I am a rising senior at Barnard studying history, concentrating on the history of empires and colonialism with specific interest in food history. I research how people, culture, and the environment interact through food.
Although I am from Mexico City, I have lived abroad for most of my life in places such as London and São Paulo. Now, I am part of the Class of 2026 at Barnard College in New York, and my prospective majors are philosophy and economics. I am interested in understanding abstract concepts to then investigate their concrete manifestation in every-day life, hence the interdisciplinary nature of my research and leadership. Being the granddaughter of immigrants who fled from both the Spanish Civil War and the Cuban dictatorship, I am constantly drawn to the complexities of how people's identities, beliefs and economic realities shape their contribution to local communities. Ultimately, I am passionate about helping marginalised communities and contributing to a more egalitarian society as a whole.
My name is Hannah Ramsey (she/her), and I am a senior at Barnard College studying neuroscience and English, though my research is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing heavily from the fields of medical anthropology, sociology, and narrative medicine.
Currently, I am researching how clinicians' reliance on body composition indicators (BCIs) in health assessments may contribute to the stigmatization of bodies. My intention with this work is to illuminate how moral and aesthetic biases within healthcare teams can negatively influence patient outcomes as a result of the stigmatizing effects associated with body-centric paradigms of health promotion. The goal of this research is to begin conceiving alternative approaches to promoting patients' physical health and subjective well-being that are both body-affirming and size-agnostic.
Apart from this research, I also have personal and academic interests in creative writing, writing pedagogy, and advocacy as it relates to the neurodiversity movement. In my spare time, I enjoy writing poetry, playing guitar, and taking long walks outside!
Jasmine Gates
Undergraduate Leadership & Research Scholar , Barnard College of Columbia University
Jasmine is from Santa Cruz, California and pursuing a combined major of Medical Anthropology and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Barnard College'25. Her interests in public health and reproductive justice have led her to research on the changes in US maternal morbidity rates after the Supreme Court ruling of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which took away the constitutional right to abortion.
I am an alumna of the 2021-22 Columbia Laidlaw Scholars cohort, and graduated from Columbia (CC'24) with majors in History and Mathematics. My Laidlaw research centered on the women's movement in early twentieth-century British India. My first summer focused on the Indian writer, educator, and activist Mahadevi Varma, and my second summer focused on networks of women from across the British empire attending the Oxford in the 1910s-30s at the Unstable Archives Project.
Ana is a senior at Barnard College pursuing a combined major in religion and human rights. She is specifically interested in the relationship between religion and politics, law, and histories of empire. Her other passions include Arabic language study, vocal jazz, and coffee culture.
Hello! My name is Melissa Wang and I'm an Information Science and English double major at Barnard College. I have experience in research, product development, publishing, and poetry. I care about the representation of different narratives in published literature as well as equal access to higher education.
Hello everyone! I'm Sarah (she/her) and I am a fourth-year undergraduate student in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. I am particularly interested in the applications of philosophy to social and political issues, and how we can use philosophical arguments to inform policy decisions. As such, my research project concerned the appropriateness of belief and doubt in cases of sexual assault and the implications for university and legal policy. For my Leadership-in-Action, I conducted an evaluation of a sexual violence prevention education programme run by an NGO in Auckland, New Zealand