foundations of moral and spiritual courage.
"Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free." — Paul Tillich
What We Do
The program hosts guest lectures, sponsors new research, and fosters curricular innovations that ask: Why it is that some people have the spiritual courage to act conscientiously, where others abandon themselves to mass movements?
The Project includes:
- Fellowships for young scholars working in philosophy, theology, and psychology
- Lectures by internationally renowned experts in diverse fields
- A new series of courses at Bard College titled The Practice of Courage
2020 Courage to Be Series
Survival of the Oppressed. Courage to Be Formal Dinner: Nicole Dennis-Benn
How people might make what seems to be a morally unethical decision as a rational response to an irrational society.
Nicole Dennis-Benn is the author of the acclaimed novel, Patsy, (Norton/Liveright, June 2019), which Time Magazine called “stunning,” and the debut novel, Here Comes the Sun (Norton/Liveright, July 2016). She is s a Lambda Literary Award winner and a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Grant. Time Out Magazine has described Dennis-Benn as an immigrant putting her stamp on New York City and Vice named her among immigrant authors "who are making American Literature great again." Laurie Jo Reynolds
Laurie Jo Reynolds is an assistant professor of art at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Laurie Jo is well-known for her art activism and work combating the dehumanizing aspects of the criminal justice system in the United States. She led the successful campaign to close the Tamms Correctional Center and is currently focused on eliminating criminal registries in Illinois. Courageously Me: Being Gullah/Geechee in Western Society
A histo-musical presentation and interactive dialogue about how Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation has taken her unique language and culture to the global arena. The western society does not often respect oral traditions nor the traditions of indigenous people of African descent. However, in spite of this, Queen Quet was elected to be the voice of her people and she has taken their story from the Sea Islands to the United Nations and around the world. Cum fa yeddi disya.
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition
"Whoever entered the political realm had first to be ready to risk his life, and too great a love for life obstructed freedom, was a sure sign of slavishness. Courage therefore became the political virtue par excellence, and only those men who possessed it could be admitted to a fellowship that was political in content and purpose and thereby transcended the mere togetherness imposed on all—slaves, barbarians, and Greeks alike—through the urgencies of life."