Coming of Age at Barnard, 1968
1968 was a pivotal year in the history of Columbia University, American politics, and youth movements internationally. Estelle Freedman, American historian and a student at Barnard during that tumultuous era, looks back on 1968 from the perspective of subsequent events and historical interpretations. She places her experience of coming of age at Barnard within the […]
Epigenetics and the Wiring and Re-wiring of Genomic Information
Global DNA rearrangements occur in many cells but are most exaggerated in ciliated protozoa, a type of single-celled organism. During development of the somatic nucleus, these protozoa destroy 95% of their germline genome, severely fragmenting their chromosomes, and then sort and reorder hundreds of thousands of remaining pieces. Professor Landweber’s research shows that RNA molecules […]
Black Youth and Empowerment: Politics and Rap Music
This lecture is part of the Virginia C. Gildersleeve lecture series Race, Gender, Community & Rights: Celebrating 15 Years of Africana Studies at Barnard. Cathy Cohen is Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, University of Chicago. Professor Cohen is a noted scholar of American politics whose research interests include […]
The State of Democracy: Gender and Political Participation
Keynote lecture by Lani Guinier. The state of democracy in the United States is undeniably troubling. In the last Presidential election, only 55.27% of the voting-age American population cast their ballots. Amazingly, a participation rate of less than two-thirds is still the highest turnout since 1968. our representational political system represents few, particularly when we […]
A Love During the War
A Love During the War is a docudrama following the experiences of Aziza, a journalist who is separated from her husband when the Democratic Republic of Congo erupts into civil war. Aziza reunites with her husband in Kinshasa, but the memory of the horrors suffered by other women during the war still haunts her. Despite […]
The Prize of the Pole
On a hot summer day in 1897, Robert E. Peary—the most famed explorer of his day—docked in Brooklyn with the outrageous cargo he’d brought for his financiers at the American Museum of Natural History: six living Inuit, including six-year-old Minik. A century later Peary’s great grandchild attempts to rediscover the connections between himself, his great […]
Choreographing Women’s History: Aztec Ritual Dance
Choreography memorializes women’s history. In this lecture, Paul Scolieri, Assistant Professor of Dance at Barnard, explores this idea with his interpretations of ancient Aztec women’s ritual dances. He will argue that the configuration of dance, death and femininity in the visual and written descriptions of women’s dances throughout indigenous and colonial discourses uniquely represents the […]
Shifting the Terrain for Diaspora Studies: Democracy, the Rule of Law, and the ‘New’ Souls of Black Folk
This lecture is part of the Virginia C. Gildersleeve lecture series Race, Gender, Community & Rights: Celebrating 15 Years of Africana Studies at Barnard. Professor Clarke is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Yale University. She has degrees in Political Science, Anthropology, and International law. Her research interests in religious and legal movements and the related production […]
Towards a Vision of Sexual and Economic Justice
Sexual oppression and economic oppression are inextricably linked, but the movements that address each of these issues are not similarly intertwined. Contemporary movements for global economic justice, for example, tend to shy away from sexuality issues, while campaigns for sexual rights rarely foreground economic concerns. In some spheres, however, the gap is beginning to close. […]
Women, Minorities, and Interdisciplinarity: Transforming the Research Enterprise
In the U.S., amid fears of a shrinking scientific workforce and the dulling competitive edge it brings, universities, as well as federal and local programs, have pushed to expand interdisciplinary research. The reason? To attract to the fields of science, mathematics, and engineering the very people who have, historically, been discouraged from practicing them, namely […]
Freedom on Our Terms: A New Agenda for Women and Girls
In 1977, over 20,000 people gathered in Houston, Texas at the National Women’s Conference to evaluate gender discrimination in America and to develop recommendations for reform. Never before had such a diverse group of women gathered in one place to share the realities of their lives, educating each other about the unique challenges they faced […]
Sexuality, Religion, and Politics
Over the last several decades, conservative, politicized religious movements have proliferated around the world, successfully resisting secularist establishments and “liberal” culture, and mobilizing to re-impose various forms of patriarchal order. The trend is apparent across the globe, from the backlash over feminism and sexual liberation in the United States to the potentially schismatic revolt in […]
Reconstructing Womanhood: A Future Beyond Empire
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Hazel Carby’s Reconstructing Womanhood, a touchstone of scholarship in the fields of Literary and Cultural Studies, African Diaspora Studies, Gender Studies, and Post-Colonial Studies. With a one-day symposium on November 2, BCRW joins the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia University, the […]
Ain’t I American? Women, Human Rights, and U.S. Identity in the 21st Century
Where would our society be without the contributions of countless women who’ve worked so tirelessly to secure our rights? On Tuesday, October 30, activist, author, advisor, and strategist Dorothy Q. Thomas invites us to reflect on this question as she delivers the fourth annual Helen Pond McIntyre ’48 Lecture. As a means of tracing the […]
Gender and Migration in a Global Perspective: Difficult Dialogues
Dominating recent domestic policy discussions, migration has proven to be one of the most difficult and controversial political topics of our time. With last March’s memorable Scholar & Feminist Conference, the Barnard Center for Research on Women endeavored to create a dialogue around immigration that takes into account the oft-overlooked issues of gender and sexuality. […]
Egypt’s Human Rights Groups: Assessing Their Political Impact
When the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) and like-minded groups came into existence over twenty years ago, some hailed the groups as pillars of “civil society,” and the best hope for grassroots democratic transformation within an authoritarian regime. Others argued that these same organizations are nothing more than smokescreens deployed by authoritarian elites to […]
Manifest Your Destiny: Find the Courage to Defy Convention and Create a Life Worth Living
Since her activist days at Barnard College, Loolwa Khazzoom ’91 has followed her passion in building an unconventional career with a DIY (Do It Yourself) attitude. A self-taught Jewish multicultural educator, freelance writer, dance therapist, and singer/songwriter, she has presented and performed at leading venues, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Harvard University, and she […]
Young, Queer, and Organized
FIERCE! and Q-team may be located on opposite sides of the country, but they couldn’t be closer in working to empower young queer and trans youth of color and building broader, more inclusive social justice movements. On Thursday, October 4, members from each of these impressive grassroots organizations, including Q-team’s Ned del Callejo, come together […]
The Storytelling Project: A Model for Teaching About Race and Racism Through Storytelling and the Arts
Stories are powerful vehicles for addressing race and racism, says Barnard Professor of Education Lee Anne Bell. In conjunction with a diverse team of artists, teachers, university faculty and students, she has developed a unique educational model that uses storytelling to help high school students understand and deal effectively with race issues. From the group’s […]
Echoes of Life: Developing Ultrasound Technologies
Obstetric ultrasound has proven such a valuable diagnostic tool since the late 1950s that it’s become a cornerstone of monitoring fetal development. Revolutionary innovations continue to transform the field, providing both doctors and pregnant women with an astounding and ever-increasing array of information about the fetuses they care for. On Tuesday, September 18, Beryl Benacerraf […]