On the weekend of Oct. 25 through Oct. 27, the Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts celebrated its launch with various events, including a ribbon cutting ceremony, keynote conversations, a review of this year’s Signature Programs and a panel with members of the Vassar and local communities.
The launch kicked off on Friday with a Keynote discussion with Dr. Jim Yong Kim, former president of the World Bank, former president of Dartmouth College and current chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity. The conversation was led by Institute Program Director Wesley Dixon and took place at 5:30 p.m., followed by a reception.
Kim began his career in public health as a co-founder of Partners in Health, a global nonprofit organization focused on providing healthcare to impoverished communities in developing countries. He later served as the World Health Organization’s director of the HIV/AIDS department in 2003, where he led the “3 by 5” initiative, which aimed to supply antiretroviral treatment to three million people in developing countries by 2005. At the Keynote, he spoke at length about his work fighting HIV/AIDS, his recent initiatives in the mental health field and singing karaoke with President of the College Elizabeth Bradley in Rwanda.
Officially titled “A Life in the Liberal Arts,” the Keynote was grounded in the Institute’s mission. “I think the liberal arts are under threat. I think there’s less of a sense of the importance of what a liberal arts education does in terms of context and pedagogy and culture,” Kim said. Referencing his own undergraduate liberal arts background at Brown University, he added: “I’ve had this unbelievable opportunity to walk into a room and argue about treatment regimens for MDR TB, but then in my mind, linking this to the history of Tuskegee.”
The day before the Keynote, Vassar Students for Justice in Palestine (VSJP) announced via Instagram a rally protesting the Institute’s launch and Kim as their choice of speaker: “Despite the multi-year community campaign against the institute’s construction, owing to its destruction of public community space, Vassar circumvented zoning restrictions and prioritized its corporate interests,” the post read. “We respond: NO IMPERIALISTS ON CAMPUS.” Additionally, VSJP reiterated their demand for an immediate vote on divestment from military and surveillance technologies.
Dozens of students carrying signs and drums gathered outside of Josselyn House and marched to the Institute, chanting “Free, free Palestine,” and “Over 40,000 dead.” The protestors, who continued to demonstrate for around two and a half hours, were faintly audible from inside the Institute.
In her concluding remarks, President Bradley acknowledged the protestors. “They have meaningful things to say. I wouldn’t, if I were you, engage that much since they’re not here for a conversation. They’re here to make an important point,” she said. She invited guests who were uncomfortable exiting the building to mingle inside. “I think they will peter out eventually,” she said.
“They’ll get hungry,” joked Kim, to a room full of laughter. When asked by The Miscellany News about his reaction to the protestors, he declined to comment.
The following morning began at 10 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and another Keynote conversation with The New York Times journalist Steve Lohr; President and CEO of Jobs for the Future Maria Flynn; and LinkedIn’s Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman, about the role of the liberal arts in the era of Artificial Intelligence. Lohr
From 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., VSJP hosted another community rally on the corner of Raymond Avenue and Collegeview Avenue. “We reaffirm there is no business as usual during genocide, and we stand with the right of the people of Palestine to resist occupation and return to their homeland,” the announcement on Instagram read.
The afternoon session of the launch commenced with an interactive fair featuring descriptions of the six Signature Programs inside of the Heartwood Inn. Guests were instructed to begin on the first floor of the Inn, where three of the programs were tabling, then proceed to the upper floor for the remainder.
The Miscellany News spoke with Associate Professor of Political Science Taneisha Means about “Promoting Partnerships to Advance Educational Justice in Poughkeepsie.” The program is intended to foster conversation about resource allocation in Poughkeepsie, where equity issues impact the quality of and access to education. Inspired by the disparities in quality of education she noticed, having children in the local Arlington school district, Means collaborated with faculty in the departments of Education and Mathematics and Statistics to create a symposium where participants will engage in meaningful conversation about the systems that contribute to the inequities in local education, brainstorming potential solutions for real-world use.
Towards the central entrance of the building, Lili Walker ’27 and Katherine Powell ’27 conversed about “Transgressing Borders: Reimagining Education and the Role of Learning and Community.” Championed by Director of Community Engaged Learning (CEL) and Co-PI of the Mellon Foundation’s Community-Engaged Intensives in the Humanities (CEIH) Elizabeth Cannon and CEIH Research and Program Associate Zoë Markwalter, the purpose of the program is to reimagine the ways in which higher education institutions interact and collaborate with each other and the local communities in which they reside. Powell commented, “The focus for our program is really on community learning and how we can have it that it’s not this rigid structure of just Vassar and just, and having like this intersectionality of community.” Walker continued, “And kind of how the work we do at Vassar and in the OCEL, how can we bring that to other institutions? And also, what do other institutions do that we can start utilizing here?”
Behind the check-in desk, “Belonging and Beyond: Using Future Histories to Reimagine Teaching and Learning” was featured as the brainchild of Candice M. Lowe Swift, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Africana Studies and International Studies, and Eréndira Rueda, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Latin American and Latinx Studies. The highly interactive program aims to reimagine pedagogical practices via a multimedia installation created on-site, surrounding themes of academic belonging, future history-telling and speculative pedagogies.
Upstairs towards the Institute’s conference area, “The Entrepreneurial Mind and the Liberal Arts” was introduced by Vassar alum Brielle Irahoza ’24. Initially proposed and developed by fellow alum and current Academic Computing Consultant in the Office of the Vice President for Technology and Human Resources Julian Aguilar ’23, Irahoza herself joined the project during her senior year. She told The Miscellany News that for her senior project, she created an informative board game to engage students, and once successful she sought other opportunities that would allow her to accomplish similar goals. Per the abstract, “This program, ultimately, seeks to foster critical curiosity, creative thinking and a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the liberal arts and entrepreneurship.”
Across the skybridge connecting the Institute back to the Inn, Director of Sustainability Kenneth Foster spoke about “EcoVisions: Finding Your Place in Environmentalism.” The three day conference will kick off the Signature Programs in just two weeks, hosted from Nov. 14 through 16, 2024. Foster mentioned that the last day of the event is mostly catered towards students. “The Saturday event is more broadly about ‘how can you be engaged in environmental issues?’ And so, the first part of it is this panel discussion with climate lawyers.” He continued, “One of our collaborators is Arpitha Kodaveri from the Political Science Department. She was an environmental lawyer before she came here.” He added that Kodaveri sought to show students the varied ways in which they can involve themselves with climate justice. Later in the day, attendees would have the opportunity to engage with student work from Vassar and local colleges, the product of a cross-collaborative effort for the program. The event will conclude with an address from Environmental Media Host and Activist Kristy Drutman. Those who want to attend are encouraged to register online as soon as possible.
Back in the Institute, Associate Professor of Biology and Director of Neuroscience and Behavior Megan Gall and Associate Professor and Chair of Music Justin Patch discussed their program, “Soundscapes and the Anthropocene.” Inspired by ongoing interdisciplinary work in their respective departments, the program’s goal is to encourage attendees to think about the reciprocal relationship between humans and sound environments. Gall commented, “Vassar has a really rich history, actually, of people studying soundscapes in very different ways. People in the music department were inspired by the Hudson River and the sounds that it makes, but also people in the sciences who studied the way that the natural world is and then we had people in physics who studied the way that stuff propagated out in these spaces that we have influenced sound. And so, we’re interested in thinking about soundscapes and the ways that humans interact with them.” The program will conclude with Soundscapes on May 10, 2025.
The Institute’s launch concluded with a final panel, entitled “Architecting a Sustainable, Community-Oriented Future.” This panel was led by Vassar Professor of Art Yvonne Elet. Featured guests included architect Frederick Fisher, University of Virginia professor and architect Karen Van Lengen ’73, and Caroline Alsup, the Headquarters Project Manager at Scenic Hudson—the Hudson Valley’s largest environmental organization. The conversation focused on how the Institute can use its place as a center of dialogue to foster sustainability and health in various communities and organizations.
This topic holds particular importance in light of the criticisms of the Institute’s history included in VSJP’s Oct. 25 statement. The Instagram post reads, “Before its construction, the Arlington Neighborhood Association and Vassar org Stop the Inn waged a multi-year campaign against the project, citing environmental degradation, community harm, and gentrification…Accordingly, the institute represents the college’s prioritization of private interests and its historic cycle of harm to the Poughkeepsie community.”
The Institute has articulated its hopes to exist as a meeting point for local community partners and national leaders in the liberal arts, stating on its website page, “Signature Programs are projects that best exemplify the spirit of The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts. Vassar faculty and others collaborate with partners across the campus, in the local community, and around the country to engage in meaningful work and dialogue about the most pressing issues of our time.”
As the Institute begins its journey, it remains to be seen what its larger role will be in the Vassar and Hudson Valley communities. In an email sent to the student body on Oct. 29, President Bradley reminded students of the opportunity to submit proposals for the next academic year’s Signature Programs. Bradley also noted students’ ability to shape their engagement with the Institute, writing, “If you have ideas about ways you would like to engage with the Institute for the Liberal Arts beyond Signature Programs, please know that the Institute Committee is interested in hearing those ideas. We envision hosting conferences, workshops, book launches, meetings, lectures, exhibitions, and a variety of other events. In a sense, our community is co-creating the Institute alongside the Committee.”