Gendering Science: International Conference Travel

Depaul University, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

General Audience Summary This project will support the participation of US scholars in the international conference, "Gendering Science: Women and Men Producing Knowledge," to be held at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. The conference is organized by the Commission on Women and Gender Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in collaboration with the Czech National Contact Centre for Gender & Science, the Czech Academy of Sciences, and several units of Charles University. The goal of the conference is to bring international scholars together to advance scholarly efforts to move beyond a focus on how women have been marginalized in science by analyzing the collaborations between women and men in knowledge production. The outcomes of this conference will include promotion of international intellectual interchange, scholarship, and broad dissemination. STEM fields remain underrepresented by women, and this is especially true in the physical sciences, engineering, computer sciences, and mathematics. Within the history of science, gender questions in science continue to be neglected at an extent incommensurate with the attention they deserve. Technical Summary The US participants on this grant include both senior scholars, some of whom are founding members of the Commission, and junior scholars whose work would greatly benefit from the intellectual dialogue that this conference will promote. All seven of the participants plus the principal investigator are scheduled to present in sessions at the conference, which is organized to promote STS scholarship on gender and science internationally. Since 1981, the commission has advanced scholarship in this area of STS. In recent years, the Commission has been particularly focused on increasing participation of early career scholars and scholars from economically distressed regions, and promoting scholarship that highlights continuing areas of gender underrepresentation in STEM fields. This conference is a pioneering attempt to expand the focus beyond "women in science," by posing a theme that concerns the dynamics of both women and men producing knowledge. Both the historiography of science and gender demographics of science will benefit from this conference and the US contingent's participation.