Since its launch last spring, Barnard|Next has been offering learning opportunities to the College’s 40,000 living graduates in the form of faculty-led academic sessions and distinguished talks. The popularity of the four programs — Reading Groups, Explorers Series, Enrichers Series, and Barnard Authors Shelf — demonstrates that connections and lifelong learning are why nearly 300 alumnae have made their way back to Barnard.
“Barnard|Next faculty offer expertise, humor, and a strong grasp of Barnard’s academic culture,” said Jessica Madrigal, director of Lifelong Learning. “When faculty and alumnae come together, they spark deep conversations from diverse perspectives — it’s the kind of classroom where you lose track of time.”
For faculty, Barnard|Next provides a chance for them to teach to a different audience. “We propose each semester a number of courses we think might be interesting to alumnae, courses that will provoke discussion,” said Ross Hamilton, chair of the English Department, whose New York City in Film course is a Barnard|Next favorite.
Thankfully for alumnae, there is no shortage of standout courses for them to take, including 10 Crazy Reasons We Get Dressed the Way We Do, with Anne Higonnet, Barbara Novak Professor of Art History; A History of Abortion: Gender, Religion, Law, with Wendy Schor-Haim, director of the First-Year Writing Program and senior lecturer in the English Department; and The Twilight of Democracy?, with Paula Franzese ’80, a visiting professor in the Political Science Department.
Margaret Vandenburg — a senior lecturer in English who retired at the end of the 2023 academic year — has been leading the conversation-based Reading Groups series through Beyond Barnard for five years, before she brought her What’s Past Is Prologue course to Barnard|Next in fall 2024. Her 2024 novel Craze, a Jazz Age portrait of queer New York, was selected as the College’s first Authors Shelf discussion.
“Many return year after year, a testament to the capacity to foster an ongoing intellectual community, a wonderful way to stay engaged with the College,” said Vandenburg. And the enthusiasm can extend beyond alumnae to curious family members, like the mother of Emma Cunningham ’20, who joined her in one of Vandenburg’s classes.
“It’s a privilege to launch this program with such exceptional faculty,” said Madrigal. “Professor Vandenburg won the Emily Gregory Award for Excellence in Teaching. Students selected her for this prize, and she is a perennial favorite of our alumnae. Why? She is a novelist, a playwright, and she is incredibly generous sharing her talents, even in retirement.”
Here, professors and alumnae share their experiences participating in Barnard|Next, describing how it has inspired new approaches to teaching while fostering lifelong learners.
Why do you believe Barnard|Next has become popular with alumnae?
Professor Ross Hamilton: One of the lovely things with the alumnae is the realization that their loyalty to the College is also a willingness to continue thinking. We are all entranced by new ideas, new ways of seeing, and one of the pleasures of the seminars is that Barnard alumnae really want to speak up and share ideas and experiences.
Daphne Philipson ’69: I believe that giving alumnae opportunities to reconnect with the academics of the College can only benefit everyone. It enables alumnae to see firsthand what wonderful professors the College has. It enables us to pursue academic interests long after we have graduated. And it also enables us to benefit from the insight Barnard professors can give us on a range of subjects that we perhaps would have missed on our own.
Christina Arnold ’12: We love our Barnard experience, and it doesn’t ever have to end. We can join a class to be connected to one of the most treasured parts of your life. It’s really the very best — get all the intellectual activity without blue book essays. I cannot wait to sign up again!
What inspired the Alumnae Reading Group, and what do you think participants gain from your discussions?
Margaret Vandenburg: As director of First-Year English back in the day, I facilitated an Alumnae Reinventing Literary History seminar, where alumnae were invited to read great works of literature in conjunction with a lecture series featuring professors from Barnard’s Classics, History, Art History, and English Departments. This model ultimately morphed into the current Alumnae Reading Group, which meets monthly on Zoom. This isn’t a typical wine-sipping, beach-reading group. I daresay our discussions approximate the sophistication of Barnard classes. If anything, the life experience alumnae bring to the table generates even deeper insights. The online format allows us to include Barnard graduates living in places like Texas, California, and Guam. Ultimately, reading these books together has been a galvanizing experience. Now more than ever, we need to understand the American character in order to salvage the American experiment.
Why did you sign up for Barnard|Next?
Emma Cunningham ’20: Even though it has only been five years since I graduated from the College, I graduated in the midst of the pandemic, and so my experience ended abruptly. It was also easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day stresses [of] College and not fully appreciate how much I loved what I was doing. I wanted to return to these courses to gain a newfound appreciation of the experience within the context of my personal and professional life now — and also, frankly, without the unique stress of being an undergrad!
Arnold: My favorite class at Barnard was Women in Film. I still talk about it all the time, 20-plus years later. When I saw I could have my favorite experience [in Professor Hamilton’s class] all over again, I jumped at it.
What was the most fulfilling part of the class?
Cunningham: I believe I was the most recent graduate in the group, and it was so great to hear the perspectives and enthusiasm from Barnard classes that came before me. The novels we read had the common thread of culture wars — a topic that is even more relevant now than when I signed up for the course a few months ago. Everyone brought their own interpretations and lived experiences to the discussions, and I found it so valuable to be in this space where everyone could share their perspectives, particularly at this difficult moment in our country.
Philipson: I chose Professor Hamilton’s class because I am not only an avid movie fan but a lifelong New Yorker who never tires of learning more about the City’s past and present. Professor Hamilton’s selections of movies made in New York City really drew me towards the course. While I had seen some of the movies, there were others that I had not, and I welcomed the idea to participate. My favorite thing was the insight that Professor Hamilton gave us with regard to the films. For example, Midnight Cowboy had characters who were not particularly endearing [and] would [have] been easy to write off. Professor Hamilton gave us a great perspective that these characters were people who had had hope but were let down by family or society and were acting out and ultimately were shown to be good guys who ultimately connected with someone else emotionally. I was not disappointed.
For more on Barnard|Next, including upcoming courses and how to enroll, click here.