International Professors at Barnard

 

Prof. Peter Connor speaking at Barnard with Indian poet Arvind Mehrotra

As an international student who grew up in different cultures and has always enjoyed being around people of diverse backgrounds, I was looking for a college community that would allow me to continue living like a global citizen. What made Barnard stand out from all the choices that I had was the exceptional presence of an international population on campus. As a comparative literature major, I have come across professors in various language and cultural studies departments and it often surprises me that many of them are from foreign countries just like I am! Barnard’s diversity is not only cultivated in the student body, but is also deeply rooted in the faculty body.

Professor Brian O’Keeffe is one of my favorite international professors at Barnard. He teaches both in the French department and the comparative literature program. The first class that I took with Professor O’Keeffe was Introduction to Comparative Literature. As he was born in Ireland and educated in England, his academic interests are focused on Irish/English literature. Since I wasn’t familiar with this particular literary tradition at all, I reached out to him, explaining that I may not have enough background knowledge for his class. However, Professor O’Keeffe responded surprisingly well to my concern! Not only did he fill me in with a brief presentation of the Irish/English history and literary tradition, he also shared many personal anecdotes that led him to his academic interests. Because he is international as well and appreciates the diversity of Barnard’s student body, Professor O’Keeffe even invited me to study the Chinese translation of an Irish literary work that he was working on at the moment. It turned out that the interactions with Professor O’Keeffe played a deciding role when I decided to major in comparative literature. Now he is my academic advisor and a mentor in every way. After hearing that I will be interning near Oxford in the UK this summer, he told me not to forget to get some good restaurant recommendations from him -- an Oxford alumnus -- before leaving. 

Another of my favorite international professors at Barnard is Professor Peter Connor. He is the Director of the Barnard’s Center for Translation and simply a walking library of language and translation related knowledge. I first met Professor Connor in his Intro to Translation Studies lecture. It is a class advocating a diverse lingual and cultural community at Barnard and probably the most international class that I have ever taken. There were about 20 languages represented just by the students in the class. Professor Connor himself is from Dublin originally and then was educated in California. Knowing that I am extremely interested in languages and am studying French and German at the moment, Professor Connor often shares with me scholarly materials related to my academic interests. He even shares his experience of learning languages with me and helps me with his knowledge of languages whenever I struggle.

At Barnard, I meet many international students and become friends with them, but the international professors complete this experience and make it a more unique one. I love embracing the international community at Barnard and being embraced by it in every possible way.

Fangdai