This fall, Bard Graduate Center welcomed a new cohort of twenty-five students to its master’s and PhD programs. Orientation began on Wednesday, August 20, with a meet and greet for students, faculty, and staff. According to research services librarian Polly Cancro, the students then explored the library and its collections through a self-guided discovery tour and later had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a few items from BGC’s special collections. In this workshop, they analyzed rare books and periodicals as objects, with a focus on their materiality, history, use, and cultural significance. Selections included the oldest book in BGC’s collection (Traité des festins, 1682), a Montgomery Ward catalog (1966), and a guide to the 1900 Paris Exposition, complete with a fold-out map of Paris.

During orientation, the new students immersed themselves in the Digital Literacy and Writing as Thinking workshops; refresher classes and exams in French, German, and Spanish; introductions to BGC’s Study Collection and Department of Public Humanities + Resources; informal events with faculty members and returning students; and the cultural life of New York City, including visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tenement Museum, Frick Collection, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Arts and Design, and even a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game.

We welcome these new members of the BGC community and look forward to getting to know them better.

Entering MA Class

Khushi Choudhary, Bates College, BA, Art History & Religion (2023); Harvard Divinity School, MTS, Material Religion (2025)
Lilia Destin, USC, BA, Art History (2023)
Betsey Donham, Smith College, BA, American History (2021)
Lila Durrett, Portland State University, BA, Art History (2025)
Clio Herbert, California College of the Arts, BFA, Jewelry & Metal Arts (2020)
Olivia Kormos, NYU, BA, Curatorial Politics (2022)
Audrey Libatique, Oberlin College, BA, Art History (2022)
Natalie Livingston, Bard College, BA, Art History & Visual Culture (2026)
Anabelle Meyers, Wellesley College, BA, Art History (2025)
Ailin Montgomery, Augustana College, BA, History and Art (2024)
Slade Nakoff, East Tennessee State University, BA, History (2022); East Tennessee State University, MA, History (2024)
Maria-Nefeli Panetsos, University of Athens, BA, Philosophy & Psychology (2019); Ca’Foscari University of Venice, MA, Economics and Arts Administration (2023)
Jude Pettit, University of Minnesota, BA, Art History (2024)
Esme Read, Bryn Mawr College , BA, Art History (2022)
Zhuohan Shen, Mount Holyoke College, BA, Art History & French (2025)
Gi Sing Teo, National University of Singapore, BA, Law (2025)
Qiongyue Wang, Grinnell College, BA, Art History & English (2025)
Shelby Westbrook, UCLA, BA, History (2023)
Sailin Xu, University of Groningen, BA, Art History (2025)
Katelyn Yang, NYU, BA, Art History (2024)
Kayla Zur, NYU, BA, Art History & Urban Design (2024)

Entering PhD Class

Ayaka Kitagawa, Keio University, BA, Economics (2020); Institut Francais de la mode, MA, Fashion and Luxury Management (2024), Parsons Paris, MA, Fashion Studies (2022)
Jaya Misra, National Institute of Fashion Technology (India), BDes, Fashion Design (2021); Fashion Institute of Technology, MA, Fashion & Textile Studies (2023)
Elizabeth Provost, University of Toronto, BS/BA, Chemistry & Art History (2023), Queen’s University, MA, Art Conservation (2025)
Charlotte Whiting, University of Edinburgh, BA, French & English Literature (2016); Courtauld Institute of Art, MA, Art History (2022); University of Edinburgh, MA, Medieval Literatures & Cultures (2020)