ScienceWoman is an assistant professor in -ology. She blogs about the intersection of science and real life - primarily based on her first-hand experiences. Her older posts can be found here.
Alice Pawley is an assistant professor of engineering education at Purdue University. She blogs at the intersection of women's studies and engineering, a pretty empty space but with potential to grow. She wants to be a feminist-but-tenured professor when she grows up.
After the weekend, I'll be back with a follow up to the post on my progress towards tenure, and I'll try to address some of the substantive and thought-provoking comments that you all have raised. But, here in the States, it's already a holiday weekend, and so for today, I'll punt and take on a side issue from that comment thread.
Comrade Physioprof commented:
"hir" is a total ...abomination! It is so ...distracting it totally ruins the flow of reading, because it is NOT A REAL ...WORD!
In terms of identifiability of an anonymous individual, how much difference does a factor of two make in the likelihood of identifying the person? And if you really think it makes a difference, for the love of god, just use "his or her". [Use your imagination to fill in the ellipses.]
In January 2008, a reader (Serious Scientist) sent me a query about dealing with inlaws who thought she should give up on her scientific career when her baby arrived. They wanted her to go to a baby shower across the country, without her husband, and she was dreading the trip and the questions and judgements that would certainly arrive during the party. I encourage you all to look back into the archives and read her original letter, and the wonderful advice everyone offered to Serious Scientist.
Serious's letter, even buried back in the archives, has generated a couple of recent comments. Most recently, Katherine commented:
Serious Scientist, I hope you return and let us know how things went :)
In light of that comment, I decided to dig out Serious's email and find out how her story turned out. Below the fold, I'll share her happy ending.
Here at Mystery U, we are evaluated on a calendar year basis, so in early January I turned in an up-to-date CV to our departmental review committee. Then I waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally, a few weeks ago, I got a chance to see what the review committee thought of me, and I got to meet with the incoming and outgoing departmental chairs. I was actually one of the first people to see my reviews, because at the end of the summer I submit a dossier for the reappointment process. I'll be in the third year of my three-year contract, and the reappointment process for a second 3-year contract is the way they weed people out pre-tenure. Thus, the chairs meeting was a way for them to give me some feedback while I actually had a semblance of a chance to act on it before submitting my dossier.
As I prepared for the meeting and for seeing my reviews, I wrote an off-the-top-of-my-head self-assessment of my progress to where I think I need to be to get tenure at Mystery U. Below the fold, I'll share that list (slightly edited for pseudonymity). Later, I'll tell you how it went down in the meeting.
I'm going to share a few wonderful links to ease my transition back into the on-line world.
First, there's a new photoblogger on the Scienceblogs' Photo Synthesis blog. BJ Bollender is the training coordinator for disability awareness and assistive technology in Arizona. She always travel with camera in hand, and she's got an eye for natural wonders, including rocks and minerals (yay!). Check out her gorgeous first post.
There's another new blogger 'round these parts: Eric Michael Johnson of The Primate Diaries. I know that Eric is a Sciencewomen reader, because he won a Recycled Ideas gifty from me a few thousand internet memes ago. Eric is also a very new parent. (It does strike me however, that the near simultaneous move to Scienceblogs and the arrival of his child is an example of how men aren't nearly as burdened by the whole pregnancy/birth/lactation thing as women.) In any case, I hope he'll add to the cadre of parentblogging around here. Congrats, Eric!
When I first started to go to conferences, I couldn't see what people saw in them. I didn't know anyone, I thought lots of the sessions were boring, and I found the whole thing overly stressful to deal with. Then I started making some friends who I would see at said conferences, and then started to figure out why people liked them.
Since then, I have added an aspect to going to conferences. I'll go hang with my friend-colleagues (some of them having advanced to being full friends :-) ) most of the meals, but once in a while I'll sneak off and have dinner by myself.
I did this tonight - Julie and I have been having a lot of fun around Amsterdam and Delft, but she went off to Rotterdam to talk with the workshop organizers about The Plan for tomorrow. I didn't feel like going, so I let her at it, and took myself off for a wander around Delft. I ended up at the Beestenmarkt, where there were lots of people sitting out under the trees and having their dinners. The place I was aiming for (Dutch food) was closed, so I plopped myself down, ordered something off a Dutch menu that luckily turned out to be vegetarian, and thoroughly enjoyed myself, even if I started by reading over a paper for work. I even had dessert.
... where the wireless is cheaper than in Amsterdam. W00T! Conference starts tomorrow (really more like a workshop, I think). And I just wanted to share a photo of this cool tile I just bought. It's from the 1940s, and is of a canal and the Oude Kerk (Old Church, that's the one from the 1300s, rather than the Nieuwe Kerk, New Church, from the 1600).
We're now at the end of the month of June, which Sheril inspired many of usto think about violence towards women and girls. We have had a few posts on the subject this month, but I can't help but think about all the stories that will never be voiced, all the violent men who will never be held accountable for their violence, all the girls and women whose terror and pain will never be healed.
If you would, I'd like to invite you to share in the comments to this post the first name (or a nickname) of a girl or woman who you know who has been abused. It could be the name of a friend, family member, or colleague, or a stranger you read about in the newspaper. You don't have to sign your name. It doesn't have to be as violent abuse as that talked about in Kristof's posts. But let's "speak" the names of some people whose stories should not be forgotten.
I'm in Amsterdam, we're having a great time, I'm totally jet lagged, and I have decided I love Dutch coffee. Thanks for the advice on things to do - my best decision so far was not biking. Here are some photos; I'll try to update them when we next get some cheaper internet time (20 euros in the hotel! Yeeps!) Tomorrow we leave for Delft and the work begins...
Somehow I've survived this week with only one really big "oops" (an IRB application I should have turned in weeks ago), and I am off tomorrow to continue my conference tour. I'm heading to a workshop in Delft, The Netherlands on gender and engineering research (along with a couple of R&R days in Amsterdam - send me your best advice for things to do!), and will blog depending on internet access. Then I have a research trip to Detroit to go back to the SWE archives at the Reuther Library (a continuation of this project). Then I have another workshop in New York (state) on engineering and identity. Then I get to go on vacation. Then school starts again.
!!!!!!
Science Woman is currently having some R&R offline, so blogging will be a bit light 'round here. So instead, pop some Michael Jackson in your dusty cassette deck ( :-( Was anyone else shocked? I was shocked. Although his Thriller video TERRIFIED me...) write-up and send inyour Scientiae post to Patchi at My Middle Years on Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall -- you have until midnight on June 30. See you 'round the Interwebs soon...
ScienceWoman is an assistant professor in -ology. She blogs about the intersection of science and real life - primarily based on her first-hand experiences. Her older posts can be found 
Alice Pawley is an assistant professor of 
After the weekend, I'll be back with a follow up to the post on my progress towards tenure, and I'll try to address some of the substantive and thought-provoking comments that you all have raised. But, here in the States, it's already a holiday weekend, and so for today, I'll punt and take on a side issue from that comment thread.
When I first started to go to conferences, I couldn't see what people saw in them. I didn't know anyone, I thought lots of the sessions were boring, and I found the whole thing overly stressful to deal with. Then I started making some friends who I would see at said conferences, and then started to figure out why people liked them. 
