The 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling overturned nearly 50 years of legal protections established by Roe v. Wade (1973), ending the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. Currently, each state decides whether abortion is legal and under what conditions, and the impact of this ruling is felt unevenly and unequally by people who are or may become pregnant. This community event brings together the diverse expertise of our faculty, Barnard’s international student body, and the College’s history and archives surrounding reproductive justice and freedom to situate this landmark decision in a broader historical and global context.

To develop shared language for discussion, Barnard faculty will provide short presentations on the following concepts and terms:

• The framework of reproductive justice for analyzing unequal access to reproductive care,
• The history of fetal viability and its reverberations into the present,
• The practice of self-managed abortions in the U.S., and
• The impact of trigger laws and reimagining spaces and networks of reproductive care. 

Following these short presentations, attendees will be invited to articulate questions together and draw connections and comparisons between these themes and the legality of reproductive healthcare in other countries and political contexts. This event will also showcase two exhibits: Trigger Planting 2.0 and Abortion in Context, both in Milstein. Participants are encouraged to engage with the exhibitions in the weeks leading up to the event.  

You can RSVP using this form and can also find more information about this event on the event page.

Join Michael G. Miller, Associate Professor of Political Science; Jennie Kassanoff, Adolph S. and Effie Ochs Professor of American Studies and History and Professor of English; Umbreen Bhatti, Director of Athena Center; Mary Rocco, Director of Engaged Scholarship in the Office of Community Engagement and Inclusion in a college-wide forum to contextualize and discuss the status of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election. After short presentations and a panel discussion, we will engage in roundtable conversations to grapple with the implications of the election in local and national politics. Open to Barnard students, faculty, and staff.

You can RSVP using this form and can also find more information about this event on the event page.

In 2025, borders and the politics of belonging have become powerful tools for both uniting and polarizing communities and shaping political discourse worldwide. On the heels of the U.S. presidential inauguration, this event in Barnard’s Year of Elections around the World series will offer analytical tools for examining and confronting the politics of immigration and migration on both global and local scales.

This event, moderated by J.C. Salyer (Anthropology & Human Rights), features Barnard faculty from various disciplines discussing the issues that inform debates about migration. Each speaker will offer a foundational concept to frame the discussion:

• Thea Abu-El Haj (Education) will explore citizenship, with a focus on the space between juridical citizenship and transnational citizenship.
• Abosede George (History & Africana Studies) will examine the racial discourse of immigration in the United States, particularly its impact on Black immigrants.
• Nara Milanich (History) will reflect on the shift in language from immigrant to migrant in recent years, analyzing what this terminological shift reveals about contemporary and historical immigration patterns in the United States.
• Randa Serhan (Sociology) will examine the concept of sanctuary cities, exploring the relational and translational dynamics of sanctuary policies at local, national, and global scales. This will include reflections on New York City’s sanctuary practices and their broader implications.

Following these presentations, J.C. Salyer will lead participants in a Q&A with the audience to unpack these terms in a cross-disciplinary conversation. 

You can RSVP using this form and can also find more information about this event on the event page.

Details forthcoming.