Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Farm Against This Mad World: An Ethnographic Glimpse Into An Alternative Bipoc-Centered Farm Community In New York, Leila Tzumei Stallone

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

“Physical People”: Contemplative Dance Practice And The Language Of Touch, Abbey Givertzman

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Meat: The Good, The Bad, And The Virtuous, Chloe Brill

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Never Left The Dreaming: A Study Of Decolonization And Enchantment, Javin R. Lee-Lobel

Senior Projects Spring 2024

There is a belief in contemporary left politics that we must re-enchant the world because it has been disenchanted by coloniality: the meanings and sacredness which uphold community and sustain harmony with the earth have been drained through the ‘Western’ project of colonization, modernization, and capitalism. The problem with this belief is that we cannot re-enchant what we understand to be inherently disenchanted.

Via the ontological turn in anthropology, an understanding of the world emerges that is not disenchanted, but inherently imbued with meanings. Enchantment is not applied upon or removed from nonhuman bodies by human minds but is woven …

Sedimentary, Claire E. Sullivan

Senior Projects Spring 2024

S E D I M E N T A R Y is a mixed-media exploration of the layers and connections between the synthetic and natural world -- Where do the natural and built environments begin and end? In what ways might natural elements and man-made materials mimic or defy one another? What aesthetic, economic, or sustainable possibilities can be unearthed when nature's laws and patterns are applied to our calculated, built environment? Most importantly, how responsible must we hold ourselves and one other for our particular interactions with and impact on our environment? S E D I M E N …

“It’S All In The Yellow Baskets”: Class Consciousness, Food Justice, And Community Through Dollar General, Blanche L. Darr

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Access And Visibility: The Intersection Of Care, Justice, And Cultural Myths In The Response To Sexual And Domestic Violence, Laurel Elisabeth Channing Cline

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

“It’S Good For My Cooking”: The Life Of Cooking And Eating Of Bard Students Cooking And Eating At Bard Beyond The Meal Plan, Helen Zhang

Senior Projects Spring 2024

This project is about the Cooking and Eating Life of Bard students. I examined the Bard Food infrastructure, how students compose and cook "good food", and also how they share food impromptu in the common area and through dinner parties. I used Brain Larkin’s theory of infrastructure applies to the Bard Dining system, how Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins’ description of the bread on Palestine streets in Gifted resembles the food donated and taken in the common area by dorm residents, the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour used to analyze the relationship between people, food, and their cookwares in the kitchen, how Bard …

Every Screen Is A Window And A Mirror: How Social Media Strengthens Ties Within The Lgbtq+ Community, Jourdan Sadir Pérez

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Maya Lavender's Senior Project In Theater And Performance (Part 3): Reflections From Playtime, Maya E. Lavender

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project is an exploration of metatheatre in an attempt to understand and portray the feelings surrounding coming of age. Part one was A Play, performed in LUMA theater in fall of 2022. Part two was More Play, performed in the Old Gym in spring of 2023. This is part three, a reflection on my time playing.

Ontological Security And Environmental Hegemony In American Suburbs, Finlay Dunn Mackenzie

Senior Projects Fall 2023

This project briefly examines the history of suburbanization in the United States and proposes a theory for its durability as a form of housing its roles as an idealized source of ontological security and its nature as an expression of the hegemony of capital.

Thrift : A Respelling Of Home, Penelope B. Bernal

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The first commercial thrift stores were established in the late 19th and early 20th century. Labeled as ‘charity stores’, the first thrift stores were tied to philanthropic missions, creating a bond between charity and capitalism. However, thrift stores have expanded beyond philanthropy and have evolved into community spaces. Inspired by Audre Lorde’s A Respelling of my Name, the goal of this project is to provide the reader with an intimate view of thrifting through the conversation of three main topics : As Is, One-of-a-Kind, and Community.

"We Have Nothing To Lose But Our Chains": Paving The Way To A New Horizon For Marginalized Youth, Soledad Aguilar-Colón

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature and Social Studies of Bard College.

The Rome Of The West: An Ethnographic Play With Music, Clayton Roma Bragg Webb

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

Dreaming Of Nuclear Futures: History, Toxicity, Panic, And Motherhood In Contemporary Pro-Nuclear Advocacy, Mikel Rand Inchausti

Senior Projects Spring 2023

What is the future of nuclear energy? What futures do we imagine in living alongside nuclear energy and nuclear waste? Who is advocating for those worlds? Read to find out. Enjoy!

Nothing Happens Here, Kai Diego Parcher-Charles

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Mapping Rhode Island Cemeteries In Flood Risk Zones, Benedict (Ashe) Taylor Hutchinson

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Creating And Maintaining A Web-Based Platform For The Bard College Archaeological Forest Site, Rose Battista

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

Main project is the website: bardforestsite.com

In The Drylands: Making A Living In Northern Kenya, Maximilien Guy Mcgrath

Senior Projects Fall 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Translating Worlds Of Pleasure: Dialogues Of Cuban Diaspora From The 1960s, To The Post-Soviet Generation, Ismael-Vicente G. Delgado

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Cuéntame algo aunque sea una mentira.

Dreaming Of Nuclear Futures: History, Toxicity, Panic, And Motherhood In Contemporary Pro-Nuclear Advocacy, Mikel Rand Inchausti

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior project submitted to the Division of Social Studies of Bard College. Enjoy!

A (Re)Theorization Of The Archaeology Of Fauna At The Germantown Parsonage, Emily K. Lehan

Senior Projects Fall 2023

Abstract: In “A (Re)theorization of the Archaeology of Fauna at the Germantown Parsonage” I aim to explore how archaeological methodology and theory can be applied and thought about differently to create more anthropologically useful archaeological knowledge and analysis. To do so, I explore theoretical approaches, such as pragmatism, and apply them to analysis of faunal finds from the Germantown Maple Avenue Parsonage site. While the faunal records have been analyzed and written about prior, one example being by Marie-Lorraine Pipes, PhD, RPA, I aim to look at the material through the lens of new theoretical approaches and hope to exhibit …

Exploration Of The Public School Education: Still Perpetuating Indoctrination In Our Modern World, Shaniqua B. Bowden

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Forming The Kyrgyz Community Of Chicago: Identity, Organizations, And Institutions, Jonah Victor Sorby Roth

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project is an anthropological examination of the Kyrgyz community living in Chicago. It involves a deep examination of who the Kyrgyz are as an ethnic group, how they have developed a shared identity, and how this identity forms the basis of their community in Chicago. It also includes an ethnographic examination of two formal organizations—a nonprofit and a restaurant—that are run by Kyrgyz people and serve the Kyrgyz population, and a similar examination of Kyrgyz-Chicagoans’ relationships to institutions. After analyzing the complex web of relations between community, organizations, and institutions, I argue that informal organizations and institutions are especially …

Daughters Of The Commandment And Their Mothers: An Ethnographic Exploration Of Bat Mitzvahs In Metro Atlanta, Maya E. Lavender

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

“Nappy Hair, Don’T Care”: Storytelling Through Strands, Sasha D. Onyango

Senior Projects Spring 2022

There is a Kiswahili phrase that goes “intelligence/the mind is like hair, everyone has their own’. Following that logic, how Kenyan women relate to their hair is unique to the individual yet there remains collective and shared experiences. The questions that I raise throughout the paper explore: 1) how images and narratives of hair throughout Kenyan history have influenced the way women today understand how they interact with their hair, 2) the ways Kenyan women are taught about hair grooming and the journey of learning to care for their hair, and 3) Kenyan women’s understanding of their hair and how …

“A Certain Brauch:” German-Georgian Palatine And Rhenish Immigrant Houses In Columbia County, New York And Their Vernacular Architectural Roots, Andrew J. Roberge

Senior Projects Spring 2022

In this archaeological and architectural survey of 18th Century Palatine and Rhenish immigrant houses in New York's Hudson Valley, specifically in Columbia County, I track the development of three houses from their earliest vernacular forms to those touched by the Georgian influence. The Georgian worldview, stemming from European Enlightenment ideals, began permeating colonial American society in the 18th Century. It's influence first began to touch the wealthy and elite most connected with mother Europe, and then trickled into more common society. I chronicle and analyze Germantown, NY's Reformed Sanctity Church Parsonage, Germantown, NY's Simeon Rockefeller House, and Clermont, NY's "Stone …

Accommodation And Coping In Medieval Catholic England: A Historical Dramaturgy Casebook For The Chester Mystery Cycle’S Play 14: Christ At The House Of Simon The Leper, Christ And The Moneylenders, And Judas’ Plot, Andrew J. Roberge

Senior Projects Spring 2022

In this historically focused dramaturgy casebook for the medieval Catholic Chester Mystery Cycle's Play 14, Christ at the House of Simon the Leper, Christ and the Moneylenders, and Judas’ Plot, I offer suggestions for Play 14's production as it might have appeared in the cycle's final year of performance, 1575. I contextualize and grapple with the play's antisemitisms, and also offer a brief history of antisemitism in medieval Europe. I also analyze Play 14 and the Chester Mystery Cycle for their rhetorical appeals to the medieval vernacular language, contexts, and events, as well as their anachronistic temporal and geographic …

Of Archives And Ghosts, Zara Ruth Franke

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This project, is about Bard's history of ghosts, subcultural lore and what makes something "home" to you. In a place and time, in students life, when things seem dispossessed and temporal. As the subtitle of my written sproj suggests:Temporal spaces of home for Bard students now and then, their connections with each other and how we process memories, ghosts and subcultural lore.

My installation is about these moments in life, when everything seems to freeze for a second, hold still, and you feel like this moment is forever but also not at all. "Ephemerality", in academic, theory terms but also …

Zoom As A Virtual Conduit: The Possibilities And Limits Of Intimacy In Remote Instruction, Ruby Rachel Harte

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.