List of Barnard College people

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The following is a list of notable individuals associated with Barnard College through attendance as a student, service as a member of the faculty or staff, or award of the Barnard Medal of Distinction.

Notable alumnae

Academics and scientists

Anne Anastasi (1928), American psychologist known for her pioneering development of psychometrics, former president of the American Psychological Association, recipient of the National Medal of Science
Naomi André (1989), professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Natalie Angier (1978), author, science journalist for The New York Times, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting
Nina Ansary (1989), historian, author, one of the six UN Women Champions for Innovation, daughter of Iranian diplomat and philanthropist Hushang Ansary
Cicely Applebaum Ryshpan (1904–2004), economist who worked with labor unions, the US federal government, various United Nations agencies, and the World Bank
Jacqueline Barton (1974), Caltech chemist and MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant" winner
Jean Baum (1980), Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University
Sally Benson (1977), professor of energy engineering at Stanford University
Helen M. Berman (1964), Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University
Martha Biondi (1985), professor of African American studies at Northwestern University
Joan Birman (1948), mathematician and winner of the Chauvenet Prize
Hazel Bishop (1929), chemist and inventor of innovative cosmetics
Edyta Bojanowska (1993), professor of Slavic languages and literature at Yale University
Hendrika B. Cantwell (1944), clinical professor of pediatrics, advocate for abused and neglected children
Margaret I. Carman (1890–1976), teacher at Flushing High School
Marian Chertow (1977), academic specializing in environmental resource management
Susan Cole (1962), first female president of Montclair State University
Frances Gardiner Davenport (1890–1), historian¹
Stacey D'Erasmo (1983), American author and critic, professor at Fordham University
Jerrilynn Dodds (1973), art historian, former dean of Sarah Lawrence College
Ingrith Johnson Deyrup-Olsen (1940), American zoologist, daughter of The New School founder and first president Alvin Saunders Johnson
Mabel Smith Douglass (1899), educator and namesake of Douglass Residential College of Rutgers University
Carol Dweck (1967), professor of psychology at Stanford University
Pam Eddinger (1982), president of Bunker Hill Community College
Jessica Einhorn (1967), former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Hope Tisdale Eldridge (1925), physical educator, demographer and statistician at the United Nations
Firth Haring Fabend (1959), novelist and historian
Nancy Farriss (1959), historian, professor at the University of Pennsylvania
Jessica Garretson Finch (1893), author, suffragette, founding President of Finch College
Katherine Elizabeth Fleming (1987), provost of New York University
Katherine Franke (1981), professor at Columbia Law School
Ellen V. Futter (1971), President of Barnard College and the American Museum of Natural History
Susan Gal (1970), anthropologist, professor at the University of Chicago
Lynn Garafola (1968), dance historian
Virginia Gildersleeve (1899), Dean of Barnard College and delegate to the charter conference of the United Nations in 1945
Karen Goldberg (1983), Vagelos Professor of Energy Research at the University of Pennsylvania ²
Nieca Goldberg (1979), doctor at the NYU Langone Medical Center
Rebecca Goldstein (1972), philosopher, biographer, and novelist
Ruth Gottesman (1952), professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, philanthropist, wife of David Gottesman
Monica Green (1978), medieval historian and Professor of History at Arizona State University ³
Maxine Greene (1938), educator, philosopher, activist; past president of the American Educational Research Association
Patricia Greenspan (1966), professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park
Miriam Griffin (1956), classical scholar at Somerville College, Oxford
Ellen R. Gritz (1964), cancer researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Ruth T. Gross (1941), pediatrician, first woman to hold an endowed chair at Stanford University
Evelyn Byrd Harrison (1941), classical scholar, archaeologist, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Martha Himmelfarb (1974), scholar of religion, professor at Harvard University
Louise Holland (1893–1990), academic, philologist and archaeologist
Lise Morjé Howard (1991), political scientist, professor at Georgetown University
Judith Herzfeld (1967), Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at Brandeis University
Evelyn Hu (1969), Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Harvard University
Jean Blackwell Hutson (1969), librarian, archivist, chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Karla Jay (1968), pioneer of lesbian and gay studies
Madlyn M. Kahr (1913–2004; B.A. 1933), American art historian and educator; professor at the University of California, San Diego ⁴ ⁵
Frances Kamm (1960), philosopher, professor at Rutgers University
Darcy Kelley (1970), American neurobiologist, professor at Columbia University
Linda K. Kerber (1960), feminist intellectual historian, professor at the University of Iowa
Mirra Komarovsky (1926), sociologist; pioneer in the sociology of gender
Mabel Lang (1939), archeologist and professor at Bryn Mawr College
Linda Laubenstein, MD (1969), HIV/AIDS researcher
Sylvia Lavin (1982), professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture
Janna Levin (1988), cosmologist and Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College
Helen Longino (1960), philosopher of science, professor at Stanford University
Susan Lowey (1950), biophysicist and professor of the University of Vermont
Susan Mailer (1971), psychoanalyst, writer, and academic, daughter of novelist Norman Mailer
Joyce Lee Malcolm (1963), professor at Antonin Scalia Law School
Rita Gunther McGrath (1981), business book author; Professor at the Columbia Business School
Elizabeth M. McNally (1983), geneticist, professor at Northwestern University
Eileen McNamara (1974), professor of journalism at Brandeis University; formerly Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of The Boston Globe
Margaret Mead (1923), anthropologist famous for Coming of Age in Samoa
Barbara Stoler Miller (1962), scholar of Sanskrit literature known for a translation of the Bhagavad Gita
Nancy K. Miller (1961), American literary scholar, feminist theorist and memoirist, professor at Graduate Center, CUNY
Dorothy Miner (1926), American art historian, curator at Walters Art Museum
Gertrude Moakley (1926) American librarian and noted Tarot scholar.⁶
Cathryn Nagler (1979), immunologist, professor at the University of Chicago
Eva Neer (1959), American chemist, professor at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
Gertrude Neumark (1948), American physicist and former professor of Columbia University
Elissa L. Newport (1969), American psycholinguist, professor at Georgetown University
Barbara Novak (1950), art historian at Barnard College, 1982 National Book Award for Nonfiction finalist
Aihwa Ong (1974), American anthropologist and professor at University of California, Berkeley and 2001 MacArthur Fellow
Anne Paolucci (1947), Italian American writer, dramatist, professor at St. John's University in New York
Elsie Clews Parsons (1896), first woman elected President of the American Anthropological Association
Esther Pasztory (1965), scholar of Pre-Columbian Art at Columbia University
Marjorie Perloff (1953), professor of English at Stanford University
Helen Perlstein Pollard (1967), archaeologist, ethnologist, Mesoamericanist scholar, professor of anthropology at MSU
Helen Ranney (1941), first woman to lead a university department of medicine in the U.S., be president of the Association of American Physicians, or serve as a Distinguished Physician of the Veterans Administration ⁷
Amy Richards (1992), American historian and feminist activist
Ida Rolf (1916), biochemist, founder of Rolfing Structural Integration
Barbara Rose (1957), art historian and founding director of the Katzen Arts Center at American University; first wife of artist Frank Stella
Ora Mendelsohn Rosen (1956), cell biology researcher
Louise Rosenblatt (1920s), influential literary theorist and educator
Joan Ruderman (1969), professor at Harvard University
Mavis Sanders (1987), research scholar⁸
Myriam Sarachik (1954), American physicist, professor at the City College of New York and recipient of the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize in 2005
Kim Lane Scheppele (1975), political scientist, professor at Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
Anna Schwartz (1933), economist
Megumi Yamaguchi Shinoda (1908), first Asian American woman to graduate from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and one of the first women of Japanese ancestry in the United States to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree
Shuly Rubin Schwartz (1988), first female chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Anne A. Scitovsky (1937), health economist, former member of the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research
Susan C. Scrimshaw (1967), medical anthropologist, former president of Simmons University and The Sage Colleges
Samah Selim (1986), professor of Arabic literature at Rutgers University
Louise Slade (1968), food scientist
Vivian Sobchack (1961), cultural critic
Maya Soetoro-Ng (1993), educator; half-sister of President Barack Obama
Judith E. Stein (1965), art historian and curator
Barbara J. Stoll (1971), former dean of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Barbara Lerner Spectre (1964), academic and scholar on Jewish studies
Amy Sueyoshi (1993), historian and academic
Susan Rubin Suleiman (1960), professor of French literature at Harvard University
Hessy Levinsons Taft (1955), chemistry professor at St. John's University in New York
Abigail Thernstrom (1958), American political scientist and conservative scholar on race relations, voting rights and education who served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Erin L. Thompson (2002), professor of art at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Judith Jarvis Thomson (1950), philosopher and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Merryl Tisch (1977), educator, chancellor, New York State Board of Regents; wife of James S. Tisch, heir to the Loews Corporation
Nim Tottenham (1996), professor of psychology at Columbia University
Jessie Ann Owens (1971), professor of music at University of California, Davis
Diane E. Pataki (1993), professor at the University of Utah and recipient of the James B. Macelwane Medal in 2008
Lila Wallis (1947), physician, former president of the American Medical Women's Association and pioneer in women's health
Beatrice Warde (1920s), calligrapher, librarian, researcher on typography⁹
Katherine Brehme Warren (1930), geneticist and scientific editor
Susan Weber (1977), professor of Bard Graduate Center and wife of George Soros
Helen L. Webster (1853-1928), philologist and educator
Judith Weisenfeld (1986), scholar of Afro-American religion, professor at Princeton University
Karen Wilkin (1962), art critic and curator
Irene J. Winter (1960), American art historian, professor at Harvard University

Actresses and performers

Sissy Biggers (1979), host of Ready.. Set... Cook! 1996–2000
Franziska Boas (1923), dancer, percussionist and dance therapist
Clara Bryant (2007), actress
Catherine de Castelbajac (1975), model and fashion journalist
Michelle Collins (2002), American comedian and talk show host, former presenter of The View
Jill Eikenberry (1968), actress
Denise Faye (1996), director, choreographer, actress
Greta Gerwig (2006), actress, screenwriter, filmmaker who won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy in 2018 and was nominated for two Academy Awards
Jaime Gleicher (2010), reality star, producer, psychotherapist
Lauren Graham (1988), actress, played Lorelai Gilmore on TV show Gilmore Girls
Sprague Grayden (2000s), actress, played Judith Montgomery on Joan of Arcadia
Alexandra Guarnaschelli (1991), celebrity chef at Butter Restaurant in New York City, television personality
Anshula Kapoor (2012), daughter of Indian film producer Boney Kapoor and member of the Kapoor family in Hindi cinema
Shari Lewis (dropped out – 1950s), ventriloquist, puppeteer, television show host
Mozhan Marnò (2001), actress, House of Cards
Peggy McCay (1949), actress
Kelly McCreary (2003), actress, Grey's Anatomy
Julie Mond (2000s), actress
Cynthia Nixon (1988), actress, played Miranda Hobbes on TV show Sex and the City
Chelsea Peretti (2000), actress, writer for TV show Parks and Recreation
Lee Remick (dropped out – 1953), actress
Ariane Rinehart (2015), actress, played Liesl on The Sound of Music Live!
Joan Rivers (1954), star comedian, TV host
Christy Carlson Romano (2009), actress, voice of Kim Possible
Frankie Shaw (2007), actress on Mr. Robot
Vinessa Shaw (dropped out – 1990s), actress, 40 Days and 40 Nights
Leslie Stefanson (1993), actress, The General's Daughter
Zuzanna Szadkowski (2001), actress, played Dorota on TV show Gossip Girl
Sophia Takal (2007), actress and director
Twyla Tharp (1963), choreographer, dancer
Sarah Thompson (1990s), television actress
Donna Vivino (2000), actress and singer
Jane Wyatt (1932), Emmy Award-winning actress, Father Knows Best

Architects

Norma Merrick Sklarek (1950), first black woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States
Carole Rifkind (1956), American architectural critic, historian, and author, wife of cancer researcher Richard Rifkind

Artists

Afruz Amighi (1997), Iranian-born American sculptor, installation artist¹⁰
March Avery (1954), American painter, daughter of artist Milton Avery
Sana Amanat (2005), comic book creator and director at Marvel Comics, creator of Marvel's first Muslim female superhero, Ms. Marvel
Polly Barton (1978), textile artist
Susan Bee (1973), American painter
Sarah Charlesworth (1969), photographer and conceptual artist and professor at Princeton University
Madeline Hollander (2008), American artist and choreographer
Amy Hwang (2000), Asian American cartoonist for The New Yorker
Clermont Huger Lee (1936), landscape architect, Savannah Women of Vision
Michelle Lopez (1992), American sculptor and installation artist and 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient
Jesse Mockrin (2003), American artist¹¹
Maud Morgan (1926), modern artist
Josephine Paddock (1949), painter
Jane Teller (1933), sculptor and recipient of the 1988 Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award
Mierle Laderman Ukeles (1961), performance artist, winner of the 2001 Anonymous Was A Woman Award
Donna Zakowska (1975), Emmy Award-winning American costume designer for her work on John Adams

Athletes

Stacey Borgman (1993), member of crew team for the United States at the 2004 Olympics ¹²
Gloria Callen (1946), swimmer and Associated Press Athlete of the Year of 1942
Abby Marshall (2014), chess player; won 2009 Denker Tournament of High School Champions
Alexis Sablone (2008), American skateboarder and architect
Erinn Smart (2001), fencer for the United States at the 2004 Olympics silver medalist in team foil fencing at the Beijing 2008 Olympics
Robin Wagner (1980), figure-skating coach

Businesswomen

Flora Miller Biddle (attended), former president of the Whitney Museum of American Art, granddaughter of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Joan Breibart (1963), Pilates instructor, inventor, writer, and entrepreneur
Eileen Ford (1943), co-founder of Ford Models, one of the world's oldest and most influential modeling agencies
Phyllis E. Grann (1958), first female CEO of Penguin Putnam and editor of Knopf Doubleday
Elinor Guggenheimer (1933), civic leader, philanthropist
Alexandra Creel Goelet (1974), heiress, niece of Robert David Lion Gardiner, wife of Robert Guestier Goelet and owner of Gardiners Island
Nina Griscom (1977), model, television host, socialite, businesswoman, stepdaughter of Felix Rohatyn
Mary Harriman Rumsey (1905), founder of nonprofit organization Junior League, daughter of railroad magnate E. H. Harriman and sister to New York Governor W. Averell Harriman
Anjli Jain (2003), executive director of CampusEAI Consortium
Madeline Kripke (1943–2020), book collector
Harriet Burton Laidlaw (1902), suffragist and first female corporate director of Standard & Poor's
Adele Lewisohn Lehman (1903), philanthropist and member of the Lehman family, daughter-in-law of Mayer Lehman
Liz Neumark (1977), founder and CEO of New York catering company Great Performances¹³
Sheila Nevins (1960), president of HBO documentary films; winner of 27 Primetime Emmy Awards and 3 Peabody Awards
Joan Whitney Payson (1925), co-founder and majority of owner of the New York Mets,¹⁴ granddaughter of United States Secretary of State John Hay and member of the Whitney family
Azita Raji (1983), investment banker, United States Ambassador to Sweden
Helen Rogers Reid (1903), newspaper publisher, president of the New York Herald Tribune
Phyllis Robinson (1942), executive at Doyle Dane Bernbach
Cindy Rose (1985), president of Microsoft Western Europe
Devorah Rose (2002), socialite, entrepreneur and editor of Social Life magazine
Alexis Stewart (1987), daughter of Martha Stewart '64; TV host and radio personality
Martha Stewart (1964), business magnate, entrepreneur, homemaking advocate
Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger (1914), heiress, and owner of The New York Times, daughter of The New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs
Elizabeth Wiatt (1967), businesswoman in the fashion industry
Virginia Wright (1951), art collector, philanthropist who supported Seattle Art Museum

Journalists

Natalie Angier (1978), science writer for The New York Times; won the Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting in 1991
Jami Bernard (1978), film critic for The New York Post and The New York Daily News, founder of Barncat Publishing Inc.; writer whose books include a memoir of surviving breast cancer
Katherine Boo (1988), recipient of Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2000 and the MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant"
Mona Charen (1979), nationally syndicated columnist, political analyst, and author
Liz Clarke (1983), journalist for The Washington Post, co-host of The Tony Kornheiser Show
Herawati Diah (1941), journalist
Deborah Feyerick (1987), journalist and CNN correspondent
Laura Flanders (1984), correspondent for Air America and host of GritTV
Sylvana Foa (1967), first female news director of an American television network; first spokeswoman for Secretary General of the United Nations
Rana Foroohar (1992), columnist for the Financial Times
Alexis Gelber (1974), former president of the Overseas Press Club
Julianna Goldman (2003), CBS News correspondent
Piri Halasz, correspondent for Time magazine and art critic
Maria Hinojosa (1984), correspondent for CNN; NOW on PBS; host of NPR's Latino USA
Cathy Horyn, fashion journalist, New York Times fashion critic
Freda Kirchwey (1915), journalist, editor and publisher of The Nation
Alex Kuczynski (1990), style reporter for The New York Times, daughter of Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
Minna Lewinson (1918), journalist for The New York Times, first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize
Juliet Macur (1992), sports journalist for The New York Times
Courtney E. Martin (2002), feminist writer and editor of the feminist blog Feministing
Agnes E. Meyer (1907), journalist, philanthropist, civil rights activist, and art patron, mother of The Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham
Judith Miller (1969), former correspondent for The New York Times who reported on the story of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction program; Aspen Strategy Group member
Nonnie Moore (c. 1946), fashion editor at Mademoiselle, Harper's Bazaar and GQ¹⁵
Mary Ellis Peltz, music critic, poet, and first chief editor of Opera News
Anna Quindlen (1974), columnist for Newsweek who won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992
Paola Ramos (2009), journalist, daughter of TV anchor Jorge Ramos
Atoosa Rubenstein (1993), founder of CosmoGirl and editor-in-chief of Seventeen; youngest-ever editor of a teen magazine
Susan Stamberg (1959), special correspondent, NPR's Morning Edition, former host of All Things Considered and the first woman in the United States to anchor a national nightly news program
Mary V. R. Thayer (1926), socialite and journalist¹⁶
Jeannette Walls (1984), gossip columnist for MSNBC; author of The Glass Castle
Sharon Waxman (born c.1963), journalist
Beverly Weintraub (1982), Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer for the New York Daily News
Lis Wiehl (1983), legal analyst for Fox News
Ellen Willis (1960s), essayist and pop music critic
Julie Zeilinger (2015), feminist writer and editor

Musicians

Laurie Anderson (1969), musician, NASA's first artist-in-residence and pioneer in electronic music, famous for her single "O Superman"
Sadie Dupuis (2011), vocalist for Speedy Ortiz
Dorothy Papadakos (1982), concert organist, playwright, and author
Louise Post, lead singer and guitarist of alternative rock band Veruca Salt
Roxanne Seeman (1975), songwriter
Faye-Ellen Silverman (1968), composer
Jeanine Tesori (1983), Broadway composer
Suzanne Vega (1981), singer-songwriter, "Luka", "Tom's Diner"

Spies

Marion Davis Berdecio (1943), accused Soviet spy in U.S. State Department, comrade of Coplon and Wovschin
Judith Coplon (1943), Soviet spy in U.S. Justice Department whose convictions were overturned on technicalities
Virginia Hall (1927), American spy with the Special Operations Executive during WWII.
Juliet Stuart Poyntz (1907), involved in intelligence activities for the Soviet OGPU; founding member of the Communist Party USA
Patricia Warner (1949), American spy and Congressional Gold Medal recipient
Flora Wovschin (1943), Soviet spy in U.S. State Department, stepdaughter of Columbia professor/Soviet spy Enos Wicher

Writers

Léonie Adams (1923), poet
Joan Abelove (1966), writer
Susan Mary Alsop (attended), Washingtonian socialite and writer
Mary Antin (1902), author of the immigrant experience
Charlotte Armstrong (1925), writer
Lura Beam (1908), writer and educator
Maria Semple (1986), writer, Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Elizabeth Benedict (1976), novelist, journalist, and editor
Jami Bernard (1978), writer and film critic
Fatima Bhutto (2004), poet and writer; granddaughter of Pakistani president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and member of the Bhutto family
Ann Brashares (1989), author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Rachel M. Brownstein, literary critic, author, and academic
Sasha Cagen (1996), writer
Hortense Calisher (1932), writer
Diana Chang (1949), pioneering Asian-American novelist
Melissa Clark (1990), American cookbook writer and 2018 James Beard Foundation Award recipient
Cassandra Clare (1995), author of The Mortal Instruments
Rachel Cohn (1989), author of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and Gingerbread
Nadine Jolie Courtney (2002), Bravo TV personality Newlyweds: The First Year and author of Beauty Confidential and Confessions of a Beauty Addict
Elise Cowen (1956), poet of the Beat Generation
Galaxy Craze (1993), novelist
Susan Daitch (1977), short story writer
Edwidge Danticat (1990), writer
Lydia Davis (1970), short story writer, essayist, winner of the International Booker Prize
Thulani Davis (1970), novelist who won the Grammy Award in 1992
Tory Dent (1981), poet and HIV/AIDS activist
Babette Deutsch (1917), poet, translator and critic
Marjorie Housepian Dobkin (1944), author; Barnard College professor and dean
Avni Doshi (2005), writer who was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize
Francine du Plessix Gray (1952), Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer
Hallie Ephron (1969), novelist
Cristina García (1983), author of Dreaming in Cuban
Karina Yan Glaser, children's author
Mary Gordon (1971), writer and professor of English at Barnard College
Alexis Pauline Gumbs (2004), American writer, poet, activist
Indrani Aikath Gyaltsen (1970s), writer
Monique Raphel High (1969), novelist
Patricia Highsmith (1940), author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Price of Salt
Anne Hollander (1952), historian of fashion
Nansook Hong (1991), writer, daughter-in-law of Unification church founder Sun Myung Moon
Helen Hoyt (1900s), poet
Zora Neale Hurston (1928), Harlem Renaissance writer
Elizabeth Janeway (1935), critic
Joyce Johnson (1955), writer, Minor Characters
June Jordan (1957), writer and activist
Erica Jong (1963), writer
Molly Jong-Fast (1997, according to her although it appears she only attended a summer program for high school students), writer
Alexa Junge (1984), writer for The West Wing and Friends
Loolwa Khazzoom (1991), journalist and activist
Jolie Kerr (1998), writer and podcast host on Heritage Radio Network
Suki Kim (1992), Guggenheim fellow; author of the award-winning novel The Interpreter and The New York Times bestselling literary nonfiction book, Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite
Joan Kahn (late 1930s), mystery editor and anthologist; also novelist and children's writer
Mary Beth Keane (1999), writer and 2015 Guggenheim fellow
Lily Koppel (2003), author of The Red Leather Diary and The Astronaut Wives Club; writer for the New York Times
Jhumpa Lahiri (1989), Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies
Jane Leavy (1974), sports biographer
Kyle Lukoff (2006), transgender children's book writer; Storytelling of Ravens and When Aidan Became a Brother
Florence Ripley Mastin (born 1886), poet.¹⁸
Faith McNulty (1920s, attended one year), writer
Daphne Merkin (1975), literary critic, essayist, and novelist, daughter of philanthropist Hermann Merkin
Alice Duer Miller (1899), writer and advisory editor of The New Yorker
Ottessa Moshfegh (2002), 2016 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winner for Eileen
Diana Muir (1975), writer and historian
Alana Newhouse (1997), writer and editor of Tablet Magazine
Alice Notley (1967), poet
Sigrid Nunez (1972), novelist, Whiting Awards and the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction recipient
Iris Owens (1929–2008), novelist
Edie Parker (1940s), writer; first wife of Jack Kerouac
Helena Percas de Ponseti (1940), essayist, scholar, and professor
Chelsea Peretti (2000), writer and comedian
Marisha Pessl (2000), author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Julia Phillips (2010), author, Disappearing Earth and finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction
Claudia Roth Pierpont (1979), staff writer of The New Yorker
Belva Plain (1939), writer¹⁹
Jenelle Porter (1994), art curator and author
Ariana Reines (2002), poet
Kristen Roupenian (2003), writer, Cat Person, You Know You Want This
Cathleen Schine (1975), novelist
Lynne Sharon Schwartz (1959), writer
Courtney Sheinmel (1999), writer of children's books
Lionel Shriver (1978), novelist and 2005 Orange Prize winner
Rachel Slade (1991), journalist, author of Into the Raging Sea,²⁰ Mountbatten Maritime Prize winner 2019
Dean Spade (1997), writer, activist, lawyer, assistant professor of law at the Seattle University School of Law
Eileen Tabios (1982), poet
Lauren Tarshis (1985), writer, and director at Scholastic Corporation
Camilla Trinchieri (1963), writer
Joan Vollmer (1943), Beat poet, partner of William S. Burroughs
Charmaine Wilkerson (1982), journalist
Anne Elizabeth Wilson (1923), poet, editor; pet cemetery owner
Cecily Wong (2010), writer
Julie Zeilinger (2015), blogger and feminist writer

Miscellaneous

Grace Banker (1915), telephone operator who served in the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I and led the Hello Girls, for which she received the Distinguished Service Medal
Maria Foscarinis (1977), activist, founder of the National Homelessness Law Center
Madeline Kripke (1965), book collector who held one of the world's largest collections of dictionaries, daughter of Jewish philanthropist and rabbi Myer S. Kripke
Susan Rosenberg, member of May 19th Communist Organization and charged with a role in the 1983 United States Senate bombing
Elana Maryles Sztokman (1991), American sociologist, writer, and Jewish feminist activist
Fumiko Yamaguchi (1925), Japanese physician and birth control advocate
Isabel Lenore Davis, early ufologist, co-founder of Civilian Saucer Intelligence-NYC, with Broadway actor, Ted Bloecher, and organic chemist, Alexander D. "Lex" Mebane, NICAP member, author & case investigator

Fictional alumnae

In the 1988 Woody Allen film Another Woman, Gena Rowland's character is a philosophy professor at Barnard.²¹
In the 1992 Woody Allen film Husbands and Wives, Juliette Lewis' character, Rain, is a Barnard student.²²
In the 2005 Sigrid Nunez novel The Last of Her Kind, heroines Georgette George and Ann Drayton meet in 1968 as freshman roommates at Barnard.²³
In the 2007 Noah Baumbach film Margot at the Wedding, Nicole Kidman's character, a novelist, is a Barnard graduate.²⁴
In the television series Mad Men, the character Rachel Menken is a Barnard graduate.²⁵
In the 2015 film Mistress America, the lead character Tracy Fishko is a freshman at Barnard.²⁶
In season 4 of the television series BoJack Horseman, it is mentioned that the title character's mother, Beatrice Horseman, attended Barnard.²⁷
In the 2018 Mira T. Lee novel Everything Here is Beautiful, the narrator talks about going to Barnard and reuniting there with one of her childhood friends from Tennessee.²⁸
In the 2018 Paul Feig film A Simple Favor, Anna Kendrick's character, Stephanie Smothers, was an English major at Barnard and did her thesis on The Canterbury Tales.²⁹

Notable faculty

Nadia Abu El Haj, anthropologist
Robert Antoni, Commonwealth Writers Prize–winning author
Randall Balmer, author and historian of American religion
Dave Bayer, mathematician; actor and math consultant for the film A Beautiful Mind; one of few holders of an Erdős-Bacon number
Ruth Benedict, anthropologist
Jenny Boylan, writer
Frank Brady, leading figure in international chess
Harriet Brooks, physicist
Tina Campt, Africana and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Demetrios James Caraley, Editor of the Political Science Quarterly; President of the Academy of Political Science
Elizabeth Castelli, Professor Of Religion
John Cheever (1956–1957), Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and short story writer
Yvette Christianse, poet, librettist
Alexander Cooley, political scientist, former director of the Harriman Institute
Dennis Dalton (1969–2008), political scientist; renowned nonviolence proponent; scholar of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ³⁰
Pauline Hamilton Dederer (1878–1960), biologist; zoology instructor at Barnard before 1917
Celia Deutsch, professor, religious sister, academic, educator, writer, and Old Testament scholar
Rosalyn Deutsche, art historian, author, and art critic
Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, author
Patricia Louise Dudley (1929–2004), zoologist
Mortimer Lamson Earle, classicist
Saskia Hamilton (1967-2023), poet and editor
Theodor Gaster, author; religion scholar; translator
Harry Gideonse (1901–1985), president of Brooklyn College, and chancellor of the New School for Social Research
Virginia Gildersleeve
Mary Gordon, writer
Elizabeth Hardwick, writer; co-founder of The New York Review of Books; wife of Robert Lowell ³¹
Ken Hechler, U.S. Congressman from West Virginia
Anne Higonnet, art historian, Guggenheim Fellow
Janet Jakobsen, religion and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Rebecca Jordan-Young, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, author of Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences
Charles Knapp, PhD, philologist and classical scholar
Dorothy Y. Ko, historian of early China, Guggenheim Fellow
Elizabeth Kujawinski, American oceanographer, Woods Hole Senior Scientist³²
Janna Levin, physicist
David Macklovitch, musician
Perry Mehrling, economic historian
Gabriela Mistral, first Latin American Nobel Prize winner for Literature
Samuel Alfred Mitchell, astronomer
Raymond Moley (1923–1933), proponent and later critic of the New Deal
Frederick Neuhouser, philosopher
Sigrid Nunez, novelist
Barbara Novak, art historian
Elaine Pagels (1970–1982), scholar of early and gnostic Christianity
Ben Philippe, Haitian-Canadian author and screenwriter
Alan F. Segal, ancient Judaism and origins of Christianity; author of Life after Death, and Paul the Convert
William C. Sharpe, cultural historian, Guggenheim Fellow
Edmund Ware Sinnott, botanist
Paige West, anthropologist, Guggenheim Fellow
Dolph Sweet, actor
Ashley Tuttle, former principal dancer at ABT; Tony-nominated actress
Elie Wiesel (1997–1999), Nobel Peace Prize–winning writer and activist

Recipients of the Medal of Distinction

The Barnard Medal of Distinction is the College's highest honor.³³

1977

Joan Mondale

1978

1979

Adelyn Dohme Breeskin
Helen Gahagan Douglas '24
Eleanor Thomas Elliott '48
William Am Marstellar
Toni Morrison
Francis T. P. Plimpton

1980

1981

Robert L. Hoguet
Elizabeth Janeway '35
Beverly Sills

1982

1983

1984

Arthur Altschul
Annette Kar Baxter '47 (posthumous)
Joseph G. Brennan³⁴
Anna Hill Johnstone '34

1985

1986

1987

Judith Kaye '58
Sally Falk Moore '43
Rev. James Parks Morton
Ellen Stewart

1988

1989

Joan Kaplan Davidson
Eugene Lang
Bernice Segal (posthumous)³⁸
Lottie L. Taylor-Jones

1990

1991

Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum '50
Tisa Chang '63
Mamphela Ramphele, delivered the 2002 Commencement address

1992

1993

Arthur Ashe (posthumous)
Elizabeth B. Davis '41
Helene Lois Kaplan '53
Bette Bao Lord
Cyrus Vance

1994

Walter Cronkite
Ellen V. Futter '71
Barbara Stoler Miller '62 (posthumous)⁴¹
Arthur Mitchell
Sheila E. Widnall

1995

Madeleine Albright
Rosemary Park Anastos
Derek Bok
Sissela Bok

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

Doris Kearns Goodwin, delivered the 2000 Commencement address
Hanna Holborn Gray
Annie Leibovitz
Kathie L. Olson

2001

Morris Dees
Susan Hendrickson
Maxine Greene '38
Bernice Johnson Reagon, delivered the 2001 Commencement address
Barbara Novak '50⁴²
Alice Rivlin
Harold E. Varmus

2003

Susan Band Horwitz
Judith Miller '69, delivered the Commencement address
Martha Nussbaum

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Thelma C. Davidson Adair
Michael Bloomberg, delivered the 2008 Commencement address
Billie Jean King
David Remnick
Judith Shapiro

2009

Hillary Clinton, delivered the 2009 Commencement address⁴⁴
Kay Murray⁴⁵
Indra Nooyi
Irene J. Winter '60

2010

Thelma Golden
Olympia Snowe
Meryl Streep, delivered the 2010 Commencement address
Shirley M. Tilghman

2011

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, delivered the 2011 Commencement address
Sylvia Rhone
Roberta Guaspari
Jenny Holzer

2012

Barack Obama, President of the United States, delivered the 2012 Commencement address
Sally Chapman, Barnard Professor of Chemistry
Helene D. Gayle '76, President and CEO of CARE, USA
Evan Wolfson, founder and President of Freedom to Marry

2013

Leymah Gbowee, recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, delivered the 2013 Commencement address
Elizabeth Diller, architect and designer of the High Line
Lena Dunham, creator, director, writer and star of the HBO series Girls

2014⁴⁶

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation
Mahzarin Banaji, social psychologist and professor of social ethics at Harvard University
Ursula Burns, chair and chief executive officer of Xerox
Patti Smith, musician, poet, and artist

2015⁴⁷

Samantha Power, academic and journalist
Simi Linton, expert on disability and the arts⁴⁸
Nadia Lopez, principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy
Diana Nyad, long-distance swimmer and author

2016

2017

2018

2019

(Celebration) 2020-2021

Paola Ramos (journalist) '09
Cynthia Nixon '88

2021

2022

2023

External links

Past Speakers and Medalists

References

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