News from the Division of Languages and Literature

Two contributors to Conjunctions, Bard College’s groundbreaking literary journal, have won the 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers for their work in Conjunctions. The winning contributions are:

“Bad Northern Women” by Erin Singer, from Conjunctions:70, Sanctuary: The Preservation Issue (Spring 2018)

“The Unsent Letters of Blaise and Jacqueline Pascal” by Kelsey Peterson, from Conjunctions:71, A Cabinet of Curiosity (Fall 2018)

The award judges this year were Danielle Evans, Alice Sola Kim, and Carmen Maria Machado. The award comes with a cash prize of $2,000 and publication in The PEN America Best Debut Short Stories anthology (via Catapult). Conjunctions and the winners were invited to the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, February 26 at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

Recently Conjunctions has been named a finalist for the 2018 and 2019 ASME Award for Fiction by the American Society of Magazine Editors, as well as the 2018 CLMP Firecracker Award for General Excellence. “Skeleton, Rock, Shell” by Conjunctions contributor Sejal Shah was named a finalist for the inaugural Chautauqua Janus Prize. In addition, contributions to recent issues have been selected for The PEN America Best Debut Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize XLII: Best of the Small Presses, Best American Experimental Writing 2020, and Best American Essays 2018, and work from our pages has appeared in anthologies such as Harper’s, Best American Short Stories, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Dean Toal delivered the keynote speech at the two-day event, which was organized by the Irish Embassy Berlin in partnership with the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin.

Students at Bard High School Early College in Baltimore share their insights and experiences reading the new translation of Homer’s Odyssey by Emily Wilson. The course is part of The Maryland Odyssey Project, an initiative that gives high school students the opportunity to engage with the Odyssey in new ways.

Dr. Emily Hayman—BHSEC instructor in literature, previously of Columbia University’s great books program—teaches this course. “It’s really fun to read with students and allow them to identify the ways in which we see echoes of the themes and ideas that we find in the Odyssey in works that are coming out now,” she observes. Hayman assigned the students to compare the Odyssey with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit musical Hamilton, searching for common themes and archetypal characters. The students created their own performance projects from the assignment.

“It’s important for high school students to read the Odyssey,” remarks student Samina Sabree. “It’s connecting to the roots of where literature initially came from, and I feel like that could help students appreciate reading a lot more.”

“I’ve read two different translations of the Odyssey, the Lattimore translation and the Wilson translation,” says student Marc Monroe. “I would say the Wilson translation will help a high school student who hasn‘t read older books or hasn‘t read books in another language get into the book, because it's very relatable to them.” Monroe found that reading Homer informed his studies of Plato, Confucius, and the Koran.

The Maryland Odyssey Project is made possible with generous support from Maryland Humanities, the Onassis Foundation USA, The Mitzvah Fund for Good Deeds, and the Society for Classical Studies.

Maryland Odyssey Project from Amy L. Bernstein on Vimeo.
 

Bard College is proud to be included on the list of U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2018–2019 Fulbright U.S. students. Each year, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top-producing institutions for the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes the lists annually.
 
Six students from Bard received Fulbright awards for academic year 2018–2019.  “We are extraordinarily proud of our Fulbright Scholars, who are studying chemistry in Ireland and Islamic radicalization in Kosovo, and teaching English in Argentina, Malaysia, Georgia, and Germany. They epitomize the intellectual engagement, global awareness, and curiosity about the world that is the hallmark of a Bard education,” said David Shein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Studies.

“We thank the colleges and universities across the United States that we are recognizing as Fulbright top-producing institutions for their role in increasing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries,” said Marie Royce, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. “We are proud of all the Fulbright students and scholars from these institutions who represent America abroad, increasing and sharing their skills and knowledge on a global stage.”

The Fulbright competition is administered at Bard College through Dean of Studies David Shein ([email protected], 845.758.7045), and Assistant Dean of Studies Kaet Heupel ([email protected], 845.758.7454).
 
Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 390,000 participants—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential—with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. Over 1,900 U.S. students, artists, and young professionals in more than 100 different fields of study are offered Fulbright Program grants to study, teach English, and conduct research abroad each year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program operates in over 140 countries throughout the world.
　　　
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State, funded by an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education.
　　　　
The Fulbright Program also awards grants to U.S. scholars, teachers, and faculty to conduct research and teach overseas. In addition, some 4,000 foreign Fulbright students and scholars come to the United States annually to study, lecture, conduct research, and teach foreign languages.
 
For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit eca.state.gov/fulbright.
 

Bard College is proud to be included on the list of U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2018–2019 Fulbright U.S. students. 

Lauterbach brings every kind of writing into her work, writes critic John Yau: dialog, essay, letter, diary, lyric, prose, list, philosophical investigation, memory, fiction, dream, and citation.

Author Valeria Luiselli starts a two-year residency at Bard College in the fall. Her new book, Lost Children Archive, confronts the impact of the border crisis on kids and families.

Brendan Mathews's debut story collection, This Is Not a Love Song, is “packed with vivid detail, emotional precision, and deft, redemptive humor.”

Greg Jackson, Bard Fiction Prize winner and writer in residence at Bard College, will read from his work on Monday, February 18, at the College’s Reem-Kayden Center.

Valeria Luiselli has previously chronicled the true stories of immigrant children. Her new novel is a fictionalized version of those brutal histories.