Dear Members of the Barnard Community,
As we prepare to recognize Trans Awareness Week, I want to invite all members of our community to join in activities here at Barnard and remind themselves of resources the College has to offer, summarized in our Trans@Barnard website. Many of these resources have been created or expanded in the past few years, including new work supported by Barnard’s Program Coordinator of LGBTQ+ Outreach Dylan Kapit ‘16 (they/them). The Center for Engaged Pedagogy works with academic departments across campus to share its gender-inclusive strategies and resources with instructors. The DEI Office and Human Resources have also established a new LGBTQ+ employee resource group for staff and faculty. SGA will be hosting their second annual binder drive. The Furman Counseling Center and Primary Care Health Service (PCHS) have staff trained in gender-affirming and trans care. Furman offers short-term therapeutic support and referrals for the trans community at Barnard. People can make an appointment by calling 212-854-2092 or emailing counseling@barnard.edu. Appointments at PCHS can be made by calling 212-854-2091.
Across the nation, extremists are targeting trans people with policies designed to take away their human and civil rights and are inflaming a moral panic that endangers their health and safety. Violence against trans people is at record levels and on the rise. In the face of those threats, it is essential that we stand together in our commitment to recognize, honor, support, and engage with every member of our community.
As always, Barnard approaches important societal challenges through the lenses of learning and scholarship. Faculty in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and other academic fields across the College engage in research that critically examines the dynamic relationships between constructions of gender and structures of power and inequality. Academic centers such as BCRW have long offered programming and featured publications that recognize the central role that trans people have played in advancing social transformation, both historically and today.
Next Thursday, Nov. 17, the Office of DEI, Diversity Council, American Studies, CCIS, and WGSS will co-host a special presentation by Amanda Phillips, Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University. Dr. Phillips will discuss how we can create space for trans, queer, and feminist possibility even in the notoriously toxic environments of video games and provide theoretical and practical insights about surviving and thriving in a culture designed without gender-nonbinary and trans people or women in mind. We invite you to register to take part.
There is a great amount of work still to be done — and Trans Awareness Week shouldn’t be the only time we acknowledge and support our trans community. The College also continues to focus on how our daily practices live up to our collective commitment to recognize and include past, present, and future trans people in the Barnard community. It gives me real encouragement to see how many people across the College are working to improve the experience for trans members of our community. I thank all of you for your dedication and for the community you are helping to build here at Barnard.
With appreciation,
Jennifer Rosales (she/hers)
Vice President for Inclusion and Engaged Learning and Chief Diversity Officer