Bard College is receiving two gifts totaling $50 million to expand its focus on Native American and Indigenous studies.
The Annandale-on-Hudson school is receiving $25 million from the Gochman Family Foundation to be used in its Center for Indigenous Studies, along with faculty appointments and student scholarships plus the appointment of an Indigenous Curatorial Fellow at Center for Curatorial Studies. With this gift, the college”™s American Studies Program will be renamed American and Indigenous Studies. An additional $25 million matching commitment will come from George Soros and the Open Society Foundations as part of Bard College”™s endowment drive.
The college will establish a chair for a distinguished/senior scholar of Native American and Indigenous Studies, to be named after a prominent Indigenous woman to recognize the academic contributions of Native women and educators, along with recruitment for additional faculty positions in interdisciplinary fields and Indigenous studies.
“I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Gochman Family Foundation for this generous endowment gift to support Native American and Indigenous studies in undergraduate and graduate academic programs,” said Bard College President Leon Botstein. “This is a fantastic contribution to the study of America, vital to a liberal arts education offering a broader understanding of the country.”
Photo: The Hopi-Tewa potter Nampeyo, circa 1900, photographed by A.C. Vroman.
