2025
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Tuesday, February 25, 2025 |
Professor Helen Epstein’s Book Why Live Reviewed in the Wall Street Journal
A new book by Helen Epstein, visiting professor of human rights and global public health at Bard College, has been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. The book, Why Live: How Suicide Becomes an Epidemic, delves into the reasons why people consider suicide, and “highlights a number of case studies that imply a connection between high rates of suicide and rapid societal changes that disrupt old ways of life,” the Wall Street Journal writes.
Professor Helen Epstein’s Book Why Live Reviewed in the Wall Street Journal
The Human Rights Program at Bard is a transdisciplinary program involving such diverse fields as literature, political studies, history, anthropology, economics, film and media, and art history. It emphasizes integrative historical and conceptual investigations, and offers a rigorous background that can inform meaningful practical engagements. The program seeks to orient students in the intellectual tradition of human rights and provide them the resources with which to appreciate and criticize its contemporary status.
Post Date: 09-30-2025
Ingrid Becker Named a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study
Visiting Assistant Professor of Human Rights Ingrid Becker has been named a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, for the 2025-2026 academic year. This prestigious membership allows for focused research and the free and open exchange of ideas among an international community of scholars at one of the foremost centers for intellectual inquiry.Ingrid Becker Named a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study
Ingrid Becker’s research bridges poetry and poetics, human rights, and sociology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. While at the IAS, she will work on a new research project about the rise of the questionnaire—a sociological technology and ubiquitous mass cultural form—in relation to the shifting status of the question in post-1945 Anglo-American poetry.
Each year, IAS welcomes more than 250 of the most promising post-doctoral researchers and distinguished scholars from around the world to advance fundamental discovery as part of an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment. Visiting scholars are selected through a highly competitive process for their bold ideas, innovative methods, and deep research questions by the permanent Faculty—each of whom are preeminent leaders in their fields. Past IAS Faculty include, Albert Einstein, Erwin Panofsky, John von Neumann, Hetty Goldman, George Kennan, and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The Institute for Advanced Study was established in 1930. Today, research at IAS is conducted across four Schools—Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Science—to push the boundaries of human knowledge.
Among past and present scholars, there have been 37 Nobel Laureates, 46 of the 64 Fields Medalists, and 24 of the 28 Abel Prize Laureates, as well as MacArthur and Guggenheim fellows, winners of the Turing Award and the Wolf, Holberg, Kluge, and Pulitzer Prizes.
Post Date: 09-30-2025
Sonita Alizada ’23 Begins a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford in Fall 2025
Sonita Alizada ’23, a rapper and human rights activist, becomes the second Bard College Annandale student to win a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, which she will begin this fall. She looks forward to taking public policy classes and continuing her work supporting Afghan women and children by combining “academic research with practical impact.”Sonita Alizada ’23 Begins a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford in Fall 2025
Alizada, who double-majored in human rights and music, says Bard played a “crucial” part in her award. “The faculty here have been incredibly supportive, offering guidance, mentorship, and resources that helped me refine my academic and professional goals. They provided encouragement and constructive feedback throughout my application process and helped me navigate each step with confidence.”
She looks forward to continuing her work supporting Afghan women and children by combining “academic research with practical impact.” She looks forward to taking public policy classes at Oxford and focusing specifically on women and children's rights. “I’m deeply honored to receive the Rhodes scholarship, [and] I hope to bring back insights that can further support vulnerable communities,” she said.
Post Date: 08-27-2025
Human Rights Events
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