Grants and Awards
Grants and Awards
Barnard Library Research Awards
The Barnard Library Research Award supports research using collections at the Barnard Library, Barnard Zine Library, and Barnard Archives, resulting in any final format. The jury members (Exhibitions, Programming and Public Engagement: Miriam Neptune; Archives: Jennifer Eberhardt; Zines: Jenna Freedman) select projects based on the following:
- clarity and feasibility
- strength of their ties to the collections at Barnard (please see below for strengths of collections at Barnard)
- originality, which could be in terms of research approach, topic or format, and
- contribution to goals of access, equity, inclusion and social justice (with a particular interest in projects related to feminist organizing or intersectional marginalized identities)
Additionally, we may prioritize projects that lack traditional institutional resources for research.
Applications are open for the 2025-26 award cycle. To apply, please submit this form by February 2, 2025.
Undergraduate and graduate students, non-Barnard faculty (including adjuncts and term faculty), journalists, and independent scholars, artists, and organizers are encouraged to apply. Please note that current Barnard and Columbia affiliates are not eligible for this award. Alums are eligible.
Awardees will receive $3000.
Award money may be used for whatever will facilitate the researcher's work at Barnard, e.g., travel, housing, family care. Grantees will be expected to write a short summary (~300 words) of their research experience at Barnard Library, which may be shared on the library website and social media channels.
Librarians at Barnard were inspired to create this program by similar awards at Columbia University and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
Please contact Martha Tenney (jeberhardt@barnard.edu) with questions about holdings, resources, or logistics.
Award History
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2024/25: Frankie Pokorny, Mila Turner, and Dev Montanez
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2023/24: Chris Belcher, Dita Hashi, Ari Perezdiez, and Hypatia Sorunke
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2022/23: award hiatus
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2021/22: Naima Green
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2019/20: Kirsty Fife, Maya Garfinkel, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
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2018/19: Nadja Eisenberg-Guyot and Denise J. Murphy,
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2017/18: Desiree Abu-Odeh, Andrea Adomako, Kyara Andrade
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2016/17: Lena Palacios, Susana Sepulveda
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2015/16: Agatha Beins, Magdalena Olszanowski, Aiesha Turman
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2014/15: Michelle Moravec, Joshunda Sanders, Yin Wang
Strengths of the Archives include:
- Papers of feminist authors (for example, the Ntozake Shange Papers and the Frances Whyatt Papers)
- Feminist study and struggle, with a focus on abolitionist and collective action (for example, the Coalition for Women Prisoners Coalition, the Christine E. Bose Wages for Housework Research Collection, the Mirra Komarovsky Papers, the Barnard Center for Research on Women records, and the Barnard Organization of Soul and Solidarity (B.O.S.S.) Records)
- New York City feminist arts scenes and worlds (for example, the Sabra Moore NYC Women's Art Movement Collection, the Dianne Smith Papers, and the Freda Leinwand Collection)
- Legal battles for reproductive justice and civil rights in the U.S. (for example, the Maggie Leigh Groff Abortion Control Act Records, the Kathryn Kolbert Planned Parenthood v. Casey Records, and the Shirley A. Siegel Papers)
- The feminist sex wars of the 1980s and histories of sexuality (for example, the Barnard Center for Research on Women records and the Nancy Friday Papers)
- Zinemaking and feminist publishing networks (for example, zinester ephemera collections and the Barnard Center for Research on Women Historical Periodicals and Feminist Ephemera collections)
- The history of Barnard College, its administration, faculty, students, and alums, as well as higher education and historically women’s colleges more broadly.
Strengths of the Barnard Zine Library:
Barnard's zines reflect the Barnard College student population's genders. We have zines by women, nonbinary people, and trans men, with a collection emphasis on zines by women of color and a newer effort to acquire more zines by trans women of all races and ethnicities. We collect zines on feminism and femme identity by people of all genders. The zines are personal and political publications on abolition, activism, anarchism, body image, gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl, sexual assault, COVID-19 experiences, and other topics. Our zines are at the lower end of the production level scale and typically cost $10 or less, with most of them in the $1-$5 range. Our zines are cataloged at the item level, making it relatively easy to find what you're looking for, from content, to style, e.g. sewn bindings.
Additionally, awardees will have access to work with other Library collections at Barnard, including books, audiovisual media, and full runs of periodicals (e.g., Sassy, $pread, Original Plumbing, Bitch, Bust, make/shift)
Applications for the 2025-2026 research award are open from December 11, 2024 to February 2, 2025. Award notifications will be sent to applicants by March 17, 2025 for research to be conducted at Barnard during the period July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026.
Faculty Partner of the Year (2014-2022)
The Barnard Library established an award in 2014 recognizing professors who develop collaborative projects with BLAIS staff. The award recognizes faculty members' growth in skills, knowledge and understanding of the library staff’s role in scholarship, teaching and learning. It honors the collaboration process itself as well as the innovative nature of the projects.
Faculty Partner of the Year Winners:
- 2022: Mary Rocco, Urban Studies, for her with work with Personal Librarians, Media Center, IMATS, and ERC
- 2020: María Eugenia Lozano, Spanish, for her work with with the Media Center and IMATS
- 2019: Premilla Nadasen, History, for her work with the Media Center and ERC
- 2018: Gale Kenny, Religion, for her work with the Archives, IMATS, and Personal Librarians
- 2017: Gabri Christa, Dance, for her work with IMATS
- 2016: Chana Etengoff, Psychology, for her work with zines
- 2015: Laurie Postlewate, French, for her work with IMATS
- 2014: Kim F. Hall, English and Africana Studies, for her work with Personal Librarians and the Archives.