The Division of Languages and Literature offers majors in the areas of literature; written arts; and foreign languages, cultures, and literatures. All students in the division are encouraged to study languages other than English; foreign language instruction currently offered includes American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Yiddish, and ancient Greek and Latin. Interdisciplinary majors are also offered in Asian studies, classical studies, French studies, German studies, Italian studies, Middle Eastern studies, Russian and Eurasian studies, and Spanish studies (see Interdivisional Programs and Concentrations).
Photo by Karl Rabe
Our Programs
The Division of Languages and Literature includes the following academic programs:
Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures
Literature
Written Arts
Matthew Mutter, Division Chair; Associate Professor of Literature
Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures
Literature
Written Arts
Matthew Mutter, Division Chair; Associate Professor of Literature
Coursework and Requirements
Discover More
Bard Translation and
Translatability Initiative
BTTI encourages curricular initiatives that promote translation, particularly from a multicultural or multidisciplinary perspective, and aims to bring together scholars, teachers, writers, and artists from the United States and other countries. BTTI also works with Bard faculty members to elicit new interdisciplinary insights, develop new curricula, strengthen communication, and stimulate experimentation among the College’s four divisions and across its network of international liberal arts and graduate studies programs. Among other events throughout the academic year, BTTI hosts an annual translation symposium at Bard.
Languages and Literature News and Events
Featured News
Joseph Luzzi’s Dante’s Divine Comedy Reviewed in the Wall Street Journal
Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Biography, covers how Dante Alighieri’s poem profoundly influenced other writers and artists in the centuries that followed.
Joseph Luzzi’s Dante’s Divine Comedy Reviewed in the Wall Street Journal
Joseph Luzzi. Photo by Helena Baillie
Post Date: 01-28-2025
Recent News
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Nikkya Hargrove ’05 Interviewed in Bomb Magazine
Nikkya Hargrove ’05 Interviewed in Bomb Magazine
Nikkya Hargrove ’05, a member of the Bard College Alumni/ae Association Board of Governors and Lambda Literary Nonfiction Fellow, was interviewed by Bomb magazine about her memoir, Mama. In the book, Hargrove tells the story of her decision to adopt her newborn baby brother Jonathan after their incarcerated mother died, and how she set out, with her wife Dinushka, to create the kind of family she never had. “I think the calling to be Jonathan’s mother was nothing short of spiritual,” Hargrove said. “The drive to take Jonathan was to keep him out of a broken system and try to protect him as much as I could from my mother’s mistakes. I wanted to be his constant. I didn’t want him to worry about who would be there for him. And, knock on wood, at 18, he just figured it out. And it feels amazing, you know, to have him reflect back at us what we’ve been trying to do as his parents.”Nikkya Hargrove ’05.
Post Date: 01-27-2025
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Celeste Connell ’26 Wins 2024 Dante Prize
Celeste Connell ’26 Wins 2024 Dante Prize
Bard student Celeste Connell ’26 has won the 2024 Dante Prize, a longstanding award bestowed by the Dante Society of America for the best essay on the Italian poet Dante Alighieri by an undergraduate in the US or Canada. Connell, a junior in classical studies and literature at Bard, was awarded the prize for her essay “Lucan’s Exiles: Solitude and Moral Vision in the Commedia.” “Celeste’s prize-winning essay was unusually brilliant for a student at her early stage of development as a scholar,” said Joseph Luzzi, Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature at Bard. “She established quite convincingly that the political rhetoric of Lucan’s Pharsalia, a pro-republic epic poem written around the time of Virgil’s more imperial Aeneid, influenced Dante in constructing his moral vision in the Commedia. It’s always challenging to establish direct links of influence, especially between works separated from one another by more than a millennium; and yet Celeste did just that, employing her perceptive skills in close reading along with her thorough knowledge of the Latin source. The resulting essay was one that any scholar would be proud of.”Celeste Connell ’26.
Post Date: 01-21-2025
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Five Bard College Students Win Gilman International Scholarships to Study Abroad
Five Bard College Students Win Gilman International Scholarships to Study Abroad
Five Bard College students have been awarded highly competitive Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships by the US Department of State. Gilman Scholars receive up to $5,000, or up to $8,000 if also a recipient of the Gilman Critical Need Language Award, to apply toward their study abroad or internship program costs. This cohort of Gilman scholars, who will study or intern in over 90 countries, represents more than 500 US colleges and universities.Clockwise from top left: Bard College Gilman Scholars Brenda Lopez ’26, Dashely Julia ’26, Adelaide Driver ’26, Nyla Lawrence ’26, Ezra Calderon ’25.
Bard College Mathematics and Italian Studies double major Ezra Calderon ’25, from Harlem, New York, has been awarded a Gilman Scholarship to study at the University of Trento in Italy via exchange, for the spring semester 2025. “This scholarship provides an exciting opportunity to improve my language skills and conduct research while abroad for my Senior Project in Italian Studies,” says Calderon.
Bard College Studio Art major Adelaide Driver ’26, from Taos, New Mexico, has been awarded a $4000 Gilman Scholarship to study at Kyoto Seika University in Japan, for the spring semester 2025. “Receiving this scholarship means the world to me. I have always wanted to study abroad, but money was a concern. This scholarship provides the opportunity to study what I love in an incredible place. I am so grateful,” says Driver. She serves as a peer counselor at Bard and will be studying illustration at Kyoto Seika.
Bard College junior Dashely Julia ’26, who is jointly majoring in Architecture and Art History with a concentration in Latin American and Iberian studies, has been awarded a $3000 Gilman Scholarship to study at Bard College Berlin in Germany, for the spring semester 2025. “Winning the Gilman Scholarship holds profound significance for me. It represents the opportunity to engage with diverse cultures and gain new perspectives that will enrich my understanding of art history and architecture. As someone deeply passionate about exploring how cultural and historical contexts shape artistic and architectural practices, studying abroad is more than an academic pursuit—it is a lifelong dream come true,” says Julia, who is a Posse Puerto Rico Scholar and lead peer mentor for the Office of Equity and Inclusion at Bard.
Bard College Computer Science major Nyla Lawrence ’26, from Atlanta, Georgia, has been awarded a $5,000 Gilman scholarship to study at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan via exchange, for the spring semester 2025. “My grandmother told me this quote from Derek Bok: ‘If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.’ There is always something to be ignorant about but, I am happy the Gilman Scholarship provides others and myself the ability to learn more about the world while also studying. Studying abroad not only allows for broader education opportunities, but also life lessons and responsibility before exiting college, which I am really excited for,” says Lawrence, who will be learning Mandarin, her third language after English and German, to better communicate and traverse the land. Lawrence is currently one of three captains of the Bard women’s volleyball team and the Katherine Lynne Mester Memorial Scholar in Humanities for the 2024–2025 academic year at Bard.
Bard College Psychology major Brenda Lopez ’26, from Bronx, New York, has been awarded a $3,000 Gilman scholarship to study at Kyung Hee University in Seoul via exchange, for the spring semester 2025. “I couldn’t be more grateful, and I can’t wait to see how this scholarship helps me when spending my time in Korea,” says Lopez. At Bard, Lopez is part of the Trustee Leader Scholar Project Nicaragua Education Initiative and a clubhead for the K-DIARY club on campus.
The Department of State awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to approximately 1,600 American undergraduate students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, in this fall 2024 cycle. All scholarship recipients are US undergraduate students with established high financial need as federal Pell Grant recipients. On average, 65 percent of Gilman recipients are from rural areas and small towns across the United States, and half are first-generation college or university students.
Since the program’s inception in 2001, more than 44,000 Gilman scholars have studied or interned in more than 170 countries around the globe. Supported by the US Congress, the Gilman Scholarship is an initiative of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is aided in its implementation by the Institute of International Education. To learn more about the Gilman Scholarship and its recipients, including this newest cohort, visit gilmanscholarship.org.
Post Date: 01-07-2025
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Dinaw Mengestu’s Someone Like Us Named One of Obama’s Favorite Books of 2024
Dinaw Mengestu’s Someone Like Us Named One of Obama’s Favorite Books of 2024
The latest book by Dinaw Mengestu, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of the Humanities and director of the Written Arts Program at Bard College, has been featured on a list of art that inspired former president Barack Obama in 2024. Mengestu’s novel, Someone Like Us, tells the story of the son of Ethiopian immigrants who seeks to understand a hidden family history and uncovers a past colored by unexpected loss, addiction, and the enduring emotional pull toward home. In exploring this history, he begins to understand that perhaps the only chance he has of saving his family and making it back home is to confront not only the unresolved mystery around his father’s life and death, but his own troubled memories, and the years spent masking them.Dinaw Mengestu, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of the Humanities and director of the Written Arts Program.
Post Date: 01-06-2025
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Adhaar Noor Desai Receives Modern Language Association Prize
Adhaar Noor Desai Receives Modern Language Association Prize
Adhaar Noor Desai, associate professor of English at Bard College, has been announced as a recipient of the Modern Language Association (MLA) Prize for First Book for Blotted Lines: Early Modern English Literature and the Poetics of Discomposition, published by Cornell University Press. The MLA Prize for a First Book was established in 1993 and is awarded annually for the first book-length publication by a member of the association that is a literary or linguistic study, a critical edition of an important work, or a critical biography. “In addition to its masterful and original treatment of English Renaissance poetry, Blotted Lines engages expertly with modern approaches in writing studies, offering a unique combination of two fields that Desai shows to be surprisingly complementary,” the MLA committee writes about Desai’s book. “This beautifully written, tremendously researched book raises important questions and offers a timely and thoughtful celebration of the art of composition (and discomposition).”Adhaar Noor Desai, associate professor of English at Bard College.
Post Date: 12-17-2024
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Bard College Student Jessica Zoll ’26 Receives Fund for Education Abroad Spring 2025 Scholarship
Bard College Student Jessica Zoll ’26 Receives Fund for Education Abroad Spring 2025 Scholarship
Jessica Zoll ’26, a Bard College student majoring in literature, has received a scholarship from Fund for Education Abroad (FEA) for the spring 2025 semester. Zoll is one of 71 undergraduates from around the country selected by 92 volunteer reviewers, and with FEA’s Education in Ireland Access Partner Scholarship, she will attend University College Cork in Ireland.Jessica Zoll ’26.
“As a first-generation college student and American, I never imagined that studying abroad or earning a scholarship to cover my entire €7,400 tuition would be within reach, but that changed when I came to Bard,” said Zoll. “My support system here is incredible, and it's through this community that I’ve been introduced to opportunities that align not only with my academic goals, but also with my personal interests. I study Victorian literature, but didn't think studying in a place so rich in 19th-century history was feasible. Through the Fund for Education Abroad's Inclusive Ireland Access Partner Scholarship, I’ve been awarded the chance to study at University College Cork—the city is steeped in Victorian history, and the courses are too! I feel incredibly fortunate and excited for this next step in my academic journey. This really feels like a win for not just me, but for my entire family.”
The Fund for Education Abroad provides scholarships and ongoing support to students with financial need who are underrepresented among the US study-abroad population. Of the 71 scholars awarded this application cycle, 93% identify as students of color; 28% identify as LGBTQ+; 23% identify as male, 70% as female, and 7% as genderfluid or nonbinary. Characteristic of FEA scholars, 94% are first-generation college students, 30% are current or former community college students, and 37% have never left the United States. Currently studying in universities and colleges in 27 states, the new FEA Scholars will attend programs in over 25 countries across five continents.
Since its inception in 2010, FEA has awarded over $3.7 million in scholarships to 1186 undergraduates, and supports students before, during, and after their study abroad experience with scholarships and programming.
“We are honored to have the support of so many who are striving to make study abroad more accessible,” said FEA Program Manager Joelle Leinbach. “As we look ahead to 2025, FEA will continue to put access and equity first as we consider further improvements to our application process and expand our ranks of volunteer reviewers.”
Post Date: 12-17-2024
Upcoming Events
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2/24Monday1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Kline, College Room
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2/24Monday5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Olin Humanities, Room 201
Literature Salon: “You hunt me, and yet I wish you no harm”: A Bear Speaks Back In a Medieval Chronicle
Monday, February 24, 2025 | 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5 | Olin Humanities, Room 201A talk by Karen Sullivan, Irma Brandeis Professor of Romance Literature and Culture
According to the chronicler Jean Froissart, Sir Peter of Béarn, the half-brother of Gaston Phoebus, III count of Foix and X viscount of Béarn, was hunting one day in the Forest of Biscay when he killed a large bear. When he brought the animal’s carcass home back to his castle, his wife fainted and had to be carried off to her chamber. After she came to, she informed her husband that she needed to leave immediately on a pilgrimage with their two children and to take with them a fair amount of her wealth. She never returned from this trip. According to a squire associated with Gaston’s household, she explained to her servants that the bear her husband had killed was same one her father had once hunted. She added that, while her father was pursuing this bear, he had heard someone say, “You hunt me, and yet I wish you no harm.”
Nowadays, we are familiar with animal rights arguments that inveigh against the morality of hunting. But what meaning did the words attributed to the bear in Froissart’s chronicle possess for its fourteenth-century audience? What is the relation between the language of chivalry employed by Gaston’s hunting manual and the language of justice invoked by the bear? How are we to understand who uttered the bear’s words? This talk will discuss these questions and more. Contact: Marisa Libbon
E-mail: [email protected]
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2/24Monday5:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
From Page to Screen: The Adaption of Fiction
Monday, February 24, 2025 | 5:30 pm EST/GMT-5 | Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 AuditoriumA Screening and Discussion with Samantha Hunt
On Monday, February 24, at 5:30 pm in the László Z. Bitó ’60 Auditorium, Reem-Kayden Center (RKC), Samantha Hunt will discuss her work after a screening of her short film The Yellow. Introduced and moderated by Dinaw Mengestu, this event is free and open to the student body.
Samantha Hunt is the author of five books. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner. Her work has been translated into thirteen languages. Her short film The Yellow, was selected for the Toronto International Film Fest. Hunt teaches at Pratt and Bennington College. Contact: Megan Brien
E-mail: [email protected]
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2/25Tuesday12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Kline, College Room