AASWomen Newsletter for March 1, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

March 1, 2019

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:  

1. Does your conference spark joy? Two days at Women in Space 2019 

2. NASA Renames Facility to Honor 'Hidden Figures' Subject Katherine Johnson

3. Announcing the 11th Annual Susan Niebur WiPS Networking Event – LPSC 2019 

4. Conferences on General Relativity, Gravitation, and Gravitational Waves

5. Deaf Students Feel the Universe’s Vibrations in New Workshop

6. When Pioneers Disappear from History 

The Tower of the Moon and the Stars,
built by Queen Sonduk (632 CE).
Image by Gabriella Bernardi.

7. How some men are challenging gender inequity in the lab

8. 18 Children's Books About Female Scientists, Because STEM-inism Is The Future

9.  The unforgotten sisters: Sonduk, the astronomer queen

10. Job Opportunities   

11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter 

Access Astronomy and the Working Group on Accessibility and Disability

The American Astronomical Society's Working Group on Accessibility and Disability (WGAD) has started a blog: Access Astronomy.  Below is cross-posted (with permission) from Access Astronomy:

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Disabilities are common in America today, with 19% of the American population having a disability, and half of those reported as “severe” (2010 US Census). Approximately 18-26% of American adults experience mental illness in a given year, and mental illnesses generally have high co-morbidity with other medical conditions.

In an academic context, representation of students with disabilities decreases over the course of academic preparation (Moon et al. 2012): 

Figure description: three pie charts illustrating the percentage of students with disabilities pursuing STEM degrees/studies. The pies show undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level studies, with the slices representing students with disabilities becoming vanishingly small: 9-10% at the undergraduate level, 5% at the graduate level, and 1% at the doctorate level.

Accessible Astronomy

Today's guest post is by Jesse Shanahan.  Jesse is a graduate student studying astrophysics at Wesleyan University where she studies supermassive black holes and active galactic nuclei with Dr. Edward Moran. In her spare time, she organizes public outreach events at local schools, specializing in special needs and at-risk classrooms. In her first year of graduate school, she founded an astronomy outreach program for kids, which has received attention from press and remains a popular bi-monthly event at Van Vleck Observatory. She also provides virtual and in-home tutoring for K-12 in math, writing, test preparation, and study skills. Throughout her career, Jesse has advocated staunchly for inclusive equity and is a founding member of the Astronomy Anti-Racism Group (AARG!). She continues to be a dedicated disability rights activist and is currently in the process of forming the first working group on disability justice and accessibility in astronomy.   

The more time I spend in astronomy, the more I realize that the ability to just do science is an incredible privilege. Generally speaking, I’ve never experienced this fully due to being a female-presenting astronomer. However, even setting aside gender discrimination and harassment,  I’ve never experienced the privilege of being able to access my workplace, data, or classroom like my coworkers, advisors, and students can.

Why?

Well, I have a disability. My first semester in graduate school, I was unable to use any of the telescopes in the observatory, either for research or for class purposes.  They all required the ability to climb steep stairs. My very first physics class was in a lecture hall dominated by stairs. When I did research at Arecibo Observatory and Green Bank Telescope, I had similar experiences. Everything required the ability to walk distances, climb hills, or climb stairs. My first AAS conference, I had to sit in front of my poster rather than stand, and I was harassed for it. People equated my need for a chair with laziness: a common form of ableism. When I received accommodations from my university (which are my legal right according to section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act), several professors responded with similar assumptions. My need for rest or flexible deadlines was consistently interpreted as laziness rather than an actual physical need.