The Fields of the Future Institute (FFI) aims to expand the sources, questions, practices, perspectives, practitioners, and audiences of interdisciplinary humanities scholarship. It operates through a series of programming initiatives within Bard Graduate Center (BGC) that explore how our intellectual landscape should change by posing new questions and suggesting new ways to answer old questions, and by bringing new voices into the scholarly conversation. FFI explicitly aims to bring more Black, Indigenous, and people of color to the fields of decorative arts, design history, and material culture and elevate their voices.

Since its founding in 1993, BGC has been focused on graduate training. With the launch of the Fields of the Future Institute we are adding as a second focus those not yet in graduate training. These programs offer young people early access to graduate level resources and provide opportunities to gain skills in the public humanities. In addition to enabling and inspiring the next generation of thinkers, FFI seeks to draw in scholars who are asking new questions and changing the way we think about the material world. Additional programs include a podcast series, fellowship opportunities, and a student and alumni fund to support projects that are in line with the values of the FFI.

Information on additional programs will be posted in the coming weeks.