I feel like I am always in a battle to focus on things that matter. A battle with myself, usually – with email, my long to-do list, and my too-large list of projects – but also sometimes with people I really like – students, colleagues, people with whom I wish I could collaborate. I find every semester that I need to give myself a reminder to focus on the things that matter – which sometimes are my email, and sometimes are all those cool people, but not always. Here’s a slideshow (care of the incomparable Merlin Mann of 43folders.com) that I revisit every semester to help me remember how to do this.
Research updates on gender & STEM research
One of the things our research group (particularly Dina) pulls together regularly is a set of research updates of peer-reviewed or otherwise important research that comes out on gender and STEM (writ broadly). We post these at our ADVANCE Purdue website, specifically under the research tab. We’re going to try to start posting each of the sections here too, so a wider audience can become aware of these advances, starting with our February 1 update. We’d love to hear your thoughts on whether they’re helpful, or how they could be more helpful.
Robots and Representations symposium
I attended the first half of a symposium on Robots and Representations: Emerging Issues in Gender, Technology, Design and Culture today. Their website is here, and the keynote was by Brenda Laurel, professor at California College of the Arts. It was a great set of sessions and I learned a lot. Hope there’s another one sometime soon!