As Bard Graduate Center marks its 25th anniversary, the Digital Media Lab has entered a new phase in its efforts to advance students’ digital skills and promote the creation of innovative scholarship using new media tools. With the launch of the Digital Literacy Initiative this fall, BGC has implemented a comprehensive curricular plan that aims to provide students with a robust set of digital experiences that they can leverage in their academic and professional careers. Throughout their course of study, students will now undergo a series of intensive project-based workshops and training sessions, gaining hands-on experience working with various digital tools, which they will then have the opportunity to apply to their own scholarship.

As students develop and execute projects ranging from web-based virtual exhibitions to mobile and social media experiences, they will be challenged to think critically about the use of digital resources to forward their research agendas and to consider how these tools illuminate new insights and pathways in their work. Ultimately, these projects will become important additions to their scholarly portfolios while preparing them for museum and gallery positions that increasingly require strong digital backgrounds.

Already a growing number of Bard Graduate Center graduates have found success in digital-centric positions in cultural institutions, non-profits, and the private sector. With the Digital Literacy Initiative, BGC hopes that this trend will continue and that all students will be able to benefit from increased exposure to the digital tools shaping academia and the workplace.

—Jesse Merandy, Director, Digital Media Lab