. Many of these fields are considered concentrations, and therefore require a student to moderate either simultaneously or sequentially into a primary program. The Senior Project combines the interdisciplinary theories and methods of the concentration with the disciplinary theories and methods of the program. Other fields in this chapter are stand-alone programs, in which students can major. These include American and Indigenous Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, French Studies, German Studies, Global and International Studies, Human Rights, Italian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Russian and Eurasian Studies, and Spanish Studies. Students may also opt for a multidisciplinary course of study, with permission of the Executive Committee.

Several special course series are noted throughout the chapter. Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences (ELAS) courses link academic work with civic engagement; Thinking Animal Initiative (TAI) courses introduce ways of thinking about animals that encourage interdisciplinary connections; Open Society University Network (OSUN) courses connect Bard students to students and faculty at international partner institutions; Courage to Be seminars address the practice of courageous action in the 21st century; Hate Studies Initiative (HSI) courses examine the human capacity to define and dehumanize an “other”; Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) courses critically analyze systems of racial hierarchy and power from multiple disciplinary perspectives; and Rethinking Place courses provide a Native American and Indigenous approach to American studies.