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About the L&T Program

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The first year at Bard College begins with the Language and Thinking Program—a three-week intensive introduction to the liberal arts and sciences with a focus on writing. It is attended by all incoming students and is required for matriculation into the College. Students read extensively, work on a variety of projects in writing and other formats, and meet throughout the day in small groups and in one-on-one conferences with faculty. The work aims to cultivate habits of thoughtful reading, clear articulation, accurate self-critique, and productive collaboration. 
The Language and Thinking Program was created in response to the problem of inadequate literacy among students, first explored in A Nation at Risk, a 1983 report published by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Bard College President Leon Botstein characterized entering students’ writing at the time as preoccupied with correctness at the expense of substance.

Botstein met Peter Elbow at a conference on “The Crisis of Authority in Education” at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center. Elbow, the author of Writing without Teachers, argued for freeing students from their internal editor and developing writing practices that allowed students to put greater emphasis on invention, critical thinking, and discovering one’s own ideas. Inspired by Elbow’s boldness, Botstein invited him to design the three-week presemester Workshop in Language and Thinking, as the program was originally called. 

Satisfactory completion of the Language and Thinking Program is required for matriculation into the College. Students who do not meet this requirement and wish to matriculate are given the option to take one year of academic leave and to enroll in the program again the following year.

For additional information, please contact the program at [email protected].
Meet the Director of the Language and Thinking Program

Meet the Director of the Language and Thinking Program

Erica Kaufman
Erica Kaufman (PhD, CUNY Graduate Center; MFA, The New School) has taught in the Language and Thinking Program since 2007. She is the author of three books of poetry, POST CLASSIC (Roof Books, 2019), INSTANT CLASSIC (Roof Books, 2013), and censory impulse (Factory School, 2009). Kaufman is also coeditor of NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life and Work of kari edwards (2009) and a collection of archival pedagogical documents, Adrienne Rich: Teaching at CUNY, 1968–1974 (2014). Kaufman teaches in the Written Arts Program at Bard College and has also taught at Baruch College, Parsons School of Design, and Naropa University. Her current research interests include modern and contemporary poetics, literacy studies, feminist and LGBTQIA+ studies, and writing across the curriculum. Kaufman is a regular contributor to Modern and Contemporary American Poetry, a course offered each fall as a massive online open course (MOOC) through the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. Kaufman’s prose, which focuses on poetry and pedagogy, has appeared in The Color of Vowels: New York School Collaborations (2013), The Supposium: Thought Experiments and Poethical Play in Difficult Times (2018), Approaches to Teaching the Works of Gertrude Stein (2018), Reading Experimental Writing (2020), and The Difference is Spreading: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Fifty Poems (2022).
Meet the Associate Director of the Language and Thinking Program

Meet the Associate Director of the Language and Thinking Program

Sean Colonna 
Sean graduated from Bard College in 2012 with a double major in music and philosophy. Following his undergraduate studies, he joined Teach for America as a corps member in Arkansas, where he founded the music program at KIPP Blytheville College Preparatory School. He then received a Fulbright scholarship to serve as an English teaching assistant in Potsdam, Germany. In 2023, he earned a PhD in musicology from Columbia University, completing a dissertation that examined the intersections of drugs, musical aesthetics, and theories of selfhood at the turn of the 19th century. Sean’s current research focuses on the role of animism in European musical aesthetics and drug discourses. He has a forthcoming article titled “Magic, Animism, and Intoxication in German Romantic Musical Aesthetics.” In addition to his role as associate director for the Language and Thinking Program, he teaches courses in music history and the First-Year Seminar at Bard College. He also serves as an associate editor for The Musical Quarterly.
Meet the Program Coordinator of the Language and Thinking Program

Meet the Program Coordinator of the Language and Thinking Program

Chaya Huber
Chaya is a current graduate student in the Bard MBA program in Sustainability, class of 2027. She started working at Bard in 2022 first for the Center for Civic Engagement and joined the L&T team in 2024. Chaya practices civic engagement through volunteer positions with Climate Smart Kingston and the Ulster County Medical Reserve Corps. 

The Language and Thinking Program at Bard

Established at Bard College in 1981, the Language and Thinking program fosters robust interdisciplinary study, innovative pedagogy, and writing across a wide range of genres. The program is also an introduction to the intellectual and creative life of the College and to the Bard campus and community.

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Language and Thinking
Bard College, P.O. Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504
[email protected] | 845-758-7559

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30 Campus Road, PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504-5000
Phone: 845-758-6822
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