Oral history interview with Annie Barry, 2015

Biographical Note

Annie Barry is Assistant Manager at the Columbia University Human Research Protection Office. She has also worked as an administrator for Columbia's Physics Department and worked for 19 years in the Department of Religion

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Barry reflects on her arrival at Columbia University in 1985. She begins by describing her upbringing in Butler, New Jersey, citing the challenges of being one of nine children and a student in an overcrowded small town high school. Barry goes on to describe her time at Gettysburg College and her pursuit of a Master's degree in history at Columbia. Barry reflects on her decision to move to New York. She shares her experience of coming out and her subsequent encounters with homophobia. Barry characterizes her participation in IRWGS and recalls her efforts in GABLES, the Gay, Bisexual, and Lesbian Employees and Supporters group, which existed from 1993-1997 and arose to combat the inaccessibility to married housing, health benefits, and life insurance for queer couples at the University. Barry describes the limitations of GABLES in a larger discussion of the long and difficult process by which queer women, transgender, and LGBTQ people of color struggled at the University. Barry chronicles her time as an administrator in the religion department and her work with Gillian Lindt. She concludes the interview with a description of her job at the Human Research Protection Office, a brief discussion of campus sexual assault, an explanation of involvement with IRWGS at the time of the interview, and a reflection on Columbia University's progress in terms of queer acceptance.

Subjects

• Barry, Annie--Interviews.
• Butler (N.J.)
• Columbia University. Department of Religion.
• Columbia University. Institute for Research on Women and Gender.
• Coming out (Sexual orientation)
• Dziedzic, Sarah, interviewer.
• Gay rights--United States.
• Interviews.
• New York (N.Y.)
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Universities and colleges--Employees.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2015