Admitted Students Day

Game Changers in 20th and 21st Century Art

With Prof. Dr. Dorothea von Hantelmann

The 20th century was not yet out of its teens. What was anyone to make of the porcelain urinal Marcel Duchamp submitted to a New York art exhibition? Fountain, with its signature R Mutt and the date 1917, was photographed and remembered. It became art, and so changed art forever. Every once in a while, artworks change how we define and talk about art. We want to understand how artworks can represent and simultaneously influence the cultural zeitgeist and discourse of their time. We also want to comprehend how the iconic status of an artwork can change over time: Is Duchamp still/again contemporary? Can we look at Duchamp differently when we see him through the lens of Jeff Koons? Or Andy Warhol? Or Kanye West? What characterizes an “iconic artwork” of today? 

This seminar is open to all participants, but is especially recommended for students interested in the Art and Aesthetics concentration or BA in Artistic Practice and Society offered at Bard College Berlin. 

Is Globalization Dead? 

With Prof. Dr. Boris Vormann

How do crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit impact globalization? Climate change and depleting resources, renationalization tendencies, large-scale infrastructural development projects and resurfacing territorial conflicts have all led to a reinvigoration of geopolitical thinking and practice in the very recent past. What potential futures does this imply for cooperation and for conflict? Join Prof. Dr. Boris Vormann to discuss the concept of globalization and its future.

This seminar is open to all participants, but is especially recommended for students interested in the Politics, or Ethics and Politics concentrations offered at Bard College Berlin. 

Ethics and Economics of Climate Change 

With Prof. Dr. Israel Waichman

How much pollution is too much? How can global actors coordinate to lower carbon emissions and mitigate global warming in the absence of an international government? Should lesser developed countries be prevented from using fossil fuels to advance industry for the sake of the climate? Global warming and climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time with potentially catastrophic consequences. This seminar will introduce participants to economic tools and methods that can be used to address global warming, and will also explore how ethics and economics intersect on this topic. 

This seminar is open to all participants, but is especially recommended for students interested in the Economics, Politics, or Ethics and Politics concentrations offered at Bard College Berlin. 

What is a Novel? 

With Prof. Dr. Catherine Toal

What is a Novel? How do formal aspects, such as tone, characterization, length, and genre impact our connection to the book as an object? Where does the novel exist in the history  of narration, and reversely, how does our collectively narrated history impact the modern novel? How and what do we gain from reading stories? We will focus on these seminal questions to guide discussion around excerpts from some of the most impactful works in modern memory. Join this seminar to dive into the important history of this literary form, and to build the theoretical beginnings to question it. 

This seminar is open to all participants, but is especially recommended for students interested in the Literature and Rhetoric concentration offered at Bard College Berlin.