Parity as Practice: The Politics of Equality
March 30-31, 2012
WFF and the Yale Law School co-hosted a conference on "Parity as Practice: The Politics of Equality." The conference was co-sponsored by the Yale Women Faculty Forum, the Gruber Program for Social Justice and Women's Rights at Yale Law School, and the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund at the MacMillan Center. 
This conference on gender parity – taking as a starting point programs that have been established areas of both public and private concern – provided a forum for international scholars to discuss the impact of, as well as the challenges posed, by parity models. Because parity is advocated as a tool for achieving gender equity and is the subject of critique, the aim of this conference was to probe the contributions and the questions that parity programs entail. In order to facilitate this understanding, the conference interrogated the notions of parity, both as a marker of success and as a model of organization in locations and sites that are diverse – geographically, politically, and imaginatively.
For more information, please visit the conference website:
http://www.law.yale.edu/news/paritypractice12.htm
WFF launches Mentorship Program for Junior Faculty
On January 11, 2012, the Yale Women Faculty Forum (WFF) launched an informal mentoring program for women faculty at Yale. WFF introduced the program by hosting a breakfast at the Provost’s house and an afternoon session about mentoring best practices facilitated by Lindsey Stoddard Cameron, a mentoring expert from UW-Madison. The new WFF program matches junior faculty members with senior faculty mentors in related fields, and provides a framework for mentor-mentee engagement.
Provost Peter Salovey and Associate Provost Frances Rosenbluth make remarks; Provost Salovey, WFF Chair Priyamvada Natarajan, and Lindsey Stoddard Cameron. Photos: Liena Vayzman
The program is designed to supplement departmental mentoring programs and provide junior women faculty with an additional resource as they progress toward tenure or other career advancement. Over 75 women faculty members are participating in this pilot program. The program is closed for the 2012 cycle; for additional information about the program and to learn about participating in the future, please contact the Women Faculty Forum at wff@yale.edu
Yale Women Faculty Forum mourns the passing of Paula Hyman, one of WFF's founding members, on Dec. 15, 2011.
Dr. Paula Hyman was a Professor of modern Jewish History at Yale and a social historian who pioneered the study of women in Jewish life. She wrote ten books about the Jewish experience in Europe and the US, often focusing on women's experiences. WFF expresses our condolences to Dr. Hyman's family and colleagues. New York Times Obituary
Women and the Politics of Representation
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, Yale Law School
Event poster PDF
The panel discussion featured:
Carol Armstrong Professor, History of Art. “The Politics of Flowers: On the Sexual Politics of Women Artists and their Art-Subjects “
Judith Resnik Arthur Liman Professor, Yale Law School. “Justice, Identity, and Rights: Women and the Politics of Representation," drawing on Judith Resnik and Dennis E. Curtis, Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms (Yale University Press, 2011)
Liena Vayzman Gender Equity and Policy Postdoctoral Associate, WFF. “Yale’s First Women PhDs, 1894:
Photographic Traces and Recovered Histories of Pioneering Scholars and Scientists”(Photo at right: Elizabeth Deering Hanscom, PhD 1894, one of the first cohort of seven women to earn PhDs at Yale)
Discussants: Linda Greenhouse Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph Goldstein Lecturer, Yale Law School; Laura Wexler Professor of American Studies and of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Introduction: Priyamvada Natarajan Professor of Astronomy and Physics; Chair, Yale Women Faculty Forum
A related exhibition, The Remarkable Run of a Political Icon: Justice as Sign of the Law, is at the Yale Law School Library and online http://library.law.yale.edu/exhibits/justice-sign-law
Co-Sponsored by Yale Women Faculty Forum, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Astronomy Dept., English Dept., History Dept., History of Art Dept., Spanish and Portuguese Dept., and Yale Law Women
WFF Presents Faculty Lunch Series Oct. 5, Nov. 2, and Dec. 7, 2011 and Jan. 17, Feb. 15, Mar. 22, and Apr. 18, 2012
Photo: Liena Vayzman
Faculty from across the University attend this new lunch series hosted by WFF, which allows for informal networking and community building for all women faculty at Yale. 12:00pm in the Saybrook College Fellows Lounge. Info
WFF Leadership Training Series 2011-12:
"Lucid Body" workshop with Fay Simpson, April 11, 2012
In this cutting edge workshop tailored for the WFF's Leadership Training Series, Fay Simpson guided participants in the essential elements of the Lucid Body, a unique physical training method she teaches to actors at the Yale School of Drama and worldwide. Applying theatrical training to professional academic life, participants learned how to release old behavioral habits in order to increase their versatility and flexibility while confronting challenging circumstances and personalities.
Fay Simpson is the author of The Lucid Body: A Guide for the Physical Actor . Fay Simpson has been the Artistic Director and co-founder of Impact Theater since its creation in 1990. Theater Companies that have utilized the Lucid Body include Terra Firma, SATC, Karin Coonrad, Innocentia Inviolata in Toulouse, Gabrielle Moleta in London, and Parapanda Arts Lab in Tanzania. Ms. Simpson was awarded a Fox Foundation Fellowship to serve as an Assistant Director at the New Globe Theatre in London.
WFF Leadership Training Series: "Viewpoints" and "Act Like a Leader" with Shana Ross- Fall 2011/Spring 2012
On October 25 and Nov. 16, 2011, WFF hosted leadership training workshops for faculty with facilitator Shana Ross
Photo: Allison Tait
In the theater, actors are trained to be deliberate with all the choices they make, knowing that they are telling a story with the shape of their body, the direction of their gaze and the timbre of their voice. In our professional lives, we make similar choices constantly, but rarely think of them as such. These workshop provided frameworks for thinking about these daily choices in an academic professional setting, then afforded participants the chance to experiment through a series of improvisational exercises to see how changes in their physical and vocal habits affect the way they are seen by others. Exercises and feedback allowed participants to gain insight into interpersonal dynamics and take control of the image they project professionally.
Participants in a WFF leadership workshop with Shana Ross (front, center).Photo: Liena Vayzman
Shana Ross is the founder/principal of Vili and Ve Solutions, Inc., a consulting and coaching practice. Trained as an actor and playwright in Yale College, she earned her MBA from the Yale School of Management after several years working in the nonprofit sector. Her leadership workshops use techniques and theories from the worlds of theater and business to offer fresh perspectives to professionals.
WFF Announces New Chair Priyamvada Natarajan
We are proud to announce that Priyamvada Natarajan has been named Chair of the Yale Women Faculty Forum starting Aug. 1, 2011. We are confident that Professor Natarajan, working with WFF's Steering Committee and Council, will build on the WFF’s accomplishments of the past ten years to further gender equity and scholarship on women and gender at Yale, nationally and internationally.
Priyamvada Natarajan is a professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University. Her research is focused on exotica in the universe - dark matter, dark energy and black holes. Professor Natarajan is noted for her key contributions to two of the most challenging problems in cosmology: mapping the distribution of dark matter and tracing the growth history of black holes. Recipient of numerous awards and prizes including a Radcliffe Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, she was recently elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. Priya has been active in the work of the Yale Women Faculty Forum since her arrival at Yale. She served on the WFF Steering Committee since 2003 and acted as Co-Chair along with Professor Connie Bagley of the Women Faculty Forum's Sexual Misconduct Working Group from 2009 to 2010. The recommendations of the WFF Report on Sexual Misconduct at Yale have been adopted by the University and have led to the formation of the University Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct that has been in operation since July 1, 2011.
We welcome Professor Natarajan to the leadership post of the Yale Women Faculty Forum and look forward to a productive academic year of programming, research, and advocacy.
Professor Natarajan's faculty website
Yale Women Faculty Forum
The Yale Women Faculty Forum (WFF) emerged from the effort, during Yale's tercentennial year, to highlight the presence of women at the university and the accomplishments of Yale alumnae. Faculty and staff from across the campus—from diverse fields in the college, the professional and graduate schools—came together to develop programs for the Tercentennial. We have accomplished a great deal; but there is more to do. To that end, with the support of the administration, including the President, the Council of the WFF continues to work in conjunction with faculty, students, and interested alumni/ae to foster gender equity.
Mission
- Foster gender equity throughout the university.
- Promote scholarship on gender and scholarship about and by women across all schools of the university.
- Promote mentoring, collaboration, and networking.
Yale Women Faculty Forum 2008-2011 Co-Chairs Dr. Shirley McCarthy and Professor Laura Wexler with Yale University Provost Peter Salovey at the WFF's 10th Annual Opening Reception, October 20, 2010 at Kroon Hall, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
