Public Humanities + Research

In 2022, Bard Graduate Center welcomed Andrew Kircher as its director of Public Humanities + Research (PH+R). Kircher’s diverse background in production, teaching, and performing arts ensured that BGC programming came back into full swing post-Covid. Kircher launched Tuesday Lunches, wherein BGC faculty, students, fellows, and staff gather for weekly talks by guest speakers, and the Wednesdays @ BGC series, which offers unique events, from an evening of music played on historical instruments by the chamber music ensemble Sonnambula to an interactive lecture with artist Julia Weist, and from a performance-laced lecture with the highly regarded theater ensemble Elevator Repair Service to a wide range of presentations by BGC faculty members and other scholars.

PH+R also continues to work with BGC faculty and curators to develop symposia related to their research and exhibitions. In November, “Making Lace: Global Networks” was held in conjunction with Threads of Power. In the spring, associate professor Freyja Hartzell (MA ’05) convened a Faculty in Focus symposium called “Doll Parts: Playing with Human Likeness.” And the symposia, “Instruments of Dining” and “Ecologies of Making: Knowledge and Process in Navajo Weaving,” were presented in concert with the exhibitions Staging the Table and Shaped by the Loom respectively.