Departmental Lectures

The inaugural Norma Merrick Sklarek Lecture was given by Sara Zewde of Harlem-based Studio Zewde on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. The Norma Merrick Sklarek Lecture honors Barnard alumna Norma Sklarek, one of the first Black women architects in the US, by inviting current groundbreaking and influential designers to campus to be in dialogue with our community. Following Sara Zewde’s presentation, alumna Elsa MH Mäki CC’17 moderated an expanded conversation. 

Sara Zewde is founding principal of Studio Zewde, a design firm in New York City practicing landscape architecture, urbanism, and public art. Named to Architectural Digest's AD100 and an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York, the firm is celebrated for its design methods that sync culture, ecology, and craft. In parallel with practice, Sara serves as Assistant Professor of Practice at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is currently writing a book on her research retracing Frederick Law Olmsted's journeys through the Slave South. Sara holds a Master in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a Master in City Planning  from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Statistics  from Boston University.  
 
Norma Merrick Sklarek attended Barnard in 1944-45 and graduated from Columbia with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1950. In 1980, she became the first Black woman elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. Breaking barriers throughout her career, her influence continues to resonate today.
 
The Norma Merrick Sklarek Lecture is sponsored by The Barnard Architecture Department and has been made possible through the generous funding of the IDC Foundation with additional support from the Barnard Provost’s Office. 

A recording of this event is available here:

Mobilizing Communities for Climate Justice was held at Barnard College on April 19, 2022. It brought two prominent community organizers, Maria Lopez-Nuñez (Ironbound Community Corporation) and Dariella Rodriguez (THE POINT CDC), to our campus to talk about their work mitigating environmental and health hazards in their communities. The conversation opened with the organizers describing in vivid terms their struggles to hold the polluting industries accountable. It concluded with a broader discussion on the need for environmental repair and the necessity for a "Just Transition" away from extractive industries and towards a regenerative economy. The event was moderated by Ralph Ghoche (Architecture Department) and Mary Rocco (Urban Studies Program). 

A recording of this event is available here: