Bard College Berlin

The final performances of this year's Berlin Theater Intensive marked the end of another successful summer program. Students presented the culmination of their studies and hard work accomplished throughout the four week program.

📷Photo: Yelyzaveta Shelest

Community, formation, love, loss, hope: These are the themes of the current exhibition taking up the historic hall of the Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, which students in the Berlin Summer Studio program recently visited with Arts faculty. Students explored this and other contemporary art exhibitions in the museum that blend visual and performance art, to better grow and inform their own artistic practice.

📷Photo: Yelyzaveta Shelest

Students in the Berlin Theater Intensive this summer took part in a workshop in dramaturgy, the art of writing and staging theatrical works. 🎭 Workshops like these throughout the summer helped students develop their final performance pieces and leave Berlin with hands-on stage experience.

📷Photo: Yelyzaveta Shelest

Meet Dayana Milieva, who graduated from the Economics, Politics, and Social Thought Program in 2025, with a double major in Economics and Politics. She is now pursuing an MA in International Affairs at John Cabot University in Rome.

"Coming to Berlin, I joined a community much more diverse than what I was used to back in Bulgaria. All fruits born from the tree of education that college is, I’ve tasted, not because of gravity, but rather thanks to those surrounding me. Usually, a professor would lift me up to pick one; hoping that, in hunger for knowledge, I’d reach for it. Other times, I needed the fruit to be dropped into my hands. Washed. Peeled. Nicely cut up. Small pieces. Chewed up. Sometimes I’d eat it eagerly; or I’d find it too sweet. Too sour. Bitter even. I’m not talking about fruit here.

If it wasn’t for the endless patience of those around me, I wouldn’t have learned anything in this life. And I’m not only referring to academia. I’ve realized that as important as studying, sitting in classes, and preparing projects are, they’re just a miniature part of what education actually is. Education isn’t about reading every book out there. Alone. Locked up in your dorm room. Sitting in a distant library corner. It’s about absorbing knowledge from the experience of others. Listening. And not only listening, but hearing what people have to say. That’s what education is about. Fruit salad. Clashing flavors. And a hunger for learning."

Students taking part in BCB’s Berlin Summer Studio recently visited the studio of professional artist Arturo Herrera. 🎨 The Berlin Summer Studio is a 4-week intensive program where students develop artistic skills working in individual studio spaces under the guidance of artists while experiencing the vibrant Berlin art world with weekly visits to Berlin’s world-class museums, galleries, and artist’s studios. 🖌️

Studio Arts Professor John Kleckner is holding a solo exhibition of his work at Müller Contemporary in Berlin this summer from June 20 to August 8. 🖼️ In the exhibition "Irgendwo," Kleckner brings together a selection of paintings, drawings, and collages that evoke landscapes, objects, or natural structures that feel real but undefined, and resist settling into a fixed image.
BCB students, alumni, and faculty attended the opening of the exhibition in June. 🎨

📷Photo: Yelyzaveta Shelest

Alumni engagement is an important part of the BCB experience. Last semester, Lara Habboub (HAST '24) returned to campus to present an Alumni Talk and Q&A to current students about her post-college trajectory and how liberal arts education prepared her for her current career. 💼

Lara is currently the Communications Lead for the Democracy & Belonging Forum, a research and network hub that aims to counter democratic degradation and oppose authoritarian populism in Europe and the United States. She is also currently pursuing a Master's in Mind and Brain at .uni, where she explores the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy of mind in people's political worldviews. 🧠

This Alumni Talk took place in the framework of IS331 Berlin Internship Seminar.

📷Photo: Kuba Laichter

In the cross-campus collaborative course International Organizations and Human Rights Advocacy, students at Bard College Berlin, Al-Quds Bard, and American University of Central Asia are exposed together to the practical work of human rights actors in the context of inter- and supranational organizations through hands-on work and expert guest lectures. ✍️

Last semester, Deborah Amos provided a guest lecture to students in the course. Amos, a former guest instructor at Bard College Berlin, is a Ferris Professor of Journalism in Residence at Princeton University and a longtime international correspondent with an award-winning career reporting on the Middle East and refugees in the U.S. ⚖️

The course is led by Dr. Danyah Jaber (Al-Quds Bard), Dr. Berit Ebert (Bard College Berlin), and Dr. Kamila Mateeva (American University in Central Asia).

📷Photo: Silvia Mamporia

AUCA Al-Quds Bard College

Each summer Eva Burghardt leads a movement workshop at Eden Studios for the participants of the Summer Theater Intensive. The workshop invites students to step away from the written script and explore how movement, presence, and physical awareness shape performance.


📷Photo: Yelyzaveta Shelest