December 18, 2025

Dear Alumni,

I write with my best wishes for the holiday season! I hope each of you enjoys a peaceful conclusion to December and a very happy New Year. I look forward to continuing to celebrate your news, share information and ideas, and connect at alumni events with you in 2026!

As always, please share your latest updates via the online form.

All best,

Julia Carabatsos (MA ’22)
alumni@bgc.bard.edu

Alumni Spotlight

In August, Liz Neill (MA ’16) began a new position as exhibition coordinator at Historic New England. Liz received her PhD from Boston University earlier this year, and she has prepared two exhibitions set to open at Historic New England in the new year: Shoe Stories: Past, Present, Future and Myth and Memory: Stories of the American Revolution. Well done, Liz!

Rebecca Jumper Matheson (PhD ’22) will deliver the BGC Alumni Spotlight Lecture on January 21. See below for more details!

Select Career Opportunities

The Material Culture Workshop at the University of Cambridge invites submissions for 20-minute papers. The workshop is a graduate-run forum that provides a space for researchers of all career stages to present work in progress on historical materiality, meaning, and making. The workshop meets online and in person on alternate Monday evenings. This term, the workshop encourages submissions on any theme and particularly welcomes work from historians of disability and historians with a focus outside of Europe. Submissions, due on January 13 must include a title, abstract (250 words), and brief academic bio, and should be sent to Sophia Feist (stcf2@cam.ac.uk) and Tomas Brown (tbnb2@cam.ac.uk).

For more job listings please visit the BGC job board.

username: career.services@bgc.bard.edu
password: CareersBGC2025-6*=*

Select BGC Events

You will receive a complete listing of BGC’s spring semester events early in the new year, but mark your calendars now for the Alumni Spotlight Lecture on January 21!

“Humans Should Be as Well-Dressed as Horses”: Craft, Clients, and Continuity of Phelps Associates, 1940–1969
An Alumni Spotlight Lecture by Rebecca Jumper Matheson (BGC PhD ’22, Fashion Institute of Technology)
Wednesday, January 21, at 6 pm

William and Elizabeth Phelps began their leathergoods and sportswear brand, Phelps Associates, as a craft workshop in a Washington Square basement, making custom belts and bags for an intimate circle of clients. Their leathergoods drew inspiration from the handcraft traditions of decorative horse harness, the functional shapes of historic military gear, and the repurposed shine of vintage brass insignia. The Phelpses sought to slow the pace of fashion change by creating quality goods and keeping designs in production for years. Clients responded by “collecting” and repairing their work, and sometimes handing down their Phelps pieces. Over the years, they expanded their workshop and added the ready-to-wear Phelps Deep Country Clothes line, reaching a wider range of consumers. This alumni spotlight lecture by Rebecca Matheson will consider the artisanship of Elizabeth and William Phelps, highlighting extant objects and specific clients, including actress Lauren Bacall and photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe.

Shop the BGC Store!

Visit our online store at store.bgc.bard.edu for 40% off all items. Enter code ALUMNI at checkout to receive the discount.

Sign up for Gaggle!

Gaggle.mail is an opt-in list-serv that serves as a place to share job openings, conference attendance, published books/articles, and exhibition openings directly with fellow alums. It’s a communication forum for alumni, by alumni. To circulate your news in the Gaggle group, send an email to bgcalumni@gaggle.email.