Day: January 16, 2014

Why Isn’t My Professor Black?

Jender2 Comments

There are just 85 black professors out of 18,510 in the UK and the number has barely changed in eight years. The percent of black professors (0.4%) shows a striking disparity with the proportion of black students, which has increased steadily each year and now stands at 6%.

What does it mean when the generation that produces knowledge is so unrepresentative of the generation that consumes it? This panel debate will be chaired by Professor Michael Arthur, UCL President and Provost. It will aim to ask difficult questions and explore even more challenging solutions.

Networking reception to follow.

Speakers
Professor Michael Arthur, Chair, UCL President and Provost
Dr William Ackah, Panel Member, Birkbeck, University of London
Dr Lisa Amanda Palmer, Panel Member, Newman University
Dr Shirley Tate, Panel Member, University of Leeds
Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman, Panel Member, UCL

For more, go here.

At least our seminars take breaks

annejjacobson2 Comments

Below is a contribution from a recent Edge project.  And we thought philosophy was too often bad for women!

The question was, “What scientific idea is ready for retirement?”

My contribution:

The Way We Produce And Advance Science

Last year, I spearheaded a survey and interview research project on the experiences of scientists at field sites. Over sixty percent of the respondents had been sexually harassed, and twenty percent had been sexually assaulted. Sexual predation was only the beginning of what I and my colleagues uncovered: study respondents reported psychological and physical abuses, like being forced to work late into the day without being told when they could head back to camp, not being allowed to urinate, verbal threats and bullying, and being denied food. The majority of perpetrators are fellow scientists senior to the target of abuse, the target themselves usually a female graduate student. Since we started analyzing these data, I haven’t been able to read a single empirical science paper without wondering on whose backs, via whose exploitation, that research was conducted.

There is a lot more to this piece, which you can find by following the link above, which will take you to a very interesting blog.  The author is Prof. Kate Clancy, who was also features in another recent post on FemPhil., Welcome But Not Really.