Experience international affairs firsthand in New York City through a semester of intensive study and a professional internship.
The Program
BGIA provides a unique opportunity for college students and recent college graduates from around the world to take specialized courses in international affairs while working in carefully selected internships based on individual interests.
Students spend mornings at their internships around New York City, and afternoons studying with leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. A semester at BGIA also includes talks by high-profile guest speakers and exciting cultural events—all while experiencing life in Manhattan, the island at the center of the world.
Key Components of Our Program
BGIA Founders
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James Clarke ChaceBGIA was co-founded by the late diplomatic historian James Clarke Chace. Mr. Chace was the managing editor of Foreign Affairs, the World Policy Journal, and Paul W. Williams Professor of Government and Public Law at Bard College. He authored numerous articles and books on international affairs, including Acheson: The Secretary Of State Who Created The American World and 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs-The Election that Changed the Country. BGIA honors Chace’s legacy with the James Clarke Chace speaker series.
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Jonathan BeckerFrom Jonathan Becker:
“James Chace and I founded the Bard Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) program in 2001 with the idea that students interested in international affairs could benefit tremendously from spending a semester interning at leading international organizations in New York City, taking classes with faculty who not only have academic credentials, but also real-world experience, and attending talks with some of the leading international affairs experts in the world.”Jonathan Becker
“The program was put together quickly, in a matter of three months: we had the essential design and recruited our first class of fourteen students, all from Bard College in Annandale and Bard College at Simon’s Rock. The program’s importance in terms of subject and place was underlined in its first month, when 9/11 occurred. It was during that first semester that James and I, together with the program’s first Deputy Director, Jamie Miller, realized that we had built something that exceeded our original estimations. Students, who were interning at organizations like Human Rights Watch, the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs and the Wall Street Journal, were not simply doing day-to-day administrative work, but were treated as young hires, given substantial responsibilities and gaining unique professional experiences. They enjoyed the way in which their professors’ professional experiences shaped their teaching, and they made connections with the diverse array of speakers who spoke in what is now the James Chace Memorial lecture series. The subsequent 15 years, including the decade that has gone by since James passed away, has demonstrated the effectiveness of the original concept. Graduates have gone on to graduate and professional school and amazing careers in international affairs. Many have now become internship mentors. The many conversations I have had with program alumni/ae convince me that there is no program that Bard runs that has impacted the academic and professional trajectories of students more than BGIA.”
Jonathan Becker
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of Center for Civic Engagement, Bard College
Our Staff
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Elmira BayrasliDirector, BGIAElmira Bayrasli
Elmira Bayrasli joined BGIA in 2016, as an adjunct lecturer, teaching "Foreign Policy in the Time of the Internet." She is the cofounder of Foreign Policy Interrupted and the host of Project Syndicate's podcast, Opinion Has It. She is the author of From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places, a book that looks at the rise of entrepreneurship globally.
Elmira has lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she was the chief spokesperson for the OSCE Mission from 2003–2005. From 1994–2000 she was presidential appointee at the United States State Department, working for Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke, respectively. Elmira provides analysis on foreign policy, particularly on Turkey, global entrepreneurship, and gender issues. Her work has appeared in Reuters, Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, Quartz, Techcrunch, Fortune, Forbes, CNN, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Bayrasli sits on several boards, including Invest2Innovate, Turkish Women's International Network, Turkish Philanthropy Funds, and Our Secure Future.
She earned her BA in political science and Middle Eastern studies at New York University and her MA in Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Columbia University. A lifelong Brooklynite, Elmira loves the Mets. -
Erica KaneUndergraduate Deputy Director, BGIAErica Kane
Erica L Kane was born and raised in Tivoli, New York, a stone's throw from Bard College. Erica obtained her BA in international studies, globalization, development, and human Rights with minors in anthropology and Spanish from Arcadia University (’09) and participated in study abroad programs in London, Barcelona, and Greece. She worked with under-served public middle school students in southwest Philadelphia as an AmeriCorps volunteer with City Year Greater Philadelphia from 2010–2011 and with high school student in 2012 with City Year Orlando. Erica completed her MS in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy in 2014, having studied at Carnegie Mellon's campus in Adelaide, Australia. After working for elected officials in the New York State Senate and Assembly, and at Cornell University's Hudson Valley Research Laboratory, Erica joined BGIA as deputy director in 2019.
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Grace LubellPrograms Manager, BGIAGrace Lubell
Grace Lubell earned a BA in Asian studies from Skidmore College, New York, where she studied abroad twice in Nagoya and Osaka, Japan. She became interested in Japanese Buddhist art and went on to earn a MA in Japanese humanities from Kyushu University, Japan. Upon returning to New York, she worked at a Japanese art gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side from 2015–2017, and then became an associate program officer of Japanese studies at the Japan Foundation, New York, from 2017–2021. Grace joined BGIA as programs manager in 2021.
Alumni/ae Board
Starting in March 2021, BGIA has expanded its Alumni/ae Board. We're thrilled to welcome 12 passionate alumni/ae from various academic institutions, including Bard College, Smith College, Oberlin College, Ursinus College, and Morehouse College. The Board will be creating events for our alumni/ae, focusing on professional development, networking opportunities, and more. Moving forward, we aim to continue connecting our alumni/ae through local, national and international programmatic efforts. Here's a recent Bard press release with the announcement.