About Us | Barnard Center for Research on Women

About Barnard Center for Research on Women

Contact Barnard Center for Research on Women

Student Resources Barnard Center for Research on Women

Courses at the Barnard Center for Research on Women

Mission

The Center for Research on Women was founded in 1971 as part of Barnard's longtime commitment to women's equality and to show Barnard's enthusiasm for the new women's movement. The aim of the Center, as articulated by its founding charter, is "to assure that women can live and work in dignity, autonomy, and equality." More than three decades later, we continue to pursue that goal in many ways: by promoting inquiry and advancing knowledge about women; by helping to keep women's issues on the forefront of college life; by seeking to increase ties among diverse groups of women; and by reaching out to students, faculty, administrators, alumnae, as well as scholars, activists and artists beyond Barnard's gates.

Toward this aim, the Center hosts a series of lectures, panel discussions and conferences exploring a wide range of feminist and social justice issues. We have, in recent semesters, welcomed such visionaries as actors Anna Deavere Smith and Zoe Caldwell, political activists Amber Hollibaugh and Sister Helen Prejean, nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams, environmental activist Winona LaDuke, poets June Jordan and Adrienne Rich, legal scholar Lani Guinier, journalists Natalie Angier and Katha Pollitt, and scholars Judith Butler and Kate Millett. Whether they're addressing the changing role of women in the business place, discussing representations of women in film, or critiquing the criminal justice system, our speakers bring the complexities of our world into focus through the lens of feminist scholarship.

Staff

BCRW Staff:
Janet Jakobsen, Ph.D., Director
Gisela Fosado, Ph.D., Associate Director
Lucy Trainor '07, Administrative Assistant
Hope Dector, Web Designer

A staff email directory is available on our contact page.

Student Research Assistants:
Shazeeda Bhola '11
Lillian Chargin '10
Suzanna Denison '09
Kaleigh Dumbach '10
Anna Steffens '10
Chanel Ward '08
Suzanne Wulach '08

Email List

Join our email list below to receive event announcements from BCRW.

Collection

The Center also houses a collection of research material that includes periodicals, emphemera (conference papers, government reports, manifestoes, and other non-book materials), non-profit organizations' newsletters and archives of defunct publications from early second-wave feminism. In Spring of 2006, the Center launched "From the Collection", a series of online exhibits making these valuable materials more widely available.