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Bard Graduate Center is an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, scholarly publications and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

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Applications for our MA program may be submitted until March 1, 2025





About

Bard Graduate Center is devoted to the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture through research, advanced degrees, exhibitions, publications, and events.


Bard Graduate Center advances the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture through its object-centered approach to teaching, research, exhibitions, publications, and events.

At BGC, we study the human past and present through their material expressions. We focus on objects and other material forms—from those valued for their aesthetic elements to the ordinary things used in everyday life.

Our accomplished interdisciplinary faculty inspires and prepares students in our MA and PhD programs for successful careers in academia, museums, and the private sector. We bring equal intellectual rigor to our acclaimed exhibitions, award-winning catalogues and scholarly publications, and innovative public programs, and we view all of these integrated elements as vital to our curriculum.

BGC’s campus comprises a state-of-the-art academic programs building at 38 West 86th Street, a gallery at 18 West 86th Street, and a residence hall at 410 West 58th Street. A new collection study center will open at 8 West 86th Street in 2026.

Founded by Dr. Susan Weber in 1993, Bard Graduate Center has become the preeminent institute for academic research and exhibition of decorative arts, design history, and material culture. BGC is an accredited unit of Bard College and a member of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH).


Azra Dawood, PhD, is an independent historian, architect, curator, and educator. Her research on built environments and art practices engages the topics of cultural pluralism, religion and secularism, and critical perspectives on empire and philanthropy. Dawood has practiced architecture in Karachi, Austin, and New York City. Her past work includes a dissertation on the institutional projects financed by the Rockefeller philanthropic network in the early twentieth century, which she analyzed through the lens of the network’s pursuit of social engineering, the United States’ anti-immigration laws, and early twentieth-century theological movements. A related article was published in the Journal of Architecture. Since receiving a doctorate in architectural history from MIT, Dawood has taught at several institutions in New York and Texas, including the University of Houston, Bard College, and Pratt Institute. She is also the curator of City of Faith: Religion, Activism, and Urban Space, an exhibition currently on view at the Museum of the City of New York. Her curatorial projects center socially engaged approaches to public history. Past projects include a web-based interactive timeline showing how the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests transformed public space and life in New York City.