Bard IWT Staff

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Erica Kaufman

Erica Kaufman (B.A., Douglass College, Rutgers University; M.F.A., The New School, Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center) is the Director of the Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking and Visiting Assistant Professor of Literacy Education. She has taught in the English Department at Baruch College, worked with the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, and served as a Curriculum Specialist for the Holocaust Educators Network. She has been a visiting writer and visiting professor at Naropa University and Parsons the New School for Design. Her publications include the full-length poetry collections INSTANT CLASSIC (Roof Books 2013) and censory impulse (Factory School 2009). Kaufman is the co-editor of Adrienne Rich: Teaching at CUNY, 1968-1974 (Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, 2014) and of NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life and Work of kari edwards (Venn Diagram, 2009). Prose and critical work can be found in: Jacket2, Open Space/SFMOMA and in The Color of Vowels: New York School Collaborations (ed. Mark Silverberg, Palgrave MacMillan, 2013). Additional critical work is forthcoming in the MLA Guide to Teaching Gertrude Stein (eds. L. Esdale and D. Mix). kaufman also co-coordinates the Teacher Resource Center for the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry MOOC in collaboration with the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. Current research interests include: Writing Across the Curriculum/Writing in the Disciplines; the interstices between contemporary poetics and Composition & Rhetoric; feminism and the epic poem; and intergenerational Holocaust Studies.

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Michelle Hoffman

Michelle Hoffman (B.Sc., Concordia University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Toronto) is the Assistant Director of IWT and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bard College, where she teaches courses in history and philosophy of science and in the First-Year Seminar program. Michelle's area of focus at IWT is writing to learn in STEM disciplines. Previously, she has taught at the American University of Central Asia, Bard's partner in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as well as in Bard's Language and Thinking Program and the Bard Prison Initiative. Her research focuses on the history of psychology and education. She has a particular interest in transfer of training, a body of experimental research that examines whether learning skills acquired in one area readily transfer to other domains—a question that strikes at the core of teachers’ work.

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Anastasia Shown

Anastasia Shown (she/her) is the Program Manager for the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College. She has over 20 years experience in education and is passionate about exposing young people to global histories and cultures and fostering intercultural understanding. She has worked in North America, Africa and Latin America as a university lecturer, program administrator, social studies teacher, and diversity, equity & inclusion consultant. She studied at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice, Indiana University, and the University of Ghana. As a National Geographic Explorer, Anastasia is developing an ethnic studies teaching guide that centers Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, and immigrants in Costa Rica, working alongside educators and activists to bring the country’s multicultural landscape into classrooms. She believes learning about others is one of the best ways to learn about oneself.

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Celia Bland

Celia Bland, IWT Associate Director, leads IWT workshops nationally and internationally.  She is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently, Cherokee Road Kill, illustrated by Kyoko Miyabe (2018).  She is co-editor of a collection of critical essays about the poetry of Jane Cooper, A Radiance of Attention (U. of Michigan 2019).  Her essay on teaching poetry, "Dialogic Poetry," appeared in Reflecting Pool: Poets on the Creative Process (SUNY 2018).

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Jeanne Halal

Jeanne had an extensive career as a Treasurer for Broadway theaters, for over 20 years. After moving to the Hudson Valley, she spent 2 and half years at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the original site of the Woodstock Festival, where she managed the Box Office for their 16,000 seat outdoor venue, their Museum and indoor Event Gallery. She is honored to be a member of the Bard community.

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Amy Lipman

(B.F.A., University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign; M.F.A., Columbia College Chicago) is the Events and Workshops Coordinator with the Institute for Writing and Thinking, Bard College. She previously taught composition and creative writing (Carthage College, Harper College) before leading youth programs at the Poetry Foundation. Her publications include Getting Dressed (Spuyten Duyvil 2018) and Cardinal Directions (Ghost Proposal 2018). Before coming to Bard, Amy ran a community meal program with Dutchess Outreach (Poughkeepsie, NY) and managed volunteers at Ulster County SPCA (Kingston, NY). Her interests include animal welfare, food access and cooking for crowds. 

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Sammy Furr

Sammy Furr is IWT CLASP's Educational Technologist and Program Coordinator. You can find out more about IWT CLASP at iwtclasp.bard.edu.