Program News & Events

Amelia Stanton, University of Texas
Preston Theater  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
After providing a brief outline of my approach to treatment development, I will review my ongoing work on the identification of mechanisms that are relevant to sexual health, particularly in women. Treatment development requires a nuanced understanding of the factors that drive change. Focusing specifically on heart rate variability and sexual self-schemas, I will discuss the development of innovative psychosocial treatments that intervene on those mechanisms. I will review examples to illustrate the transition from laboratory-based experiments that test putative mechanisms to clinical trials that aim to engage mechanisms and produce clinically meaningful change. As I will clarify in the presentation, the findings of these studies not only highlight the promise of these treatments with respect to sexual health but also validate the usefulness of a mechanism-driven approach to intervention development. I will conclude my talk by highlighting my interest in building and adapting interventions for women who are at the greatest risk for poor sexual health. 

Frank Scalzo, Psychology Program
Preston Theater  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
The Fulbright Program provides research and teaching opportunities for U.S. and foreign scholars, and students, to contribute to the mutual understanding of people, places and culture.  The program funds approximately 470 U.S. Scholar awards and 1000 student research awards to 124 countries each year.  I will present information on the Fulbright Program and describe my experiences as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Ljubljana in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1995 and most recently in 2018.  The goals of the 2018 project were to strengthen the pharmacy curriculum and to develop techniques to use artificial intelligence to characterize movement patterns in larval zebrafish.  I will describe the progress made in the project with an emphasis on the people, places and science that have contributed to my increased understanding of Slovenia and its people, and the many cultural and scientific contributions they have made.

Here's What You Can Do With A Degree in Psychology: Applied Research
Preston Theater  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Join Psychology program alums Maayan Eldar, ’16, Helena Wippick, ’16 and Eva Frishberg, ’17 in discussing their paths since leaving Bard and what they did with their Bard education.

Gain real clinical experience and earn up to $13.50 part time or $14 full time!
Reem-Kayden Center Room 102  12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Begin your journey as a medical scribe today! Work directly with ER physicians and assist with medical documentation in patient rooms.

Info session will be catered by Bubby’s Take Away Kitchen.

Simine Vazire, Professor of Psychology
UC Davis
 
Bard Hall  6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
A fundamental part of the scientific enterprise is for each field to engage in critical self-examination to detect errors in our theories and methods, and improve them. In this talk, I discuss how well psychology, as a science, has been living up to this ideal, and what principles should guide our efforts to improve our science.

Reem-Kayden Center  6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Join our seniors in presenting their Senior Project research!

Reem-Kayden Center  3:30 pm – 4:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Come meet your fellow summer researchers and have some snacks!

Elizabeth Hirshorn, SUNY New Paltz
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium  3:30 pm – 4:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
While cross-linguistic work has long recognized differences in reading processes associated with distinct writing systems (e.g., Chinese vs. English), recent research has identified similar variability within skilled English readers.  In this talk I will unravel what these individual differences mean for how people can achieve skilled reading through alternative routes.  I will additionally explore possible influences on where individual differences come from (e.g., musical training), and what other cognitive processes (e.g., face processing) may be related to variability in reading.

Preston Theter  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
The Psychology Senior Project Workshop, which you are required to be at as a psychology major, is this Thursday, September 19, at 4:45pm in the Preston Theater. 

Come prepared to discuss your Senior Project ideas, however they stand, with your classmates. There will be snacks and some soft drinks for you to enjoy as you do a bit of writing and explore your ideas.
 

Diana Sanchez ’00
Rutgers University
Preston Theater  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
The contexts that give rise to identity threats and their pernicious consequences for minorities are well documented. Yet, until recently, stigma researchers have largely assumed the necessity of a direct correspondence between safety/threat cues and the target (e.g., sexist remarks impact women). In contrast, this work demonstrates stigma transfer, i.e., the tendency for stigmatized group members to be threatened by prejudice targeting other stigmatized groups. In addition, this presentation will explore lay conceptions of prejudice that facilitate stigma transfer. Lastly, studies explore parallel responses to identity safety cues across identity dimensions. This talk will challenge long-held notions about the boundaries of stigma and have important implications for minority health, organizational diversity, and intraminority relations.

Connect, learn, and help chart a path forward for solutions-based climate change education and action in your school or community.
Olin Humanities, Room 101  7:00 pm – 10:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Ceremonial Open with Schaghicoke First Nations, Penobscot, Tlingit, and Taino Peoples

Remarks by Naomi Hollard, Sunrise Movement – The Nexus of Climate, Gender Equality, and Women’s Leadership with Katharine Wilkinson, Project Drawdown VP of Communications & Engagement Healing and Transformation: A Conversation with Katharine Wilkinson and Sherri Mitchell Panel: Women Advancing Climate Policy Solutions with Rhiana Gunn-Wright (Green New Deal policy lead), Jen Metzger (NY senator), and Didi Barrett (NY assemblywoman) moderated by Carla Goldstein (Omega president and cofounder of the Omega Women’s Leadership Center).

Connect, learn, and help chart a path forward for solutions-based climate change education and action in your school or community.
Preston  9:00 am – 5:30 pm EDT/GMT-4

Conference Program
9:00–10:10 a.m. From Anxiety to Action: Psychology for Climate Work with Renee Lertzman, PhD. Overview & Updates on the Drawdown Research with Chad Frischmann

10:30–11:20 a.m. Unpacking the Green New Deal: The Critical Importance of Equity
Description: The Green New Deal outlines the most ambitious and transformative national goals since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s original New Deal and the World War II economic mobilizations. A national mobilization of this size and scale presents an unprecedented opportunity not only to combat the climate crisis, but also to eliminate poverty in the United States and to make wealth, prosperity, and security available to every person who participates in the transition. In this session, discover how equity across all sectors must be at the center of, and integrated with, all our climate work. Gain a deep understanding of the strategies and tools that ensure climate solutions benefit all—because the only way forward is to leave no one behind. 

Rhiana Gunn-Wright, policy lead, Green New Deal
Andrew Revkin, journalist & founding director of the new Initiative on Communication and Sustainability at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

11:35 a.m. – 12:25 p.m. The Paris Agreement and You: The Critical Role of Education and Public Engagement
Description: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) international environmental treaty of 1992 has the goal to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. A crucial part of the treaty includes the role of education and public engagement. The UNFCCC Charter and the 2015 Paris Agreement recognized six elements of this work, now collectively referred to as Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE). In this session, explore how ACE is and could further support the implementation of subnational, national, and global climate education strategy and strengthening of the Paris Agreement.

What does this mean for our work on a local level?  What is a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, and why is it critical that we learn about this? What role can students and teachers play?  This session is especially aimed at those working or interested in a field related to ACE, and to anyone who would like to incorporate Drawdown into climate change education, engagement, and/or outreach.

1:45–2:35 p.m. Cultivating Drawdown Scholars: An Overview of Penn State’s Landmark Program with Project Drawdown
Description: Penn State partnered with Project Drawdown to hold the inaugural Drawdown Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and the first International Science Conference on Drawdown. During the eight-week REU program this summer, 55 undergraduate students from across the United States were mentored by Penn State faculty and Project Drawdown's research team to study the Drawdown models and examine the feasibility of scaling them down locally as well as communicating findings. The students also developed curricular models and teaching tools for drawdown under the mentorship of Penn State faculty and Drawdown Education Fellows of the National Council for Science and the Environment. Students, faculty, and staff created materials that they shared at the end of the experience and were featured at the first Drawdown Scientific Conference at Penn State University Park in mid-September. During the conference, "Research to Action: The Science of Drawdown," Project Drawdown's research team and scientific experts and researchers from around the world met and had critical discussions about advancing and communicating the science of Drawdown. A platform for community engagement was also created through a theatrical performance involving the arts and sciences. In this session, discover how the programs were put together, accomplishments, and implications and explore some of the teaching tools, curricula concepts, and other resources.

3:05–3:55 p.m. Climate Learning at Scale: Washington State’s Story Applied to Your Reality
Description: Washington State is coherently building solutions-oriented climate science literacy across its preK–12 school system. It is doing so with a commitment to changing structures and partnering with tribal educators in a way that demonstrates climate literacy and action that is place-based and equitable. The ClimeTime initiative supports science teacher training linking Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and climate science. In addition to teacher professional development, the project supports the development of instructional materials, design-related assessment tasks and evaluation strategies, and facilitated student events. In one of these projects, educators from the Spokane and Karuk tribes and others set out to design “locally relevant, three-dimensional solutions oriented learning storylines (SOLS)” in order to strengthen teachers’ climate science education instruction. To date, 100 percent of teachers who have participated report they are more prepared to make learning experiences inclusive for Native American students and have increased their ability to implement research-based instructional practices. Session participants will learn from project leaders and researchers about what was learned in the program’s first year. Participants will have a chance to engage with speakers for application to their own work. Additionally, participants will be introduced to the resource portal for the entire ClimeTime initiative and have the opportunity to consider use of the open source materials for their own purposes, including teacher trainings, curriculum, formative assessment resources and STEM Teaching Tools.

4:25–5:15 p.m. Crowd-Sourced Learning and Action: How a GIS-Powered Tool Can Activate Community Climate Solutions
Description: What would happen if a critical mass of people across the planet could learn and act on the range of truly impactful climate solutions and resiliency measures that they could take individually and/or together with others?  Leaders of this session have conceptually designed the tool to support this outcome and have begun prototyping the first elements with students and educators in Olympia, Washington, and Toronto, Canada. Join this session to advance this crowd-sourced, digital, and social technology that builds awareness, appreciation, community building, and action at the local to planetary scales.

Reem-Kayden Center  4:00 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Join faculty and students who participated in this year’s program in presenting their work

Olin Humanities, Room 201  4:45 pm – 5:45 pm EST/GMT-5
Some have argued that elevated levels of anxiety and depression among Generation Z can be accounted for, at least in part, by frequent social media use. Indeed, there is burgeoning interest among psychological scientists and the general public to better understand links between social media use and downstream effects on mental and physical health.

To foster continued conversation surrounding these issues, this forum is intended for Bard students to share their own experiences using popular social media platforms (e.g., Snapchat and Instagram) and discuss ways in which social media use carries both benefits and risks to health and well-being.

Michael Mullarkey
University of Texas-Austin
Preston Theater  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5

Campus Walk Above Kline  9:30 am – 1:00 pm EST/GMT-5
In a rare occurrence, the planet Mercury will pass in front of the Sun on the morning of November 11. However, this is not a celestial event that one can view by looking to the heavens with an unaided eye, since

a) Mercury is very small compared with the Sun, and

b) You shouldn't look directly at the Sun.

In order to view the transit (clouds permitting) the Physics Program will have a telescope with a solar filter set up on Campus Walk, just up the hill from Kline. Drop by anytime from 9:30am until the transit ends at 1pm to check out this planetary alignment for yourself.

Note the next chance to view a Mercury transit from Bard will be on May 7, 2049.

Preston Theater  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Listen to students and alums who have participated in summer internships discuss their experiences, and learn about opportunities for the coming year. There will be an opportunity for Q&A as well as hearing about different internship opportunities.

Preston Theater  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5

Cynthia Kim, LCSW-R, Associate Program Director and Director of Behavioral Science, and
Michelle Miller, LCSW, Behavioral Science Faculty and Mental Health Clinician
Mid Hudson Family Medicine Residency Program – Institute for Family Health
Preston Theater  4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Alternate pathways for using undergraduate psychology education and experience exist in multiple professional realms. One such pathway is in using a graduate degree in social work or psychology to transform, teach, and practice in the field of academic family medicine. Family doctors are at the forefront of research and practice in the evidence base that informs integrative healthcare, providing services ranging from care coordination to mental health—all predicated on the development of trauma-informed, culturally conscious, therapeutic relationships with their patients. This talk will provide insight into a social justice pathway and mission that hopes to help transform the future of health and mental health care.

Professor Frank Scalzo
Health Professions Adviser
RKC 111  3:30 pm – 4:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Professor Frank Scalzo will introduce pathways leading to post-baccalaureate degrees in the health professions and offer suggestions for pursuing a career in the health professions. The discussion will be tailored to the interests of the audience and questions about Spring 2020 course selections are welcome.

Reem-Kayden Center  6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Join our December graduating seniors in presenting their senior projects.
Light refreshments will be served