Dear Former Fellows,

Greetings in this new academic year. As we settle into Autumn, and as notices have gone out advertising next year’s fellowship round, it reminds all of us here how much we enjoyed having you as part of our intellectual community on West 86th Street. Please do feel free to circulate our 2023-24 fellowship announcements wherever you think appropriate. The first application due date is December 1.

There is other exciting news here at BGC. We’ve changed our research events to emphasize more experimental formats. If we’re investing in creating new research, it dawned on us that we could also invest in creating new formats in which to present it. That is the task given to the newly created department of Public Humanities + Research. You can read more about this plan and see our upcoming public events here.

We’ve also replaced longtime faculty member Michele Majer, who retired at the end of June, though she’s stayed on to curate the spectacular exhibition on lace (up until January 1). Mei Mei Rado, who earned her PhD at the BGC before going off to LACMA as a curator, joins the faculty in January. Working in the broad area of Dress-Fashion-Textiles, Mei has written broadly about 18th-century China, Chinese-French fashion commerce, and 20th-century European fashion.

And, finally, fall is also Open House season. Remaining dates are November 13 (here at BGC) and December 4 (on Zoom). If you know of prospective MA or PhD students, don’t hesitate to pass these dates along to them.

I wish you the best for your own research projects, and hope to see you on 86th Street soon!

Sincerely,

Prof. Peter N. Miller
Dean