Peter Hajnal joined the faculty of the European College of Liberal Arts, Berlin (currently Bard College Berlin) in 2002 after an M.Sc. in Computer Science from Rutgers University (1992), and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University (2003). He became Programme Director for the Academy Year Programme in 2003, and was Co-Dean of the College and of Academic Affairs from 2007-2012. Together with Thomas Norgaard he developed the Values Studies approach to liberal education. The BA in Value Studies based on this approach was introduced in 2009. The College received official recognition as a University by the Berlin Senate Department for Education in 2011 under their leadership.

In recognition of his service to the College, in 2012 he was awarded the honorary title “Founding Dean for Curriculum” by the Trustees of Bard College Berlin.

Peter has taught broadly across the Curriculum, and has participated intensively in the development and implementation of all core courses, as well as all aspects of collegiate life. His current research and teaching interests focus on the development of a genuine interdisciplinary approach to the teaching of painting, sculpture and architecture in dialogue with philosophical texts, where the artworks themselves are taken seriously as partners in that dialogue. Additional research interests include the philosophies of interdisciplinary and general education, theories of rationality (and normativity more broadly construed), Marxist conceptions of literature, the philosophy of mathematics, a little bit of cognitive science, and some areas of intellectual history. He is currently working on the history of anti-Cartesian approaches to conceptions of the human.

Recent Papers and Talks

'Value Studies as a form of Liberal Education' (with Thomas Norgaard). The Importance of Learning: Liberal Education in Historical Perspective. Conference of International Society of Intellectual History. June 2013 Princeton, New Jersey.

'Value Studies and Democratic Citizenship'. 2013 Washingon Meeting of the BTtoP Project. Study subsequently published in Civic Engagement, Civic Development, and Higher Education. Ed. Jill Reich. BTtoP. 2014.

'Innocence, Self-reflexivity, Realism and Cavell's thesis'. The International Lisbon Conference on Philosophy and Film: Thinking Reality and Time Through Film. 6-10 May 2013. Lisbon, Portugal.

'Trusting the Amateur: What Piero della Francesca's Legend of the True Cross May Teach us About the Study of Art' What is Liberal education For? A Conference at St John's College on the 50th Anniversary of the Santa Fe Campus. 15-18. October, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

'Andrei Tarkovsky's Cavellian Philosophy of Film.' Invited guest lecture at the Montageforum of the Potsdam Film Academy. January 2015.

'The Reason We Don't See: Cartesian Problems in Art-Restoration'. Invited guest lecture at University of Winchester, UK, November 2015.

'Medium and Materiality: A Particularist Approach.' Paper presented at Annual Conference of the European Society for Aesthetics, 8-11 June, 2016 Barcelona, Spain.

'Painting on Film: Cavell and the Quattrocento.' Paper presented at the Film-Philosophy Conference at the University of Edinburgh, 6-8 July, 2016, Edinburgh, UK.

(With David Hayes, Bard Berlin)' The failed education of the woman in the films of Robert Siodmak: towards a Cavellian concept of Film Noir.' Paper presented at the Film-Philosophy Conference at the University of Edinburgh, 6-8 July, 2016, Edinburgh, UK.

'Tact, Touch and Playfulness: Anti-Cartesian Concepts for Aesthetics.' Paper to be presented at the Film-Philosophy Conference 2017 at The University of Lancaster July 4, 2017 – July 6, 2017.

'Medium and Materiality: Stanley Cavell's Naivist Theory of Art.' Proceedings of the Conference of The European Society of Aesthetics Vol. 8. 2016. Pages 190-246. http://www.eurosa.org/volume-8/