Bard Graduate Center is a research institute for advanced, interdisciplinary study of diverse material worlds. We support the innovative scholarship of our faculty and students as well as resident fellows, guest curators and artists, and visiting speakers.

Photo by Fresco Arts Team.

Our Public Humanities + Research department focuses on making scholarly work widely available and accessible through the coordination of the fellowship program and public programming that combines academic research with exhibition-related events. Across the institution—from the classroom to the gallery, from publications to this website—we utilize digital media to facilitate and share original research. This section outlines current programming and provides a repository for past scholarly content.

Jennifer Tobias gave a Brown Bag Lunch presentation on Thursday, January 21, at 12:15 pm. Her talk is entitled “Working with the Hands: Applied Arts Training in New York City, 1800–2020.”

In New York City we are surrounded by the decorative arts. Tobias’s project as a Bard Graduate Center Artist-in-Residence examines training programs for fourteen specific practices, from 1800s penmanship to twenty-first-century social practice. She will trace her development process from Library research to writing and making, and concluding with prototypes of the completed work.

Jennifer Tobias is a scholar and illustrator. She holds a PhD in Art History from the City University of New York, an MLS from Rutgers, and a BFA from Cooper Union. She provided reader services at the Museum of Modern Art and Parsons School of Design libraries. Her illustrations are included in Health Design Thinking and Design is Storytelling, both by Ellen Lupton. She and Lupton are currently developing Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Subversive, Non-Binary Field Guide for Graphic Design, forthcoming from Princeton Architectural Press.