Esther Wanning '66 (BardCorps)
“Bard hired both women and people who hadn’t written books, because they were really serious about the teaching … here, the teaching really was primary and they didn’t care that he [Andrews Wanning] hadn’t finished the book.”
Description
Esther recounts growing up around Bard because her father, Andrews Wanning, was a professor there. She tells of going first to Barnard, but leaving as it was not the right fit for her. She talks of returning to Bard and of working on her senior project in Medieval History with her advisor, Julius Kirshner. Esther recounts some of the stories that eventually came to light after being kept quite secret and hush-hush. She talks about how gender still played a large role in society, and how at Bard this was not as prevalent when compared to other major colleges or universities. She recounts what the social atmosphere was like, noting that students were more involved in “nature admiration” and “wandering around the woods quoting poetry” than in social activism.