[Air-L] Free Culture <FAIL > Research Workshop 2009

[Gabriella Coleman]

Mary,

Thanks for pointing this out! A number of us, including the "X woman" 
(Elizabeth Stark of the Yale ISP) on the committee, have been debating 
and discussing this problem as it concerns this conference but more 
important, how it also pertains to the wider field of digital media, 
especially when it comes to tech and law.

For instance, here are some other examples of similarly problematic 
conferences when it comes to gender balance:

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/citi/ugc3
http://www.hiit.fi/nccc/speakers.html

And there are unfortunately many many more examples.

Elizabeth and I have recently started to compile a list of women leaders 
in law, technology, and internet research to highlight their presence. 
We will soon circulate the list to get more names and eventually publish 
on website as a resource for conference organizers or those working on 
edited collections. Hopefully Elizabeth will also jump in as she has 
also thought quite a bit about this issue.

I have found this problem to be pretty pervasive and have been 
personally frustrated as well as academically intrigued. Any thoughts 
about the skewed conference representation?

Gabriella


> 
>      > Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:29 -1000
>      > From: mary.bryson at ubc.ca <mailto:mary.bryson at ubc.ca>
>      > To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org <mailto:air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
>      > Subject: [Air-L] Free Culture <FAIL > Research Workshop 2009
>      >
>      > Take a look at the lack of inclusion of women (FreeCultureFail)
>     on the
>      > Organizing and Academic Program Committees for this event.
>      >
>      > http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/5486
>      >
>      > There are 12 people on the former and 28 people on the latter.
>     According to
>      > the person from the Free Culture Research Workshop group that I
>     contacted:
>      >
>      > "Based on my count, there are 4 women in all on both Committees, with
>      > <Person X> serving on both the organizing and academic committees.
>      >
>      > The other 3 women serve in the academic committee..."
>      >
>      >
>      > 4 women out of 40 people. One woman on the Organizing Committee.
>     That's some
>      > kind of "free culture". Free Culture Fail, as far as I can tell.
>     Maybe there
>      > is a story here. Or not.
>      >
>      > Mary
>      > --
>      > Dr. Mary K. Bryson, Professor and Director, Network of Centers and
>      > Institutes in Education (NCIE) & Center for Cross-Faculty Inquiry
>     (CCFI),
>      > Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia
>      > CCFI: Innovation Works Here
>      > http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/
>      > -----Original Message-----
>      >
>

****************************************************
Gabriella Coleman, Assistant Professor
Department of Media, Culture, & Communication
New York University
239 Greene St, 7th floor
NY NY 10003
212-992-7696
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Gabriella_Coleman