Hunter College Professor to Discuss Challenges Facing Women in Professional Settings
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — Hunter College Professor Virginia Valian will give a Friday Feb. 11 University of Maine talk, “Why so slow? The advancement of women.” Scheduled for 2-3:30 in Minsky Recital Hall, Valian’s presentation will mark the first public event presented by the University of Maine’s Rising Tide Center, an initiative to affect institutional change by improving the status of female faculty in the sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics and the social-behavioral sciences.
A psychology professor, Valian’s scholarly interests include gender equity, gender differences in mathematics and language acquisition. She is the author of a book that bears the same title as that of her UMaine lecture.
“Prof. Valian carries a strong and important voice in these discussions, and she will add important perspectives as our university community moves forward in addressing these issues,” says UMaine Senior Vice President and Provost Susan Hunter. “The Rising Tide Center concept has been under development for many months, and we are excited to present this public kick-off event, which will help us foster the broad-based, inclusive kind of process necessary for ultimate success.”
The UMaine initiative, supported by a $3.3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant and announced last fall, aims to use a research-based approach to removing the limitations on opportunity for women faculty members in certain academic disciplines.
Researchers leading the UMaine project hope it will create a more inclusive academic community while fulfilling the NSF goal of contributing to the development of a more diverse and sustainable U.S. engineering and science workforce.
Since 2001, NSF has invested more than $130 million to support ADVANCE projects at more than 100 institutions of higher learning and STEM-related nonprofit organizations across the country.
Those interested in attending the presentation, which is free and open to the public, should RSVP by email.
For more information about the Rising Tide Center at UMaine, visit http://umaine.edu/advancerisingtide/.