“I’ve followed her work since long before I began leading the College and have thought often about the conversation we had a couple years ago, where she described Barnard as a wonderful place for exploration - a place where students feel comfortable taking risks as they decide how they can leave their mark on the world.” “The College is deeply honored that such a distinguished and respected alumna has chosen Barnard as her intellectual home,” said President Sian Leah Beilock.

What’s more, Lahiri will inherit the Barnard Hall office of retired English professor Maire Jaanus, who was her first-year adviser. “Mary Gordon mentored countless young writers at Barnard, while also continuing to grow as a writer herself. “I am honored to take her place and to continue the good work she did creative writing,” said Lahiri. In a homecoming that is appropriately serendipitous, Lahiri will assume the position most recently held by fellow alumna and prize-winning author Mary Gordon ’71 (Gordon retired in 2020), who joined Barnard’s faculty in 1988 and spoke at Lahiri’s graduation the following year.

She will also join Columbia’s Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America as a senior fellow. Lahiri will join Barnard in July 2022 from Princeton University, where she has been a professor of creative writing at the Lewis Center for the Arts since 2015 and the director of the Creative Writing Program since 2019. She will also hold an affiliated status in the Comparative Literature and Translation Studies Department and within the Department of Italian. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing. NEW YORK, ApJhumpa Lahiri ’89 is inarguably one of the most critically acclaimed authors of the 21st century, and Barnard College is thrilled to welcome her back - three decades after she was a student here - as the Millicent C.

Jhumpa lahiri 2022