Navigating Humanities & STEM at Barnard

Looking back, it seems silly that I thought about studying anything other than biology and history together. As a STEM-oriented student in high school, teachers told me that I should pursue biology as a lucrative career choice, and paid little attention to my fascination with American history. I appreciate them for encouraging my participation in science as a woman of color, but I always found it troubling that humanities seemed to be a lesser subject, and no one taught me about how biology and history could have meaningful overlap.

Barnard, in this sense, was serendipitous. The Foundations Curriculum at Barnard pushes students out of their comfort zone to explore unfamiliar subjects. I knew that biology was what I wanted to study, but ended up in US Lesbian and Gay History almost by accident because I knew that it would fulfill my thinking locally NYC requirement. Both courses surprised me with how much they brought humanities and science together. In my intro biology class I learned about biological sex vs. gender, and how our modern understanding of biology is built on the historical exploitation of BIPOC communities. In my history class, we learned about public health initiatives through NYC history, and how they helped or neglected certain groups of people. It only took one semester for me to decide that humanities and science were inalienable from each other. Barnard courses, in one way or another, taught me that you have to look back in order to understand how to move forward.

I went back and forth on whether I wanted to major in biology or history. My advisor warned me that a double major and pre-med would take away some flexibility from my schedule, but I knew it was something I was willing to sacrifice for. Double majoring takes meticulous planning, especially if the subjects you pursue don’t have a lot of overlap. None of my biology requirements count for my history major, and vice versa. Even so, I found ways to make them overlap in other ways. In my NYC history class we were tasked with writing a paper using historical archives around the city. I wrote a paper about the AIDS wing in St. Vincent’s hospital and early public health initiatives in the city. Barnard doesn’t confine you to one subject or way of thinking. This community has inspired me to carve out my own path, driven by my passion to make a difference in the world.

If I could tell my first-year self anything, it would be to find people to be in your corner. My major advisors, classmates, and professors are invaluable resources to me. At Barnard, you have the benefits of a small liberal arts school where the humanities are celebrated. You also have an entire community of students and faculty who are excited about women in science, and will encourage you to bring your own interests into the fold. You can take history classes with world-famous professors at Columbia, and engage in groundbreaking research at Columbia’s medical center. For anyone who loves tackling problems from different angles, connecting ideas across disciplines, and seeing all that academia has to offer, studying humanities and science at Barnard might just be for you.