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$50M endowment to support scholarships, faculty and Bard College's new Native American and Indigenous Studies program

A Bard College sign surrounded by flowers.
Karl Rabe/Karl Rabe
/
Karl Rabe
Bard College campus on April 26, 2021, in Annandale-in-Hudson, NY.

Bard College in New York’s Dutchess County is using a $50 million endowment to broaden its work in Native American and Indigenous Studies. A $25 million gift from the Gochman Family Foundation and a matching $25 million commitment from the Open Society Foundations will fund scholarships for Native American and Indigenous students as well as faculty positions and programming. Bard College’s American Studies Program will also be renamed American and Indigenous Studies.

The programming and efforts are being developed in partnership with the Forge Project, a regional Native-led organization focused on decolonial education and Indigenous art. Candice Hopkins is the group’s executive director and will join Bard as Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies. WAMC's Jim Levulis spoke with Hopkins about the changes coming to Bard.

Hopkins: Essentially, it's a transformational gift college wide. We recognize both through my work at the Forge Project, where I'm executive director, and also from my own experiences in post-secondary institutions that there's not always equitable opportunities for Native students working in the field. So with this gift, we understood that one, it should support Native students and support them on the level of reducing barriers for tuition. So that means scholarships. That means also assistance with scholarships for living expenses. And I think that also means that if you are a Native student going to Bard, you want to learn from those people who not only share your life experiences, but whom are leaders in the field. So that means that this gift also enables the hiring of a new chair in Indigenous Studies, as well as other faculty all through different levels. So at the junior level, at the senior level, it also includes funding for public programs. Because, you know, it's one thing to have faculties and another thing to have students, this will enable guest speakers to come to speak on all different kinds of topics to Bard. It also allows me to work with students and teach at my alma mater as well. I think that what we see this gift doing is, you know, understanding that gifts like this can promote different relationships between patrons and education institutions. And so with that, we thought that it was very important that on one hand, there's name changes happen happening. So American Studies is now American and Indigenous Studies so that, you know, these things are recognized both at a structural level, and at the level of nomenclature and at the level of student support and faculty support.

Levulis: And as you mentioned, you will be joining the Bard faculty as a Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies. What exactly will you or do you foresee yourself doing in that role?

Hopkins: I was a student at the Center for Curatorial Studies between 2001 and 2003. And one of the things that I think, as students we lacked access to was access to particularly work by Native contemporary artists, aside from those relationships we were making ourselves. So we are positioning Forge as an extended classroom for Center for Curatorial studies. We have a lending collection that's often on view, within the residences at Forge. So the class will be taught both at Forge and at the Center for Curatorial Studies. I'll also be working with the Center for Curatorial Studies to build out archives. Understanding that access to knowledge to archives is very key to student learning, as well as access to art. And every year I will teach a course at the Center for Curatorial Studies. And this fall and through next year, I'm working on curating a major exhibition on contemporary Native art. Looking at also political and social histories that shaped exhibitions from the 1960s to today.

Levulis: And you've mentioned it a couple of times the Forge Project. You are the executive director of the Forge Project. Some of these initiatives that Bard will be undertaking have been developed in partnership with the Forge Project. Could you detail for our listeners what the Forge Project is and what exactly it does?

Hopkins: So Forge is a new organization, we are a little over a year old. We’re a Native women-led organization that focuses on fellowships for Native cultural workers in the United States and Canada, working on things like decolonial governance, or even experimental music, seed savings, for example. And we host six fellows a year, at the residences at Forge. We do programs in decolonial education and Indigenous-led education. And we have founded a journal as well called Forging. And so we're working in publication, too. Forge was created, not only because in this area, in the Mahicanituck Valley, another word for the Hudson Valley, there's a great absence of Native folks, because a lot of people were displaced, and they were displaced to even as far away as Wisconsin. The Stockbridge-Munsee Community, for example. And so with Forge what we're dedicated to is increasing Indigenous presence in this area.

The Forge Project campus in New York.
Alon Koppel Photography
The Forge Project campus in New York.

Levulis: Earlier, you mentioned the name change for Bard College's American Studies program. It will become the American and Indigenous Studies. But it's more than a name change, right? If I'm a student in that program, or you know, looking at that program, what will this mean for the curriculum? What will be in front of me? What will we discuss that will be different than maybe what has been done?

Hopkins: Yeah, that's a great question. So what does the name change from American to American Indigenous studies mean, particularly for students? On one hand, this is continuing work for Bard College. So Bard College has courses and classes in Indigenous Studies and have had for a number of years. So we see this gift and new direction as galvanizing work that they've been doing. On the other hand, I think when students come now, not only do they see the word Indigenous reflected in the name, but that comes with broad structural changes. One is the hiring of people who are leaders in the field, Indigenous faculty, people who are leaders in Indigenous Studies. It means that there will be really robust public programs that accompanies this gift that will not only you know, be accessible for students, but I think, broaden public knowledge around all kinds of topics that we've been working on in Indian country and Indigenous Studies more broadly. I think that it also means that with the hiring of faculty, it means that when students come, there's people who look like them, there's people that they can learn from in this field. It's not like they'll be coming in they'll be unmoored. So we're creating I think both a cohort of students and a cohort of faculty and a cohort of guests to Bard.

Levulis: And I think it's important to mention for the listeners here that you are a member of an Indigenous community, correct?

Hopkins: I'm a citizen of Carcross/Tagish community which is in Yukon Territory in northern Canada. And Carcross Tagish First Nation has also been a leader in self-governance. So I'm also taking some of those learnings I think, too, in thinking about how these ideas around Indigenous sovereignty can also come to play even in at the level of curriculum development.

Levulis: And do you find that this is coming at a particularly important time? I asked that, because, you know, obviously, when, in Canada the realization of what occurred regarding the residential schools. The Pope visited Canada this year to recognize that. Do you find that this is a particularly significant moment for this shift at Bard?

Hopkins: Absolutely. You know, you just mentioned Jim, broader socio-political shifts, both in Canada with regards to the acknowledgement of the history of residential schools through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. You know, my grandmother went to a residential school. So that was very personal for my family. I think with the United States we're seeing and witnessing greater shifts as well. One, of course, is quite obviously, for me anyway, the hiring of Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. What does that mean? What does that mean for recognition of Native rights? What does it mean for even broader public recognition of the fact that in the United States, almost every single treaty with the US government has been broken? So I think that if we move toward, you know, broader understanding, not only of histories of the US, I think that we all shaped different collective futures, particularly as it concerns Native people here. So I think it's a really opportune moment. It's a really different, I'd say, environment from when I first attended Bard. I think that folks now know the kind of deeper histories of these lands. But I think that, you know, these kinds of programs at Bard are really future orientated. They're about, you know, fostering student knowledge fostering shared understanding, because all of those things, I think, are incredibly important for how we even define the United States now, how do we even define what is America now.

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org