Hannah Arendt Center presents:
JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times
A Common Inquiry hosted by the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College
Thursday, October 16, 2025 – Friday, October 17, 2025
Olin Hall
Registration
Non-Member Registration Fee: $175 per person.
Become a Hannah Arendt Center member today and enjoy complimentary admission for yourself and one guest to our 17ᵗʰ annual fall conference, JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times, taking place October 16–17, 2025, in Bard College’s Olin Hall. Memberships start at any dollar amount, are valid for one year, and unlock free admission once you join or renew.Register to participate on campus or watch the live webcast: every registrant receives the YouTube link for the live stream (free) as well as on-demand access to the full recordings after the conference, so you can choose the experience that fits your schedule and comfort level.
If you join us in person, you can pre-order lunch or take a short stroll to nearby eateries—Kline Commons Dining Hall is only three minutes away and offers healthy, budget-friendly options, while Down the Road Café is an easy seven-minute walk. Additional cafés and restaurants in nearby Red Hook and Tivoli offer an array of options.
Schedule
The tentative schedule is subject to change. Please check back often for updates.
Thursday, October 16th
10:00 am Introduction
Deirdre d’Albertis
10:10 am
Joy: Loving the World in Dark Times
Roger Berkowitz
10:30 am
Operation Lightness
Teju Cole
Discussant: Roger Berkowitz
11:30 am
Joy and Gratitude in Transcendence
Matthew Crawford and Anthony Kronman
Moderators: Karen Sullivan and Alexander Castleton
12:30–2:00 pm Lunch
1:00-2:00 pm [OPTIONAL] Breakout Sessions (smaller group discussions):
Post Lecture Discussion and Reflection
Teju Cole
Moderator: Roger Berkowitz
Olin 202
Finding Community through Laughter: Improv and Games
BRAD Comedy Club
Bard Student Performance
Olin Hall
Joy: Loving the World in Dark Times--A Dialogue Group Discussion
Virtual Breakout Session
Susan Oberman
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 840 5241 0146
Teju Cole
Moderator: Roger Berkowitz
Olin 202
Finding Community through Laughter: Improv and Games
BRAD Comedy Club
Bard Student Performance
Olin Hall
Joy: Loving the World in Dark Times--A Dialogue Group Discussion
Virtual Breakout Session
Susan Oberman
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 840 5241 0146
2:00 pm
Poetry and Tragedy
Ilya Kaminsky
Moderator: erica kaufman
3:30 pm: Break
4:00 pm
Dark Charisma
Donovan Hohn and Charles Baxter
Moderator: Francine Prose
5:00 pm
The Joy of Submission
Marilyn Simon
Moderator: Jill Stauffer
6:00 pm
Wine & Cheese Reception
Olin Hall Atrium
Friday, October 17th
9:30 amIntroduction
Leon Botstein
10:00 am
The Power of Music
Jeremy Eichler
Discussant: Leon Botstein
11:00 am
In a dream you saw a way to survive
Bill T. Jones
Discussants: Roger Berkowitz and Wyatt Mason
12:00-1:30 pm Lunch
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm [OPTIONAL] Breakout Sessions (smaller group discussions):
Joy as an Act of Resistance
Erica Brown, S. Leigh Thompson, Eva Tenuto
Olin 202
Walk to Hannah Arendt's Grave
Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of her death
Steve Maslow and Jana Mader
Meeting Point: Olin Hall
Joy: Loving the World in Dark Times--A Dialogue Group Discussion
Virtual Breakout Session
Susan Oberman
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 897 9870 6640
1:30 pm
Amor Mundi and Yinyang Love: A Creative Space between People and the World
Niobe Way and Robin Wang
Discussant: Lisa Cypers Kamen
2:30 pm Break
3:00 pm
O frabjous day! Notes on the Joy of Difficulty
Ann Lauterbach
Discussant: Thomas Bartscherer
3:45 pm
A Few Words Toward Joy
Shane McCrae
"Brute beauty and valour and act"
Wyatt Mason
4:45 pm
Concluding panel
Uday Singh Mehta, Allison Stanger, and Thomas Chatterton Williams
Discussant: Roger Berkowitz
5:30 pm
Wine & Cheese Reception
Olin Hall Atrium
6:00 pm [OPTIONAL] Special Presentation:
Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library
By Jenny Lyn Bader; Directed by Ari Laura Kreith
A Staged Reading featuring Ella Dershowitz and Drew Hirschfield
Olin Hall
Please RSVP
By Jenny Lyn Bader; Directed by Ari Laura Kreith
A Staged Reading featuring Ella Dershowitz and Drew Hirschfield
Olin Hall
Please RSVP
Speakers
These are the confirmed speakers as of now. New speakers will be added as they confirm. Please check back often for updates!Jenny Lyn Bader
![[Jenny Lyn Bader]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Jenny Lyn Bader.png)
Thomas Bartscherer
![[Thomas Bartscherer]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/unnamed (7).jpg)
Charles Baxter
![[Charles Baxter]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Pickett_8-5-14_0663_2.jpg)
Roger Berkowitz
![[Roger Berkowitz]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/berk.jpeg)
His essay "Reconciling Oneself to the Impossibility of Reconciliation: Judgment and Worldliness in Hannah Arendt's Politics," has helped bring attention to the centrality of reconciliation in Hannah Arendt's work. The Arendt Center organizes an annual conference every October. Professor Berkowitz edits the Hannah Arendt Center's weekly newsletter, Amor Mundi. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Bookforum, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Paris Review Online, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, The American Interest, and many other publications. Berkowitz is the 2019 recipient of the Hannah Arendt Award for Political Thought given by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Bremen, Germany.
Leon Botstein
![[Leon Botstein]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/botstein.png)
He has published widely in the fields of education, music, and history and culture and is the author of several books including Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture, and editor of The Compleat Brahms and The Musical Quarterly. He is the music director of the American Symphony Orchestra and The Orchestra Now (TŌN), and conductor laureate and principal guest conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director. He is the founder and artistic co-director of the Bard Music Festival. His work has been acknowledged with awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Harvard University, government of Austria, and Carnegie Foundation. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2011.
He is also music director and principal conductor of The Orchestra Now (TŌN) and the American Symphony Orchestra, artistic co-director of the Bard Music Festival. Botstein is editor of The Musical Quarterly and writes on music and culture.
BRAD Comedy Club
![[BRAD Comedy Club]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/IMG_5639.png)
Erica Brown
![[Erica Brown]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Image 8-20-25 at 7.49 AM.jpeg)
Alexander Castleton
![[Alexander Castleton]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Foto Alexander Castleton.png)
Teju Cole
![[Credit: Donavon Smallwood]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/TejuCole_LR.jpg)
Credit: Donavon Smallwood
Matthew Crawford
![[Matthew Crawford]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/IMG_0334 (3).jpg)
Deirdre D'Albertis
![[Deirdre D'Albertis]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/deirdre.jpeg)
Jeremy Eichler
![[credit: Tom Kates]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Eichler-Author-Photo.jpg)
credit: Tom Kates
Eichler served for 18 years as chief classical music critic of The Boston Globe, and his writing has also appeared in The New York Times and The New Yorker. In 2024-25, he served as the first Writer-in-Residence of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. For more information, please visit www.jeremy-eichler.com.
Katie Farris
![[Katie Farris]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Farris Author Photo 2025.jpeg)
Donovan Hohn
![[Donovan Hohn]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Donovan Hohn-1 copy.jpg)
Bill T. Jones
![[Bill T. Jones]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Bill_T_Jones-2537-Color.jpg)
Mr. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 1982. He has created more than 140 works for his company. Mr. Jones is the Artistic Director of New York Live Arts, an organization that strives to create a robust framework in support of the nation’s dance and movement-based artists through new approaches to producing, presenting and educating. For more information visit www.newyorklivearts.org.
Lisa Cypers Kamen
![[Lisa Cypers Kamen]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Lisa Cypers Kamen-Headshot-Alt.jpg)
Ilya Kaminsky
![[Photo by Cybele Knowles]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Ilya Kaminsky_credit Cybele Knowles.jpeg)
Photo by Cybele Knowles
erica kaufman
![[erica kaufman]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/ejk 2025 photo.jpeg)
Anthony Kronman
![[Anthony Kronman]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Kronman-1a-PREFERRED.jpg)
Professor Kronman is the author or co-author of many books and articles on various scholarly and other subjects. His most recent book, “After Disbelief” (2022) explores the meaning of God in an age of disenchantment. “The Assault on American Excellence” (2019) decries the ways in which the consuming passion for diversity and the erosion of free speech undermine educational values and threatens the standing of our colleges and universities in the country at large. His 2016 book, “Confessions of a Born Again Pagan,” offers a sweeping account of the history of Western thought and an original diagnosis of our current spiritual predicament. In 2007, Professor Kronman published “Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life,” and in 1993, “The Lost Lawyer,” which deals with the contemporary state of the American legal profession and the movement away from what he calls the lawyer-statesman ideal of responsible law practice. VIEW MORE >>
Professor Kronman was born in Los Angeles on May 12, 1945 and attended public schools there before going to Williams College in 1963. He graduated from Williams in 1968 with highest honors in political science. Following college, he studied philosophy at Yale and received his Ph.D. in that field in 1972. During his four years as a graduate student, Professor Kronman was a Danforth Fellow. In 1972, he began the study of law at the Yale Law School and received his J.D. in 1975. While at the Law School, he served as a senior editor on the Yale Law Journal.
Professor Kronman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. In June 2004, he was named Commander of the French National Order of Merit. In 2018, he received the Kellogg Award from his alma mater Williams College for extraordinary career achievement.
Professor Kronman has served on the board of various non-profit organizations including the Foote School in New Haven, Yale University Press, and the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. From 2002 to 2006, Professor Kronman served as a Director of Adelphia Communications Corporation. He was the Lead Director of the company for three of these years. Professor Kronman was Of Counsel to the law firm of Boies Schiller Flexner from 2008 to 2019.
Professor Kronman’s father, Harry Kronman, was a television screenwriter and his mother, Rosella, was a film actress and homemaker. He is married to Nancy Greenberg and has four children, Matthew, Emma, Hope, and Alexander.
Professor Kronman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. In June 2004, he was named Commander of the French National Order of Merit. In 2018, he received the Kellogg Award from his alma mater Williams College for extraordinary career achievement.
Professor Kronman has served on the board of various non-profit organizations including the Foote School in New Haven, Yale University Press, and the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. From 2002 to 2006, Professor Kronman served as a Director of Adelphia Communications Corporation. He was the Lead Director of the company for three of these years. Professor Kronman was Of Counsel to the law firm of Boies Schiller Flexner from 2008 to 2019.
Professor Kronman’s father, Harry Kronman, was a television screenwriter and his mother, Rosella, was a film actress and homemaker. He is married to Nancy Greenberg and has four children, Matthew, Emma, Hope, and Alexander.
Ann Lauterbach
![[Ann Lauterbach]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/unnamed (6).png)
Jana Mader
![[Jana Mader]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/mader.jpeg)
Steve Maslow
![[Steve Maslow]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Steve Maslow.jpeg)
When Elizabeth Young-Bruehl published her acclaimed biography of Hannah Arendt, I was her student at Wesleyan University. Although my career since then has largely been in finance, I've maintained a keen interest in Hannah Arendt's work. Naturally enough my interests led to meeting Roger Berkowitz, and then to becoming the first Chairman of the Hannah Arendt Center. I do not hold a doctorate, however my "post graduate studies" in Arendt were completed with Jerome Kohn, Hannah Arendt's teaching assistant and literary executor, who granted me a life-changing friendship, a new lens through which to read Arendt, copious anecdotal sketches about her, and quite a few bottles of Sancerre. Having had a baton passed to me by two of Arendt's students, I'm a proud Arendtian, albeit not an academic,. In honor of the fierce two-fold love and reverence I have for Hannah and for Jerry, I have established the "Genius for Friendship Award" at the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard. I live in New York City, and am very proud of my son, who grew up in a Brooklyn ghetto and is now a technician for an international hydraulics concern. I welcome anyone wishing to discuss Arendt's life and work to contact me for a talk over Kaffee und Kuchen.
Wyatt Mason
![[Wyatt Mason]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Image 8-22-25 at 7.38 AM.jpeg)
Shane McCrae
![[Shane McCrae]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Shane's face.jpg)
Uday Mehta
![[Uday Mehta]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Image 4-7-25 at 1.12 PM.jpeg)
Susan Oberman
![[Photo by HAC Student Fellow Otto Harris]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Susan Oberman.jpg)
Photo by HAC Student Fellow Otto Harris
Francine Prose
![[Frances F. Denny]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Francine Prose author photo_credit_FrancesF.Denny.jpg)
Frances F. Denny
Marilyn Simon
Allison Stanger
![[Allison Stanger]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Stanger3.jpg)
Allison Stanger is Middlebury Distinguished Endowed Professor; Co-Director (with Danielle Allen), GETTING-Plurality Research Network and faculty affiliate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University; Distinguished Senior Fellow at the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Studies; Senior Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center, Bard College; founding member of the Digital Humanism Initiative (Vienna); Visiting Scholar, Institute for Human Centered AI, Stanford University, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Stanger’s next book, Who Elected Big Tech? is forthcoming in 2026 with Yale University Press. She is working on a new book tentatively titled Fiat: A Brief History of Money and Democracy from Coins to Crypto.
Stanger’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Conversation, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Wired. She is the author of Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump (Yale University Press, 2019) and One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy (Yale University Press, 2009). She is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. Stanger is the co-editor (with Hannes Werthner et. al.) of Introduction to Digital Humanism: A Textbook (Springer, 2024), which is open access, and co-editor (with W. Brian Arthur and Eric Beinhocker) of Complexity Economics (SFI Press, 2020). She is the creator of the Accountability Archive.
Stanger has been called to testify before Congress on six occasions (by both Republicans and Democrats). She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University. She majored in Mathematics as an undergraduate and has graduate degrees in Soviet Studies and Economics.
Jill Stauffer
![[Jill Stauffer]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/JillStauffer2.jpg)
Karen Sullivan
![[Karen Sullivan]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Karen Sullivan.jpg)
Eva Tenuto
![[Eva Tenuto]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Image 8-20-25 at 7.37 AM.jpeg)
In addition to being TMI Project’s executive director, Eva is a multi-disciplinary artist. She is the co-host of the award-winning podcast, The TMI Project Story Hour. She is the editor and director of multiple solo shows, one of which was awarded Best Comedic Script in the United Solo Festival. Her award-winning documentary shorts Vicarious Resilience, Locker Room Talk, and One Story at a Time: Celeste Lecesne have screened around the world, including at esteemed festivals like DC/DOX, Woodstock Film Festival, and GlobeDocs by The Boston Globe. Eva’s personal essays have appeared in assorted anthologies and online publications.
Eva is a sought-after speaker on topics such as storytelling, social justice, women’s leadership, recovery, and shame. She has presented at many institutions, including UN Women, Omega Institute, and A Call to Men, among others. In 2018, she had the privilege of presenting #MeToo founder Tarana Burke with the Eleanor Roosevelt Center’s Medal of Honor.
S. Leigh Thompson
![[S. Leigh Thompson]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/Image 8-21-25 at 8.56 AM.jpeg)
Leigh is currently a consultant, facilitator and strategist supporting deeper understanding of equity, inclusion and justice and building tools to dismantle systemic power, privilege and oppression. His consulting clients include small local to large global nonprofits, educational institutions, movement coalitions and businesses from around the world.
He has created, co-created and collaborated in a wide variety of projects that live at the intersections of art, social justice and wellness. They were a co-creator and President of the TransMasculine Community Network, an organization supporting AFAB trans and nonbinary folk in NYC; the Managing Director of the Orange Blossom, an arts and education community squat; a co-designer of Fuck Your Health, a comedy performance exploring reproductive health for LGBTQ folk; and the co-founder and -director of the Kingsmen, a drag performance troupe. Leigh directed Occupy the Stage, engaging occupiers and bystanders in creative dialogue about economic disparity and the dangers of capitalism; designed and managed audience support, dialogue and education project for the Slave Play, a Tony-award winning play; wrote the education toolkits for the award-winning documentary film, Disclosure; and much more. VIEW MORE >>
Leigh was also an Out in Front Leadership Fellow with Stonewall Community Foundation in 2011. They also served as a Board Member and Board President of Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed from 2011 to 2018 and has been providing training and curriculum design support for the Center for Racial Justice in Education since 2016. He has received an award from Brooklyn Borough President for his artistic activism supporting the LGBTQ community and from the Center for Racial Justice in Education for advancing racial equity.
Leigh is also the co-founder and co-owner of the Asterisk, a community workspace for healing, creativity and liberation in Kingston, NY.
Leigh is also the co-founder and co-owner of the Asterisk, a community workspace for healing, creativity and liberation in Kingston, NY.
Robin Wang
![[Robin Wang]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/rwang head shot.jpg)
Niobe Way
![[Niobe Way]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/niobe.jpeg)
Her work focuses on the intersections of culture, context, and human development, with a particular focus on social and emotional development and how cultural ideologies influence developmental trajectories. The Listening Project, her current project with Joseph Nelson, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, David Kirkland, and Alisha Ali, aims to foster curiosity and connection in and outside of middle school classrooms across New York City.
In addition, she created and teaches a core course for undergraduates at NYU called The Science of Human Connection. The course describes her theoretical and empirical framework developed over three decades and discussed in her latest co-edited book The Crisis of Connection: Its Roots, Consequences, and Solution (NYU Press). VIEW MORE >>
Dr. Way has also authored nearly a hundred journal articles and books, including Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection (Harvard University Press) and Everyday Courage: The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers (NYU Press). Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and numerous foundations including The National Science Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust Foundation, and The Spencer Foundation. She is a contributor to Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and her research is regularly featured in mainstream media outlets (e.g., New York Times, NPR, Today Show, NBC). Examples include Two Cheers for Feminism! and Guys, We Have A Problem: How American Masculinity Creates Lonely Men.
Thomas Chatterton Williams
![[Thomas Chatterton Williams]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/TCW 2025.jpg)
Readings
Get ready for our stimulating conference, JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times. To make the most of this event, we've curated a suggested reading list. These readings will provide you with a rich background and deeper understanding of the themes we'll be exploring during the conference. Plus, they're a great way to get your intellectual juices flowing before the big event!Reading List Conference Speakers:
- Berkowitz, Roger (2010). Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics. Fordham University Press.
- Berkowitz, Roger (2024): On Civil Disobedience: Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau. Library of Congress.
- Berkowitz, Roger. Reconciling Oneself to the Impossibility of Reconciliation: Judgment and Worldliness in Hannah Arendt’s Politics. Academia.
- Crawford, Matthew B. Gratitude and the Modern Condition.
- Cole, Teju (2024) Tremor. Random House.
- Cole, Teju (2011) Open City. Random House.
- Eichler, Jeremy (2023). Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance. Knopf.
- Farris, Katie (2023). Standing in the Forest of Being Alive. Alice James Books.
- Harrison, Robert (2023). Amor Mundi: Robert Harrison on World Love. Entitled Opinions with Robert Harrison podcast.
- Jones, Bill T. (2014). Story/Time: The Life of an Idea. Princeton University Press.
- Kaminsky, Ilya (2019). Deaf Republic. Graywolf Press.
- Kronman, Anthony T. (2020). After Disbelief: On Disenchantment, Disappointment, Eternity, and Joy. Yale University Press.
- McCrae, Shane (2016). The Animal Too Big to Kill. Persea Books.
- Simon, Marilyn (2024). On Kneeling, Towards a Philosophy of Fellatio.
- Stauffer, Jill (2025): Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard. Columbia University Press.
- Wang, Robin R. (2012). Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture. Cambridge University Press.
- Way, Niobe (2018). The Crisis of Connection: Its Roots, Consequences, and Solutions. NYU Press.
- Williams, Thomas Chatterton (2025). Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse. Knopf.
Further Reading List:
- Arendt, Hannah (1968). Men in Dark Times. Harcourt, Brace & World.
- Arendt, Hannah (1964). Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship. In: Responsibility and Judgment. Schocken Books.
- Baldwin, James (1963) The Fire Next Time.
- Courtine-Denamy, Sylvie (2023) Three Women in Dark Times: Edith Stein, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil
- Critchley, Simon (2024). On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy. Penguin Books.
- Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu (2016) The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World
- Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning
- Pollan, Michael (2018) How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness and Transcendence
- Popova, Maria (2019). Hannah Arendt on Love and How to Live with the Fundamental Fear of Loss. The Marginalian.
- Solnit, Rebecca (2004) Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
- Stonebridge, Lyndsey (2024) We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience
Location
How to Get to Bard
*NOTE: The full conference will be available via Live Webcast.By Car:
The Taconic State Parkway and the New York State Thruway provide the most direct routes to our campus. Click the Google link above or get directions by entering the following address into your GPS: 51 Ravine Road, Red Hook, NY 12571.
From the East: If you are traveling from east of the Hudson River in New York State, take the Taconic State Parkway to the Red Hook / Route 199 exit, drive west on Route 199 through the village of Red Hook to Route 9G, turn right onto Route 9G, drive north 1.6 miles, turn left at the traffic light and continue on Annandale Road through our campus.
From the West: If you are traveling from west of the Hudson River, take the New York State Thruway (I-87) to exit 19 (Kingston), take Route 209 (changes to Route 199 at the Hudson River) over the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge to Route 9G, turn left onto Route 9G, drive north 3.5 miles, turn left at the traffic light and continue on Annandale Road through our campus.
From the East: If you are traveling from east of the Hudson River in New York State, take the Taconic State Parkway to the Red Hook / Route 199 exit, drive west on Route 199 through the village of Red Hook to Route 9G, turn right onto Route 9G, drive north 1.6 miles, turn left at the traffic light and continue on Annandale Road through our campus.
From the West: If you are traveling from west of the Hudson River, take the New York State Thruway (I-87) to exit 19 (Kingston), take Route 209 (changes to Route 199 at the Hudson River) over the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge to Route 9G, turn left onto Route 9G, drive north 3.5 miles, turn left at the traffic light and continue on Annandale Road through our campus.
By Train:
There are two train stations close to Bard College: one in Poughkeepsie (Metro North), New York, and the other in Rhinecliff (Amtrak), New York. Taxi service is available from either station to bring you to campus.
Amtrak provides service from Albany and from Pennsylvania Station in New York City to Rhinecliff, about 9 miles south of Annandale. Taxi service is available at the station. Travel Time: Approximately two hours (one hour and 40 minutes by train and 15–20 minutes by taxi). Contact Information: Rhinecliff station can be reached at 845-876-3364. Reservations and schedule information at wwe.Amtrak.com
Metro-North commuter railroad provides service from Grand Central Station in New York City to Poughkeepsie, about 26 miles south of campus. Taxi service is available at the station. Travel Time: Approximately one hour and 30 minutes (40–50 minutes by train and 40 minutes by taxi).
Amtrak provides service from Albany and from Pennsylvania Station in New York City to Rhinecliff, about 9 miles south of Annandale. Taxi service is available at the station. Travel Time: Approximately two hours (one hour and 40 minutes by train and 15–20 minutes by taxi). Contact Information: Rhinecliff station can be reached at 845-876-3364. Reservations and schedule information at wwe.Amtrak.com
Metro-North commuter railroad provides service from Grand Central Station in New York City to Poughkeepsie, about 26 miles south of campus. Taxi service is available at the station. Travel Time: Approximately one hour and 30 minutes (40–50 minutes by train and 40 minutes by taxi).
See here for more directions to Bard College.
Olin Hall
![[Olin Hall]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/OLIN2.jpeg)
Accomodations
![[Accomodations]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/hotel3.jpeg)
Local hotel offering a Bard Rate during the conference:
The Best Western Plus in Kingston, NY. To make reservations using the Bard discount, you must call the hotel direct at 845-338-0400 and ask for the “Bard College Discount.” (20% off) We recommend booking your accommodations as early as possible.
Parking is Free
![[Parking is Free]](http://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/arendt-images/OlinParking3.jpeg)
Contest
Annual Conference Student Coverage
We are excited to invite all students to participate in covering our annual Hannah Arendt Center conference. This is a fantastic opportunity to get involved, showcase your skills, and share your unique perspective with a wider audience.What We're Looking For:
- a piece of writing (1 page or more) and photos OR
- a video (edited to no more than 3 min.) OR
- an interview with one or several conference speakers and photos
Why Participate?
We are looking for exceptional student journalism that will inform and inspire our audience. We encourage you to submit your best work. Only submissions that demonstrate a high level of quality and relevance to our conference will be selected for publication, on one of the following two platforms:
- Amor Mundi, our weekly newsletter that reaches thousands of members
- HAC social media platforms (Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube) which, together, reach thousands of followers
The first prize winner will be selected by a committee of HAC-affiliated professors, who will be looking for submissions of exceptional quality that address/highlight aspects of the conference theme in new and interesting ways. Photos and video should be high quality. The first place winner will be announced and published in Amor Mundi.
How to Submit:
Benefits to You:
- Gain exposure and recognition for your work.
- Contribute to the college community and be celebrated for your creativity.
- Enhance your portfolio with published work.
Questions? Contact us at [email protected]
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Commentary: In dark times, joy is an act of defiance, the Times Union
This event occurs on:
Thu. October 16 – Fri. October 17
OCTOBER 16-17, 2025
The Hannah Arendt Center's 17th annual fall conference on 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, the conference will be a timely exploration of joy as a powerful force, and a vital conversation around fostering resilience.
Joy is at once more visceral and more risky than happiness. What brings you joy? Joy can emerge in a lover's gaze, in the transcendence of Beethoven's late sonatas, in the embrace of a once-wayward child. Joy is not mere happiness; nor is it satisfied contentment. Joy is the lasting delight we feel when touched deeply by what matters most.
What distinguishes joy is that in its effervescent grip, we are tied not simply to the moment but to a higher vision or meaning. Spinoza understood joy as the power to move closer to an end that is ultimately unreachable. In joy, we come closer to our dream of being one with the cosmos. We will fail, but joy is the feeling of closeness to the whole. There is no joy without belief in something meaningful beyond ourselves, be that the faith in a religion, a belief in progress, our being touched by love, or when we are inspired by the muses. Joy elevates us, rockets us out of the mundane.
It was Bertolt Brecht who asked whether it was wrong to feel joy in dark times. In his poem “To Posterity,” Brecht worries that “A conversation about trees is almost a crime/ For in doing so we maintain our silence about so much wrongdoing!” As democracies falter, the planet burns, and AI reshapes our world, Brecht's question lingers: “He who laughs/ Has not yet received/ The terrible news." Is joy in dark times a betrayal, or a necessary act of defiance?
On one level, the question of joy in dark times asks: Can we truly love a world filled with evil, pain, and injustice? Hannah Arendt, whose thinking is at the heart of the center I run, knew well the horrors of totalitarianism and genocide. And yet, Arendt insisted that we must still find ways to love the world. After being arrested, exiled, imprisoned in a concentration camp, and made stateless for 18 years, Hannah Arendt asked in her thinking diary: “Why is it so hard to love the world?” And in a letter written to Karl Jaspers in 1955, while she is writing the book that will become the Human Condition, Arendt writes: “I’ve begun so late, really only in recent years, to truly love the world that I shall be able to do that now. Out of gratitude, I want to call my book on political theory ‘Amor Mundi.’”
In another sense, the question of joy in dark times asks how, at a time of atomization and mass loneliness, can we find the light in the world that inspires us to love the world as it is. Arendt found in the joyous proclamation of the Christian Bible that “A child has been born unto us,” the affirmation that even in the darkest of times, the roots of a new light can emerge. In this sense, joy is rooted in the deepest vision of faith, the idea that the human world is ultimately good.
To love the world without recourse to consoling ideologies or fanciful stories is to find joy amidst the sorrow. Joy isn’t about denial; it’s a conscious decision to embrace life as it is, to see the full picture without succumbing to despair, to see the present horror of a world torn apart and celebrate with the knowledge that the mended world will be even more glorious. At a moment when there is so much pessimism and flight from reality into fantasy, it is time to ask: How can we experience joy in these dark times?
Our collective inquiry into Joy: Loving the World in Dark Times, will ask:
• What is Joy?
• Is Joy possible without a belief in God or some higher power?
• Are the humanities and the arts a meaningful pathway to joy?
• Is the cultivation of joyfulness in dark times an abdication of responsibility?
• Does joy offer an antidote to the loneliness and purposelessness of modern life?
Above all, we ask, where does joy touch us today and how can we nurture it?
The full conference will be available via Live Webcast.
The conference will conclude with a Staged Reading of the acclaimed play about Hannah Arendt, “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library.” Learn more and RSVP here.
OCTOBER 16-17, 2025
The Hannah Arendt Center's 17th annual fall conference on 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, the conference will be a timely exploration of joy as a powerful force, and a vital conversation around fostering resilience.
Joy is at once more visceral and more risky than happiness. What brings you joy? Joy can emerge in a lover's gaze, in the transcendence of Beethoven's late sonatas, in the embrace of a once-wayward child. Joy is not mere happiness; nor is it satisfied contentment. Joy is the lasting delight we feel when touched deeply by what matters most.
What distinguishes joy is that in its effervescent grip, we are tied not simply to the moment but to a higher vision or meaning. Spinoza understood joy as the power to move closer to an end that is ultimately unreachable. In joy, we come closer to our dream of being one with the cosmos. We will fail, but joy is the feeling of closeness to the whole. There is no joy without belief in something meaningful beyond ourselves, be that the faith in a religion, a belief in progress, our being touched by love, or when we are inspired by the muses. Joy elevates us, rockets us out of the mundane.
It was Bertolt Brecht who asked whether it was wrong to feel joy in dark times. In his poem “To Posterity,” Brecht worries that “A conversation about trees is almost a crime/ For in doing so we maintain our silence about so much wrongdoing!” As democracies falter, the planet burns, and AI reshapes our world, Brecht's question lingers: “He who laughs/ Has not yet received/ The terrible news." Is joy in dark times a betrayal, or a necessary act of defiance?
On one level, the question of joy in dark times asks: Can we truly love a world filled with evil, pain, and injustice? Hannah Arendt, whose thinking is at the heart of the center I run, knew well the horrors of totalitarianism and genocide. And yet, Arendt insisted that we must still find ways to love the world. After being arrested, exiled, imprisoned in a concentration camp, and made stateless for 18 years, Hannah Arendt asked in her thinking diary: “Why is it so hard to love the world?” And in a letter written to Karl Jaspers in 1955, while she is writing the book that will become the Human Condition, Arendt writes: “I’ve begun so late, really only in recent years, to truly love the world that I shall be able to do that now. Out of gratitude, I want to call my book on political theory ‘Amor Mundi.’”
In another sense, the question of joy in dark times asks how, at a time of atomization and mass loneliness, can we find the light in the world that inspires us to love the world as it is. Arendt found in the joyous proclamation of the Christian Bible that “A child has been born unto us,” the affirmation that even in the darkest of times, the roots of a new light can emerge. In this sense, joy is rooted in the deepest vision of faith, the idea that the human world is ultimately good.
To love the world without recourse to consoling ideologies or fanciful stories is to find joy amidst the sorrow. Joy isn’t about denial; it’s a conscious decision to embrace life as it is, to see the full picture without succumbing to despair, to see the present horror of a world torn apart and celebrate with the knowledge that the mended world will be even more glorious. At a moment when there is so much pessimism and flight from reality into fantasy, it is time to ask: How can we experience joy in these dark times?
Our collective inquiry into Joy: Loving the World in Dark Times, will ask:
• What is Joy?
• Is Joy possible without a belief in God or some higher power?
• Are the humanities and the arts a meaningful pathway to joy?
• Is the cultivation of joyfulness in dark times an abdication of responsibility?
• Does joy offer an antidote to the loneliness and purposelessness of modern life?
Above all, we ask, where does joy touch us today and how can we nurture it?
The full conference will be available via Live Webcast.
The conference will conclude with a Staged Reading of the acclaimed play about Hannah Arendt, “Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library.” Learn more and RSVP here.