Setting the Stage over Lunch

Elizabeth H. Bradley, PhD, was named the 11th President of Vassar College in July 2017. Prior to this position, she was on the faculty at Yale for twenty years, and was most recently the Brady-Johnson Professor of Grand Strategy and Faculty Director of the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute. She also served as the Head of Branford College at Yale. Bradley is renowned internationally for her work on quality of hospital care and large-scale health system strengthening efforts within the US and abroad including in China, Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda, and the United Kingdom. Bradley has published nearly 320 peer-reviewed papers and has co-authored three books including The American Healthcare Paradox: Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less. Bradley was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017.

Academic Session I: The Science of the Mind in Liberal Arts

• Hadley Bergstrom, Associate Professor of Psychological Science, Vassar
• Lori Newman, Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences, Vassar
• Joshua de Leeuw, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science, Vassar

In this session, several Vassar faculty members explored different methodological approaches to understanding minds and brains. The discussion illustrated how the liberal arts environment gives Vassar students and faculty the background and freedom to think deeply about the mind.

The Institute for the Liberal Arts and New York State: Education as a Public Good

• Michael Schmidt, Commissioner of the State Department of Taxation and Finance, New York State
• Dan Fuller, Assistant Secretary for Education, New York State

During this session, participants heard from two gubernatorial appointees regarding the state of education in New York. The session explored how institutions of higher education like Vassar can support efforts to promote education in the Hudson Valley and the state more broadly.

Facilitated Discussion

During this session, participants reflected on the two earlier sessions and explored how the intellectual and academic programming of the Institute might engage with the broader conversation around education in the state and beyond.

The Art and Architecture of Convening

• Frederick Fisher, Partner, Frederick Fisher, and Partners
• Matt Kelley, Associate, Frederick Fisher and Partners

In this session, participants heard from the architect of The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts and The Heartwood inn (now referred to as The Heartwood at Vassar and The Heartwood hotel), and learned how the Institute and The Heartwood went from being a simple idea to a complex project that embodies many of Vassar’s most important values.

Academic Session II: Exploring Trauma through History and Language: Understanding Methods at the Margins

• Sumita Choudhury, Professor of History, Vassar
• Peipei Qiu, Professor of Chinese and Japanese, Vassar

In this session, two Vassar faculty members raised questions and suggested methods for examining trauma with an emphasis on history. This session included conversations about sexual assault in the French Catholic Church in the 17th and 18th centuries as well as conversations about the traumas of Imperial Japan’s “comfort women”—women who were coerced into military sexual slavery during the Asia Pacific war (1931–1945).

Poughkeepsie: Designing for an Inclusive Future

• Michael Murphy, Executive Director, MASS Design

In this session, participants heard from the Executive Director of a leading non-profit architecture firm about the firm’s portfolio of work in the city of Poughkeepsie. The discussion included thoughts on how The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts might fit into a larger vision for the city of Poughkeepsie.

Bridging Arts & Humanities and Community Engagement (introduction by William Hoynes, Dean of Faculty)

• Lisa Kaul, Director of the Office of Community Engaged Learning, Vassar
• Tom Pacio, Director, Creative Arts and Community Engagement, Vassar

In this session, presenters shared examples and introduced tools as they explored the ways Vassar’s curriculum foregrounds learning through engagement with the community, and how the arts have been a central tool of engagement. Participants were invited to consider the Institute and Inn (now referred to as The Heartwood hotel) as a space for community engagement and to share ideas for innovative ways the Arts and Humanities can help Vassar to forge, strengthen, and sustain community.

Creating the Future: Mapping New Ideas for the Institute

During this session, participants integrated the inputs from the previous two days and worked in groups to imagine and subsequently pitch (to fellow participants) a program that might take place at the Institute in the future. This exercise was a lively and interactive conclusion to the workshop.