News

The College is excited to immerse students in the world of Indigenous studies with a new interdisciplinary minor.

BC MMUF Alum Inem Richardson ’20 in the recent issue of Barnard Magazine. Since graduation Inem has funded the Thomas Sankara Center in Burkina Faso, where she is on a Fulbright, and gives a nice shoutout to Africana Studies: https://barnard.edu/magazine/fall-2022/revolution-thought-west-africa.

This course is concerned with two interrelated topics: 1) the long, complicated history of voyages to Latin America; and 2) the myriad and evolving ways voyagers to the region have portrayed its landscapes, people, food, festivals, and more. The course will move chronologically from the 15thcentury to the present, with each week devoted to grappling with a type of voyage characteristic of a given era.

In Harlem Movement Legacies, students learn the dances linked to the historic neighborhood — and their greater cultural significance.

“‘Fashion’ as a system is very exclusive, while style belongs to us all,” says Monica L. Miller, the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of English and Africana Studies at Barnard. She has studied Black culture and clothing for two decades, and this summer she has added her expertise to a number of exhibitions, including the "Africa Fashion" exhibition at London's V&A Museum and "Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip-Hop Style" at New York's FIT. Professor Miller was kind enough to explain her academic approach to fashion and her plans to bring her research to the classroom.

Professor Monica Miller is a sought-after style educator who consulted on two projects debuting this August in London.

Professor Miller shares two projects in London:
1) Along with other academics, I was an initial consultant (very small role, but fun) for the V&A Museum's historic exhibition Africa Fashion, which opens on July 2nd-- it is getting amazing press in England. I wrote an essay for the exhibition catalog, "Orange Culture: Once Upon a Time in Nigeria…". Orange Culture (A Nigerian fashion label that makes clothes for all genders) is featured on the cover of the book. The catalog will be available in August 2022
2) Last year, I wrote an essay for Theaster Gates: A Clay Sermon show at the Whitechapel Gallery, a show that was in collaboration with the V&A. Gates' work has been on exhibition in London since Fall of 2021 and now includes his "Black Chapel" installation for the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion. The catalog for A Clay Sermon, including my essay, "Oh Yeah! Yes! Oh Yeah!: Theaster Gate's film A Clay Sermon" will also be published in August of 2022.

Congratulations to Celia E. Naylor, Professor of Africana Studies and History; Chair of the Africana Studies Department, on her recently published book entitled "Unsilencing Slavery".

A Barnard student, professor, and staff member reflect on the meaning and importance of Juneteenth.

This year, Barnard awarded two exceptional students — Amanda Taylor ’22 and Makeen Zachery ’22 — for embodying the spirit of the late Professor Prettyman. #CountdownToCommencement


Alexis Pauline Gumbs (nonfiction), whose book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, "offers new methods of feeling, and insists with the best of environmental literature that protecting the planet's collapsing animal ecologies is vital to saving what makes us human."
https://knpr.org/npr/2022-04/2022-whiting-awards-celebrate-10-emerging-writers


An addition to the collection of the feminist playwright’s journals, correspondence, and personal effects allows scholars and students to dive deeper into her legacy and work.

The Francophone-Caribbean scholar and lead researcher of a $5 million Mellon Foundation grant and a $40,000 NEH award discusses her inspirations.

This addition provides a window into Shange’s creative process and the publishing industry, Shange's work as a teacher, and Shange as a sister, mother, daughter, and friend.

A Mentor, a Trailblazer, an Institution. #BarnardCelebratesBlackHistory

Wolfe, who served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor in Bill de Blasio’s administration, will enhance Barnard’s relationships with government officials and expand leadership development opportunities.

The multigenre dance installation is an artistic collaboration between generations of Barnard women.

As Barnard’s first Black full-time faculty member, she broke ground in merging feminist literary studies with a study of Black writers.

Professor Kaiama L. Glover offers a new way of reading female “troublemaker” protagonists who refuse to conform.

To celebrate Women’s History Month (March), all month long we are highlighting select lists of Barnard’s dedicated faculty who have been previously recognized with teaching and leadership awards.

To celebrate Women’s History Month (March), all month long we are highlighting select lists of Barnard’s dedicated faculty who have been previously recognized with teaching and leadership awards.

Asha Futterman ’21 reflects on her three-year journey with the Barnard Center for Research on Women, including her Reading the Black Library Youth Fellowship with the Rebuild Foundation.

Please join me in congratulating Colin on his award from the Annual Date Science Institute Seed Funds Program for his proposal titled, “Racial Politics and Sentiment on Twitter: The Dynamics of Online Emotional Language.”
The Data Science Institute Seeds Funds Program aims "to support new collaborations that will lead to longer term and deeper relationships among faculty in different disciplines across Columbia University." This is the fourth iteration of the Award.

Read about the latest grants earned by Barnard faculty and staff to support their research.

Legacies of Kim Hall's Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England

To coincide with Shange’s first posthumous book, Dance We Do: A Poet Explores Black Dance, the College is hosting several events through the two-year-long Shange Magic Project.

Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council speaks on COVID and Homelessness

A new art exhibit, STUFF, celebrates Ntozake Shange (BC'70) and is now on display in the Milstein Center lobby.

Read about the new accomplishments of Barnard scholars.

Othello Was My Grandfather: Shakespeare, Race, and Visions of Freedom in the African Diaspora
Kim F. Hall
Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 7:00pm

I, Too
by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.

The Arts and Sciences Graduate Council (ASGC) instituted this award in 2004 to commemorate excellence in the mentoring of PhD and Masters (MA) students. This award is a student initiative; selections were made entirely by graduate student representatives from GSAS and affiliated schools based on student nomination letters spanning across all disciplines. The selection committee was very impressed by the nomination letters received on your behalf. Here are a few highlights:
Professor George has been an amazing mentor to so many undergraduate and graduate students. She deserves recognition for her commitment to fostering a challenging and welcoming space to learn.
Professor George chooses activities to deliberately build comprehension, rather than simply checking a box or assuming that learning “just happens.”
Professor George is firm about pushing her students to do research and about helping them reformulate their approaches to History and the social sciences.
I admire Professor George’s engagement with graduate students in the United States and Africa. Still, most importantly, I am in awe of her broader vision to increase the number of women of color in academia.