Judith R. Shapiro, a widely respected cultural anthropologist who has done pioneering research on gender differences, was inaugurated as president of Barnard College on October 27, 1994.

Dr. Shapiro came to Barnard after eight years as provost of Bryn Mawr College where she had taught in the department of anthropology since 1975. Before that, she was the first woman to teach anthropology at the University of Chicago.

Shapiro became president of a school that owed its initial existence to another Jewish woman, Annie Nathan Meyer. Meyer had petitioned, lobbied and raised funds for the creation of Barnard, as a woman's college associated with Columbia College, back in 1889 (see This Week in History for October 7, 1889).

Dr. Shapiro retired in June 2008.

Sources: Barnard College letter to JWA, March 2004.