Director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women Resigns in Protest

Premilla Nadasen, the Ann Whitney Olin professor of history at Barnard College in New York City has resigned from her position as director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Professor Nadasen also announced the cancellation of the upcoming 50th annual Scholar and Feminist Conference, which would have focused on academic freedom. Dr. Nadasen will remain at Barnard as a history professor.

In an email to the campus community, Professor Nadasen stated that: “Disagreement from a place of research and knowledge is the key to greater collective understanding. We have decided not to hold the conference this spring rather than attempt to celebrate the 50th anniversary with an event that could at best be a shadow of itself.”

Professor Nadasen continued by saying, “I look forward to a time when campus reopens, when we can freely discuss ideas, when the administration stands up for critical academic inquiry and debate, and when students are able to freely express ideas, whether or not we agree with those ideas.”

In an email to the student newspaper explaining her decision to step down as director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women, Professor Nadasen wrote that “I’ve done community engaged work for decades and trust is crucial to build those relationships,. I’m not sure how I can do that when the campus feels so inaccessible. The processes required to host an event, the paperwork, the multiple forms that must be filled out, and the procedures to admit outside guests, not to mention the surveillance cameras that have been installed nearly everywhere on campus, the unexpected lockdowns and periodic presence of cops, are effectively deterrents to host anything on campus.”

Professor Nadasen joined the faculty at Barnard College in 2013. She is the author of several books including Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement (Beacon Press, 2015). She is past president of the National Women’s Studies Association.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Professor Nadasen earned a Ph.D. in American history from Columbia University.