Barnard|Next Faculty

Comic Book Metropolis: New York City and the History of the American Comic Book. No city has been more important in the development and history of comic books than New York City. Home for many decades to publishing giants Marvel Comics and DC Comics, among many others, New York City has attracted hundreds of artists, writers and editors who worked in the industry. This location would in turn exert a powerful influence upon their creativity. Will Eisner and Frank Miller drew upon their personal experiences living and working in the city when they pioneered the graphic novel form in their respective works A Contract with God and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Taking a historical perspective, this Enrichers course considers the ways that New York City can be said to occupy a central place in the history of American comic books and their successor graphic novels. We’ll look at selections from comics and graphic novels from different periods in the history of the medium and think about the ways that they reflect the influence of the city and its people. This in turn will allow for a greater appreciation of the contribution made by New York City to the history of comics. 

Beauty Babies & Dieting: The Impact of Nanotechnology on Women’s Health will explore the impact of  applied nanotechnology on reducing health disparities between men and women across the life cycle, The course will discuss  what is health (in culture and under law) what is disability from the standpoint of social mores, barriers to inclusion and legal regimes designed to prevent discrimination that impacts men and women differently, with a focus upon reproductive rights across the life cycle including risk for cancer of reproductive organs among older women,  Key international and USA laws protecting women's health, reproductive health for all science and law enabling LGBTQI people to have their own biological children without having a heterosexual partner, reducing maternal mortality  by offering safe and accessible technology-based care so that there is  NO MOM LEFT BEHIND, national and global efforts to reduce maternal mortality (noting that women in the USA risk their lives to have a baby) and finally parental leave policies, using the Bahamas as case study.

Kathleen Madden '92 is an art historian and regular contributor to Artforum, Art in America, and OSMOS. She has been part of the curatorial team for exhibitions at Tate Modern, the Barbican Art Gallery, and the Serpentine Gallery. Previously, she was the Commissioning Editor of Contemporary Art at Phaidon Press, where she produced Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography and Ice Cream: Contemporary Art and Culture. Conversations in Contemporary Art students will explore the production, selection, exhibition, and sale of contemporary art, visiting studios, galleries, museums, and collections across the city. Along the way, they will develop a working knowledge of key art-world terminology, learn to ask critical questions about the art of today, and engage in sustained discussion and reflection on the role of contemporary art in cultural and urban life.

Writing Your Life Story. Everyone has, at the very least, one life moment they know is worth a story: that moment that changed everything, that moment that you can still call to mind, or that moment that wasn’t epic but was beautifully, blissfully ordinary. So why can it be hard to find the time, space, and energy to write it down? The trick is simply trying. In this class, that's exactly what we will do. We will use the structure of the personal essay in particular to help us write into life. Coming from the French “essai,” meaning attempt, the essay is a flexible form of writing that can help us give voice and narrative structure to our life moments, to take the large and small of our life and make it story-sized. We will read personal essays rather than argumentative essays and find in them sources of inspiration for our own stories. Phillip Lopate writes about the personal essay, “The hallmark of the personal essay is its intimacy. The writer seems to be speaking directly into your ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom.” Over four sessions, we will read such essays and tap into the stories, from gossip to wisdom to all moments in between, that are coming through us.

Reading Group: Frankenstein. Read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and explore its literary and cinematic adaptations. We will examine how different authors and filmmakers have interpreted the novel’s core themes over time, and how each version reflects the concerns of its era.

Reading Group: Past is Prologue. Culture wars have reached a fever pitch, posing “an existential threat to democracy” according to Americans across the political spectrum. If past is prologue, historical fiction might help us diagnose the disease and nurse the nation back to health.

Reacting to the Past: Greenwich Village. As participants take on historical roles, they also assume the perspectives and victory objectives of those roles. Together with current Barnard students, step into the vibrant world of Greenwich Village at the dawn of the 20th century—a hub of radical ideas, artistic experimentation, and social change. In this immersive, role-based course, participants take on the identities of Village residents gathering at the legendary Polly’s restaurant to debate the pressing issues of the era. Through guided discussions and historical reenactment, you’ll explore themes of feminism, labor rights, marriage, and community.

REACTING TO THE PAST GAME: Greenwich Village, 1913: Suffrage, Labor, and the New Woman uses an innovative role-playing pedagogy developed at Barnard College by Professor Mark Carnes. In these immersive games, Barnard students— past and present— step into moments of historical debate and intellectual upheaval, assuming the roles of key figures to engage deeply with complex ideas and conflicts. Through guided discussions and historical reenactment, you’ll explore themes of feminism, labor rights, marriage, and community. Will the suffragists win support for women’s right to vote? Will striking workers gain the backing they need? Join the conversation and discover how the debates of 1913 still echo today.