Valerie Barr

Margaret Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Computer Science

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Computer Science

Biography: Valerie Barr is a groundbreaking computer scientist who has been a national leader in efforts to broaden participation in computing and connect the field to a wide array of liberal arts disciplines. She comes to Bard from Mount Holyoke College, where she was chair of the Computer Science department, and is eager to explore what students, and not just computer science students, “need to know about computing in order to actively critique and challenge the current pace and impact of technological change.”

In addition to teaching, Barr has been involved with curriculum development and computing education. Her research projects have been funded repeatedly over the past two decades by the National Science Foundation. Her research interests also include reanalyzing degree attainment data to better identify and understand long-standing trends in the areas of gender, race, and ethnicity, and in software testing, particularly as applied to artificial intelligence and language processing systems. In addition to Mount Holyoke, she has taught at Union College, Hofstra University, Pratt Institute, and Rutgers University.

BA, Mount Holyoke College; MS, New York University; PhD, Rutgers University. At Bard since 2022.

Photo by Shaunessy Renker ’23
Website: https://vbarr4.github.io/
Email:
Location: Reem-Kayden Center
Office: 204