Our 100/10 Membership Challenge Is Here Once Again!

Dear Friend,

[caption id="attachment_16329" align="alignright" width="300"] Roger Berkowitz, Academic Director of the HAC, introducing our 2014 fall conference.[/caption]

As you read this, your internet provider and browser are registering your whereabouts, your predilections, and your interests. The four walls of your house do little to keep out the prying eyes of corporations and government. And, if you're out and about, cameras are recording your movements. Your data is then fed into algorithms that determine which social media posts and book recommendations you will see. Metadata allows the government to analyze and predict your behavior. In your daily life there is little expectation of privacy. We are experiencing a radical diminishment of private life; few of us seem to care.

The Hannah Arendt Center's 8^th Annual Conference "Why Privacy Matters: What Do We Lose When We Lose Our Privacy?" asks why we willfully participate in the loss of our privacy. Do we simply value privacy less? If we are to defend our privacy, we need to better understand why it matters. Speakers include Edward Snowden speaking live from Russia, David Brin, Kate Crawford, Robert Litt, Ben Wizner, Anita Allen, Jeremy Waldron, and many others! You can register and see speaker bios here.

Our annual conference is just one of the many ways we pursue our mission: to be the most expansive home for bold and risky thinking about humanities and our political world inspired by the spirit of Hannah Arendt. I am writing today to update you about the last year at the Arendt Center and to show you what your membership contributions enabled us to achieve.

[caption id="attachment_16330" align="alignleft" width="300"] Uday Mehta speaking for our Courage to Be program.[/caption]

Our inaugural year for the new program, "The Courage to Be: A Philosophical and Religious Exploration of Moral and Spiritual Courage as a Response to Evil in the Global Community," was a huge success. The program featured four linked seminars with common lectures by Uday Mehta, Eyal Press, and Jeanne van Heeswijk. "The Courage to Be" project sponsors research and curricular innovations that ask: Why it is that some people have the spiritual courage to act conscientiously where others abandon themselves to mass movements?

Volume III of HA, a double issue that is filled with great essays by Peter Baehr, Ann Lauterbach, David Bromwich, Anand Giridharadas, George Packer, Charles Murray, John Seery, Roger Berkowitz, and more, is being completed this week. It will be ready for sale by the Fall conference. Read about and subscribe to our Journal here.

We launched our new website this summer. Please check it out.

The Virtual Reading Group has been analyzing Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition. The group is a great way to get engaged with the Center and interact with members from all over the world. Become a member to become part of these monthly discussions today.

We welcome three new post-doctoral fellows in the fall: Samantha Hill, Natalia Rockwell, and Jana Schmidt. You can read bios of Hannah Arendt Center fellows here.

The Arendt Center relies on your generous support to help fund our conferences, fellowships, and journal. Today, we are therefore launching our annual 100/10 Member Challenge: 100 new members in 10 days! If you are already a member, we ask you to renew your membership now. If you haven't yet joined, we ask you to become part of our world.

[caption id="attachment_16331" align="alignright" width="300"] Our 100/10 Membership Challenge tote package.[/caption]

We have a number of exciting contests during our 100/10 challenge! I'd like to mention two in particular. First, our $100 Challenge offers new members at the $100 level entrance into a drawing for the opportunity to win Hannah Arendt's Library, a beautiful artist book by Heinz Peter Knes, Danh Vo, and Amy Zion. To learn more about the book, click here.

Second, we have a Referral Challenge, which gives you the opportunity to win a Tote Bag Package when you refer family or friends to join the center. The Tote Bag Package includes: (1) HA Tote Bag, (1) HA mug, (1) copy of both HA Journal Vol. 1 & 2, and (1) signed copy of Thinking in Dark Times. All new members during our challenge will receive the inaugural issue of HA: The Journal of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. At the same time, all members who purchase or renew at the $100 level or above will receive Volume 2 of HA.

Lastly, all members receive free admittance to this year's fall conference, which takes place on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 15-16. You can register here. To read about our contests, member perks, and other chanced to win prizes, please click here. You can learn more about becoming a member here.

Bold thinking about politics in the humanist style of Hannah Arendt is profoundly necessary in our increasingly thoughtless era. The Arendt Center exists to nurture provocative thinking about politics and ethics. We are grateful for your confidence in us and your engagement in our work to build a community around the thinking Hannah Arendt.

We thank you in advance and look forward to seeing you at our future events.

Sincerely,

Roger Berkowitz