Skip to main content

Stanford professor to give two lectures to continue Diversity Speaker Series

Mar 1, 2018

The 2017-18 Diversity Speaker Series continues Tuesday, March 6, with two lectures from Londa Schiebinger, the John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science at Stanford University.

Along with her expertise in science and history, Schiebinger’s role as director for the Gendered Innovations in Science, Health and Medicine, Engineering, and Environment Project helped bring her to the Diversity Speaker Series, which started at IUPUI in 2016.

Schiebinger will talk about the Gendered Innovations Project at noon Tuesday in the Walther Hall Auditorium. She will then switch to her history of science role when she presents “Secret Cures of Slaves: People, Plants and Medicine in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World” at 6 p.m. in the Campus Center, Room 450C. The talk promotes Schiebinger’s new book of the same title. A reception will follow at 7:30 p.m. in Room 450C. Both talks are free and open to the public.

Schiebinger leads Gendered Innovations’ analysis of gender in many of the STEM fields, from working to increase the number of female scientists to battling gender bias in research. Gendered Innovations cites male-dominated research of drugs in the late 1990s that had ill effects on women, which was learned after the drugs were in the delivery stage. The drugs were pulled, and millions of dollars were lost. The work goes into engineering and design as well, from cars built to better protect expectant mothers in crashes to considering height differential between gendered users of retail products.

“I think it’s a great time to bring her in, with March being National Women’s History Month,” said Alicia Morris, director of external relations and special projects for ‎IUPUI’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “It allows us to bring important campus programs and key leaders together – medicine, science, history, engineering and more.”

Schiebinger is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she has received a Guggenheim fellowship as well as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize.

The series will conclude April 5 with Kimberlé Crenshaw, distinguished professor of law from UCLA. She will present “The Urgency of Intersectionality” at 6 p.m. in the Campus Center Theater. Previous Diversity speakers include author Sonia Nazario and environmentalist Winona LaDuke.

“We want to give the IUPUI campus community and community partners an opportunity to hear from a great, diverse group of speakers,” said Adriane Ellis, administrative assistant of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “These speakers are making a difference in the way diversity has been viewed in the past by sharing real life experiences.”

More stories

News at IU  
Health and Wellness,Science and Technology

Brain CareNotes telehealth app supports dementia caregivers

News at IU