thusspakezuska | November 20, 2006Following up on my entry on Joanna Russ's book, How to Suppress Women's Writing, and its application to women in science and engineering...
In discussing "prohibitions", Russ notes"
First of all, it's important to realize that the absence of formal prohibitions against committing art [or science] does not preclude the presence of powerful, informal ones.
These include poverty and lack of leisure, the latter arising from overwhelming duties to family and home. Even our heroines had to overcome this latter prohibition:
Marie Curie's biographer, her daughter Eve, describes her mother's…
thusspakezuska | November 20, 2006Joanna Russ wrote a wonderful book in 1983 called How to Suppress Women's Writing. (You can purchase it on the internet here or at your local bookseller or at amazon.) Sadly, you could read that book today and apply its insights directly to science and engineering.
So, with an acknowledgement to Joanna Russ:
She didn't do science. (But if it's clear she did the deed...)
She did science, but she shouldn't have. (It's science with a political agenda, it's actually masculine thinking.)
She did science, but look what she researched. (Technology of household equipment, domestic…
thusspakezuska | November 20, 2006Toadygawa is history! At least at Picower. The Chronicle's news blog reports that Susumu Tonegawa is stepping down as head of Picower after an university investigation found he "behaved inappropriately when he tried to discourage a young female scholar from accepting a job offer from MIT". Sadly, the university declined to discipline anyone and we are told Toadygawa is stepping down on his own. I like to think he was strong-armed into stepping down. I am pretty sure he didn't just up and do it out of the goodness of his heart because of his concern for the larger MIT community. Or, as…
thusspakezuska | November 20, 2006This post grew out of an exchange with Benjamin Franz on my post This Is The Patriarchy: When Talking To The Master, Speak In A Civil Tone. I felt the exchange itself was worth promoting to a post, with some additional commentary, especially since we are getting so close to the anniversary date of the Montreal massacre.
For those who are not familiar with this tragic event, you will find a case study at Gendercide.org. Here's a summary from their site:
December 6, 1989 is a date that lives in the collective consciousness of Canadians, and many others worldwide. On that day, a deranged…
thusspakezuska | November 17, 2006Normally I think one should be a bit gentle with the young un's, as they are still not fully formed and their thinking has not developed much complexity. They haven't had a lot of experience; you have to give them time to grow into understanding.
But if they will go about writing screeds for rightwing publications, all bets are off.
Over at the Cornell American Online, Rachel Brenc, a first-year student in engineering - oops, I mean, freshman - has written a little piece that ought to be titled Why There's Nothing Wrong With White Male Domination Of Every Institution In Our Society As…
thusspakezuska | November 17, 2006The second line of that quote, you know is "Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King".
At the Frontiers in Education conference held in San Diego at the end of October, there was an interesting work-in-progress titled "Evaluation of Canadian High School Girls' Perception of CSET Using A Play" by Anne-Marie Laroche and Jeanne d'Arc Gaudet. (CSET = computer science, science, engineering, technology) The authors developed a new play that
present[ed] different professions which are linked to CSET in a humorous manner, using everyday language and representations of several historically…
thusspakezuska | November 17, 2006This is a first - a post that gets classified under both "moron management" AND "role models".
If you are a female professor who has ever had to deal with rowdy, disrespectful boys in your classroom, I urge you to read Susanna Ashton's column in the Chronicle of Higher Education. This must surely rank as one of the most clever examples of moron management I have ever heard of. Ashton had a class of 22, 17 of whom were men, and 11 of those were all from one fraternity - the wittily euphemized Kappa Wokka Wakka. The KWW's were rowdy and disruptive, albeit in a fraternal, mutually…
thusspakezuska | November 17, 2006Yay! Finally! The good guys - that's us - are finally getting their/our own Discovery Institute! Only ours will actually promote real science and science policy as opposed to God-told-me-so science and science policy. Ed Brayton over at Dispatches From the Culture Wars has a post on the nifty new think tank with a link to a Washington Post article about it. Go over to Ed's pad and read the quote he excerpted from the Post article. It is soooooooo good.
thusspakezuska | November 17, 2006Congratulations to Donna C. Boyd, professor of forensic anthropology at Radford University! She is one of four professors (and the only woman) to be honored as Professor of the Year for 2006 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Professor Boyd was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education announcement of the award as follows:
"When you have unrecognizable human remains, our job is to try to identify it. Media depictions of forensic anthropology, like CSI and Bones, are a double-edged sword. They have brought in…
thusspakezuska | November 15, 2006It's been a migrainey sort of week here at Chez Zuska, so in lieu of something new at the moment, I'm giving you a "best of Zuska" from the old blog site. By coincidence, it's also trash and recycling night here in my hometown. Read and decide for yourself.
Shake Off The Dust Under Your Feet
And as a follow-up to my last post, take a gander at what Female Science Professor has to say:
At my university, there has never been a woman department chair in science, engineering, or math in the entire history of the university. A dean recently told me that it will probably be another decade or so…
thusspakezuska | November 12, 2006Female Science Professor has the most wonderful story to tell about a career forum at her university. Organized by a junior female faculty at her school,
There is typically a panel with representatives from various types of academic institutions (small colleges, research universities, medium-sized universities), from industry, and from government agencies. The panel members speak briefly about their jobs and then there is a lot of interactive question-answer time with the audience. After,there is informal social time for additional interaction between students and the panel members.
What's…
thusspakezuska | November 10, 2006What are the best pickup lines for scientists and science-savvy folk?...
I think I can best answer this Ask A Science Blogger question by quoting myself.
So:
Suzanne Franks, in her fabulous essay Suzy the Computer vs. Dr. Sexy: What's A Geek Girl To Do When She Wants To Get Laid? which you can now read in the available for purchase She's Such a Geek! Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff, writes:
When I got to college, I found frat parties dominated the social life, and I suspected that smarts might not be a high-value attribute in that scene. Nevertheless, I trotted…
thusspakezuska | November 8, 2006I started this as a reply to a comment by Chris on my post Why Are All The White Men Sitting Together In The Other Conference Rooms? but it became a post of its own. Chris wrote:
As someone who's attended quite a few engineering conferences, I find that sessions about the profession/discipline tend not to be very well attended, and not representative of the meeting attendees as a whole. For instance, sessions on engineering education tend to attract only a small fraction of the attendees that come to sessions about using steel reinforced concrete in bridge design or retroreflectivity in…
thusspakezuska | November 8, 2006Since I brought up the X-Gals, I've been thinking of another model of group support in academe, the Mujeres Universitiarias Asociadas at Central Florida. They were featured in an article in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education special issue on diversity.
The Mujeres (pronounced moo-HAIR-ays) typically gather over lunch each month. They share tips on such issues as which campus administrator to approach with a problem and which to avoid. They have coached one another on compiling tenure portfolios and offered pointers on applying for the university's $5,000 teaching award. They have…
thusspakezuska | November 8, 2006Found this blog via a comment on Young Female Scientist this evening
Rising to the Occasion
Saxifraga is in Scandinavia and says of herself
I am a newly minted PhD in the natural sciences. I work as a research scientist and is currently holding a temporary position as an associate professor. I moved to a new country last year. I moved to a very remote place in the far north for the temporary position. I recently got engaged. we will move in together soon after four years of doing the long-distance relationship thing. I will be appointed assistant head of department when I return to my home…
thusspakezuska | November 7, 2006Calling all geek girls: The She's Such a Geek blog is up and running. And is it ever good! Please do check out Kristin's post Show and Tell. You have not lived until you've seen a bra with a voltmeter-ammeter panel. I mean it.
In theory I am also blogging over there but in practice I have been barely keeping up with blogging here so I have not yet posted to the SSAG blog. But I promise you will love what the other contributors to the book have put up there so far!
And you can BUY THE BOOK now!
Or buy it here.
Here's the publisher's comments:
Geeks may be outcasts in mainstream…
thusspakezuska | November 7, 2006Back on October 6, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a column titled The X-Gals Alliance and I missed the chance to blog about it at that time. The second in the ongoing series of columns from these fabulous women is now out, Balance It Out.
From the original column:
"We" are the X-Gals, a group of nine female biologists who began meeting weekly over a few beers in 2000, as several of us wrote up our dissertations. (Our name is a double-pun on the X-Men superheroes and on X-Gal, a laboratory chemical sometimes used in biology.)
Back then, we read one another's dissertation…
thusspakezuska | November 7, 2006File this under: I have an imaging tool and I need something to do with it that will garner grant support. Hey, let's study people speaking in tongues! Because we will learn....something! That will be of use for....whatever!
At least as far as I can tell they aren't claiming the images prove that men have superior math abilities. Which is usually the result of functional imaging studies.
Imaging tool: SPECT
At: University of Pennsylvania
Who studied: Healthy, active, female churchgoers
The New York Times had to go all the way to a pentacostal church in the Congo to find a photo of…
thusspakezuska | November 3, 2006What's the most important local political race to you this year (as a citizen, as a scientist)?...
Dear god, please save me from Rick Santorum...oh wait. Is that a bit strange, to be praying for relief from Mr. RightWingChristianFundamentalist? Mr. EvolutionIsEvilNaziPropaganda? Mr. WomenShouldBeInTheHomeAndPregnant? Mr. ILiveInVirginiaButIWantPennsylvaniaToPayForMyKidsEducation?
Last year I moved from Kansas and thought with great relief, "No more Sam Brownback as my senator!!!" Of course, coming to Pennsylvania, I just exchanged him for Rick Santorum.
However, there is the very real…
thusspakezuska | November 3, 2006Yes, it's November, and that means it's time to plant spring bulbs! Yay!
Okay, I already planted eighty bulbs last week:
10 Prinz Claus crocus
10 Pickwick Crocus
10 Chionodoxa Luciliae (Glory of the Snow)
10 Iris Reticulata 'Violet Beauty'
40 Galanthus (Snowdrops)
Now please note that while some of the above links will take you to sites that allow you to order bulbs, I do NOT necessarily endorse any of those sites for ordering bulbs. You have to be very, very careful about where you order your bulbs from.
I know this because of a course I took on Wednesday evening from the Morris…