The Curiosity Initiative expands transdisciplinary learning at Barnard
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Established by the Center for Engaged Pedagogy, the new program invites students and faculty to investigate curiosity through lecture series, communities of practice, and discussions.
Photo by Haley Scull/The Barnard Bulletin
March 14, 2026
For decades, Barnard has embraced intellectual boldness. This promise was strengthened by the creation of The Curiosity Initiative, a new campuswide program launched by the Center for Engaged Pedagogy (CEP) and the Office of the Provost, with financial support from Jane Jelenko (BC ’70). Between fall 2025 and spring 2027, The Curiosity Initiative will encourage students and faculty to explore unfamiliar subjects, challenge assumptions, and deepen their understanding of the world.
The Curiosity Initiative has two goals: to create spaces for individuals to share their field-specific curiosities and to foster fresh perspectives through stimulating discussions. These goals mirror Barnard’s mission for its community members to “participate together in intellectual risk-taking and discovery” and lead enriching lives fueled by professional and personal success.
“I see this initiative as building on a culture that already exists here at Barnard,” said Alex Pittman, Senior Associate Director of the CEP, referring to the College’s commitment to nurturing innovative, bold thinkers.
“It’s both an acknowledgement and an amplification of something that already existed that perhaps had not been formally named yet,” Pittman said. “There are certainly classes in which curiosity is a subject, but [before this initiative], there was no program about curiosity studies.”
Curiosity studies, a transdisciplinary field of inquiry, questions what drives humans to “know, learn, and explore with one another” in diverse historical, geographical, and ideological contexts.
“We’re thinking about the social dimension of curiosity here,” Pittman explained. “Students [will] engage in both the intellectual and social curiosities involved in the learning process.”
Through this program, scholars, community practitioners, and guest speakers will guide students to examine curiosity not just as an academic skill but as a network of knowledge and a fundamental aspect of life.
The initiative includes a series of lectures scheduled throughout the 2025-2026 academic year. This semester, Barnard will host three guest speakers, with the first lecture taking place in early February. The lecture, titled “Curiosity, Complexity, and the Pedagogy of Israel-Palestine,” was presented by David N. Myers, Distinguished Professor of History at University of California, Los Angeles.
The upcoming March event, “Writing From Home,” features Duke University’s Jean Fox O’Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Jennifer Christine Nash, who Pittman described as “a direct contributor to [the field of] curiosity studies.” Her talk will explore contemporary Black feminist theory and the rise of intersectionality within academic institutions, drawing upon ideas from her 2018 book “Black Feminism Reimagined.”
“She’s thinking about how Black women have been constituted as knowers — as epistemological agents themselves,” Pittman explained. Through these lectures, attendees will engage with complex ideas across disciplines, questioning the power relations behind curiosity and who has historically had access to these spaces.
During the Spring and Fall 2026 semesters, students and faculty can apply to join various communities of practice, engaging in group-centered projects both inside and outside of the classroom over the course of five meetings throughout the semester. Starting in the 2026-2027 academic year, participants have the opportunity to attend a series of lunchtime conversations called the “What If? Talks,” hearing from faculty intellectual leaders about the experiences that inspired their research.
“If students walk away thinking about how curiosity is not an attempt to avoid questions of power but a way of engaging with them differently, that’ll be a real benefit of the work that we’ve done,” Pittman said.
