let's talk about solutions
skookumchick | December 20, 2008This semester, I co-taught a course on the history and philosophy of engineering education for graduate students. One of the students' final projects was to create an alternative vision of engineering education, in contrast with this video uploaded a short while ago about our department of engineering education:
I confess this video really really bothers me, and I didn't want this video to be the sole representation of engineering education on YouTube. So, emboldened by this video by Michael Wesch at Kansas State and his Digital Ethnography project, my co-instructors Robin Adams and Karl…
skookumchick | December 15, 2008Both ScienceWoman and I are attending ScienceOnline09 in January; ScienceWoman has already gotten your feedback about her session she's co-chairing with KH, so it is high time for me to ask your thoughts about the session I'm co-chairing with Abel Pharmboy and Zuska.
Our session is titled "Gender in science" but we're really interested in how blogging and online interactions can provide allies with a way to support women bloggers, bloggers who are people of colour, LGBT bloggers, and other underrepresented bloggers in STEM. So, as examples, in no particular order (but numbered in case you…
skookumchick | December 1, 2008Amidst existing signs of global economic and imminent environmental disaster, please remember it is World AIDS Day. There are huge steps still to be made in terms of prevention and treatment, particularly for women across the world. More information about World AIDS Day events in North America can be found here.
sciencewoman | November 6, 2008I still get a little chill down my spine when the news announcers say "President-elect Obama," but already I am being reminded that we can't just sit back and wait for him to save the world. We still need to do our part, and one of the things we need to do right now is be vigilant to make sure that the most competent people are running the bureaucratic machinery of the country.
So I was very pleased when a list-serv to which I belong circulated an email from a major research organization saying that they were being contacted by the Obama transition team and asked for nominations of people…
skookumchick | November 2, 2008I spent my "extra" hour from Daylight Savings doing some wrapping up our DonorsChoose campaign. Well, folks, you've done a tremendous job. Forty-two Sciencewomen readers contributed a total of $1863 to help 917 needy kids learn about science and engineering. We came in SECOND of all the Scienceblogger challenges in terms of number of donors, which I am just completely ecstatic about, and fifth in terms of the number of kids we've helped. You all completely rock. Thank you so very much.
Below the fold is the first part of our Donors Choose wrap-up: where should the Sb money go, and how…
skookumchick | October 31, 2008My colleague Donna Riley just sent me a way-cool call for papers: inclusive science, for a special issue of the National Women's Studies Association Journal. Get your writing hats on -- papers are due January 15! The rest of the call is after the fold.
INCLUSIVE SCIENCE: ARTICULATING THEORY, PRACTICE, AND ACTION
Call for papers for a Special Cluster of Papers in the
National Women's Studies Association Journal
It is no secret that there is a national crisis in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), particularly in terms of the involvement of women and people of…
skookumchick | October 29, 2008A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to come to a day-long workshop hosted by the Association of Women in Science at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis. Below are some snippets on things I learned, for better or worse.
I listened to a panel of scientists, Margaret Wasilewski, Katherine Armstrong, and Alisa Wright. Wasilewski is moving into retirement, and asks us to pass on good ideas and information to people coming after us. She said she recommended that you trust your instincts about what roads are good for you, and if there is no road where you want to go, you build it yourself. Armstrong…
skookumchick | October 21, 2008Hear ye, hear ye! I am looking for an awesome up-and-coming scholar to work with on ADVANCE. See the job advertisement below! Email me with questions! Spread the word! Thanks!
ADVANCE-Purdue and the Purdue Center for Faculty Success (PCFS) invite applications for a postdoctoral scholar.
We are seeking a highly-motivated up-and-coming researcher to help develop and administer a series of research studies associated with increasing the number of women, particularly women of color, in faculty positions in the Colleges of Science, Technology, and Engineering at Purdue University. This…
skookumchick | October 20, 2008So I'm swamped at work again and have 15 projects going on and 3 papers in the queue to work on and 3 students who need tasks and I have to help give a paper on Friday, but do you know what the highlight of my day was?
I voted. :-)
Yay early voting in Indiana!
skookumchick | October 17, 2008Did you know the Association for Women in Science and the Society for Women Engineers asked both presidential campaigns for responses to questions about science and engineering and women's roles in each. Download the pdf here to see the questions and the candidates responses. Read them through and be edified. (I tried to copy and paste them here, but it turned into a formatting nightmare - even all the spaces were screwed up...)
What do you think of their responses?
sciencewoman | October 15, 2008When you hear the word "poverty," what do you think of? Starving children in Africa? Subsistence farmers in Asia? Is poverty some distant concept? Something terrible, but far off? Yes, and no. Because, while poverty is terrible, it can also be close to home. Maybe as close as the public school down the street.
Poverty is the vexation of the junior high school science teacher with no budget to buy paper to print worksheets, tests, and notes. She teaches in a "low-income, rural district in southwest Mississippi" and $243 would give her a year's supply of paper for 120 students.
Poverty is the…
sciencewoman | October 7, 2008We got off to a strong start in the Sciencewomen Reader Challenge 2008. In the first 48 hours, we attracted 9 donors who gave a total of almost $400 to our DonorsChoose projects that fund impoverished public school science classrooms. And then we plateaued and our ticker hasn't budged a milimeter in the last few days.
Maybe you gave to other DonorsChoose challenges or maybe you thought you'd do it later. But we'd love to see you give a little bit of money to help out our handpicked projects, too. So in order to provide a little extra incentive, Alice, I and the good folks at Yellow Ibis have…
skookumchick | October 1, 2008For the last two Octobers, Janet of Scienceblogs' Adventures in Ethics and Science has organized Sciencebloggers into participating in the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge. We're doing it again this October, yay!
DonorsChoose collects requests for materials, supplies, equipment, money for field trips and so on from public school teachers who are trying to do great things for their students, and then faciliates matching them to people who want to help. ScienceWoman and I have chosen some projects we think would be great to fund, for kids who really need it.
And while we realize that the…
sciencewoman | September 18, 2008 Money is on my mind a lot this semester. First, there's the grant writing marathon. And then there's the personal budgetary shortfall. Without a second income, we run a several hundred dollar per month shortfall. I've trimmed the fat from the budget and we're eating through the small amount of savings we had squirreled away. Soon it will be time to think about more drastic measures. And there's one big item looming large in my nightmares of financial ruin - the almost $1200 per month that I am paying for Minnow's truly excellent daycare where she is very happy and well cared for.
Why is…
skookumchick | September 9, 2008I came home from a meeting yesterday afternoon which was supposed to be thinking about what our dean calls "blue ocean" ideas for improving the diversity of the population of students, staff and faculty in the College of Engineering. My group was supposed to be focusing on issues that impact women's underrepresentation (or, as one might put it, men's overrepresentation), considering women of all ethnicities and classes.
The thing is, we kept getting hung up on current realities. We can't do this because the faculty won't hear of it. We can't do that because we can't get the data from…
sciencewoman | August 26, 2008Following up on Alice's excellent discussion-starter post on "negotiating the illegal questions on an academic job interview," I'd like to offer a few thoughts from the departmental side of the equation. Anyone with more or different experiences should also chime in below.
First of all, search committees, and really anyone in the department who will interact with the candidate, should get correct and up-to-date information on university policies and relevant laws. Then nobody can pretend to be in the dark about which questions are off the table. I haven't served on a search committee, but…
skookumchick | August 25, 2008So, have you been asked whether you are married or have kids on an academic job interview? Many of us have, even though the people interviewing you are not supposed to ask. What strategies have you used (or would have liked to use ;-) ) to deal with these awkward questions? Do you wear your wedding rings? Do you change the background of your computer screen before using your laptop to give your presentation? If you are part of a dual-career couple, when do you bring up your spouse to take advantage of spousal hiring opportunities?
This thread stems from a comment on this post about an…
skookumchick | August 24, 2008I got an email from a reader a few days ago posing a doozy of a problem: she's heading to an interview this week at an institution, and part of her interview involves having "beer with the guys".
With her permission, I share with you an edited version of her email:
Hi ladies,I am a job candidate for a tenure track position in my field interviewing at a university in the south in 2 weeks. These are huntin' fishin' PhD folks (of course 95% white dude phenotype). There's 2 women of around 30 faculty in the department (grad students are 50% female). I have some colleagues (three relatively…
sciencewoman | August 23, 2008Over at FairerScience they are looking for a Clinical/Social Science Research Associate to work on a project about "Career Decision-Making of Future Minority Biomedical Science Faculty." Here's an excerpt of the job description:
This new position is responsible for the coordination and management of a national, interview-based research study of the career decision-making processes of undergraduates in the sciences and biomedical PhD students. In addition to managing the study, there will be opportunity for the individual to participate in analysis of interview data and conduct of phone…
sciencewoman | August 5, 2008After my experiences a few weeks ago, and the ensuing discussion, I haven't been able to get the topic of childcare and professional travel out of my head. So here's a reckless proposal on the topic.
For everybody:
1) We need to recognize that to be successful, scientists, engineers, or academics need to engage in some amount of overnight travel to professional conferences, workshops, short courses, etc. Sure you might be able to go a year or two or even three without leaving your hometown, but at some point, in order to be successful at your current job or to advance professionally, you…