SPARK

Ignite your thinking about change and how it happens. Through interviews, book talks, field trips, film screenings, and more, you'll get to know the women and nonbinary people leading change in a wide range of areas, and learn more about the hard, but important, work of building a better future.

SPARK is open to all members of the Barnard community, including faculty, staff, alumnae, and friends of the college.

Click here to view our archive.

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This year, SPARK will examine how transitions shape our lives, organizations, communities, and culture — and the critical role leaders play during these times. How might we seize the opportunities these transitions present, rather than simply living through them — and how can we help others do so too? What does it look like for us to allow for — maybe even create — graceful endings, while we embrace new beginnings? What does it mean to be creative, collaborative, courageous, and conscientious in a moment of change? What is the role of leaders in this transitional moment? We'll be hosting dynamic discussions and compelling events addressing these questions and more all year. Watch this space for information about when and where to join us, and if you have an idea for us, let us know at athenacenter@barnard.edu.

Events

Chasing Spirits Book Launch
Join Annelise Eileraas '25 and Karina Eileraas Karakus P'25, co-authors of Chasing Spirits, for an intimate conversation about creating through trauma and leading out of profound loss, on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, from 4-5:30 PM in Milstein LL001. Copies of Chasing Spirits will be provided to the first 10 attendees, and will also be available for purchase. RSVP here.

Athena Film Festival Shorts :: Transition
Are leaders born or are they made? Moving chronologically, these transitional films imagine leadership as a long process of becoming. With grace and integrity — plus a little time for fun — these protagonists ask us to consider what change might look like when taken one small step at a time. Watch a special transition focused shorts block at the Athena Film Festival. Registration is now closed.

Deséenme un buen viaje :: A conversation with author Gina Montaner ‘83 and her daughter Paola Ramos ‘09
Join us on November 13th at Barnard College for an unforgettable evening as renowned journalist and columnist Gina Montaner '83 launches her deeply personal book Deséenme un buen viaje. In this intimate memoir, Gina recounts the profound journey with her father, the famed Cuban political analyst Carlos Alberto Montaner, as he requested her help to die by euthanasia. This moving narrative delves into themes of exile, identity, and the return to roots in Spain after fleeing the Cuban revolution. To mark the NYC stop of Gina's promotional tour, The Athena Center for Leadership and Planeta Publishing present a special conversation between Gina and her daughter, Barnard alum and journalist Paola Ramos ‘09. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to be part of an intimate conversation that challenges our views on family, legacy, and the courage it takes to say goodbye. This event is open to the public. Registration closes Tuesday, November 12 at 7pm. Registration is now closed.

VP Debate Watch Party
Join the Athena Center for Leadership and the Office of Community Engagement and Inclusion for a debate watch party on October 1! Whether you're an American or not, whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or Independent or unaffiliated, this debate promises to be a unique opportunity to witness history in the making. Open to all Barnard and Columbia students, but space (and pizza!) are limited. Registration is now closed.

Debate Watch Party
Join the Athena Center for Leadership and the Office of Community Engagement and Inclusion for a debate watch party on September 10th! Whether you're an American or not, whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or Independent or unaffiliated, this debate promises to be a unique opportunity to witness history in the making. Kimberly Peeler-Allen, co-founder of Higher Heights, will provide expert commentary.
Open to all Barnard and Columbia students, but space (and pizza!) are limited. Registration is now closed.

A Walking Tour of Harlem
Join the Director of the Athena Center for Leadership, Umbreen Bhatti '00, for a walking tour of Harlem as a site of transition and transformation for the city and country. On our walk, we will explore the birth of Harlem as a Black Mecca, its transition into the Renaissance period, its role in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and its contemporary stories as a neighborhood that faces both challenges and opportunities. Along the way, we will learn about historic icons like Arturo Schomburg, Langston Hughes, Madame CJ Walker, Florence Mills, Ella Fitzgerald, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., W. E. B. DuBois, and countless others. The tour will be led by community historian Asad Dandia of New York Narratives.

Space is limited. Register in your NSOP schedule, available via Guidebook. Registration is now closed.

Faculty-Student Lunches

Amelia Simone Herbert, Education and Urban Studies
Amelia Simone Herbert will lead a conversation about how Black feminist pedagogies center transition and transgression as conditions for learning. She will share how school field trips with students in Cape Town helped her understand what bell hooks called “teaching to transgress” and reflect on what Octavia Butler’s concept of Change teaches educators about fostering the will to learn. If time permits, ask her what she’s learned from the transitions of being a student and a teacher at elementary, middle, high school, and university level all in the same city of Newark.

February 19, 12:30-1:30pm at the CoLab in the Athena Center for Leadership, 4th floor Milstein
Limited to 10 students. Register at bit.ly/Faculty-Lunch-Transition.

Gabrielle Gutierrez, Neuroscience
Join Professor Gabrielle Gutierrez for an Ask Me Anything style faculty-student lunch to discuss transitions she has experienced in her field, including transitions in how neuroscience research is done and new developments that are changing how we study the brain, how computational neuroscience is evolving as a field, and the big transition of doing graduate school in the sciences.

February 12, 12:30-1:30pm, at the CoLab in the Athena Center for Leadership, 4th floor Milstein
Limited to 10 students. Register at bit.ly/Faculty-Lunch-Transition.

Angelo Caglioti, History
Professor Caglioti, History Department, will discuss the transition between different political regimes in the nineteenth and twentieth century. In particular, he will reflect on how nationalist liberal democracies, authoritarian dictatorships, and totalitarian regimes took power and how they morphed from one to the other. How is authority legitimately transmitted and bestowed upon individuals? Could it be seized through violence, wars, or intimidation? Professor Caglioti will devote particular attention to the history of Italian fascism and the negotiations of power between Mussolini, conservative elites, and the Catholic Church.

January 30, 12-1pm, at the CoLab in the Athena Center for Leadership, 4th floor Milstein
Limited to 10 students. Registration is now closed.

Alexander Cooley, Political Science
Join Alex Cooley, professor of Political Science, for lunch and a chat about the rise of authoritarianism, what strategies authoritarian regimes across the globe are using today, and what US "soft power,” once viewed as dominant in areas such as higher education, sports and global media, looks like now. Depending on where the conversation goes, you might also get to talk about his travels across the post-Soviet Central Asian states, working closely with human rights and anti-corruption and advocacy groups, and what it's like to be sanctioned by the Russian government for his research!

October 23, 12-1 pm at the CoLab in the Athena Center for Leadership, 4th floor Milstein
Limited to 10 students. Registration is now closed.

Najam Haider, Religion
Join Najam Haider, professor and chair of Religion, for lunch and a chat about the tensions between protest, power, and political transition especially in matters associated with Islam or the Middle East. Drawing on the idea that many ideas and beliefs that we consider "normal", "mainstream," or "modern" are in fact a manifestation of Protestant Christianity and Settler Colonialism, Prof. Haider will discuss why it is so difficult to imagine the creation of a different world. You might even get to ask him why he was politely asked to leave multiple human rights organizations about his inadvertent smuggling activities in Yemen.

October 16, 12-1 pm at the CoLab in the Athena Center for Leadership, 4th floor Milstein
Limited to 10 students. Registration is now closed.

Dinner and Dialogue

Alums and current students, please join us for Dinner and Dialogue, a series of delicious dinners and quality conversations about topics that we don't often find ourselves having the right time, space, or conditions to discuss.

Each dinner will take place at the NYC home of a Barnard alum and will bring together up to 5 students and 5 alums of different perspectives for a lively, facilitated conversation that we hope will leave you feeling like you have a new understanding of the topic and like you're part of an amazing community - because you are.

On Keeping Movements Alive :: September 30, 2024, Upper West Side - Registration is now closed
On Voting :: October 14, 2024, Upper West Side - Registration is now closed
On Political Engagement, Post-Election :: November 18, 2024, Upper West Side - Registration is now closed
On Political Engagement, Post-Election :: February 25, 2025, Upper West Side
On Political Engagement, Post-Election :: March 27, 2025, Upper West Side
On Political Engagement, Post-Election :: April 15, 2025, Upper West Side