hannah arendt center for the humanities and politics

The Hannah Arendt Center offers student fellowships for administration support, the Courage to Be Program, media and communications, and for the new Bard Leadership Program.We’ve assembled a number of students to discuss their thoughts on the JOY conference and the world.

Mariel Fiori is the co-founder and managing editor of La Voz magazine, a monthly Spanish language publication housed at Bard College. She also a journalist, translator, and entrepreneur and hosts “La Voz con Mariel Fiori” on Radio Kingston.

One of the final events at the Hannah Arendt Center's 17th annual fall conference later at 6 PM will be a Staged Reading of “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library.”

December 4, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of Hannah Arendt's passing. The Hannah Arendt Center's Director of Academic Programs Jana Mader and co-author of "Walk Her Way" will offer a guided walk across Bard campus - this year together with the first Chairman of the Arendt Center Steve Maslow - to the nearby, historic grave of Hannah Arendt.This lunchtime event offers the opportunity to engage with Arendt's legacy while enjoying fresh air, conversation, and movement, as participants walk together and reflect on her life and work.

Ann Lauterbach is a poet and essayist. Her eleventh collection of poetry, Door, is her most recent book. She writes at the intersection of poetics, politics and the visual arts.At 3:00 pm today she will be presenting a session of the Hannah Arendt center’s JOY conference entitled “Notes on Difficult Joy.”

At 1:30 this afternoon, there will be a session at the JOY conference named "Amor Mundi (Love the World) and Joy as Flowing Proximity." The session will feature Robin Wang along with Niobe Way and Lisa Cypers Kamen. Think of it as a look at Joy in Philosophy. Robin Wang and Lisa Cypers Kamen join us.

The literary magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly, was founded in 2007. Over the past two years, Lapham’s Quarterly has undergone a dramatic transformation. In late 2023 it put its print publication on hiatus, citing severe financial pressures and an inhospitable climate for serious magazines. The death of its founder, Lewis Lapham, in 2024 further challenged its trajectory. In 2025 it announced a full relaunch under Bard College’s Hannah Arendt Center, reviving its website and podcast and planning a return to print.

The Hannah Arendt Center's 17th annual fall conference on JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times on the campus of Bard College in Annandale. The conference offers a crucial lens for finding meaning and connection amidst today's fractured world. Bringing together notable speakers with diverse narratives and insights the conference is a timely exploration of joy as a powerful force, and a vital conversation around fostering resilience.Our first guests are President of Bard College Leon Botstein and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities of Bard College Roger Berkowitz.

The Hannah Arendt Center's 17th annual fall conference, “JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times,” will offer a crucial lens for finding meaning and connection amidst today's fractured world. Bringing together notable speakers with diverse narratives and insights at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, the conference will be a timely exploration of joy as a powerful force, and a vital conversation around fostering resilience.

On Tuesday, April 4 at 7 p.m. The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY will be showing 1984, the second film adaptation of the George Orwell novel – starring John…