Asher Baron, CC'25
Congratulations to Asher Baron, CC’25 who has been named a Beinecke Scholar!
Asher Baron, CC'25
The Beinecke Scholarship Program, established in 1971, provides substantial scholarships for the pursuit of graduate education by those with exceptional promise in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Since 1975 the program has selected 739 juniors from 122 different institutions.
Asher Baron, a rising senior at Columbia College, is pursuing a major in sociology and a special concentration in public health. Originally from Evanston, Illinois, they are interested in contributing to the development of an academic landscape at the intersection of sociology, public health, and transgender studies, with a particular interest in transgender youth and young adults. At Columbia, Asher has engaged in an array of research experiences further building their understanding of this intersectional, intellectual interest. As a Laidlaw Undergraduate Leadership and Research Scholar, Asher collaborated on a mixed-methods public health project with the University of Amsterdam’s Center for Expertise on Gender Dysphoria. They also worked at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health on a project seeking to understand how the hormone cycles of transgender women on Hormone Replacement Therapy mirror menstrual cycles. Asher’s current research as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow investigates how gender is constructed and enacted relationally among transgender young adults through a series of interviews, and they are also presently involved in a sociological project interviewing parents of transgender youth in US states with hostile anti-transgender legislation.
Ultimately, Asher hopes to understand how identity formation occurs as an inherently social process; an interplay between individuals, institutions, and identity categories themselves and, as a Beinecke Scholar, will continue to deepen this understanding within a doctoral degree and further academic research.
Columbia undergraduate students interested in learning more about the Beinecke Scholarship and other fellowship programs are encouraged to connect with advisors at Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.