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Call for papers: Women and Science in the 20th Century. Using Oral History to Reveal Hidden Stories, 4th April, Kingston University 10am- 5pm

The second workshop organized by AHRC Science in Culture Theme Women in Science Research Network  will take place at Kingston University on Friday 4th April, 10am- 5pm.

Applications to present short papers are welcomed.

If you would like to contribute a short paper (15 minutes per presentation), please send a brief synopsis to Sue Hawkins at s.e.hawkins@kingston.ac.uk.

This workshop will investigate just how useful oral history can be in finding, revealing and (most importantly) recording the untold stories of modern female scientists. Anyone who has experience of using oral history, particularly in the context of history of science and women’s history, and most especially where these two intersect, or who is considering using this method in a project, is invited to join the workshop. There will be three invited papers from experienced oral history practitioners, a collection of shorter presentations and a round table discussion. To register to attend the workshop, please email Jenni Thomas, Jennifer.Thomas.external@Rothschild.com

Workshop information

Historically, women’s participation in science in all its guises has been hidden away as if it were an unpleasant secret, and yet women managed to contribute in many ways. However, finding them and their papers requires patient and tenacious engagement with archives.

In more modern times with improving education and enlightened attitudes to working women, the barriers to women’s access to science and scientific careers are assumed to have been lifted. But, this simplified version of reality is not reflected in today’s figures, where boys still outnumber girls taking physics and maths ‘A’ level, and where at every step along a career more women than men are lost.

How can we better understand the barriers to participation in the first place, and to persistence in science for women today? Can we really accept the explanation provided by one head teacher of a British girls school, who, when asked why her sixth-form ‘girls’ rarely chose to study physics or maths, responded, ‘Well, perhaps they just don’t like physics’.

One method which lends itself to the study of women and science in the modern era is oral history. It offers a voice to members of society whose story often goes untold; and in science and engineering this voice is often that of women. It allows women to tell their own stories in their own words, but also enables historians to discuss the story with the protagonist, impossible with a paper archive. But oral history also has its critics – accused of not being objective, of being hampered by poor recall or by biased or selective interpretation of events.

Bloodline, Chimera Network. Image Copyright Richard Lane

An article about Bloodlines, a performance developed as part of the AHRC Science in Culture Chimera Network, appeared in Times Higher Education on 30th January 2014. Bloodlines is a performance based on the creators’ own experiences of being treated for a life threatening disease. It draws on composer Milton Mermikides’ experience of Leukaemia and his treatment through a bone marrow transplant donated by his sister, Alex Mermikides (director).

Alex discusses the performance in her recent blog post ‘Bloodlines: A New Kind of Art and Science Collaboration’.

Please follow the link to read the full article in Times Higher Education: Transplant Inspires Siblings Bloodlines Project

Wednesday 5^th February, 1-2pm #ahrcchat

Are you interested in applying for an AHRC’s Science in Culture Theme Innovation Award?

Theme Leadership Fellow Professor Barry C Smith and Ian Broadbridge, AHRC Portfolio Manager are holding a Twitter chat on Wednesday 5^th February 2014 from 1pm to 2pm (GMT) to answer your questions about the Innovation Awards Call.

Proposals are currently being sought for Innovation awards to expand and explore the AHRC Science in Culture Theme in new ways. Applications are invited from researchers from any discipline or subject areas across the Arts and Humanities with a particular emphasis on areas which have not previously received funding under the Theme. Funding of up to £80,000 is available for a maximum of 12 months and awards are expected to start between October 2014 and April 2015.

The AHRC ‘Science in Culture’ Theme aims to develop the reciprocal relationship between the Sciences on one hand, and the Arts and Humanities on the other. It seeks to identify new avenues for cross-disciplinary innovation and stimulate advances in research in both the Arts and Humanities and Sciences which might not otherwise have occurred without mutual exchange.

The closing date for applications for Innovation awards is 4pm on 27^th February 2014.

You can follow the AHRC Science in Culture Theme on Twitter @AHRCSciculture, and the hashtag for this chat will be #ahrcchat

Applicants are sought for two studentships as part of the AHRC Science in Culture Theme Large Grant Constructing Scientific Communities: Citizen Science in the 19th and 21st Centuries.

University of Oxford

There is one opportunity for a three year, fully funded studentship (including both fees and living costs) to work towards a DPhil in the Faculty of English, University of Oxford on the AHRC project.

The studentship will commence in October 2014 and is open to UK nationals, or EU nationals who have resided in the UK for 3 years or more.

The successful applicant will normally have achieved a Master’s degree with distinction (or equivalent) in a relevant subject, and will be expected to work on a topic of her or his choice that sits broadly within the area of Nineteenth-Century History of Science and Literature, with particular reference to medical and scientific journals. The student appointed to the project will be attached to St Anne’s College and will be supervised by Professor Sally Shuttleworth.

Applicants for this position should apply online by 28 February 2014. Click here for more details.

University of Leicester

The successful applicant will contribute to the AHRC funded Science in Culture large grant on Constructing Scientific Communities: Citizen Science in the 19th and 21st Centuries.

The successful applicant will, in consultation with the supervisory team, devise their own thesis topic on the broad theme of the role played by 19th Century natural history journals in both creating and disseminating scientific knowledge, and in facilitating the involvement of amateur naturalists in those processes. The journals used will come from both the University Library at Leicester and, most significantly, the library of the Natural History Museum, which holds the most extensive collection of nineteenth-century natural history periodicals in the UK.

The completed thesis will make original contributions to historical and literary understandings of natural history journals, as well as affording a further perspective on the 19th Century antecedents of citizen science.

A studentship will also be funded as part of the project, to be based at the University of Leicester and supervised by Dr Gowan Dawson.

Applications must be received by 31 March 2014. Click here for more details.

Is your research making an impact in the Arts, Humanities and Sciences?

We are excited to announced the first IGNITE event hosted by AHRC Science in Culture. Applications are now open.The IGNITE will take place on March 26, 2014 at the Natural History Museum. The deadline for applications is 17 February, 2014.

The event is open to the public. Please register for a free ticket by following the link to the Eventbrite page.

Four, full time, 3 year, postdoctoral research fellowships are currently being advertised as part of the AHRC Large Grant ‘Rethinking the Senses: Uniting the Philosophy and Neuroscience of Perception’. The project is based at the Centre for the Study of the Senses (Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London) and the Universities of Oxford, Glasgow and Warwick and runs from 1 October 2013 to 30 December 2016. Professor Colin Blakemore is principal investigator, and Dr Ophelia Deroy, Professors Fiona Macpherson, Matthew Nudds, and Charles Spence are co-investigators.

The four posts will initially be based at the University of Glasgow, University of Oxford, University of London and University of Warwick respectively, although as the project progresses, it is anticipated that each of the postdocs will move to spend a period of up to 12 months in one of the partner institutions.

Information about the post at the Crossmodal Laboratory, University of Oxford is available here, vacancy ID 111286. The closing date for applications is 13th January 2014.

Information about the post at the Institute of Philosophy, University of London is available here. The closing date for applications is 13th January 2014.

Information about the postdoctoral research fellowships at the University of Glasgow and the University of Warwick is available here. The closing date for applications is 19th January 2014.

‘Collaborations between arts and humanities researchers and scientists can sometimes have an air of tokenism – with science projects simply bringing in artists to “make it look pretty”. We want projects that really do something difficult and meaningful.’

Christie Walker, Strategy and Development Manager at the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), who is helping to oversee the new Science in Culture Theme Innovation Awards discusses ‘truly meaningful’ research collaborations in an interview with Media FHE: http://www.mediafhe.com/ahrc-seeks-truly-meaningful-research-collaboration-between-science-and-the-arts/

The AHRC is currently advertising a call for Innovation Awards under the Science in Culture Theme. Successful proposals are expected to expand and explore the Science in Culture theme in new and innovative ways. Funding of up to £80,000 (fEC) over a period of 12 months will be awarded to successful grants.  Up to 10 Innovation Awards are expected to be funded.

The closing date for applications is 4pm on 27th February 2014. More information about this opportunity is available here.

Using Social Media to create impact: 

The AHRC Science in Culture Theme is hosting a social media workshop with three of their funded projects on Friday 22 November. This pilot session will be a mixture of theory and practice, considering how to successfully use social media as a tool for communication and research.

This pilot session will include participants, from three research networks funded by the AHRC Science in Culture Theme; The Scientific Works of Robert Grosseteste: Lost Legacies and the Living Past, Women in Science Research Network and The Chimera Network. All three research networks are committed to developing opportunities for reciprocal exchange between researchers in the Sciences, Arts and Humanities.  All the participants expressed a keen interest to participate in the pilot.

The workshop will explore several issues and key concepts surrounding the use of social media on a day-to-day basis in a research setting. These include identifying which social tools to use to communicate process and progress, how to present content as well as a discussion on how to create meaningful opportunities for online public engagement.

The workshop will be facilitated by Abhay Adhikari (PhD) who is developing the social media engagement framework for the AHRC Science in Culture Theme. Abhay is a digital engagement specialist with an interest in voice and context. He has facilitated sessions for The Guardian, Telegraph Media Group, Channel 4 and several museums across the UK and Sweden.

After the workshop we hope to invite delegates to contribute a blog post about their project to the AHRC Science in Culture Theme Website www.sciculture.ac.uk. Follow us @AHRCSciculture #ScicultureSoc for live updates from the training session by project administrator Dorothy Fallon.

Two opportunities are currently being advertised in the Field of 19th Century Science Periodicals’ as part of the AHRC Science in Culture Large Grant Constructing Scientific Communities: Citizen Science in the 19th and 21st Centuries.

One post of ‘Research Associate in the Field of 19th Century Science Periodicals’ will be based at the University of Leicester, working with Dr Gowan Dawson and the Natural History Museum. The focus of this post will be on nineteenth-century natural history journals, but also with a wider remit across scientific journals of the period. More information about this opportunity is available here.

One post of ‘Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Nineteenth Century Science Periodicals’ will be based at the University of Oxford, working with Professor Sally Shuttleworth and at the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons.The focus of this post will be on 19th-century medical journals, particularly in public health, but also with a wider remit across scientific journals of the period. More information about this opportunity is available here.

Both posts will form part of a larger team working on ‘Constructing Scientific Communities: Citizen Science in the 19th and 21st Centuries’, in conjunction with colleagues based at the University of Oxford, the Natural History Museum, the Royal Society and the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.