Kathleen McHugh
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Welcome back and Happy New Year from all of us at CSW. Two years ago, on January 16th, then Harvard president Lawrence Summers made what would be career-altering remarks on the status of women in the sciences. He observed that, among three possible reasons for women’s underrepresentation in these fields, socialization and discrimination ranked third, behind what he referred to as women’s “different availability of aptitude” and their ability and desire to flourish in high-powered careers in science. This quarter, on the second anniversary of Summer’s remarks and the firestorm of important debate and analysis that ensued, CSW’s programming is focused on issues pertaining to Gender and Science. On February 23rd, we will hold a daylong conference, featuring four distinguished scholars—Kavita Philip, Joan Roughgarden, Banu Subramaniam, and Londa Schiebinger —whose work explores the intersections among science, gender, and power. A lunchtime panel discussion on gender, science, and access will feature Rosina M. Becerra, Elma Gonzalez, and Arpi Siyahian and the afternoon plenary session will be moderated by Sandra Harding. In addition to this daylong conference, the plenary at this year’s Thinking Gender conference on February 2nd will also focus on issues pertaining to gender and science: “Chickens, Wolves, Warriors, and Zoos: Feminist Science Studies meets Animal Studies and Law. “ We invite everyone to join us for these two CSW conferences. In addition to our programming on gender and science, CSW is delighted to host Rickie Solinger for the annual Roe v Wade Lecture on January 22nd; she will be speaking on “Who is a Mother? Who Decides? Race, Class, and Reproductive Politics in American History.” Throughout U.S. history, race and class have been at the center of reproductive politics, nationally. From slavery time, across the eras of immigration, through periods of both criminalized and legal abortion, up until the present, race and class have structured the ways that politicians and public policy have defined who gets to be a legitimate mother in this country -- and who does not. |
