The American and Indigenous Studies Program offers a multidisciplinary approach to the study of culture and society in the United States.
Students take courses in a wide range of fields with the aim of learning how to study this complex subject in a sensitive and responsible way. In the introductory courses, students develop the ability to analyze a broad spectrum of materials, including novels, autobiographies, newspapers, photographs, films, songs, and websites. In junior seminars and the Senior Project, students identify and integrate relevant methodologies from at least two disciplines, creating modes of analysis appropriate to their topics. By graduation, students should have developed a base of knowledge about the past and present conditions of the American experience both at home and abroad.Current Events
Stone Row on Bard College campus. Photo by Karl Rabe
Bard College Receives $25 Million Endowment Gift from Gochman Family Foundation Supporting Renamed American and Indigenous Studies Program
Bard College is excited to announce a transformational $25 million endowment gift from the Gochman Family Foundation, which will substantially advance its work deepening diversity and equity in American Studies with a Center for Indigenous Studies, faculty appointments and student scholarships, and the appointment of an Indigenous Curatorial Fellow at Center for Curatorial Studies. The College’s American Studies Program will be renamed American and Indigenous Studies to more fully reflect continental history and to place Native American and Indigenous Studies at the heart of curricular innovation and development.
Associate Professor of History and Dean of Graduate Studies Christian Ayne Crouch speaks during a 2018 event dedicating new signage on campus designed to encourage critical reflection on Bard’s history. The installation of these historical markers took place in connection with the course Inclusion at Bard, an Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences offering.
Bard College Awarded $1.49 Million Grant from Mellon Foundation for American Studies Initiative
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Bard College a $1.49 million grant for its “Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck” project. Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck proposes a Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) approach to a revitalized American Studies curriculum and undertakes an expansive understanding of land acknowledgment that goes beyond addressing a single institution’s history in regards to Native peoples.
Recent Senior Projects
- “Black Oiler,” a narrative of a Black male told through music and the lenses of different African diasporic authors
- “Towards a Celebration of Native Resilience: Interrupting National Myth-Making in the American Classroom”
- “‘A Visit to the Coffee Houses’: How Local News Wrote about the Humoresque Coffeeshop Raids”
Senior Projects
Visit the Bard Digital Commons for a complete archive of Senior Projects in American and Indigenous Studies.
Courses and Requirements
Click below for a complete list of currently offered courses.
Program Faculty
Program Director: Peter L’Official
Phone: 845-758-7556
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 845-758-7556
E-mail: [email protected]
American Studies News
Jeffrey Gibson Reflects on a Standout Year in Artnet
Jeffrey Gibson, artist in residence at Bard College, reflects on 2024—a year that started with Gibson being honored as the first Indigenous and openly queer artist to have a solo representation of the US Pavilion in Venice Biennale and continued with MASS MoCA’s commissioning of Power Full Because We’re Different, the largest single museum installation in his career—in an interview with Artnet.
Jeffrey Gibson Reflects on a Standout Year in Artnet
Jeffrey Gibson. Photo by Brian Barlow
Further reading:
Center for Indigenous Studies’ Three-Day Convening at the Venice Biennale Featured in Hyperallergic
Post Date: 01-07-2025
Professor Kite’s Artistic Residency Featured in I Care If You Listen
Bard Distinguished Artist in Residence and Assistant Professor of American and Indigenous Studies Kite MFA ’18 was profiled in the multimedia hub I Care If You Listen. The piece focuses on Kite’s two-day residency at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer (EMPAC), where she led seven students through a workshop on dreaming.
Professor Kite’s Artistic Residency Featured in I Care If You Listen
Kite.
Kite joined Bard in 2023 and has worked in the field of machine learning since 2017. She develops wearable technology and full-body software systems to interrogate past, present, and future Lakȟóta philosophies. She is also the director of the Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI at Bard. I Care If You Listen describes her work as “[uniting] scientific and artistic disciplines through custom worn electronic instruments, research, visual scores, and more… rooted in Lakota ways of making knowledge, in which body and mind are always intimately intertwined.”
Post Date: 01-07-2025
More News
-
Suzanne Kite MFA ’18 Interviewed for NBC News
Suzanne Kite MFA ’18 Interviewed for NBC News
Suzanne Kite MFA ’18, aka Kite, distinguished artist in residence, assistant professor of American and Indigenous Studies, and director of the Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI at Bard, was interviewed by News10 NBC for an article about how Indigenous engineers and artists are using artificial intelligence for cultural preservation projects. Of the 4,000 Indigenous languages worldwide, it is estimated that one dies every two weeks with its last speaker, according to data from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. AI can be a valuable tool in the initiatives designed to preserve those languages and other aspects of Indigenous culture and creative practices, such as the art which Kite is using machine learning to create. “My question is simple: How do we create ethical art with AI by applying Indigenous ontologies?” Kite said. “I try to resist Western personification of AI and instead dig into the hyperlocal, grounded and practical frameworks of knowledge that American Indigenous communities provide.”Suzanne Kite MFA ’18, director of the Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI.
Post Date: 12-03-2024
-
Center for Indigenous Studies’ Three-Day Convening at the Venice Biennale Featured in Hyperallergic
Center for Indigenous Studies’ Three-Day Convening at the Venice Biennale Featured in Hyperallergic
Bard’s Center for Indigenous Studies (CfIS) hosted a convening in Venice to consider how Indigenous aesthetics, futurity, and arts intersect with global practices and modernism. The name of the convening, “if I read you/what I wrote bear/in mind I wrote it,” from a poem by Layli Long Soldier MFA ’14 (Oglala Lakota), gathered Native and non-Native poets, academics, artists, musicians, curators, teachers, and students to address the interdisciplinary, transnational nature of Bard Artist in Residence Jeffrey Gibson's (Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee) work in the US Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale Arte.L–R: Christian Ayne Crouch, Abigail Winograd, Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee), and Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo). Photo by Federica Carlet
“The convening as a whole felt like an energizing disco, a kaleidoscopic exploration of Native identities in all their rich dualities, contrasts, and dichotomies: familiar and unfamiliar, past and future, joy and sorrow, detailed and monumental,” wrote Sháńdíín Brown (Navajo) for Hyperallergic.
The three-day event hosted luminaries of Native American and Indigenous studies and cutting-edge performers. Panels on beads, materiality, economies of labor and trade, aesthetics, poetry, performance, silhouette, and color also celebrated contemporary Indigenous artists, writers, and activists while examining the continued segregation of Indigenous voices in conversations regarding taste making, trade, modernity, and power. Several Bard College faculty and staff participated including Christian Ayne Crouch, dean of graduate studies, associate professor of history and American and Indigenous studies, and CfIS director; Brandi Norton (Iñupiaq), CfIS curator of public programs; Melina Roise, CfIS program coordinator; and Dinaw Mengetsu, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of the Humanities and director of the Written Arts Program.
Further reading:
The Art of Jeffrey Gibson Shines in Venice (ICT)
Post Date: 11-07-2024
-
Peter L’Official’s Essay “Black Builders” Published in Places Journal
Peter L’Official’s Essay “Black Builders” Published in Places Journal
Peter L’Official, associate professor of literature and director of the American and Indigenous Studies Program, has published “Black Builders,” an article exploring the relationship between both writing and architecture, and race and design, for Places Journal. In examining the works of visionary Black architect and urban planner W. Joseph Black (1961–1977), who tragically died of cancer at age 43, novelist Colson Whitehead, and other scholars and writers, L’Official asks: “What do we learn about visions of cities when we consider writing and architecture as mutually defining?” L’Official delves deeply into Black’s archives and grapples with his brilliant unfinished masterpieces including the ambitious Harlem Music Center and Gateway to Harlem complex, as well as two comprehensive volumes Visions of Harlem, intended as an exhibition and catalogue, and Black Builders of America, a compendium focused on the many known and unknown Black builders dating back from 1619 to the contemporary. Inspired by the career and legacy of W. Joseph Black, L’Official proposes a notion: “writing about architecture is also a method of practicing architecture—that is, by thinking it.” In contemplating “how many works by Black architects, planners, builders, and other dreamers lie dormant, still, in archives, or tossed by the wayside in frustration, never to be lauded as great works of even speculative imagination?” L’Official asserts “We should also expand our notions of who and what Black builders and Black building can be—and, indeed, of what it means to ‘build’ in the first place.”Peter L’Official, associate professor of literature and director of the American and Indigenous Studies Program. Photo by Liz Munsell
L’Official’s “Black Builders” is the first essay in An Unfinished Atlas, a series funded by the Mellon Foundation and published by Places Journal that brings together scholars, cultural critics, essayists, and novelists of color to enrich the cultural record of place-based narratives across what is now called North America.
Post Date: 11-05-2024
-
Bard Professor Christian Ayne Crouch Participates in “Unsettled Landscapes” Roundtable Discussion
Bard Professor Christian Ayne Crouch Participates in “Unsettled Landscapes” Roundtable Discussion
Christian Ayne Crouch, dean of graduate studies and associate professor of history and American and Indigenous studies at Bard College, participated in a roundtable conversation with Alan Michelson, an artist and Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, and Dr. Scott Manning Stevens, who is a citizen of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation and curator of the exhibit Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape, featuring works by Michelson and other contemporary Indigenous artists. The event, “Unsettled Landscapes,” was sponsored by the Bard College Center for Indigenous Studies and took place at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, where Native Prospects is on display. In presentations, Stevens and Michelson examine the concepts of landscape, wilderness and the Sublime in western artistic tradition, and offer perspective on how fundamentally these notions differ in Native American modes of thought. “What I wanted to do, then, in the exhibition that’s up, is bring in both older representations of Native people thinking of landscape and abstract, lived experience ways, and then contemporary expressions of landscape,” said Stevens. “Because, it’s not that we don’t love the landscape—we love the beauty of it. But it’s not a commodity which we frame and own, but much more reflect on the experience of living in.”Christian Ayne Crouch, dean of graduate studies and associate professor of history and American and Indigenous studies at Bard College.
Post Date: 10-15-2024
-
Wihanble S’a Center at Bard College Receives $500,000 Grant and Named NEH Humanities Research Center on Artificial Intelligence
Wihanble S’a Center at Bard College Receives $500,000 Grant and Named NEH Humanities Research Center on Artificial Intelligence
Bard College is pleased to announce that the Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI, directed by Dr. Suzanne Kite, distinguished artist in residence and assistant professor of American and Indigenous Studies, has been designated as a Humanities Research Center on AI by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This prestigious recognition will confer a $500,000 grant in support of the Center, and position Wihanble S’a at the forefront of innovative research that integrates Indigenous Knowledge systems with cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.Suzanne Kite MFA ’18, director of the Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI.
Beginning in Fall 2024, the Wihanble S’a Center will embark on groundbreaking research aimed at developing ethical AI frameworks deeply rooted in Indigenous methodologies. The Center’s mission is to explore and address the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI through an Indigenous lens, ensuring that AI technologies reflect diverse perspectives and contribute positively to society.
“This award is a tremendous honor and a recognition of the importance of American Indian perspectives in the rapidly evolving fields of AI,” said Dr. Kite, who is an award-winning Oglála Lakȟóta artist and academic, and Bard MFA ’18 alum. “Our goal is to develop ethical methodologies for systems grounded in Indigenous knowledge, offering new guidelines and models through collaboration between Indigenous scholars and AI researchers, challenging the predominantly Western approach to AI. Wihanble S’a (WEE hah blay SAH) means dreamer in Lakota, and we are dreaming of an abundant future.”
The NEH designation will support the Center’s initiatives, including the establishment of a dedicated facility on Bard College’s Massena Campus. This facility will serve as a collaborative hub, bringing together scholars from across diverse academic disciplines—including computer science, cognitive and neuroscience, linguistics, ethics, and Indigenous Studies—to engage in interdisciplinary research and educational activities.
In addition to research, the Center will host public events, workshops, and an interdisciplinary Fellowship and Visiting Scholars program, all aimed at advancing the field of Indigenous-informed AI. The Center’s work will complement the recruitment and support of Indigenous students ongoing at Bard’s Center for Indigenous Studies, enhancing Bard College’s commitment to being a leader in Indigenous studies in the United States as well as complementing Dr. Kite’s work with the international Abundant Intelligences Indigenous AI research program. Wihanble S’a Center’s designation as an NEH Humanities Research Center on AI underscores Bard College’s dedication to fostering innovative, socially responsible research that bridges the humanities and technological advancements.
Post Date: 08-28-2024
-
Professor Susan Fox Rogers Leads Community Birding Walks on Cruger Island Road as Profiled in the Daily Catch
Professor Susan Fox Rogers Leads Community Birding Walks on Cruger Island Road as Profiled in the Daily Catch
This spring, Susan Fox Rogers, visiting associate professor of writing, is leading Monday morning birding walks from 7 to 9 am down Cruger Island Road on Bard College’s campus. The walks, which will continue through May 27, draw an intergenerational audience and are part of a greater environmental education initiative at the Red Hook Public Library, where Rogers is the inaugural Ascienzo Naturalist in Residence. Typically, participants will spot at least four of the Hudson Valley’s most common birds: robins, chickadees, tufted titmouses, and white-breasted nuthatches. On occasion, birders will spy more unusual specimens. “On these morning walks, we have seen eagles and listened to winter wrens, spied a rare rusty blackbird with its blazing white eyes, and delighted in the wood ducks crying as they take flight,” Rogers says. Biology major William Mennerick ’25, who took up birding during the pandemic, enjoys the walks. “I love birds,” he said. “I savor the weekly evolution of the landscape over spring. It’s amazing when vegetation starts to come in and then we wait for the spring chorus of songbirds, all at once.”Visiting Associate Professor of Writing Susan Fox Rogers (third from left) is leading Monday morning birding walks. Photo by Emily Sachar
Post Date: 04-16-2024
-
Bard College Presents Returning Home: A Contemporary Native Photography Exhibition, on View April 6–12 at Montgomery Place Mansion
Bard College Presents Returning Home: A Contemporary Native Photography Exhibition, on View April 6–12 at Montgomery Place Mansion
Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck and Montgomery Place Mansion at Bard College proudly hosts Returning Home, an exhibition curated by Rethinking Place Post-Baccalaureate Fellow Olivia Tencer ’22 and Rethinking Place Administrative Coordinator Melina Roise ’21, open from April 6 to 12, 2024. This groundbreaking exhibition features works by four contemporary Indigenous photographers, Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dena/Jewish), Dana Claxton (Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations), Cara Romero (Chemehuevi Indian Tribe), and Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke (Crow)), along with a written commission by Bonney Hartley (Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican) and archival records of local land transfers and the United States’ Indian boarding school history. The exhibition, centered around narratives of Indigenous families, particularly women and children, will delve into the experiences of Native peoples facing settler colonialism, focusing specifically on Indigenous child removal practices and policies.Sand & Stone (2020) © Cara Romero. Courtesy of the artist. All rights reserved.
Returning Home aims to highlight Indigenous representation, narrative, survivance, futurism, and resilience through contemporary Native art. The show will include pieces from the Forge Project’s collection, as well as a written commission from Bonney Hartley, who is an MFA candidate at Institute of American Indian Arts. An accompanying publication will provide in-depth contextualization of land dispossession in the United States, forced removal of Native peoples in New York State, and the impact of Indian boarding schools.
The exhibition will fill various rooms within the historic Montgomery Place mansion, situated on Bard College’s 380-acre estate. While the estate is renowned for its ties to the Livingston family, Montgomery Place is committed to exploring marginalized histories, including the forced removal of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and the estate’s use of enslaved African American labor.
On the exhibition, Tencer writes: “This will be the first exhibition in the mansion, and the first exhibition on campus that will discuss the forced removal of the Stockbridge-Munsee peoples on current Bard lands or the Livingston’s history as one intertwined with the land dispossession of Native people in the Hudson Valley and other land bases in the East Coast. Positioned as an intervention, Returning Home disrupts preconceived notions of Native people, specifically Native women, and makes visible purposefully erased historical narratives of land and wealth accumulation in New York State.”
“I am grateful for all the support my artwork and cultural work has received. I am indebted to the sun and my sundance teachings – mni ki wakan – water is sacred,” says artist Dana Claxton.
The exhibition is free and open to the public.
On behalf of the curators and Rethinking Place team, we would like to extend gratitude to The Mellon Foundation, Hudson Valley Greenway, Forge Project, and Montgomery Place Historic Estate for making this exhibition possible.
Exhibition Viewing Hours:
April 6 and 7, 1:00pm–5:00pm (timed entry every half hour - register here)
April 10 to 12, 1:30pm–4:00pm (timed entry every half hour - register here)
Schedule of Events:
April 6, 1:30pm: Opening Remarks & Activation, poetry reading by Bonney Hartley. Doors open at 1:00pm. Registration required. Register here.
April 6, 4:00pm: Cara Romero in conversation with Suzanne Kite. Registration required. Register here.
April 7, 3:00pm: Dana Claxton Artist Talk, on zoom, seating available at MP visitor’s center. Register for the zoom talk here.
April 10, 6:30pm: Cara Romero: Following the Light, Preston Cinema, Bard College. A short documentary on the work & practice of Cara Romero. No registration required.
Post Date: 03-20-2024