Barnard’s core mission is to rigorously educate and empower women, providing them with the ability to think, discern, and move effectively in the world—a world that is different from when the College was founded. Now more than ever, the success of our mission depends on the extent to which our community is diverse, inclusive, and equitable. We know that academic excellence is impossible without the unique perspectives, ideas, approaches, and contributions that come from having the broadest diversity of students, faculty, and staff across the College.
Our definition of diversity encompasses structural and social differences that form the basis of inequality in our society, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic class, disability, religion, citizenship status, and country of origin. Moreover, our concern is with how differences in power and possibilities align with social categories and identities, and how these differences distinguish individuals and groups in ways that privilege some and constrain others.
To become the inclusive community we aspire to be, we must treat each other equitably and with respect, creating an environment where no voices are silenced and all of us can thrive. Together, our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity has the potential to disrupt and transform entrenched practices and thinking. And as a result, it will hold Barnard accountable to its goal of graduating students who are engaged world citizens possessed of a discerning intelligence, an understanding of inequality and power, and moral courage.
— Mission Statement adopted by President’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion, February 15, 2017
In 2019, Barnard College hired its first VP for DEI to ensure the continued institutionalization of the task force recommendations.
Vice President González Stokas
Ariana González Stokas joined Barnard College in July 2019 as inaugural Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. She has a B.A. in philosophy and studio arts from Bard College. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy and education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her doctoral research examined the intersections of aesthetics, education, and inequality. Her current research investigates reparative epistemologies in universities and the role of social movement pedagogy from Latin America and the Caribbean in “inventing school.” She is a co-investigator on the Mellon subgrant Critical Theory in the Global South and was the project director for a Lumina Rockefeller grant at Bard to cultivate racial equity through revealing suppressed local histories.
Prior to Barnard, González Stokas served as the inaugural Dean of Inclusive Excellence at Bard College in New York. While there she was instrumental in identifying working groups to establish a clear and strategic vision for Pell-eligible and DACA students. She also supported the development and institutionalization of student-initiated projects, symbolic reparation projects such as signage to commemorate suppressed histories, and created, along with a team of faculty, staff, and students, Gilson Place for interracial and intercultural dialogue. Prior to her role at Bard, she was an assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies at Guttman Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she was a founding faculty member.
González Stokas brings a wealth of experience to Barnard as a committed educator and researcher. She has worked as an administrator, faculty member, and scholar of philosophy and education, with a proven track record of being dedicated to equity and access.
