academic adventures
sciencewoman | March 26, 2009Mary Ann Mason has a column in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education describing the importance of role models and mentors for women graduate students. Though Zuska recently wrote a provocative post that argued that "the problem of motherhood" might be a red herring for those interested in increasing the representation of women in science, Mason's column provides some data that suggest the problem of motherhood is very real.
Role models, particularly ones with children, can make the difference in whether a female graduate student takes the next big step along the tenure track. While…
sciencewoman | March 24, 2009It's Women's History Month, and the Diversity in Science Carnival has asked us to profile women scientists. I spend a lot of time thing about the things that affect the lives of today's young women scientists, but I also know that we are preceded by some incredibly strong and brave women who faced much tougher working conditions than we. And some of those trail-blazing women in science were young not that long ago. So I'm taking this post to talk with one of those amazing women and see what has changed and what hasn't.
Over the course of two hours, I had a wonderful conversation with this…
skookumchick | March 19, 2009Okay, so what on earth *have* I been up to, if not blogging? I'm catching you up (rather like the recitative bits in opera - dry, dull, but advancing the action, rather than arias which are beautiful but don't get you anywhere much) with some RBOCs...
As previously mentioned, I had a trip to Washington DC for a symposium on engineering education research. I've uploaded some photos here if you want to see the outcomes of the sticky-note brainstorm (the funnest part of the conference!). I did get a pretty awesome dinner with some attendees:
I submitted an IEECI grant, my first PI experience…
skookumchick | March 18, 2009So the readers have spoken: one more vote for hearing about my PI experience than the weird convo with the deans.
However, I was working on the draft, and then some more work stuff got dumped on me, then SW had her popular deconstruction of one of Greg Laden's posts and I didn't want to interrupt the flow. But it seems to have petered off, and I'm trying to dig out of my work stuff (next post will be RBOC) and so I'm finally getting back to this.
Here you are, then, and caveat emptor or whatever the bloggy-equivalent is:
Even though I'm co-PI on a big grant (>$3M when all is said and done…
sciencewoman | March 11, 2009Even though it's spring break, I'm in my office today because I need access to some software and datasets that I don't have at home, and because, frankly, I work more efficiently and with less guilt at school than at home. (Unless I'm blogging, that is!)
I didn't ask very many colleagues about their spring break plans, maybe because the internet consensus was that spring break was a time to recuperate from teaching and get some research done, and those were basically my plans, too. (Plus taxes, whee!) I assumed my colleagues here at Mystery U would do some variation on the same themes.
So…
sciencewoman | March 11, 2009I've been to another workshop presented by the same group and I highly recommend them.
Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences: A Workshop for Graduate Students and Post-doctoral Fellows
July 16-July 19, 2009
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Application DEADLINE is March 18, 2009
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/careerprep09/index.html
Preference will be given to those entering or soon to enter the
academic job market.
The workshop will include faculty panels on academic careers and the
academic job search, short presentations on various topics,
structured discussions, and…
skookumchick | March 3, 2009So I got back Sunday night from a workshop at Arizona State University on Engineering and Science Ethics Education. The goal of the workshop was to explore the possibilities for blending microethics and macroethics in graduate engineering and science education; we spent 2 days talking about the history of such efforts, what micro and macro ethics might mean in the context of scientific and engineering education and practice, and how we might operationalize these ideas into 4 formats: a 3-credit course, a 9-credit course, a lab-situated set of discussions, and some online formats. The…
sciencewoman | March 2, 2009I recently had the privilege of attending a COACh workshop focused on developing the negotiating skills of women STEM faculty, and I highly recommend it and the other workshops they offer. Here are few nuggets I gleaned from the session.
Here's a sample dialog between a new faculty member and their chair:
"Why do you need fancy piece of equipment X? Can't you just go to nearby university Y and use theirs?"
"Umm, I think it will be faster to have it in my own lab and we won't have to travel back and forth so much, so..."
"The Dean's not going to like giving such a large startup package."…
sciencewoman | February 26, 2009Wow. You all rock. You are good at so many wonderful things - I am impressed.
Yesterday's question was prompted by the introductory activity at a COACh workshop that I had the privilege of attending. The workshop focused on developing the negotiating skills of women in STEM, and I highly recommend it and the other workshops they offer.
After coffee and bagels, our facilitators asked us to stand up and introduce ourselves to the group by saying what we were good at professionally. And then they showed us how our answers were weak and could be improved.
Here's my response: "I think I'm good…
skookumchick | February 26, 2009So here I am in sunny and unsustainable Tempe, enjoying the warm weather and empty morning (the workshop I'm here to attend doesn't start until 1:30 local time). I spent this morning sleeping in (gasp!), chatting to my mom on iChat, calling a friend whose birthday it is (Hi, Sarah!), and -- even more shockingly -- beginning to read a new book.
The book is called Rethinking Faculty Work: Higher Education's Strategic Imperative, by Judith Gappa, Ann Austin, and Andrea Trice. I don't know Gappa or Trice, but Ann Austin is a truly marvelous human being -- I know her through my grad work at the…
skookumchick | February 25, 2009 Sorry for my blog silence -- I've been swamped in work, and then to top it off, I got sick yesterday and missed a day of work (!).
I'm heading to Arizona State University today to go to a workshop on engineering ethics, and to visit my sister-in-law and her family, so the blogging silence is likely to continue on my part. Looks like ScienceWoman will capably hold down the fort - she's a super-poster!
Until then, I've been walking around with a camera in my bag for the last 2 weeks with some random photos on it. It includes a photo of my office door, which is decidedly more bestickered…
sciencewoman | February 25, 2009You are in a room with a bunch of other female faculty/post-docs/grad students from your university. You know a few of them, but most of them are unfamiliar to you. The convener of the meeting asks each of you to introduce yourself by answering the following question: "What is one aspect of your professional life that you are good at?"
How do you answer the question? (Please do, in the comments.) Tomorrow, we'll discuss.
I'll go first. I'm ScienceWoman and, in my life as a blogger, I'm good at getting thoughtful discussions going in my comment threads. :)
sciencewoman | February 19, 2009Dr. Ashanti Pyrtle is an assistant professor in the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida. She's a chemical oceanographer who studies the fate, transport and retention of radionuclides in aquatic ecosystems. Her PhD work investigated the marine distribution of radioisotopes from the Chernobyl accident, and she's currently doing work in Puerto Rico, off the Florida coast, and in the Savannah River. She's one of the first female African-American chemical oceanographers, and the first African-American to earn an oceanography Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.
Dr. Pyrtle…
sciencewoman | February 17, 2009(to borrow a meme from La Isis)
Dear Students,
I understand that you took your exams on Monday and that our class meets next on Wednesday. I know that you are anxious to find out how you are doing in the class. Believe it or not, I am anxious to know how well I am in doing in helping you learn the material. But, unfortunately, you are not going to get your graded exams and projects back on Wednesday. You see, I am only human.
After you finished your exams, I taught another class and met with students. Then I went home to my family and had dinner with the neighbors. Afterwards, I had a wired…
sciencewoman | February 16, 2009The vexing case of the vanishing desk
Two exams given today. Two sets of projects due today. Two lab assignments that need to be returned. The usual assorted clutter: tea mugs, telephone, overheads, pens, pencils, computer paraphernalia. Where, oh where, could my desk and work table be?
The not-so-mysterious case of the nonexistent research time
My prime suspect: 12+ hours of committee meetings and work in one week.
The slightly more mysterious case of the missing texbooks
It's about time for "adopting" our text books for next fall, and the book I currently use has a new edition available, so…
sciencewoman | January 20, 2009Sciencewoman says: Some of readers have been wondering about what life is like for those jobs at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). Alice and I are indubitably unqualified to answer that question, so Kim Hannula of "All of my faults are stress related..." graciously offered to provide some perspective. Kim is an incredibly thoughtful blogger about teaching and about geology, so you should all be reading her.
In the comments on Alice's post about grad students and balanced careers, there was some discussion about working at a primarily undergraduate institution, and questions about…
sciencewoman | December 28, 2008I have a dream that one day, academics--both men and women--will be able to take time to go the mountain top--or just the hill in the local park, or even a slope on campus--and cherish watching their toddlers roll down, confident that their careers aren't rolling downhill with them. I have a dream that academics will take the wisdom they gain from fostering their children's development back to their intellectual work, and feel confident that their community admires them for doing so. I have a dream that the stalled revolution will jump-start one day, that all women and men, whatever their…
sciencewoman | December 10, 2008Remember the post on "Negotiating Beer with the Guys on a Job Interview"? from back in August. We had a lively discussion in the comment thread on the way a teetotaler interviewee could handle an interview schedule that included "throwing a few back" in a tailgate reception.
Today, a new comment popped up in the thread. And it's from the chair of the search committee.... For your ease, I've reprinted it below.
Hello all,
This message is coming to you from the chair of the search committee. That's right, somehow the internet, including blogs like this one, gets to institutions like mine. It…
sciencewoman | December 1, 2008I'm no longer the most junior member of the department, so I'm not quite as sheltered from service obligations as I was last year. That means that when a faculty position opened up unexpectedly, I got tapped to serve on the search committee. As the woman on the committee, I'm finding myself tasked with making sure that we have a diverse applicant pool. I'm glad that our university is genuine about their support for diversity (at least in applicant pools), and I'm happy to do what I can to make sure this pool is diverse, but ... no one has told me how to go about doing so.
So far, the things…
sciencewoman | November 13, 2008The University of Washington's ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change
received an award this year from the National Science Foundation
ADVANCE program to hold professional development workshops for
Ph.D.-level women in industry, research labs, consulting, or national
labs who are interested in transitioning to academic careers in STEM.
The first workshop will be held October 19 and 20, 2009.
This workshop will be very helpful to women interested in making the
transition to academia. The workshop speakers will primarily be
successful women faculty members who began their post-Ph.D. careers…