Introduction
Each mass shooting is met with endless pontificating about its cause — lax regulation of guns, incitement in the media, anomie, mental illness, violent video games, etc., etc. But these events keep happening with horrifying frequency, and they are the tip of an iceberg of internet trolling, conspiracy theories, white supremacy, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia. Bard established a Center for the Study of Hate in 2018 to support faculty and students studying and working to combat hate. We had a chance to interview it’s director, Ken Stern, to learn more about what the Center will be doing.
Ken Stern
The Center has been a project a long time in development for Ken. When he headed the American Jewish Committee’s efforts to combat anti-Semitism, he frequently attended meetings of groups fighting against white supremacy. They were well attended but there was little coherent academic effort to address either the phenomenon of demonizing others or the impact and effectiveness of efforts to oppose it. There was almost no interdisciplinary theoretical work about the simultaneous intersection of hate on the personal, group, cultural, and political levels.
Hatred is Part of the Human Condition
Quoting from the Center’s website, “Hatred has always been part of the human condition,” Stern said at his appointment as director of BCSH. “It is too little understood, but is a matter of increasing global urgency. The long-term goal is to make BCSH a central address for anyone—students, scholars, NGOs, and others—who want to understand this vexing question better, including what works best to control or curtail it.”
As Stern told us, “Politicians have always used hate because it works. It’s more of a pressing issue because we are seeing how leadership uses hate. But it’s not a new thing.” The Center plans to look at the psychology — how hate is used to motivate others, how groups use it to gain advantage. How does it play out culturally, where historical events are leveraged to demonize others. “It all plays together … One of the things I hope we will be able to accomplish with the Bard faculty is to answer a basic question — what is the economic cost of hate? — what would be included, what would be offsets? — Quantifying hate’s cost would help people focus on why this matters.”
Bard Starts Center for Hate Studies
After some discussion with Bard President Leon Botstein, a significant donation from the Justus and Karin Rosenberg Foundation, and a generous gift by an anonymous Bard alum made the Center’s start-up in October 2018 possible. The response from the faculty has been very positive, with dozens making their courses part of an interdisciplinary list of courses in hate studies. The range is impressive — from the arts to political and historical studies, religion and philosophy, sociology and anthropology, psychology and literature.
The Center will start its second semester in the fall and host a series of speakers on a variety of relevant subjects.
Students Will Be Sponsored for Hate Studies
Students focusing in the area will do archival work and be sponsored for NGO internships that put them on the front lines dealing with hate. What will a focus on hate studies prepare students for? “Lots of areas,” said Ken. “Someone could become a journalist. Very few journalists know how to interview a white supremacist so their hate is exposed effectively. A student could go into law, politics, psychiatry or psychology. It’s really across the board. One of the senior projects we funded last year was for an artist.”
BCSH also encourages students to write an essay about acts of political courage to counter hatred as part of the JFK Library and Museum’s Profile in Courage Essay Contest.
French Resistance Hero Justus Rosenberg Helped Start the Center
Bard Professor Emeritus Justus Rosenberg, whose foundation helped establish the Center, is an inspirational example of activism against hate. He was part of a group organized by journalist Varian Fry that smuggled hundreds of anti-fascist intellectuals out of Vichy France. He was imprisoned by the Nazis, escaped and joined the French resistance. He recounts his story as part of a Bard lecture here.
We should all be so bold and inventive in resisting hate and discrimination.
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