Scientiae Carnival #4: Spring Cleaning Edition

Hello everyone, and welcome to Scientiae The Fourth: Spring Cleaning Edition! Ironically, before we could get this out we had to do some spring cleaning of our own at Scientiae, as Blogger had classified the Scientiae blog as spam for some odd reason. But, the good Scientiae name is now cleared, and we can proceed with the good stuff!

Cleaning up cyberspace (of the bullies and jerks)

The big buzz around the blogosphere continues to be the saga of Kathy Sierra and the horrible, horrible cyberbullying she's had to endure. People continue to share stories, their own and others', about being harrassed in cyberspace. tekanji at Shrub.com posts on harrassment and silencing in gaming communities. FeministSF has a thoughtful and powerful response.

One result of this whole situation has been a call for a Blogger Code of Conduct, part of which questions whether anonymity/pseudonymity are leading to the whole toxic culture online. Charlieanders at She's Such a Geek and Bitch, Ph.D. both respond with their takes on why anonymity/psedonymity is necessary, particularly for women to be able to tell their stories online.

Finally, Chris Clarke at Pandagon has some helpful advice for those (particularly men) participating in the larger discussion: how not to be an asshole.

Cleaning up the FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) Communities

There are an appallingly small number of women developers of free and open source software---only 1.5%. Liz Henry and She's Such a Geek discuss a talk given by Angela Byron about the experience of women as FOSS developers. (Liz's post has a link to Angela's slides, too.) Clancy at CultureCat has a long and very informative post on gender and open source (with good background on what FOSS is, for those not familiar with the term or the surrounding culture). Mairin, an open source developer and co-founder of GNOME Women, has a thoughtful response from the trenches.

Reflections and Introspections on STEM Careers

Spring cleaning often means reflecting on where we are in our careers and where we want to be. Lots of good stuff in this category, from women scientists at all stages of the pipeline.

Amelie starts us off with her reflections on her PhD program, one year in. Emma posts on how she discovered that the teaching life was not for her, the very real danger of burnout as a new professor, and how she's starting to find more peace on her current career path as a post-doc.

Motherhood and career is on the minds of a few of us as well. ScienceWoman interviews herself, illuminating her dual challenges as new post-doc and new mom. I've also caught the introspection bug, reflecting on impending motherhood, sabbatical productivity, and how I feel about my department. Geeky Mom talks about why she works, the fulfillment she gets from her job and career, and how she and her family have dealt with the family/career balance over the years.

Annual review time is here for many of us. Female Science Professor shares some of her frustrations with the process, which is often more political than we'd like to admit. (Be sure to stop over and congratulate Female Science Professor on her teaching award!)

Zuska presents us with Part 3 in her Life as a Leak series. In this installment, she addresses the question of whether you can call yourself a scientist if you are not actively "doing" science in a research lab---in other words, what makes us scientists, exactly? (And if you're not following Zuska's "online course" on the Joy of Science, you should be! The current discussions revolve around women's access to science, passionate reason and pseudo-passion, and the experiences of international women. Reading summaries are here.)

Finally, Dr. Rosie Redfield, a microbiology professor at the University of British Columbia, and her research group blog about their research. Neat stuff! A great look into the daily lives of women doing science.

Cleaning up perceptions of female ability

Jenny F. Scientist at A Natural Scientist presents us with her lab's latest edition of Sexist Ninny Bingo. In this round: pregnancy, maternity leave, and the "discrimination" against men in the job market. tekanji presents us with Geek Girl Stereotype Bingo, complete with bingo card! You, too, can play along at home, during your next faculty meeting/department meeting/group meeting. Hours of fun!

If your blood pressure hasn't risen yet, my readers respond to the question "what's the dumbest thing someone has said to you recently?"

In the News

Pat at Fairer Science has an update on the Discovery Channel's casting call for a (male) host for a new engineering series. Turns out women are welcome to apply, too. (Gee, how darned refreshing!)

Pat also passes along a call for writers from The WIP. From WIP's site: "The Women’s International Perspective, The WIP, is a comprehensive news website of women contributors that reports world news, opinion, and commentary. Our mission is to provide quality news from the unique perspectives of women that is accessible worldwide and free to our readers." They are especially interested in improving their science and technology coverage.

The big finale: Logo submissions!

The call for Scientiae logos went out, and readers responded! Check out the submissions from FemaleCSGradStudent
and Jokerine. We should probably have a poll for this at some point, but for now, please feel free to leave your logo comments in the comments.

Some final housekeeping: Acknowledgements and the next Scientiae

Special thanks to John Dupuis, Propter Doc, and Rosa Carson for nominating posts for this carnival. And thanks to all of you for continuing to post such thoughtful reflections on gender and race issues in STEM!

The next Scientiae is scheduled for May 1, at Clarity. As always, information on how to submit posts is here. Happy posting, and happy Monday to all!