The Arendt Forum 2026: Solidarity: What Are We Fighting For?

Yazmany Arboleda

Yazmany Arboleda is a Colombian-American artist, architect, and civic designer whose work treats art as a collective action—something people do together to shape belonging, dignity, and public life. He is New York City’s inaugural People’s Artist at the Civic Engagement Commission and Founder and Artistic Director of The People’s Creative Institute, a civic art studio that transforms everyday public spaces into sites of storytelling, healing, and democratic participation. He also serves as Senior Artistic Advisor for the Community Arts Network and teaches futures-oriented design at Cornell University.

Roger Berkowitz

Roger Berkowitz is Professor of Political Studies and Human Rights at Bard College and founder and academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities. He hosts the podcast Reading Hannah Arendt and writes the weekly Amor Mundi newsletter. He is the author of The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition (2005) and the forthcoming A World We Share: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World (Yale University Press, 2026). He is the recipient of the 2019 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought awarded by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Leon Botstein

Leon Botstein is president and Leon Levy Professor in the Arts of Bard College. Founder of Bard High School Early College, Dr. Botstein put into practice a vision of high school as a public space where young adults, with the guidance of a college level faculty, explore their intellectual potential.

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.

Deirdre D'Albertis

Deirdre D'Albertis is the Vice President and Dean of Bard College. As chief academic officer, Dean Deirdre d'Albertis works with the president and the faculty to advance the central academic purpose of Bard College.

Patrick Deneen

Patrick J. Deneen is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2012. He is the author or editor of eight books and dozens of articles on a wide range of subjects. His bestselling 2018 book Why Liberalism Failed has been translated into over 20 languages, and was recommended by former President Barack Obama. He taught previously at Princeton University and Georgetown University, and served as Special Assistant and Speechwriter for the Director of the United States Information Agency from 2005-2007. His latest book, slated for publication in July 2026, is entitled Our American Odyssey: What an Ancient Story Reveals About Our Divided Souls (Creed and Culture Books).

Chris Gibson

Chris Gibson is a writer and analyst. He is the author of three books, The Spirit of Philadelphia published by Routledge in May 2025, Rally Point: Five Tasks to Unite the Country and Revitalize the American Dream published by Twelve Books in 2017, and Securing the State: Reforming the National Security Decision Making Process at the Civil-Military Nexus published by Routledge in paperback in 2019 (the hardcover edition was initially published by Ashgate in 2008). He has also published numerous scholarly journal articles, opinion pieces, a book chapter and a book review. As an analyst, he has appeared on Fox, Newsmax, CSPAN and NPR, among other outlets.  VIEW MORE >>

Carol Gilligan

Carol Gilligan's landmark classic, In a Different Voice, revolutionized the study of girls, women, and human psychology. She taught for over 30 years at Harvard where she held the university's first chair in Gender Studies, at the University of Cambridge as the visiting Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions, and is now a University Professor at NYU where she initiated the Radical Listening Project. In 1996 Time magazine named her one of the 25 most influential Americans and in 2025 she received the Kyoto Prize in arts and philosophy. Her most recent book, In a Human Voice, was named a best book of 2023 by the Times Literary Supplement, and her novel, Solstice, described by Daphne Merkin as "a literary tour de force... an irresistible read,"  will be published in August. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her husband and the very old dog of their youngest son.

Eva Illouz

Eva Illouz is Directrice d’Etudes at the EHESS. Her research interests include sociology of culture, sociology of emotions, sociology of capitalism, and the effect of consumerism and mass media on emotional patterns. Illouz is the author of 15 books translated in 25 languages. These books deal with diverse topics as romantic love, culture, capitalism and the crystallization of the psychological culture during the 20th century, the industry of happiness, and the impact of modernity on emotions. She is the recipient of numerous international awards for her work.

Hélène Landemore

Hélène Landemore is a professor of political science at Yale University with a specialization in political theory. Her research and teaching interests include, among other things, democratic theory, political epistemology, and the ethics and politics of artificial intelligence. She is also a fellow at the Ethics in AI Institute at the University of Oxford, and an advisor to the Democratic Inputs to AIprogram at OpenAI. She served on the Governance Committee of the most recent French Citizens’ Convention and is currently undertaking work supported by Schmidt Futures through the AI2050 program.

Amber Lapp

Amber Lapp is a research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, a contributing editor at Comment magazine, an advisor at American Compass, and co-investigator of a qualitative research inquiry into how working-class young adults form relationships and families. She and her husband David live in southwestern Ohio with their six children. She is also a member of Braver Angels, the nation’s largest grassroots organization working to bridge the partisan divide, and is passionate about finding ways for ordinary Americans to participate in public life. Her writing has appeared in National Review, First Things, USA Today, The Federalist, The American Conservative, Comment Magazine, and The Atlantic. She has a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) from The King’s College in New York City.

David Lapp

David Lapp is a co-founder of Braver Angels, the nation's largest grassroots organization working to bridge the partisan divide. Before that, David spent several years with his wife, Amber Lapp, as a research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, interviewing working-class Ohioans about their life experiences and families. David lives with his wife Amber and six children in South Lebanon, Ohio.

Jana Mader

Jana Mader is the Director of Academic Programs at the Hannah Arendt Center and a Visiting Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies and the Humanities at Bard College. She has published four books, including a novel and a comparative analysis of 19th-century literature from the Hudson Valley and the Rhine. Her latest book, Walk Her Way New York City. A Walking Guide to Women's History, was released in spring 2025. More about her work can be found at janamarlene.com.

Wyatt Mason

Wyatt Mason is a journalist, essayist, critic and translator. His work has been published in Harper’s, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, GQ, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine, where he is a contributing writer. His journalism has won the National Book Critics Circle Nona Balakian Prize and a National Magazine Award. He has translated the work of contemporary French authors Eric Chevillard and Pierre Michon, as well as essays by Michel de Montaigne and poems by Marcel Proust. His translations of the complete works of Arthur Rimbaud are published by the Modern Library, in three volumes. He has taught for the Bard Prison Initiative and Bard’s Center for Ethics and Writing, is a Senior Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center, and is a writer in residence at the college, where he has taught since 2010.

Uday Mehta

Uday Singh Mehta is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center and the 2022 Yehuda Elkana Fellow (awarded by Central European University and the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College). Professor Mehta has taught at several universities, including Princeton, Cornell, MIT, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Hull and Amherst College. He is the author of The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in the Political Thought of John Locke(Cornell University Press, 1992) and Liberalism and Empire, (University of Chicago Press, 2000). Liberalism and Empire was awarded the J. David Greenstone prize for the best book in Political Theory by the American Political Science Association in 2002. In 2003, Mehta was one of ten recipients of the prestigious “Carnegie Scholars” prize given to “scholars of exceptional creativity.” His forthcoming book is titled A Different Vision: Gandhi’s Critique of Political Rationality.

Susan Oberman

Susan Oberman has been a member of the Hannah Arendt Center and the Virtual Reading Group since 2016. In 2021 she initiated the Hannah Arendt Center Dialogue Project which offers HAC members the opportunity to engage in dialogue with other Arendt readers. In 2023 she became an Associate Fellow of HAC. She is a proponent of dialogue as a way to provide space for everyone to be seen and heard, and as a model for addressing conflict. Susan has been practicing mediation since 1987 and established Common Ground Negotiation Services in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1999. She developed the Sustainable Knowledge Model of Norm-Educating Mediation which she uses in mediation, group facilitation, and negotiation coaching.  She sees conflict as an opportunity--to clarify differences in issues and values, rather than something to be avoided. Susan lives in Hurley, NY, with her oldest son and his family and is the proud grandmother of 6. She is an avid international folk dancer. For more information see www.commongroundnegotiation.com

Ai-jen Poo

Ai-jen Poo is the President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Executive Director of Caring Across Generations. A veteran organizer and advocate, she has spent more than 25 years building a movement to change the way our country values and supports caregiving and care work. Poo is a nationally-recognized expert on the care economy and the author of the celebrated book The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. Follow her at @aijenp on Instagram and @aijenpoo on X.

Melvin Rogers

Melvin Rogers is the Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor and an award-winning scholar known for his contributions to the study of race, culture, and democracy in American political thought. His books include The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought, African American Political Thought: A Collected History, and The Undiscovered Dewey: Religion, Morality, and the Ethos of Democracy. His work examines the philosophical and cultural resources of the American tradition to address racial injustice, the ethical demands of democratic life, and the formation of civic character. In doing so, he participates in a tradition of philosophical reflection and cultural criticism associated with Frederick Douglass, John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, and James Baldwin.

Niobe Way

Dr. Niobe Way is Professor of Developmental Psychology and the founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity at New York University (PACH). She is also past President of the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) and co-director of the Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education at NYU. She is a member of the board at the Hannah Arendt Center.

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 >>

Thomas Chatterton Williams

Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author of Losing My Cool, Self-Portrait in Black and White, and Summer of Our Discontent. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Prior to that he was a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and a columnist at Harper’s. He is a 2022 Guggenheim fellow and a visiting fellow at AEI. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, Le Monde and many other places, and has been collected in The Best American Essays and The Best American Travel Writing. He has received support from Yaddo, MacDowell and The American Academy in Berlin, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees. He is a visiting professor of the humanities and senior fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College.

REGISTER

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.

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).

Olin Hall

Bard College's main campus is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 90 miles north of New York City, 50 miles south of Albany, NY, and 220 miles southwest of Boston. The Conference takes place in Olin Auditorium in the Olin Humanities Building (C3 on the Bard Map). 

Accomodations

A comprehensive list of nearby hotels, inns, and B & B’s may be found through Dutchess County Tourism and through Ulster County Tourism. Please review these lists. We recommend booking your accommodations and restaurant dining as soon as possible. We do not offer housing options on campus for guests. There are several Air BnB options in the nearby towns; Red Hook and Tivoli. Please be prepared to use Uber, Lyft, and Taxis to get around. Note: The roads surrounding Bard College are not walkable and due to the rural area, local transport is limited. Please keep this in mind when planning your stay. Still need help? Check out visiting Bard College for more helpful hints, click here.

Local hotel offering a Bard Rate during the conference: 

Dining

If you ordered lunch with your registration, your lunch ticket(s) will be available for pick up upon your arrival at the Registration Table in the Olin Atrium. 
 
If you did not pre-order a lunch, there are options at the Bard College dining hall within walking distance of Olin Hall, as well as nearby restaurants in Red Hook, Tivoli, Rhinebeck, and Germantown. A quick Google search will help you find nearby restaurant websites for hours, locations, and reservations.

Parking is Free

There are two main parking lots; One across from Olin and one south of Olin Hall -- Please park in either lot. Additionally, you may also park in the gravel lot across from the Stevenson Gymnasium off of Annandale Road. Please click HERE to see the venue map. The black objects represent Parking Lots.