November is Native American Heritage Month -- an excellent time to reflect on the breadth and depth of indigenous culture -- including the influence on the American Suffrage Movement. WITHOUT A WHISPER, a PBS documentary explores this little-known history, plus NPR is offering an excellent line-up of programming honoring Native Americans. And just for fun, check out the trailer for RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World. What do you think? Should we have an MC screening of the full-length feature documentary? | |
Take a look at the group photo of the 130-plus world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow: fewer than 10 are women, and the median age is 60. But out on the streets many of the most passionate young activists demanding climate justice are female. Why? Climate change means climate disasters that impact on water supplies, food security and other issues with a direct impact on low-income women and their children.
Greta Thunberg needs no introduction. She has been celebrated and reviled, but she neither embraces her celebrity nor does she suffer the ‘slings and arrows’ from critics. This short video is pure Greta -- frustrated, passionate, hopeful...with a sly streak of humor.
The #MeToo movement has focused greater awareness and sensitivity to workplace harassment and other gender equity issues, including job opportunity, but have things really changed? A recent Gallup poll reports on the disparity of women and men’s attitudes about these issues.
Affirmative action in the workplace? Does being both a woman and African American automatically give someone career advantages? Edith Cooper, a former Goldman-Sachs executive and a current board member of Amazon and PepsiCo takes on this question.
A big thank you to Professor Tara Alvarez for passing along this article from NATURE, a publication of the American Pediatric Society, that looks at how the COVID pandemic exacerbated issues of racism, social injustice, disparities, and inequities that permeate the healthcare system.
Another step forward for the LGBTQI+ community -- US passports will offer an X gender marker for Americans who do not identify as either female or male.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the 1619 Project, a New York Times re-examination of the legacy of slavery, received both Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur fellowship for her work --- and plenty of criticism, as well as a well-publicized kerfuffle over tenure at the University of North Carolina. In this interview, Hannah-Jones talks all about it.
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HAVE YOU TAKEN THE NJIT CAMPUS CLIMATE SURVEY?
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO NOVEMBER 12
Click here to access the survey. Take the survey at the Murray Center and score a goodie bag with a chance to win prizes!
Wednesday, November 10
Committee on Women’s Leadership
Virtual Meeting: 12:30PM - 1:30PM
"Asking for a Raise? Let’s Raise your Game!"
with Disrupt The Gap creator, Michelle Bobev
Last day to withdraw from classes.
Monday, November 15
Murray Center Advisory Board Meeting
Virtual Meeting: 3PM-4PM
Wednesday, November 17
SWE hosts WiSTEM2D - A Johnson & Johnson panel discusses the diversity of career choices for women in
the healthcare Industry.
CKB 126 - 3PM (possible hybrid option)
Friday, November 18
Tackle the Stress Monster with SWE
PAINT N’ SIP
Campus Center 240 - 11:30AM-1PM
Thursday, November 25 - Sunday, November 28
Thanksgiving Break
Monday, December 13
Murray Center Annual Stress-Buster
Manicures, Munchies, Movies & Much More!
Details TBA
Wednesday, December 15
Committee on Women’s Leadership
Virtual Meeting: 12:30PM - 1:30PM
Yoga and Meditation Instructed by Shivani Jaisinghani
FINALS BEGIN
Click here for complete schedule
SAVE THE DATES!
Friday, February 4, 2022
11:30AM - 1PM
CODED BIAS Screening & Conversation with Director Shalini Kantayya.
Details TBA
Friday, March 25, 2022
WOMEN DESIGNING THE FUTURE
Murray Center Annual Conference
8:30AM - 3:0PM
Campus Center Ballrooms A & B
Details TBA
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SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS & REU OPPORTUNITIES
Pathways to Science (a project from the Institute for Broadening Participation) is an excellent source of information on scholarships, REU’s, internships and fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students, post docs, faculty, and administrators.
Cards Against Humanity is awarding the Science Ambassador Scholarship. The deadline is December 13, 2021, 11:59 PM CST. For more information, click here.
The Women Techmakers Scholars Program - formerly the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Program - is furthering Dr. Anita Borg's vision of creating gender equality in the tech industry by encouraging women to excel as active participants and leaders in the field. Information about scholarships and internships is now open. Check the individual listings for application deadlines.
Since 1881 the American Association of University Women has been a leader in advancing professional and educational opportunities for women. Applications are now open for AAUW fellowships and grants. And explore
the local AAUW chapters for the details about additional scholarship opportunities.
The Society of Physics Students scholarship applications will be available on January 2, 2022, with a submission deadline at 11:59PM on March 15, 2022.
Looking for an REU opportunity? The National Science Foundation's website is an excellent source of information. Click here for more information.
Need help figuring out how to finance your undergraduate or graduate degree? New Jersey's Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA) is a valuable source of information about financial assistance for college students and their families. Click here for more information.
| Check out our past e-newsletters filled with valuable information, past events, and scholarships here! | CONTACT THE MURRAY CENTER | |
Phone: 973.642.4885
Fax: 973.642.7205
Email: womenscenter@njit.edu
Website: womenscenter.njit.edu
Address: 323 Martin Luther King Blvd, Newark, NJ 07102
Staff:
Dr. Nancy Steffen-Fluhr, Director
973.596.3295 | steffen@njit.edu
Fran Sears, Special Projects Manager
973.642.4672 | fsears@njit.edu
Tara Walenczyk
973.642.7441 | tlw25@njit.edu
| Click here for a campus map and virtual tour! | |
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“In a world created by corporations….everything, including the planet, is considered a resource to be exchanged or exploited,” writes Georgetown professor Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò in a recent New Yorker piece.* “…Profit and security are reserved for those at the top of the world’s hierarchies, and are achieved by shifting the risks and the burdens toward those at the bottom. Some people get a storm-surge barrier……Others watch their villages be swallowed by the sea.”
Women—especially women of color—are disproportionately at risk of being “swallowed up” in the Climate Crisis—which is one of the reasons that Murray Center continues to focus on opportunities that help us make connections between race, gender, and climate. October 29 was one of those opportunities, and a particularly exciting one: one of the architects of the Green New Deal, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, engaged in a lively WebEx conversation with NJIT students and faculty at a Murray Center/ ADHC colloquium on environmental/climate injustice. If you missed the event, you have a second chance: See the story below for a link to the video.
Or join us next time: the Murray Center will continue its intersectional “Making Change” series throughout the year, culminating in our annual Women Designing the Future Conference scheduled for next March, Women’s History Month. In the interim, mark your calendars now for a special event coming up at the beginning of the spring semester (February 4): screening of the award-winning documentary film “Coded Bias”—featuring MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Adowaa Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League—-followed by a conversation with HSS faculty member Rebekah Rutkoff and the film’s director, Shalini Kantayya.
In the meantime, check out our media picks in this newsletter and keep stirring the soup!
Nancy
Director, Murray Center for Women in Technology
She, Her, Hers
* “Our Planet Is Heating Up. Why Are Climate Politics Still Frozen?” The New Yorker. November 1, 2021.
| $1.25 MILLION NSF GRANT TO INCRESASE DIVERSITY IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP | Distinguished Professor Treena Arinzeh (PI) and Murray Center director, Nancy Steffen-Fluhr (Co-PI), announce the New Jersey Equity in Commercialization Collective (NJECC), a project funded by $1.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation Advance Partnership program. The project is designed to increase diversity in entrepreneurship. In addition to Arinzeh and Steffen-Fluhr, the NJECC team includes Judith Sheft (Co-PI), executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology; Jeffrey Robinson (Co-PI), the academic director of Rutgers’ Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development; and Forough Ghahramani (Co-PI), Associate VP, Research & Sponsored Programs at NJEdge. Read more about the project here. | |
On October 29, the Murray Center and the Albert Dorman Honors College co-hosted a WebEex colloquium featuring Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Director of Climate Policy at the Roosevelt Institute and a major player in the crafting of the Green New Deal. The Colloquium—“MAKING CHANGE: moving from facts to political action on climate change and environmental justice”—is part of an ongoing Murray Center series on the intersection of gender, race, technology, and the environment.
Gunn-Wright was joined on the virtual podium by an NJIT panel that included ADHC senior Erin Foody (CEE), president of NJIT Green; CEE faculty member Lucia Rodriguez-Freire, director of the Laboratory of Applied Biogeochemistry for Environmental Sustainability; University Lecturer Caroline DeVan, co-Director of the Urban Ecology Lab; ADHC Dean Louis Hamilton; and Marybeth Boger, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students. The colloquium was moderated by Federated History Professor Neil Maher whose research focuses on the intersection of environmental and political history.
To listen in on the full discussion—including ideas for effective political action on the climate crisis and environmental justice—click the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11smU5IqcL9hjwHTQD1Tyd8mmfsK1QM7Y/view?usp=sharing
| MEET OUR NEW ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER | |
The Murray Center is excited to welcome our newest Advisory Board member, Virginia Mayo, ‘02, ‘03/MS ‘09, a Distinguished Engineer at Kyndryl.
Virginia was born in the Philippines and later moved to New Jersey where pre-college programs sparked her interest in a STEM career. After graduating from NJIT with degrees in Computer Engineering and Information Technology and, later, a master’s degree in engineering management—Virginia went to work for IBM as a software engineer.
Over the course of her 18-year career at Big Blue, Virginia achieved global recognition for her technical expertise and outstanding leadership in enterprise infrastructure automation, security and resiliency as part of the IBM Global Technology Services (GTS) business—filing her first patent in 2018. In 2020, she was named an IBM Distinguished Engineer, a rank that only 1% of IBM employees achieve. When GTS recently became an independent entity, Virginia moved to a leadership position in the new company, Kyndryl.
Asked in a recent interview what career advice she would give to younger women, Mayo focused on taking risks and meeting challenges: “There's an innate reaction to shy away from challenges, but I found that the more you face them head on with a restless drive to continuously improve, the more you learn.” “And one more thing,” she added: “Learn to say “NO!”(politely and with an alternative).”
| RECENT MURRAY CENTER EVENTS | Murray Center Halloween Party Action! | |
Costume winners at the Committee on Women's Leadership (CWL)/ Murray Center Fall bash.
| Murray Center, NJIT Campus Safety, and Campus Life partner on Purple Thursday for Domestic Violence Awareness Tabling. | |
Prize winner (left) and MC Projects Manager Fran Sears at a Fall Open House Event.
| SWE-sters at the Society of Women Engineers' national conference in Indianapolis--plus SWE Advisor Lucie Tchouassi. | |
