Members of the Barnard community have been groundbreaking trailblazers since the College opened its doors in 1889 — and this past year has been no exception. Here, in celebration of Women’s History Month, find some of the most recent contributions that Barnard women have made to the arts, sciences, athletics, and media.
Athena Film Festival Turns 15
The Athena Film Festival held its 15th annual event the weekend of March 6–9. Filmgoers were treated to what has made the noteworthy festival renowned: works that amplify women’s voices and touch on timely themes, including reproductive rights, women’s work, sports, and the environment. “The Athena Film Festival is a cornerstone piece of Athena Center programming that provides an essential sense of community and hope,” said Umbreen Bhatti ’00, the Constance Hess Williams ’66 Director of the Athena Center for Leadership. “I am so proud that we are always a space of proactivity — not reactivity.”
Six Decades of Magic with Twyla Tharp ’63
The legendary choreographer, who transformed modern and classical dance, celebrated her 60-year career with performances at New York City Center in March. The program paired the monumental “Diabelli” (1998) and the new “Slacktide.” Already a Tony and Emmy Award winner, Tharp was honored in January with the Golden Lion of Biennale Danza 2025 in Venice.
Zora Neale Hurston Centennial and 100 Years of Black Students at Barnard
From 2025 to 2028, Barnard is celebrating the centenary anniversary of the enrollment and graduation of Zora Neale Hurston, Class of 1928, as well as Black students at Barnard. The Zora Neale Hurston Centennial and 100 Years of Black Students at Barnard is an interdisciplinary, multiyear project that celebrates and examines Black students’ experiences on campus and exemplifies the College’s commitment as an institution that is diverse, inclusive, and equitable. The College marked the launch of the Centennial by hosting the Zora Neale Hurston Summit (January 31–February 1), led by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust.
Mathematician Professor Dusa McDuff Honored
In January, Dusa McDuff, who has taught at Barnard since 2007 and is now the Joan Lyttle Birman ’48 Professor of Mathematics, was awarded the 2025 AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the American Mathematical Society (AMS). The AMS recognized McDuff for her “enormously influential” research contributions to the development of symplectic topology and for her “long-continued leadership and mentoring in mathematics.” She is a leading figure in the field of symplectic geometry and topology, which looks at the interactions of pairs of quantities via the measurement of two-dimensional areas.
Professor Monica Miller Brings Black Dandies to The Met
Last year, Monica Miller, professor and chair of the Africana Studies Department, was named the guest curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s spring 2025 exhibition and Met Gala, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The show’s theme was inspired by her 2009 award-winning book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, which explored the Black dandy from the Enlightenment in England to the contemporary art worlds of London and New York. “Being able to create a multidimensional world featuring historical and contemporary garments and accessories, paintings, prints, and decorative objects from my book Slaves to Fashion has been an incredible honor and a huge, fantastic challenge,” said Miller.
Barnard at the Olympics
As speed, technique, and style collided in Paris, the College community cheered on five alumnae who were on Team USA: champion fencer Anne Cebula ’20 in women’s épée; Alexis Sablone ’08, seven-time X Games medalist, as coach for women’s street skateboarding; Gabrielle Ferrara ’12, COO and managing partner of Ferrara Manufacturing, who collaborated with designer Ralph Lauren to manufacture the outfits worn in the opening and closing ceremonies; movement artist Sarah Silverblatt-Buser ’15 as an Olympic torch relay performer; and Paralympic Games tandem cyclist Skyler Samuelson Espinoza ’17.
Celebrating 10 Years of Barnard’s Summer Research Institute (SRI)
For 10 summers, SRI has been one of New York City’s most standout programs for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), especially for young women scientists. It offers students 10 weeks to conduct fully-funded research projects with Barnard and Columbia faculty mentors in STEM fields. “We are so excited to have supported students in their scientific exploration for 10 years,” said associate professor of psychology Koleen McCrink, who co-directed the program with associate professor of chemistry Marisa C. Buzzeo ’01. “There is a real sense of accomplishment by the students, faculty, and staff involved in SRI. To be able to mark this milestone feels wonderful.”
Remembering Suffragist Mabel Ping-Hua Lee ’16
The much celebrated Broadway musical Suffs won 2024 Tony Awards for best score and book for its retelling of the activism of various suffragists from the late 1910s and onward — yet it overlooked a Barnard alumna who made history. In 1912, when she was just 16, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee ’16 rode a white horse across Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, leading 10,000 marchers in a suffrage parade up New York City’s Fifth Avenue. “We all believe in the idea of democracy,” wrote Lee in her 1914 essay “The Meaning of Woman Suffrage.” “Woman suffrage or the feminist movement … is the application of democracy to women.” Though Suffs left out her story, Lee has been honored elsewhere, including the renaming of Manhattan’s Chinatown post office as the Mabel Lee Memorial Post Office in 2018.
Two Sigrid Nunez ’72 Books Became Films
Last year saw not one but two of the books by novelist Sigrid Nunez ’72 adapted for the screen. The Friend, published in 2018 and winner of a National Book Award, was made into a film starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray that debuted in the fall at the Telluride, Toronto, and New York film festivals. An adaptation of her 2021 novel, What Are You Going Through, was turned into the film The Room Next Door, becoming the English-language directorial debut of acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.
Maria Hinojosa ’84 wins Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award
On January 10, 2024, Maria Hinojosa ’84, Barnard’s Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence, was named the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award. Hinojosa is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and former show host of Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. She is also the founder of Futuro Media, whose podcast Suave won the Pulitzer Prize in 2022. The lifetime award is conferred by the Murrow School of Journalism at Washington State University and recognizes top leaders in the communications industry who have made outstanding achievements throughout their careers.
For more Women’s History Month content, check out “Barnard’s Competitive Legacy of Student-Athletes.”
