Issue of September 8, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Crosspost: A woman who composed the first draft of history finds herself written out of the history books
2. Doxsey: Travel Prize Committee Solicitation
3. Update to the AAS Code of Ethics
4. Inclusivity versus devotion to the cult of STEM
5. Tidbits from the Society for Physics Students (SPS) in 'Radiations'
6. Mount Marilyn: A Lunar Love Story
7. Matie Cunitz - translator of Kepler
8. Demographics of gender in astronomy
9. It’s 2023, and it’s about time we Include Her
10. Astronomers who are women in Afghanistan need the world’s support
11. Job Opportunities
12. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
14. Access to Past Issues
An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.
By: Allison Gilbert for CNN
The Smithsonian describes itself as the “world’s largest museum, education, and research complex,” housing nearly 157 million objects, of which less than 1% are on view at its 21 museums. Yet its vast collections are unsearchable by gender. Conducting research to find examples of “women in journalism” (or women working in any endeavor) is generally fruitless. The result? It’s nearly impossible to discover women whose names we don’t yet know.
Thankfully, this is changing. The Smithsonian acknowledges that the cataloging of its own materials has been a major factor in women’s stories remaining untold. “The terminology and the systems weren’t there and set up to recognize them,” according to Melanie Adams, newly appointed interim director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, and reported here for the first time. “We now have to fix those systems in order for these stories to be visible.”
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2023/09/crosspost-woman-who-composed-first.html
By Jennifer Lynn-Bartlett
Would you, or someone you know, be a good candidate for serving on the AAS Roger Doxsey Travel Prize Committee? Within its small size constraints, the committee is wants to ensure that the judges reflect the diversity of the students currently completing dissertations and can judge abstracts equitably. Please share the recruitment announcement below with any AAS member who might be interested. I would be delighted to answer any questions about the prize or committee work.
Doxsey Travel Prize Committee wants you!
The American Astronomical Society Doxsey Travel Prize Committee is seeking two members to serve for a three-year term beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year. Candidates must be AAS members, have completed their doctorate at least 2 years ago, and be willing to evaluate approximately 100 dissertation talk abstracts in November of each year. The time commitment is otherwise light; we have a small number of virtual meetings to organize and pick Travel Prize winners. Candidates from traditionally underrepresented groups or in the early stages of their careers are especially encouraged to apply for this worthwhile professional service opportunity. Please contact Jennifer Bartlett [jennifer_at_bartlettastro.com].
Read more at: https://aas.org/committees/doxsey-travel-prize-committee
By: AAS Board
Over the last several months, the AAS Board of Trustees and Ethics Working Group have received many thoughtful and principled comments on the circumstances in which harassment and/or bullying should be considered “professional” misconduct. After careful consideration of the broad array of responses to the request for comment, the Board of Trustees has taken the position that harassment and bullying in a professional setting constitute forms of professional misconduct because they have a direct impact on the professional activities and career trajectories of the victims. Our community has been diminished by the loss of talented, creative, and innovative people who have left the field, changed their professional trajectories, or suffered a loss productively as a result of harassment and bullying.
Read more at:
https://aas.org/posts/news/2023/09/update-aas-code-ethics
By Andrew Pye
"The assertion that science is not entirely meritocratic, or objective, can create cognitive dissonance as it challenges one of our core beliefs. Faced with such discomfort, our instinct is to defend STEM. But perhaps we need to pause and accept some uncomfortable truths. Each barrier created by STEM working culture compounds the next and intersectionality means that some people face multiple barriers. What are your chances of becoming a professor as a disabled, working-class, female carer, from a country requiring visas for travel?”
Read more at:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/inclusivity-versus-devotion-cult-stem
By Lauren Balliet and Susan Rolke
Embracing the Twists and Turns - "I never would have envisioned the path my career has followed thus far, but I wouldn’t change any of it. It has shaped me into the person I am today."
Read more at
https://www.sigmapisigma.org/sigmapisigma/radiations/fall/2022/embracing-twists-and-turns
Lessons from the stratosphere - “It was the darkest sky I have ever seen.” Educator Susan Rolke was more than 38,000 feet above the Earth, looking out at the world from the cockpit of the flying observatory known as SOFIA. The view of the black Pacific Ocean below and the stars and Milky Way above, she says, will always stay with her.
Read more at:
https://www.sigmapisigma.org/sigmapisigma/radiations/fall/2022/lessons-stratosphere
By: Mark Robinson [robinson_at_ser.asu.edu]
Marilyn Lovell, a truly amazing woman, passed away this weekend at the age of 93. She and Captain James Lovell had been married for 71 years, a beautiful and inspiring lunar love story. We are republishing the Mt.Marilyn post from December 2018 in her honor. Jim Lovell was the commander of Apollo 13.
Read the Mt. Marilyn post at:
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1312
Read her obituary at:
By: John H. Lienhard
The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. One German astronomer in seven was a woman during the late 1600s. One in seven! Those were masculine times. The Protestant Reformation put women in the home, not in the academies. Yet the complex mathematical life of astronomy drew women in. At first that doesn't seem to make sense. Those were times of radical scientific change. We were building the modern scientific method on experiments. Historian Lhonda Shiebinger explains how, in Germany, women found an odd door into this new life of the mind. That door didn't lead into the academies. It led into the trades. The trade tradition was strong in Germany. Women could take up any work that looked like a trade. The new scientific work had just that look and feel.
Read more at:
https://engines.egr.uh.edu/episode/407
by: Zippia
Included are demographics of women and men in astrononmy. 27% of astronomers are women.
Read more at:
https://www.zippia.com/astronomer-jobs/demographics/
By: Shanika Galaudage
"Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are underrepresented and there is increasing evidence showing that a sense of belonging is essential for students to continue to pursue careers related to STEM. Schools and school education play a huge role in the development of identity, motivation, self-esteem, and participation in STEM, and the lack of representation of any one group can impact participation rates in these fields of these groups. Our team, consisting of scientists and education experts, have published findings in the Australian Journal of Education indicating that there is an obvious underrepresentation of women in the Australian year 11/12 science curriculum.”
Read more at:
https://www.spaceaustralia.com/opinions/its-2023-and-its-about-time-we-include-her
By: Amena Karimyan
"I am a woman with a passion for astronomy. My passion is also to teach other women and girls about astronomy, and in 2018, in Herat, Afghanistan, along with Sohail Karimi, an engineering student, I founded the Kayhana Astronomical Group, a grass-roots educational collective. Now Afghanistan has changed, and the leaders, the Taliban, do not want women or girls to be educated in science. Scholars, especially girls and young people, are referred to here as outcasts. However, I must continue my work, despite much danger, since the women here are clever and deserve to be taught and think for themselves. My long-term goal is to introduce astronomy to the Afghan people, eliminate gender discrimination from this society and re-introduce the principle of humanity to Afghanistan."
Read more at:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01653-8#rightslink
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here:
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/resources/Diversity#howtoincrease
- New Chair at the The UMass-Lowell Dept. of Physics & Applied Physics, UMass, Lowell, MA
- Staff Astronomer, Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA
https://obs.carnegiescience.edu/staff-astronomer
- Staff Astronomer in Exoplanet Science, Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA
https://obs.carnegiescience.edu/staff-astronomer-exoplanet-science
- Astronomy Lecturer at the University of North Texas (Denton), TX
https://jobs.untsystem.edu/postings/75164
- The 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellowship program: The Heising-Simons Foundation anticipates awarding six to eight fellowships this year
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