sciencewoman
Posts by this author
April 3, 2008
In the first week in January, I turned in a vita and accompanying statement for calendar year 2007...so essentially for the first 4 months of my faculty appointment. The materials have now been reviewed by a group of senior faculty in my department and a letter has been sent to the chair. The chair…
March 31, 2008
First, note the time stamp on this post. I have just now succeeded in getting Minnow to sleep and have sat down with a cup of tea and tomorrow's lecture to prepare. It's going to be a long short night. And I'm already tired.
I'm tired because for some inexplicable reason, Minnow couldn't sleep last…
March 31, 2008
As I head into each weekend, I start to think about possible topics for Mommy Monday. What will inspire me? What will my readers be interested in? What do I feel comfortable writing about? I debated a couple of topics this weekend, but I think I've settled on an update on breast-feeding a toddler.…
March 29, 2008
There is an occasional faint light at the end of the tunnel of the academic year, and with that light come a lot of planning for the summer. I'm trying not to place unrealistic productivity expectations on the summer, but I also know that it is unrealistic to think that I will have the summer "off…
March 27, 2008
It's really hard to talk about what I do and how my research relates to other people in my department/field and the challenges of inter(sub)disciplinary research, while maintaining any pretense at pseudonymity. Inspired by Bright Star and her roller-blading analogy for her research, I decided a…
March 25, 2008
Don't be a fool and forget to submit something for the April edition of Scientiae, the blog carnival by, for, and/or about women in STEM. The theme for the month is fools and foolishness, and the carnival is being hosted by Peggy at Women in Science on or about April 1st (hence the theme). For…
March 24, 2008
Minnow discovers sand and explores gravitational versus turbulent effects upon releasing a handful into the wind. When we got home, we read Bagnold's "The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes." No, not really...we saved it for bedtime! :)
Below the fold, Minnow demonstrates some classical…
March 21, 2008
Picking up where we left off a week ago...Caplan outlines 11 myths about women that she argues are pertinent to the case of women in academia. I'm going to skip over the first batch of myths, and focus on the ones specifically about women and working.
20. Full-time men work full-time, but part-time…
March 20, 2008
Apparently Purdue and Mystery U coordinate their "overwhelm the new faculty" schedule.
Had lunch with the provost this week. Take home message: time would have been better spent bringing in oodles of grant money. Avoid desert.
Have been consciously avoiding blogging as part of a get-things-done…
March 20, 2008
Yesterday morning Kate birthed a healthy wonderful baby girl. Go on over and congratulate her.
March 17, 2008
This morning I was using my cell phone to make a donation to NPR while putting gas in my Prius.
I'm not going to put up a mommy monday post today because I am afraid I will say something I'd later regret. Instead, if I get a chance to blog later today or tomorrow or ..., I'll stick to the…
March 15, 2008
3. Unwritten Rules and Impossible Proofs
"Anyone who spends much time in academic settings learns that they are riddled with unwritten rules, and this can make for a great deal of bewilderment and frustration for all kinds of academics. For any oppressed group, this situation is particularly…
March 14, 2008
A few weeks ago I challenged the readers of this blog to join me in reading Paula Caplan's "Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide to Surviving in the Academic World." This weekend we're set to discuss the book - and we'll see where the conversation goes from there.
If you've read the book (…
March 10, 2008
I always feel acutely ignorant when I begin to talk about racial prejudice, diversity or discrimination. I grew up in a blindingly white hometown. In elementary school, my best friend was Indian - but she was part of one of two Indian families in town - both there because a parent was on the…
March 9, 2008
What do you do if you are the mother of two young children, have an academic spouse, and have just been denied tenure because of what appears to be upper-level university politics?
It sounds like some sick joke, right?
Only it's not. It's the situation that MommyProf finds herself in this weekend…
March 7, 2008
When Alice and I teamed up last month, we realized that we needed a new name - one that was inclusive of both of our identities and reflects where we want this blog to go. Today, we're proud to unveil that new name and a new banner to go along with it.
From here on out, this blog is...…
March 6, 2008
I'm so pleased to welcome See Jane Compute to the ScienceBlogs family. Jane was one of the first women in science bloggers I discovered, and I've been a big fan ever since. She's been on the tenure track a couple of years longer than I, so I've really valued hearing her perspective on research,…
March 6, 2008
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday at this time, I was frustrated by my lack of getting things done during my spring break. This afternoon, I'm feeling much better. It's not that I've suddenly gotten a bunch of stuff taken off the plate, it's just that I've resolved to be OK with how this…
March 5, 2008
It's Wednesday afternoon of my spring break week, and it's time to take stock of my progress.
If you recall, my goals were threefold:
* I want to make the weeks ahead easier.
* I want to come out of the week feeling like I accomplished something.
* I want to spend some time outside.…
March 5, 2008
I'll pick up on a comment thread from the last post, in which I argued that whether women with high earning jobs and high earning partners were "opting out" or being forced out missed the fact that many women with high-earning jobs are financially supporting their families and can't afford to even…
March 4, 2008
In the 15 February Science Magazine, Phyllis Moen reviews the book "Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home" by Pamela Stone. Stone examines the phenomenon of women leaving successful to stay home by actually interviewing the women who opt out. As Moen writes:
Social scientists have…
March 3, 2008
More linky goodness from my saved bloglines. Today's edition brought to you by the letters B, C, and D.
But first a flashback to the A's:Ask a scientist: What's the deal with plastic baby bottles? at a Natural Scientist.
Jenny's post is timely for me because I recently found out that after trying…
March 3, 2008
Part 1: The Toddler and the Shopping Trips
I remember when Minnow was tiny and I felt awful dragging her along on errands. It didn't seem fair to her and it was just *so much work.* I had to pull her carseat out of the car, set it on the cart (ignoring the warnings), bring a diaper bag along…
March 1, 2008
I know I've written before about how I reward myself with iTunes purchases (but I can't find the links right now). Well, I am due for some serious spending on iTunes, as I recently had a paper accepted and recently celebrated a birthday. But here's the problem, I think I'm in a musical rut, and I…
February 28, 2008
It's the end of another teaching week. My mom has left town. My head is filled with mucous. And my motivation to do anything substantive has entirely left the building. It's taking a huge amount of effort just to write this blog post. I blame the cold, but I also blame being burnt out by the pace…
February 26, 2008
I've got a massive backlog of saved posts in my bloglines. These are things new and (really really) old, things I've read and loved and things I've meant to read. They are posts I've wanted to share with you and posts that have touched me deeply. But the post backlog is nearing a threshold point…
February 25, 2008
ScienceGrandma is in Mystery City for a visit this week, so we've got three generations of strong, scientifically-inclined women enjoying some time together. ScienceGrandma is a retired science professor, so it's interesting to hear her commentary on my day-to-day. Some things have changed since…
February 22, 2008
Mystery City is 42% non-Caucasian, with the largest minority being African-American. Mystery University is 25% non-Caucasian.* My introductory courses bear out that statistic; I have a substantial percentage of Hispanic, Asian, and African-American students. So I was somewhat started the other day…
February 21, 2008
From the email files:To: Science Woman (science.woman@mystery.edu)
From: sillyname@yahoo.com
Subject: Hey
can u tell me how to do number 4 on the problem set. i no u went over it in class but i have had a VERY LONG week lol tests ha ha ha and i lost my notes. pleeease help
Stu
Dear Stu,
The notes…
February 20, 2008
I just found out the the Bush administration's budget proposal for next year zeros out one of the programs that is a significant source of support for my past and proposed research. Hopefully Congress will put it back in, but in the meantime, does anyone have $50K per year they could prop me up…