Karen Ventii of Science to Life and I are hosting a panel next weekend at the NC Science Blogging Conference, and we'd like your input. The title of the panel is "Gender and Race in Science". I think it was supposed to be "Gender and Race in Science Blogging" but oh well. We can make the conversation a little broader if that's what you want! We are planning to webcast the panel so it will be possible for you to participate even if you aren't attending. Even before the panel, you can participate at the conference wiki.
Our panel consists of Sciencewoman, Pat Campbell of Fairer Science, and Karen Ventii. We asked each of our panelists to consider the following questions:
- Please introduce yourself (who you are, what you do for a living, the name of your blog, how long you've been blogging etc.)
- What's the story behind your blog? How did you come to create it?
- Why do you blog?
- How do you promote your blog?
- How do you juggle blogging with career and family?
- What various (personal or professional) opportunities has your blog created for you?
- How does this blog relate to your career-has it helped? Has it been detrimental?
- Do you think there are any advantages or disadvantages to being a "female" science blogger?
- Where is your blog now compared to when you first started and where do you hope it will be a year from now?
- What advice would you give to other females who are interested in starting a science blog?
Maybe you'd like to answer some or all of these questions yourself at the wiki site. Or maybe you have another question you'd like to pose to our panel, or just some general issue you'd like to see discussed. Tell us! You can post comments here but please do add to the conversation at the wiki site. We would like to address things you are interested in.
I'll soon be posting information about the webcasting for those of you who want to participate that way.
Thanks for your input!
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I'd be interested in more discussion of race - this seems like a pretty gender-heavy list of questions.
It does seem like #8 could be more inclusive, something like "Do you think there are any advantages to being a female and/or minority blogger?" I don't know if minority is the best term, but I agree with the above comment that race should be mentioned in the questions more specifically.
Don't forget to add that women have always been scientists - as long as men have, contributed just as much. It is a career choice made by many women over all our history back as far as 4400 years ago. They have not be left out of this most exciting work. They have just been left out of the history books!
These are great comments/questions. Please keep them coming! In the interests of time we are going to limit the discussion to the online world. We have only an hour for the panel. If you have a question that is not specifically about online issues, we will try to address it as it plays out in the online world.
I'd be interested in more discussion of race - this seems like a pretty gender-heavy list of questions.