Interdisciplinary Intersectionality in (Theoretical) Physics

22 Mar 2023, 12:45 → 24 Mar 2023, 13:00 Europe/Zurich

Emmy-Noether-Saal (Alte Mensa)

Lucy Avraamidou (University of Groningen), Nelly Marosi (University of Groningen), Valeria Cernei (University of Groningen), Viraf Mehta (University of Göttingen), Virginia Grande (Uppsala University)

This workshop will facilitate a dialogue between physicists and experts studying the "culture of physics", with the goal of plotting the path of least resistance toward an equitable and just scientific practice within physics.

Our sessions will be coordinated discussions around topics including:

— Epistemic Injustice: understanding exclusionary practices in the academy
— A Focus on Physics: specific issues of accessibility in physics
— Towards Epistemic Justice: an exercise on collective sense-making and understanding

We aim to bring together experts in physics and its varied social/philosophical/historical aspects to create an active environment that moves us toward our goal of a just and sustainable universal science serving a global community.

Our speakers include:

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein	Meytal Eran-Jona
Martina Erlemann	Nuril Munfaridah
Carolina Vidor	Minna Salminen-Karlsson
Wafaa Khater	Jaclyn Bell
Melissa Dancy	Lucy Avraamidou

 

We look forward to welcoming you -- either virtually or in-person -- to the historical university town of Göttingen -- "Die Stadt der Wissenschaft" (City of Science) -- which, in the early 20th century, was one of the main centres for the development of modern physics -- an apt location for pushing the boundaries in inclusive, sustainable scientific methods and practices.

IITP_Poster

Wednesday 22 March

In-person Session: Welcoming Remarks

In-person Session: Minna Salminen-Karlsson

1 Not Every Genius Becomes a Noble Prize Winner: Contexts and Conditions for a Career in Physics

Marie Curie, with her two Nobel prizes, is presented as the icon of a female physicist, even as a role model for young women, showing that women can excel in physics. However, when she is put forward, a question arises: If geniality and hard work are the only things that are needed to make scientific discoveries, why is she the lone female star in the history of physics?
This presentation leads us to the discussion of why there are so few women in physics by taking its point of departure the in the biographies of three female Nobel laureates in the history of physics: Marie Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie and Maria Goeppert-Mayer. What was needed more than geniality to make it possible for these women to be the only female Nobel laureates in physics (and chemistry) in more than sixty years? We learn that there were many contextual factors that made it possible: Family background, education, economic conditions, childcare options, supportive husbands and other male advocates – and luck. By looking at Lise Meitner we can see how even such good conditions can be overtrumped by a birth categorization.
Considering that scientific discoveries are always made in a scientific and societal context, we can reflect on what has changed until today and how. Whose intelligence can be unleashed today for scientific achievements and whose is more likely to be restricted? How does that relate to gender, sexuality, and marginalized identities?

Speaker: Prof. Minna Salminen-Karlsson (Uppsala University)

Online Session: Meytal Jona

2 Women in physics: Bound by the ropes of motherhood expectations and the gendered labor market

The study is part of a research project on gender and physics conducted together with Prof. Yossi Nir, from the Physics faculty at Weizmann Institute of Science.

This study examines perceptions of PhD and postdoctoral female physics students, from all faculties in Israel, regarding their decision whether to pursue an academic career.

Despite ongoing efforts to enhance gender equality in science in the academy, women constitute a scarce minority of faculty staff in maths-intensive fields worldwide and the barriers for change are persistent. In Israel the gender imbalance is extremely severe, as women constitute up to 20% of the academic staff in maths- intensive fields yet only 7% in physics. Our aim is to explore the reasons for this gender imbalance and find new avenues to enhance diversity in physics.

The research is based on mixed methods methodologies, including a representative survey of all physics PhD students in Israel (n=267) male and female, as well as face to face in-depth interviews with 38 female PhD and postdoctoral students.

The research findings add to understanding that women are considering academic careers as a "deal" that has not only occupational- career components and personal-family components, but also economic considerations, which are less well studied.

Through the women’s stories, we reveal the multiple and hidden ways in which gender operates as a power structure within the field of physics, inside the family and in the labor market. We discuss how this power structure influences the women’s decision making regarding their career and shapes the "deal" that physics as a male-centric environment offers to these talented young women.

Speaker: Dr Meytal Eran-Jona (Weizmann Institute)

Coffee Break

In-person Session: Lucy Avraamidou

3 Gender Studies in Science: Literature Review in the Past 10 Years

In this talk, I will offer a critical synthesis of studies on gender matters in science education from 2014 until 2022 with a focus on physics. The talk is organized around 3 research areas: a) understanding gender gaps and gender stereotypes in physics, b) gender performativity and identity-based approaches to gender explorations, c) intersectional approaches and queer theories in physics. In doing so, I will summarize existing knowledge, identify gaps in the knowledge base and provide a set of recommendations for future research directions in physics education with a focus on gender.

Speaker: Prof. Lucy Avraamidou (Groningen University)

In-person Session: Valeria Cernei

4 Epistemic (in)Justice in Physics: Who Knows?

In this workshop, we will work towards cultivating an awareness of manifestations of epistemic injustice within physics. Epistemic injustice involves the discrimination of a group of knowers in their capacity as knowers. Such discrimination may happen on the basis of somebody’s classification as a ‘sub-knower’ within an imbalanced power structure. We will draw on participants’ experience within the field of physics in order to map out the epistemic landscape of the various sub-fields of physics and the kinds of knowers that are recognized within these. Some of the topics we will explore are:
- All physicists are equal, but some are more equal than others.
- What features endow one with epistemic authority? Which of these are just?
- What could it mean to practice epistemic justice?

Speaker: Valeria Cernei (Groningen University)

Dinner

Thursday 23 March

Online Session: Nuril Munfaridah and Wafaa Khater

5 Cultural expectations and identity negotiations of Muslim women in physics: A case study in Indonesia

Through a case study with a group of undergraduate students in the physics education program, we explore the cultural expectations, perceived recognition, and identity negotiations that women in a Muslim-majority country face through their career trajectories in physics (i.e., high school physics teachers). Data were collected through one-to-one interviews (n =10 female students) and were analyzed through a constant comparative method. The findings provide insights into the reasons why (or why not) Muslim women in Indonesia pursue a physics-based careers. The findings revealed that the participants did not experience any conflicts between their Islamic religious identities and physics identities, the cultural expectations served as resources and not as barriers to their trajectories, and they all experiences explicit recognition from their family and social circles.

Speaker: Dr Nuril Munfaridah (State University of Malang)

Coffee break

In-person Session: Carolina Vidor

6 Explorations of inner and outer universes - Sensing/thinking physics

Physics is strongly associated with objectivity, and its content is usually taught and learned based on the assumption that physical phenomena can be truthfully studied and represented with human influence. Such an emphasis on objectivity is consistent with a masculinist, White supremacist, and Eurocentric view of science. A consequence of this is the pervasive belief that subjectivities are not relevant to the development of physics, which contribute to sustain exclusionary practices within the physics community. In order to offer a possible alternative to this perspective, in this workshop Carolina Vidor will present the fundamentals of the sentipensante (sensing/thinking) pedagogy as proposed by the critical educator Laura Rendón. Participants will be invited to engage in a few practical activities based on sentipensante pedagogy. This workshop aims to create a working space where physicists and physics educators can hopefully become more critical and (self)reflexive about their own practices and beliefs, thus opening the possibility to recognize the role and value of embracing subjectivity to the development of more equitable practices in physics.

Speaker: Dr Carolina Vidor (Uppsala University)

Lunch

In-person Session: Jaclyn Bell

7 Supporting first-generation and low-income students to succeed at University

When considering diversity and underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), socioeconomic status is often overlooked. Within the UK, targeted recruitment strategies, contextualised admissions schemes, and outreach programmes attempt to improve equality of opportunity and access to higher education (HE) in underrepresented students. To an extent they are a success. However, once students arrive at university, they can find that their institution is in many ways ill-equipped to support them. This lack of support, especially during transition from school to university, can lead to lower retention, progression, and attainment of first-generation students and those from low-income households, which ultimately impacts diversity across the wider STEM sector.

Designing a social programme to support student’s sense of belonging and develop their academic identity, Jackie shares her understanding of the challenges facing ‘widening participation’ students – both from her personal experience as a first-gen student and as the principal investigator of a Royal Academy of Engineering funded programme to support student retention and progression in Engineering at Imperial College London.

Speaker: Dr Jaclyn Bell (Imperial College London)

Online Session: Melissa Dancy

8 How Well-Meaning People of Privilege Maintain Inequity in STEM

Inequity in STEM remains a problem despite significant effort, care, and material resources dedicated to addressing it. The tendency to focus change efforts on the oppressed while leaving people and structures of power unexamined is likely related to the slow progress. In this talk, I present data from multiple studies considering how those who hold intersecting identities of privilege engage with equity efforts. Findings highlight how well-meaning people of privilege frequently undermine equity by failing to acknowledge even obvious inequity, distancing themselves from both the causes and solutions of inequity, minimizing it when they can not deny or distance, and justifying their own inaction. I end by offering recommendations for both individuals of privilege as well as recommendations for policymakers.

Speaker: Dr Melissa Dancy (Western Michigan University)

Coffee break

In-person Session: Nelly Marosi

9 Queer in STEM and Queering STEM

A large and growing body of literature has reported that persistent inequalities within STEM secure the privilege of white males, while women, people of color, and persons with disabilities are consistently underrepresented and discriminated in STEM. Another underserved population that has recently gained some attention in research related to equity in STEM are the individuals with minoritized gender and sexual identities (let’s call them queer). A synthesis of the existing knowledge base shows that queer individuals in STEM were subjected to exclusion, discrimination, harassment, and negative career consequences vis-à-vis their sexual and gender identities, and were more likely to consider leaving or actually leave a STEM trajectory than their non-queer peers.
Our discussion will be around the following topics:
• the experiences of queer individuals in STEM learning and working environments
• queer beyond an identity marker… what can be seen as queer and what can be seen as queering?
• queering science (education), academia, research

Reception

Online Session: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Friday 24 March

Online Session: Martina Erlemann

10 Workplace cultures in physics as a game changer for equal opportunities

In recent decades there has been a growing awareness that a scientist's gender can have an impact on a career in physics, even though it should have no influence. This applies also for ethnicity or national background, social background, and other social characteristics which can have a detrimental impact on a career in science. The talk will present research on gender and diversity in physics, with a particular focus on studies of workplace cultures in physics and their impact on young scientists' sense of belonging to the physics community. It will be argued that improving the workplace cultures can be a game changer in combating discrimination and diversifying the physics community, which would also benefit physics research.

Speaker: Prof. Martina Erlemann (Freie Universität Berlin)

Coffee Break

Open Dialogue