Hannah Arendt Center presents:
The Arendt Forum 2026: Solidarity: What Are We Fighting For?
October 15-17, 2026
Thursday, October 15, 2026 – Saturday, October 17, 2026
Olin Hall
Schedule
This schedule is a work in progress and subject to change. Please check back often for updates!
Thursday, October 15th
9:00 amDoors open
9:30 am
Music
Morning Sessions
10:00 am
Introduction
Deirdre d’Albertis
10:10 am
Solidarity: What Are We Fighting For?
Roger Berkowitz
10:30 am
In A Human Voice
Carol Gilligan
Discussants: Niobe Way and Roger Berkowitz
11:30 am
Is Liberalism Compatible with Solidarity?
Patrick Deneen
Discussants: Chris Gibson and Zephyr Teachout
12:30-12:45 pm
Introduction to the participatory artwork
Yazmany Arboleda
1:00–2:30 pm
Lunch
The Arendt Corner
in honor of Hannah Arendt Month at the Library
First Floor, Stevenson Library
A small exhibition and reading space exploring the books, ideas, and communities that shape our ongoing engagement with Hannah Arendt’s work, including this year’s forum theme, presented by the Stevenson Library Special Collections at Bard College and the Hannah Arendt Center.
Walk-ins welcome
Special Lunch Sessions
1:15-2:15 pm Reserve in advance:
Picnic in the woods: A walk to Hannah Arendt's gravesite with Jana Tirey
Includes a stop at Stevenson Library for The Arendt Corner exhibition
Limited to 25 people
Box lunches provided for attendees
How can the left speak the language of solidarity?
Daniel Wortel-London, Ian Corbin, and Mie Inouye
Limited to 15 people
On Feminist Solidarity
Carol Gilligan and Niobe Way
Limited to 15 people
Illiberal Democracy
Patrick Deneen and Zephyr Teachout
Limited to 15 people
Solidarity: A Dialogue Group Discussion
Susan Oberman
Virtual Lunch Session
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 816 6771 4016
Passcode: 389493
No reservation necessary
Afternoon Sessions
2:30 pm
Solidarity: The Work of Recognition
Rowan Williams
Discussant: Amber Lapp and Allison Stanger
3:30 pm
Break
4:00 pm
What Still Binds Us? Solidarity After the Unwinding
George Packer in conversation with Wyatt Mason
5:00 pm
Building Solidarity Today: The Immigration Debate
David Lapp in conversation with Jim Robb and Diego Sánchez
6:00-7:00 pm
Wine & Cheese Reception
Friday, October 16th
8:30amDoors open
9:00 am
Music
Morning Sessions
9:30 am
Introduction
Uday Mehta
10:00 am
Is A Shared American Project Still Possible?
A Roundtable and interactive discussion
Amber and David Lapp in conversation with Joseph Keegin, Scott Pell, Corrie Zech, Wilk Wilkinson, Arendt Center Student Fellow Mahlia Slaiby, and Alumni/ae and Bard College L&T faculty member Jeszack Gammon
11:00 am
Fraternity Without Illusions: What Binds Us in a Broken World?
Eva Illouz in conversation with Thomas Chatterton Williams
Noon
Labor and Solidarity!
Damon Silvers and Gerry Hudson in conversation
Chair: Mie Inouye
1:00 pm - 2:30pm
Lunch
The Arendt Corner
in honor of Hannah Arendt Month at the Library
First Floor, Stevenson Library
A small exhibition and reading space exploring the books, ideas, and communities that shape our ongoing engagement with Hannah Arendt’s work, including this year’s forum theme, presented by the Stevenson Library Special Collections at Bard College and the Hannah Arendt Center.
Walk-ins welcome
Special Lunch Sessions
1:15-2:25 pm Reserve in advance:
Roger Berkowitz discusses his newly released book
Limited to 15 people
CANCELED DUE TO RAIN
Hannah Arendt Walk
Picnic in the woods: A walk to Hannah Arendt's gravesite with Jana Tirey
Includes a stop at Stevenson Library for The Arendt Corner exhibition
Limited to 25 people
Box lunches provided for attendees
Labor Solidarity
Damon Silvers and Gerry Hudson
Limited to 15 people
Solidarity: A Dialogue Group Discussion
Susan Oberman
Virtual Lunch Session
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 861 4035 1811
Passcode: 427314
No reservation necessary
Afternoon Sessions
2:30 pm
What We Carry: An Altar for Solidarity
Yazmany Arboleda
3:15 pm
Civic Love: How Democracy Can Bring Us Together
Hélène Landemore in conversation with Phil Lindsay
Chair: Ian Marcus Corbin
4:15 pm
Concluding Roundtable
Moderator: Roger Berkowitz
Discussants: Donovan Hohn, Ann Lauterbach, Uday Mehta, Allison Stanger, Niobe Way, Thomas Chatterton Williams
5:00-6:00 pm
Wine & Cheese Reception
Saturday, October 17th
PLEASE NOTE THE LOCATION HAS CHANGED TO THE COMMUNITY TENT IN RUGBY FIELD8:30 am
Doors open
9:00-11:00 am
Envisioning Solidarity Together: an intimate debrief and networking opportunity
Zephyr Teachout, Hélène Landemore, David Lapp of Braver Angels, Yazmany Arboleda, and Philip Lindsay, Director of the Arendt Center’s Democracy Innovation Hub
A special new feature of the Arendt Forum, this Saturday morning debrief will give participants time and space to connect with others and interact on a more personal level with several of the speakers from the conference. Join us to reflect upon the forum and talk about what comes next, individually and collectively.
The Democracy Innovation Hub is a new initiative of the Arendt Center whose aim is to catalyze citizens’ assemblies and other innovative approaches to democratic reform.
Solidarity Music Program
Thursday, October 15th, 2026
9:30–10:00 AM (Olin Hall)
Moments Musicaux, D. 780 | Franz Schubert
Francis Huang, piano
Arrangement of Ode to Joy | Ludwig van Beethoven
Francis Huang, piano
2:00–2:30 PM (Olin Hall)
Eclipse, Free Treasure, and The Humble Man
Sebastian Ford, saxophone
Odie Femi-oke, piano
Romance for Violin No.2 in F major, Op.50 | Ludwig van Beethoven
Qijia Liu, violin
Yumi Jang, piano
6:00–7:00 PM (Olin Balcony)
Cocktail Music
Jose Arciniegas, guitar
Friday, October 16th, 2026
9:00–9:30 AM (Olin Hall)
Bach, Suite in G Major, BWV 1007: Prelude
Yuchen Zhao (violin)
Bach, Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004: Allemande
Yuchen Zhao (violin)
Bach, Erbarme dich, mein Gott
Xinri Zhang, piano
Jingyi Luan, voice
Yuchen Zhao, violin
Dzmao Ra Sjobda Dzmobasa (traditional folk song)
"O brother, what is better than brotherhood? What is better than being together? We were not able to find that brotherhood. Look at our senselessness."
The Bard College Georgian Choir, directed by Carl Linich
Mravalzhamieri (traditional folk song)
"Long life! May God grant you life! Many years!"
The Bard College Georgian Choir, directed by Carl Linich
5:00–6:00 PM (Olin Balcony)
Cocktail Music
Francis Huang, piano
Speakers
Our Confirmed SpeakersYazmany Arboleda
Roger Berkowitz
Deirdre D'Albertis
Patrick Deneen
Chris Gibson
Prior to his academic career, Gibson served as a Member of Congress serving upstate NY from 2011-2017, with committee assignments on Armed Services, Agriculture and Small Business. His distinguished congressional service was recognized by the Lugar Center in 2014 when he finished #1 in the country in the House of Representatives in their inaugural report on bipartisanship. After three terms in the US House, Gibson self-imposed term limits and moved to academia.
Chris Gibson has dedicated a significant portion of his life to military service. He served in the United States Army, achieving the rank of Colonel. His military career included roles in various capacities, including leadership positions and strategic planning. Gibson's experience in the military has deeply influenced his approach to national security and public policy.
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.
Donovan Hohn
Gerry Hudson
Eva Illouz
Mie Inouye
Hélène Landemore
In her new book, Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule (Penguin Random House, 2026), Landemore asks and answers a radical question: What if we didn’t need politicians at all? What if everyday people—under the right conditions—could govern much better?
Amber Lapp
David Lapp
Philip Lindsay
Ian Marcus Corbin
Wyatt Mason
Uday Mehta
Susan Oberman
Ann Lauterbach
George Packer
Jim Robb
Jim helped found NumbersUSA 30 years ago and pioneered its web-based grassroots advocacy tools, which supporters have used to send more than 50 million messages to Congress. His work has focused on immigration policy, public opinion, and the changing political attitudes of Hispanic Americans.
In 2022, Jim authored Political Migrants: Hispanic Voters on the Move, one of the first books to document and analyze the movement of Hispanic voters toward the Republican Party.
A frequent speaker on immigration policy, this Spring/Summer Jim has appeared at Stanford University’s Stanford Political Union and the University of California, Irvine. He serves on the leadership team of the Braver Angels Citizens Commission on Immigration, where he regularly appears alongside Diego Sánchez to model constructive dialogue across differing perspectives. Together they co-chaired June’s Braver Angels National Convention in Philadelphia, and spoke at the Understory Conference at Washington National Cathedral.
Diego Sánchez
Before joining the Presidents’ Alliance, Diego directed the federal immigration portfolio at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Across his career, he has led policy strategy, coalition engagement, and advocacy at the local, state, and national levels. His areas of expertise include higher education and immigration policy, tuition equity and college access for immigrant students and Dreamers, and engagement with policymakers, campus leaders, and cross-sector partners.
Diego serves on the Leadership Team of Braver Angels’ Citizens Commission on Immigration, an initiative dedicated to identifying durable areas of common ground on immigration policy and advancing civil discourse across political differences. He holds a J.D. and bachelor’s degrees in psychology and philosophy from St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. His commitment to expanding educational opportunity for immigrant students is deeply personal, shaped by his own experience as an undocumented college student and former DACA recipient.
Damon Silvers
a Senior Advisor to the AFL-CIO, the U.S. trade union confederation, and to the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO's largest affiliated union. He is also Senior Counsel to the Jubilee Network, a coalition of religious labor and civil society organizations working to reform the international financial system. Mr. Silvers was formerly the Policy Director and Special Counsel of the AFL-CIO, where he oversaw the public policy work of the US trade union movement and helped found the labor movement's Capital Stewardship Program. Professor Silvers has served in a number of positions related to economic and financial market policy in the U.S., including leading the Biden-Harris Transition Team's work on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, serving as Deputy Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the U.S. bank bailout, and as a longtime member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee. Mr Silvers is an attorney with degrees from Harvard College, Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, and studied history at Kings College, Cambridge.
Allison Stanger
Zephyr Teachout
Jana Tirey
Niobe Way
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 >>
Rowan Williams
Thomas Chatterton Williams
Daniel Wortel-London
Registration
Registration for the 2026 Arendt Forum is now open!
Become a member today and enjoy complimentary admission.Non-Member Registration Fee: $199 per person
With your registration also comes a link to the livestream!
Readings
Get ready for The Arendt Forum on Solidarity: What Are We Fighting For?Check out these writings by our confirmed Arendt Forum speakers:
Berkowitz, Roger. A World We Share: Hannah Arendt and the Power of Friendship in a Broken World. Yale University Press, October 2026.Berkowitz, Roger. Solidarity. What are we fighting for? In: Amor Mundi (The Hannah Arendt Center). May 3, 2026. Find it here.
Berkowitz, Roger. Three Faces of Solidarity. In: Amor Mundi (The Hannah Arendt Center). Nov 9, 2025. Find it here.
Berkowitz, Roger. Solidarity and Joy. In: Amor Mundi (The Hannah Arendt Center). Oct 12, 2025. Find it here.
Deneen, Patrick. Our American Odyssey: What an Ancient Story Reveals About Our Divided Souls. Creed & Culture Books, 2026.
Gibson, Chris. The Spirit of Philadelphia. Routledge, 2025.
Gilligan, Carol. In a Human Voice. Polity Press, 2023.
Illouz, Eva. "The Rise of Homo Sentimentalis." Polity Press, 2007.
Landemore, Hélène. Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule. Penguin Random House, 2026.
Lapp, Amber. "A Populism of Solidarity." In: Comment. Find it here.
Packer, George. The Emergency: A Novel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025.
Williams, Rowan. Solidarity. Bloomsbury Continuum, 2025.
Williams, Thomas Chatterton. Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse. Knopf, August 2025.
Additional Readings on the Topic of Solidarity:
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. University of Chicago Press, 1958.Arendt, Hannah. On Revolution. Viking Press, 1963.
Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1951.
Arnsperger, Christian, and Yanis Varoufakis. “Toward a Theory of Solidarity.” Erkenntnis 59 (2003). (PDF)
Blanchot, Maurice. The Unavowable Community. Translated by Pierre Joris. Station Hill Press, 2006 (originally published 1983).
David, Benjamin P. Simone Weil’s Political Philosophy: Field Notes from the Margins. Rowman & Littlefield, 2023.
Fantasia, Rick. Cultures of Solidarity: Consciousness, Action, and Contemporary American Workers. University of California Press, 1988.
Hancock, Ange-Marie. Solidarity Politics for Millennials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
hooks, bell. “Sisterhood: Political Solidarity Between Women.” Feminist Review 23 (Summer 1986).
Kim, David D. Arendt's Solidarity. Anti-Semitism and Racism in the Atlantic World. Stanford University Press, 2024.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke University Press, 2003.
Olúfémi, Táíwò O. Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else). Haymarket Books, 2022.
Prainsack, Barbara: States of Solidarity: How to Build a Society. Oxford University Press, 2026.
Schulman, Sarah. The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity. Thesis (Penguin Random House), 2025.
Spade, Dean. Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis. Verso, 2020.
Taylor, Astra, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix. Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Pantheon Books, 2024.
Podcasts/Additional Materials:
What are we fighting for? (Bonus Episode). Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz. The Podcast of the Hannah Arendt Center. May 29, 2026 / Spotify / Apple Podcast / PodbeanReinventing Solidarity. The Podcast of the New Labor Forum (NLF) at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Find it here.
Solidarity and Strategy: the forgotten lessons of truly effective protest. A Podcast episode by The Guardian. Find it here.
Livestream
The livestream links for the Forum are now available on our YouTube channel. Click “Notify Me” on each day’s livestream link to receive a reminder when we Go Live!The livestream does not require registration. Simply visit our YouTube Channel to view the forum live.
The livestream is being recorded and we will post the videos after the forum.
Location
How to Get to Bard
By Car: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:
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
Accomodations
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.
Dining
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
Contest
2026 Student Writing Contest
Calling All Student Journalists!
We invite all Bard College students—undergraduate and graduate—to participate in our annual Arendt Forum. This year’s topic is Solidarity. What Are We Fighting For? More than 20 speakers—guests from around the globe as well as Bard professors—will join us for a wide-ranging exploration of the bonds, both fragile and durable, that hold a plural world together.
The Challenge
Attend a talk and report back on the speaker’s ideas. Your piece should include a brief interview with a speaker—and it doesn’t have to be the same speaker whose talk you attended. Speakers will be available for conversation at the community lunches on Thursday and Friday at 1:00–2:30 pm.
Location: Rugby Field, Bard College
If you can’t make the community lunches, you can also email one of our Bard professor speakers to arrange a brief interview about the topic of solidarity.
What We’re Looking For
- A thoughtful, well-written engagement with one speaker’s perspective on the topic of Solidarity
- Incisive questions that spark a reader’s curiosity and deepen our understanding of the speaker’s ideas and work
Why Participate?
This is a chance to put your reporting skills to work and share your writing with a wider audience. We’ll select the strongest submissions to feature across HAC social media platforms, which reach thousands of followers.
The first-place winner will receive $500 and publication in Amor Mundi, our weekly newsletter, which reaches the Center’s members around the world.
One to three additional submissions will be selected for publication and will receive $100 each.
How to Submit
Attend the Forum and capture your experience through a speaker spotlight and interview. Submit your work via email to [email protected] by Monday, October 26.
No late submissions. One submission per person.
Media
For press inquiries, please contact:Jennifer Strodl, Director of Communications
Bard College
845-758-7412
[email protected]
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
LEARN MORE:
Solidarity and the Immigration Debate with David Lapp, Jim Robb, and Diego Sanchez, Reading Hannah Arendt podcast
The Spirit of Philadelphia with Chris Gibson, Reading Hannah Arendt podcast
The Emergency with George Packer, Reading Hannah Arendt podcast
The Case for Citizen Rule with Helene Landemore, Reading Hannah Arendt podcast
A public forum for thinking together about the fragile bonds that hold a plural world together.
war, injustice, authoritarianism, loneliness—
we struggle to answer a deeper question:
What are we fighting for?
The 2026 Arendt Forum takes up that question directly.
Solidarity
Hannah Arendt
When Lech Wałęsa and the dockworkers of Gdańsk named their movement Solidarity, they demanded more than higher wages. They claimed the dignity of freedom, the humanity of having a voice, and the public happiness of belonging to a world where who one is and what one does both matter.
For Hannah Arendt, solidarity was never sentimental. Unlike pity, it does not unite people through compassion alone. Solidarity honors human dignity by binding people together in a shared political project. It creates a community of common interest across difference—rich and poor, educated and uneducated, successful and striving.
Solidarity, Arendt insisted, is grounded not in doctrine or emotion but in judgment: the capacity to see the world from the perspectives of others and to act together without erasing difference.
Yet the greatest danger of the modern age, she warned, is the loss of common sense—the confidence that a shared world still exists.
Modern loneliness, Arendt wrote, leaves us “abandoned by religion, authority, and tradition,” unsure how to act together at all. Rebuilding a common world without nostalgia—without retreat into lost certainties—becomes the defining task of our time.
The Arendt Forum explores solidarity by confronting the questions we often avoid:
- What is solidarity today?
- Can solidarity exist without a shared religion or ideology?
- Is faith (civic, spiritual, or religious) needed for solidarity?
- How do we nurture care for others in a world of liberal individualism?
- How do we build solidarity amid deep and meaningful difference?
- Can the humanities, arts, and civic practices renew our sense of common life?
- Can solidarity counter the loneliness and purposelessness of modern politics?
We know what we oppose, but what are we fighting for?
And what are we willing to risk to sustain it?
—-
Celebrating the Hannah Arendt Center’s 20th Anniversary, the Forum gathers thinkers, artists, scholars, and citizens for a three-day public encounter shaped by Arendt’s conviction that politics begins when people think and talk together. The Arendt Forum is a civic space for bold, risky, and provocative reflection on our shared political world.
In the spirit of Arendt’s fearless style of thinking, the Forum invites rigorous exchange and constructive disagreement in public. Honest speech—and the willingness to listen—are the first steps toward building a common world.
Through conversation, debate, music, art, and performance, participants in the 2026 Arendt Forum will explore the possibilities—and risks—of solidarity in our time.
When we claim solidarity today, what are we fighting for?
And what forms of political life are we willing to sustain in its name?
Join us as we think together about the world we are willing to build—and the solidarity required to sustain it.
