Language and Thinking Curriculum

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Rostrum Series

What Needs to Be the Case for You to Be Sustainable at Bard?

“Waste equals food” – John Todd (Biologist, President of Ocean Arks Investing)
“Waste is matter with no place to go” – Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins (Anthropologist, Bard College)
“Water is Life / Mní Wičoní” – Standing Rock Sioux Tribe / Oceti Ŝakowiŋ

Waste. Energy. Materials. Resources. Food. Life. All of these terms appear in sustainability literatures, theories, and practices. The term “sustainability” conjures images of solar arrays, wind turbines, reusable bags, bamboo products, and zero-waste practices—our list could continue. But what does it mean or what would it take for you—our newest Bardians—to be sustainable at Bard? Through mapping, walking and learning about some of Bard’s sustainability practices, features, and goals, this rostrum seeks to help ground students in this place and to develop a sense of how to connect larger sustainability goals (like the UN goals) to more local ones (Ulster/Dutchess counties) and even more local goals (Bard’s goal/personal goals). As we walk through campus, we’ll explore how sustainable practices emerge in a place, how they are sustained, and how they contribute to achieve goals at multiple scales. We’ll begin the rostrum in the RKC and students can join one of three discrete walks, each with a different focus: water systems, food systems, waste systems. Throughout the rostrum, we’ll compose maps (no prior experience required), discuss sustainable practices, and reflect on connections from Darwin, Kolbert and other Anthology writers as we begin to unpack the question: what needs to be the case for you to be sustainable at Bard? The rostrum will be led by Laurie Husted and Kaet Heupel.
Wednesday, August 21, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Imprisoned—A Film Screening and Discussion with Writer and Director Paul Kampf
Imprisoned is a unique story set in Puerto Rico and centers on the themes of love, redemption, revenge and forgiveness. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Juan Pablo Raba, Juana Acosta, Jon Huertas, Esai Morals, Edward James Olmos, and John Heard. The film was written and directed by Paul Kampf and produced by Equitas Entertainment Partners, whose mission is to make a social impact, give a voice to the under-served while closing the gender pay gap in front of and behind the camera. Paul Kampf will lead a discussion of the film after the screening. We hope to have members of the cast joining us as well.
Wednesday, August 21, 7:00–9:00 p.m. Ottaway Film Center.

Smash the State: Models for Stateless Narrative Design—A Lecture and Discussion with Anna Anthropy
One of the most fundamental tropes of digital game design is state-tracking: The player picks up the Blue Key, so they are now able to open the Blue Door. This is endemic to games’ emphasis on Progress, of a colonialist mastery of the world and mastery of game systems. How does digital storytelling transform when you take away or limit the author’s ability to track state, as with a tool like Twine or Bitsy? What other models of stateless interactive literature exist? What does this all have to do with queerness and nonlinear time? Let’s dismantle the state as a tool for hegemonic game design. Anna Anthropy is a transgender American video game designer whose works include Mighty Jill Off and Dys4ia. She is the game designer in residence at the DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media.
Thursday, August 22, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. RKC 103.

Charles Darwin’s Botanical Voyaging in the Galápagos: A Lecture and Discussion with Michele Dominy
Darwin’s 1835 expeditions on the Galápagos Archipelago have been celebrated for his discoveries of giant tortoises, differentiated finch beaks and marine iguanas, and their implications for his theory of evolution. Darwin also observed the distinctive flora on the Galápagos and realized the importance of island biogeography for plant dispersal, species diversification and extinction. As part of Kew Gardens vast “botanical imperium,” Darwin’s plant specimens moved across the empire to natural history museums and herbariums, signaling the development of natural history as a science and the colonization of nature. Bard Anthropology Professor Michele Dominy will relate Darwin’s Galapagos observations to contemporary efforts in plant conservation and the cultural fight against “plant blindness,” while also illustrating new approaches to understand human/nonhuman interactions in the environmental humanities.
Thursday, August 22, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Weis Cinema, Campus Center.

Who Counts? Who Belongs? A Talk by Erica Hunt
Using a writers’ notebook approach, "Who Counts? Who Belongs?" is a talk featuring data, writing prompts, and selections from contemporary writing to deepen our critical understanding of migration, citizenship, and belonging. We will take a quick look at the politics of census- taking and how it shapes narratives of national identity and othering, breaking the people who live in the same space into "we" and "them."
Friday, August 23, 2:00–3:30 p.m. Olin Auditorium.

Plenary Session II: Odysseys—A Voyage through the First-Year Experience at Bard
As part of your immersive introduction to the undergraduate experience at Bard College, these panel conversations aim to create dialogue across some of the core components of the First-Year Experience at Bard. Nicole Caso and Erica Kaufman, faculty at Bard and in the Language and Thinking Program, will join First-Year Seminar Codirectors Omar Cheta, Lauren Curtis, and Daniel Mendelsohn, for a discussion that takes Professor Mendelsohn’s An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic as a starting point through which to explore broader themes of education, self- discovery, and the role that writing and reading play in one’s individual trajectory—a trajectory mapped in many of our L&T and FYSEM texts, not least The Odyssey itself, with which FYSEM will conclude in May. These panels will also speak to the relationship between Language and Thinking and First-Year Seminar, the commonalities and differences between the two, and the kinds of habits of mind both aim to cultivate.
Panel 1: Tuesday, August 27, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Panel 2: Tuesday, August 27, 2:00–3:30 p.m.