The Year of Elections around the World
The Year of Elections around the World

About the Series
In 2024, around half of the world’s population across more than 75 countries will participate in a national election–a record high. Hosted by the Office of the Provost, this event series will leverage the research and expertise of Barnard’s faculty to examine the critical issues shaping elections and dividing societies globally, including reproductive rights, immigration, climate change, and digital transformation. The event series will be open to the Barnard community. Students, faculty, and staff will be invited to engage with these contested issues by participating in a common forum. Participants will also have the opportunity to make their voices heard through both real-time and asynchronous activities that will be organized in the lead up to each conversation. Every country’s political and social landscape is unique, but we can learn from historical and comparative perspectives. Our goal is to spark a series of interdisciplinary discussions on the issues driving political trends in this year of elections around the world.
Fall 2024 Series Events
Global Reproductive Rights & Resistance
A Community Conversation & Workshop with Elizabeth Ananat, Kadambari Baxi, Cecelia Lie-Spahn, and Wendy Schor-Haim
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:
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The framework of reproductive justice for analyzing unequal access to reproductive care,
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The history of fetal viability and its reverberations into the present,
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The practice of self-managed abortions in the U.S., and
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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.
Post-Election Community Forum
2024 U.S. Presidential Election Forum with Barnard Faculty Experts
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.
Spring 2025 Series Events
Global Migration and Local Action
Perspectives on Citizenship, Race, and Sanctuary
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:
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Thea Abu-El Haj (Education) will explore citizenship, with a focus on the space between juridical citizenship and transnational citizenship.
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Abosede George (History & Africana Studies) will examine the racial discourse of immigration in the United States, particularly its impact on Black immigrants.
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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.
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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.
Climate across Scales
Perspectives on National Politics, Colonial Legacies, and Resilient Communities
Even as the realities of the climate crisis escalate and contribute to issues at the center of many voters’ minds, such as immigration and food insecurity, climate itself often gets pushed to the back burner in electoral politics. Exploring how climate politics is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere demands attention to the varied scales and interventions through which environmental crises become politically visible. This panel brings Barnard faculty from across disciplines to offer analytical frameworks for understanding climate politics from the perspective of the nation, colonialist legacy, and the resilient communities and solutions that can and have been developed at a range of scales.
Moderated by Sandra Goldmark, this event features a cross-disciplinary panel examining key concepts shaping contemporary climate research and debates:
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Kimberly Marten (Political Science) will examine energy nationalism, discussing how major polluters, including China, India, and the U.S., frame climate policies in terms of national sovereignty and autonomy from foreign influence.
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Maricarmen Hernández (Sociology) will analyze the colonial legacies embedded in climate discourse and examine the ecological debt owed by historically industrialized nations.
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Anooradha Siddiqi (Architecture) will unpack the politics of resilience, critically reframing resilience as a collective project rather than an individual responsibility.
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Elizabeth Cook (Environmental Science) will reflect on the role of nature-based solutions, especially within informal communities.
Following these presentations, Sandra Goldmark will lead an interactive Q&A, inviting panelists and audience members to further unpack these critical concepts, interrogate why climate issues often fail to resonate politically, and consider the limits and possibilities of local climate action in a global crisis.
Barnard alum Vivien Li, a nationally recognized waterfront and climate expert, will also attend the event and bring expertise on her work in the field. UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library recently released Vivien Li’s oral history project, Vivien Li: Environmental Justice and Urban Waterfronts with the Sierra Club and The Boston Harbor Association (2024), detailing her work on urban environmental issues in Newark, NJ, while a Barnard commuting student; creating public awareness of environmental justice beginning in the 1980s; and focusing public attention on climate action years before Super Storm Sandy occurred in 2012. Vivien is a former public director (non-architect) of the American Institute of Architects and serves on the Mass. Energy Transformation Advisory Board.
You can RSVP for the event using this form and find more information about the event on the event page.