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A Half Century Later: Understanding the Impact of the Vietnam War

A conference convened by History Professor Robert Brigham at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts offered insights on the Vietnam War 50 years after the fall of Saigon.

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Transgressing Borders: Signature Program of The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts Reimagines Education and the Role of Learning in Community

Educators from Vassar and the State University of New York at New Paltz hosted a series of workshops at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts aimed at enhancing collaborations with the local community.

The Environmental Cooperative Theater at the Vassar Barns

Preserve at Vassar Receives State Grant for New Pavilion

The Preserve at Vassar was awarded a grant through the NYS-funded Zoos, Botanical Gardens and Aquaria (ZBGA) Capital Program in support of the construction of a pavilion to serve as a visible anchor for the site while providing needed shelter for education and outreach programs, including those of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project.

Tiger painted in ink on paper mounted on silk brocade six-fold screen.

Loeb’s New Grant Launches Restoration of 17th-century Japanese Painted Screen

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was awarded funding by Tokyo-based Sumitomo Foundation toward the restoration of a 17th-century Japanese painted screen. A rarity and a cherished work in the Loeb’s Asian art collection, the screen was painted by Unkoku Toeki in the early 1600s. Its conservation will allow it to remain a popular teaching object for Art History at Vassar.

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Alden Trust Makes Grant to Library Renovations

The George I. Alden Trust of Worcester, Mass. has awarded Vassar a grant toward the Vassar Libraries’ ambitious Learning Commons project, which will renovate over 11,000 square feet in the Main Library’s north wing to repurpose and optimize available space and improve accessibility.

China Sajadian, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Receives ACLS Fellowship

China was awarded the fellowship for her book project Debt and Refuge: Syrian Farmworkers and the Politics of Displacement in Lebanon. Her ethnography of Syrian refugees who have long-standing ties to Lebanon as seasonal farmworkers makes a case for radically rethinking forced migration as an agrarian question of labor and feminist question of social reproduction, as debt at every scale of life governs how people move across borders.

Lisa Gail Collins, Professor of Art and Director of American Studies on the Sarah Gibson Blanding Chair, Wins Bard Graduate Center’s Horowitz Prize & Getty Fellowship

Lisa has received multiple accolades for her book Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee’s Bend Quilt (U. of Washington Press, 2023; paperback, 2025), including Bard Graduate Center’s Horowitz Book Prize. She was also selected as a 2025–2026 Getty Scholar, which will allow her to deepen her new book project “tending towards” during a residential fellowship at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Pictured: Carl Elsaesser. Person holding an old fashion camera to their eye while standing outside.

Carl Elsaesser, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film, Awarded a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship

Carl was awarded the fellowship for his project Resonant Coastlines, a feature-length experimental film that tethers a young man’s emerging queer identity—captured in his stream-of-consciousness filmmaking practice—to Maine’s unseen histories and forgotten landscapes.

Candy Esther Martinez, Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latinx Studies, Selected by the School for Advanced Research as a 2025–2026 Resident Scholar

Candy was selected for her book project Transborder Affect: The Intersection Between Emotions, Inequalities, and Healing within Oaxacan Communities. Candy’s research provides a multi-layered interpretation of Oaxacans’ own words, embodiments, and processes for discussing inequalities, emotional distress, and healing processes.