Happy International Women’s Day 2019!
Inspired by a twitter thread on women
mentors started by Dr. Sarah Bond, (https://twitter.com/SarahEBond/status/1103833449939550214),
I’d like to mark International Women’s Day 2019 by reflecting on the various
women of the Lux Project.
To begin, we are a women-led project, with
Simone Reis Obendoerfer and myself as co-directors. From the inception of the
project, our focus has been access to the antiquities of the Hetherington
Collection and access to opportunities for students here at U of W. Simone’s
work with the project is an excellent of example of this: she’s recently
finished her Curatorial Practices MA (through the Cultural Studies program at U
of W) and done a great deal of essential research with the collection as she
prepares for a curatorial career. She has been a model of academic excellence
paired with professionalism and intellectual curiosity for our undergraduate
volunteers.
A majority of our volunteers happen to be
women as well. This is unsurprising, given the general demographic trends in
Classics and undergraduate populations. I am pleased, however, that we have so
many bright and bold undergraduate women working with us. As with many fields,
Classics tends to become more male-dominated as one moves up the academic
ranks, so it is very important to offer women students opportunities like this
from the very beginning of their time in academia. We’ve been able to get into
the anthropology lab with our student volunteers on a weekly basis this term
and these Friday afternoons have turned into my favorite part of the week. Two
weeks ago, we were in the lab with three first-year students, Elysse Patterson,
Marina Milne, and Mackenzie Stewart. As we worked, I was struck by how
refreshing it was to see first-year students so engaged with research and so
involved with the academic life of our department. I only wish I had been so
motivated and confident in my first year of university!
 |
| Elysse, Marina, and Mackenzie working with the lamp fragments. |
My final shout-out goes to the doyennes of
the anthropology lab at U of W, Val McKinley and Jodi Schmidt. These two women
have been nothing but supportive since the first time I approached them about
the project and have allowed us to invade the lab on a regular basis. Val’s
passion for the collection is obvious and her guidance and ideas have been
essential to our process. As for Jodi, as soon as I ask any of our students if
they’ve been to the Anthro lab, they all mention her first and the hands-on
work they’ve done with her guidance. She has been our go-to in the lab, and
we’re all grateful for the work she does that allows our work to go so
smoothly.
As a woman scholar, I’ve been fortunate to
have access to women as mentors and role models at each stage of my career
(starting with Dr. Jane Cahill here at U of W in my undergrad days). I’m proud
that the Lux Project is supporting the next generation of women in Classics and
grateful to be part of a department that supports inclusive work like this. I
should also be clear that mentoring is a two-way street, and I’ve been lucky to
learn from my students as we work together on this project.
And if you happen to be interested in
supporting further work for equity of all kinds in Classics, come on and join
the Women’s Classical Caucus (https://wccaucus.org/).
It’s free for students for the first year!
Comments
Post a Comment