Draft:Jonathan A. Becker

• Comment: The writing is not neutral; presents Becker as somewhat of a protagonist in various efforts. Needs to be rewritten. Remember that we are a dry encyclopedia.
  Given Becker's position at Bard, he's almost certainly notable though and should eventually get his own article, but the article as it currently is is not acceptable. grapesurgeon (talk) 12:08, 26 August 2026 (UTC)

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Jonathan Becker (born October 8, 1964) is an American scholar, academic administrator, and voting rights advocate who is currently acting president of Bard College.

Jonathan A. Becker
15th President of Bard College
In office 2026–Present
Preceded by	Leon Botstein
Personal details
Born	Glencoe, Illinois
Spouse	Jessica Becker
Children	2
Education	McGill University (BA) Oxford University (DPhil)
Occupation	Scholar, educator

Early life and education

Becker attended New Trier High School and received a Bachelor of Arts in Russian and East European History from McGill University in 1987. He subsequently attended St. Antony's College at Oxford University where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in Politics in 1993. His doctoral dissertation was, “Changing Soviet Press Coverage of the United States in the Gorbachev Era: Domestic and Foreign Considerations.”

Career

Visiting academic positions

Jonathan Becker held visiting teaching and lecturing positions from 1991 to 1997, including at Yale University, Wesleyan University, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Birmingham University, and Central European University (CEU).

Civic Education Project

From 1992 to 1993, Jonathan Becker served as the Ukraine Director at the Civic Education Project, which was an international non-profit organization founded in 1991 and affiliated with Yale University and the Central European University. He coordinated a technical assistance program that placed social scientists in Ukrainian institutions of higher education to teach and promote curricular reform. In 1994, Becker became European Director at the Civic Education Project, in which capacity he directed the work programs in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Central European University

In 1995, Jonathan Becker became the Assistant Vice President at Central European University where he worked with CEU’s then-rector, Alfred Stepan, on interdisciplinary study and international academic partnerships with institutions in the United States and Europe.

Bard College

In 1997, Becker joined Bard College as Dean of Students. Over the following two decades, he held a succession of academic and administrative positions, including Dean of Studies, Dean of International Studies, Associate Dean of the College, and Vice President for International Affairs and Civic Engagement. In 2016, he was appointed Vice President for Academic Affairs and in 2017, Executive Vice President. In 2026, he was appointed Acting President of the College.

Voting rights

In 1997, Becker became involved in a nascent local and regional voting rights dispute.

These disputes, which pre-dated Becker’s arrival at Bard College by more than 20 years, related to the question of whether campus residency meets voting residency eligibility requirements . In 1976, three Bard College students sued Dutchess County, asserting that their residence on campus should be considered sufficient to vote in local elections. Students at both Vassar College, also located in Dutchess County, and State University of New York at New Paltz, located in nearby Ulster County, faced similar registration challenges simultaneously. Over the next several decades, students from at least five colleges and universities—Marist University and The Culinary Institute of America in addition to Bard College, Vassar College, and SUNY New Paltz—were involved in a series of lawsuits related to residency-based challenges to their voter registrations.

In 1998, students launched a joint Bard and Vassar effort called Student Activists for Voting Equality (SAVE). Becker then advocated on behalf of SAVE to Dutchess County legislators.

Following the success of SAVE, Becker’s advocacy focused on protecting student voting rights and polling locations. In 2009, Bard College found that poll watchers challenged one in five Bard students who attempted to vote on the basis of residency, resulting in students being required to vote with an affidavit. In 2012, 100 students from across Hudson Valley higher education institutions, including Bard College, were barred from registering to vote due to lack of inclusion of a dorm number in their listed address. According to The Nation, this resulted in a class action against Dutchess County Board of Elections. In 2013, a consent decree was signed under the oversight of Federal Judge Kenneth M. Karas stipulating that Bard students can register using Bard’s main address.

Becker was involved in a long-running dispute with Dutchess County Board of Elections Commissioner Erik Haight concerning the location of the polling place for Election District 5, which includes Bard College. Haight and Becker each penned opinion pieces critical of the other related to the dispute in 2016. After Haight repeatedly declined to relocate the polling place from a nearby church to Bard's campus, Bard College, Election@Bard, the Andrew Goodman Foundation, and several individual plaintiffs filed suit in 2020, alleging that the existing polling location violated state and federal accessibility requirements and imposed an undue burden on student voters. The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court sided with Bard, resulting in the designation of Bard's Bertelsmann Campus Center as the district's polling location.

Following the litigation, in 2022, New York state enacted a law requiring boards of elections to propose polling places on college campuses with at least 300 registered voters. Becker advocated strongly for the passage of New York State Bill A454/S4658.

He also subsequently studied the implementation of the law in 2024 by conducting an assessment of institutions that have been granted polling places since the law passed. This study found that “only 25 percent of the 64 private institutions surveyed have poll sites.” As of 2026, Becker is advocating for the New York State Student Voter Empowerment Act (A.3954–A/S2056-A).

International work

International partnerships and programs for students displaced by conflicts have been a longstanding focus for Jonathan Becker while at Bard. According to the college, Becker led Bard’s Sanctuary program which “has hosted more than 180 students who are displaced or threatened by conflict, crisis, or political repression in their home countries, including Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Myanmar, Russia, Somalia, Syria, and Ukraine.” Becker argues that these students “should be viewed as civic assets, not simply as people without citizenship who need to be coddled and cared for.”

Becker has twice served as Interim President at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA). First in 2018 to 2019 and then again from 2021 to 2023. During his second tenure as Interim President at AUCA, Becker facilitated the evacuation of nearly 200 students from Afghanistan to Kyrgyzstan following the fall of Kabul in 2021. Becker is currently a member of AUCA’s Board of Trustees.

Becker played a role in establishing Bard’s presence in Russia from 1997 to 2021. Beginning in 1997, Bard participated in the establishment of Smolny College, a liberal arts program at Saint Petersburg State University that operated through a partnership with Bard. In June 2021, the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation designated Bard College an "undesirable organization" under Russian law, the first foreign higher education institution to receive the designation. The ruling prohibited Bard's activities in Russia and resulted in the termination of its institutional partnerships in the country, including Smolny College. Following the designation, Bard established Smolny Beyond Borders, a program for displaced students and faculty formerly affiliated with Smolny College.

Becker also played a role in the development of Bard’s partnership with Al-Quds University, the only American university partnership with a Palestinian university, which was established in 2009.

Presidency

Becker was appointed Acting President of Bard College in July 2026, following longtime president Leon Botstein's retirement.

Academic research

Becker is a scholar of comparative politics and an area specialist focused on Russia and the former Soviet Union. His writing examines depictions of the United States in Soviet and Russian press, press freedom in authoritarian contexts. His contributions include delineation of the differences between “neo-authoritarian” and "post-totalitarian" media systems, as well as analyzing the implications of different media systems on journalists and citizens.

He has also authored a pieces pertaining to youth voting rights in both popular and academic publications. His edited volume Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses was published in 2025.

Personal life

Becker lives in Red Hook, New York, with his wife Jessica Becker and children, Joseph and Sarah Becker. He serves on boards for organizations including: American University of Central Asia, Parami University, the Clemente Course in the Humanities, and Opus 40 Sculpture Park and Museum, where he was chairman from 2017 to 2023 and now serves as an ex officio member.

Bibliography

Books and edited volumes

• Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses, (De Gruyter-Brill, Democracy in Times of Upheaval series, 2026)
• Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press, Politics and Identity in Transition, revised and expanded paperback edition (London/New York: Palgrave, 2003)
• Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press, Politics and Identity in Transition (London/New York: Macmillan/St. Martin’s, 1999)

Articles

• “Civic Engagement and Displaced Students” (with Zarlasht Sarmast), Journal of Internationalization of Higher Education; Policy and Practice, no. 2, 2025, pp. 151-166.
• “The Global Liberal Arts Challenge,” Ethics and International Affairs, fall 2022 (36:3).
• “Institution as Citizen: Colleges and Universities as Actors in Defense of Student Voting Rights” (with Erin Cannan), Rutgers Law Review, fall 2022.
• “Internationalization through Integration” (with Liviu Matei), Journal of Internationalization of Higher Education; Policy and Practice, no. 2, 2022.
• “Bard College, an Ecosystem of Engagement,” Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 38-52, 2019.
• “Liberal Arts and Sciences: Responding to the Challenges of the XXIst Century,” Education Studies/Voprosy obrazovania no. 4, 2015, pp. 33-61.
• “Russia and the New Authoritarians,” Demokratizatsiya, vol. 22, no. 2, spring 2014, pp. 191-206.
• “The Perfect Storm: George W. Bush and the American Press,” European Journal of Communication, vol. 23 no. 2, June 2008, pp. 211-222.
• “Lessons from Russia: A Neo-Authoritarian Media System,” European Journal of Communication, vol. 19, no. 2, June 2004, pp. 139-163.
• “Keeping Track of Press Freedom,” European Journal of Communication, vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003, pp. 107-112.
• “A Disappearing Enemy: The Image of the United States in Soviet Political Cartoons,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 73, no. 3, autumn 1996, pp. 609-620.
• “A Changing Image: The Portrayal of the United States in Pravda's Editorial Cartoons in the Gorbachev Era,” Slovo, fall, 1989, pp. 23-41.

Chapters

• “Russia and the New Authoritarians,” in Laurelle and Rollberg eds., Mass Media in the Post-Soviet World: Market Forces, State Actors, and Political Manipulation in the Informational Environment after Communism, 2018, Stuttgart, pp. 57-78.
• “Adapting Liberal Arts and Sciences as a System of Education” (with Susan H. Gillespie), in American Universities Abroad: The Leadership of Independent Transnational Higher Education Institutions, American University of Cairo Press, 2018
• “Russia: Against the Tide, Liberal Arts Establishes a Foothold in Post-Soviet Russia” (with Andrei Kortunov and Philip Fedchin),  in Patti McGill Peterson ed., Confronting Challenges to the Liberal Arts Curriculum (New York: Routledge), 2012, pp. 151-174.
• “Creating ‘Deep Partnerships’ with Institutions Abroad: The University as Global Citizen” (with Susan H. Gillespie et al.), in Ross Lewin ed., The Handbook of Practice and Research in Study Abroad: Higher Education and the Quest for Global Citizenship (New York: Routledge), 2009.

Popular publications

• “Give Them Ballots: Liberal education prepares students for citizenship. Colleges and universities must ensure they can vote,” Liberal Education, June 2026.
• “New York colleges can do better by student voters” (with Sierra Ford), Albany Times Union, March 17, 2026.
• “Gomillion v Lightfoot Reverberates in the Fight for Justice Today” (with Lisa Bratton), The EDU Ledger, March 5, 2026.
• “Higher Ed’s Role in Protecting Youth Voting Rights and Democracy” (with Yael Bromberg), Forbes, February 25, 2026.
• “US universities must do all they can to counter voter suppression” (with Yael Bromberg and Erin Cannan), Times Higher, December 10, 2025.
• “The Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses: the promises of the 26^th Amendment remain unfulfilled” (with Yael Bromberg), The Nation, November 19, 2025.
• “4 Times Colleges Led the Fight for Voting Rights: Colleges can and have stood against authoritarianism before” (with Yael Bromberg), Inside Higher Ed, November 18, 2025.
• ‘What universities gain from involving displaced students in civic engagement” (with Zarlasht Sarmast), The Times Higher, November 13, 2025.
• “Deeds, Not Words: The push for university ‘neutrality’ harms education and society,” Liberal Education, May 21, 2024.
• “It Takes a Higher Ed Network,” Liberal Education, April 12, 2022.
• “New York Mandated on-campus Voting, which hasn’t happened,” Albany Tines Union, February 29, 2024.
• “New York State Can Help Overcome Voter Suppression of College Students,” WAMC, January 27, 2022.
• “Remove Obstacles to Student Vote” (with Nily Rozic), Albany Times Union, November 3, 2020.
• “Colleges Should Promote and Defend Student Voting,” Huffington Post, August 12, 2016.
• “Putin and the New Authoritarians,” TheGlobalist.com, November 30, 2007.