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Four Bard College graduates have won 2026–27 Fulbright Awards for individually designed research projects, English teaching assistantships, and the pursuit of a master’s degree. The Fulbright program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think. During their grants, Fulbrighters meet, work, live with, and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences. Bard College is a Fulbright top producing institution.

Danika Dortch ’26, a Literature major at the College and a French Horn Performance major at the Bard Conservatory, will conduct an independent project on the composer Leoš Janácek and his influence on the writer Milan Kundera.  She will reside in Brno, Czech Republic, and conduct archival research on Janácek, Kundera, and Moravian folk music in order to examine their influence on Czech national identity.

Peter Fields ’26, a Classical Studies major who has served as a Latin and Greek tutor at Bard, has been awarded an English Teaching Assistantship to Romania. While at Bard, he participated in an archaeological dig of an ancient Roman villa in Transylvania, an experience which sparked his interest in Romania and its culture, both ancient and modern.

Annaliese Simons ’26, a Written Arts major, was awarded a Fulbright study-research grant to pursue a master's degree in public policy, with a focus on disability studies, at the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany. Annaliese has been captain of the Bard Debate Team, as well as copresident of the Bard Disabled Students Association. They aspire to a career in disability advocacy.

Shosha Wheeler ’26, a Mathematical Sciences major, has been awarded the Fulbright Austria Community-Combined Award.  For her project, Shosha plans to lead math-based community project for immigrant youth in Vienna, while also taking courses in mathematics at Universität Wien. At Bard, Shosha has served as a math tutor and volunteer for MAGPIES, the math outreach program for girls.

Bridget White ’25, an Anthropology and German Studies double major, has been awarded an English Teaching Assistantship to Germany. While at Bard, Bridget was codirector of EMS and sang in the Georgian Choir.  

Lindsey Jordan ’24, a written arts and German Studies major, has received an English Teaching Assistantship to Germany.  At Bard, Jordan worked on the Conjunctions literary magazine and studied abroad in Berlin. Jordan is currently teaching English in Spain.  

Emma Benser, assistant professor of computer science at Bard College, published an article in the Communications of the ACM (CACM), the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery. In the article and in a video interview with CACM, Benser stresses the importance of creating educational opportunities for those who are incarcerated. She cites how the demand for computer science education is high, and how engaging directly with incarcerated students can help in addressing systemic blind spots in the criminal justice system, while training a new population of technologists with relevant experience to prevent harm. “Expanding [computer science] education in prison is a vote toward a future where people with lived experience of incarceration are represented among computing faculty and industry, informing our research and practice of computing in and outside of prison,” writes Benser. 

The Computer Science Program at Bard focuses on the fundamental ideas of computer science and introduces students to multiple programming languages and paradigms, covering theoretical, applied, and systems-oriented topics. Most courses include hands-on projects so that students can learn by building, and by participating in research projects in laboratories devoted to cognition, computational biology, robotics, and symbolic computation.