Archive for 2021
Grants or Gifts Relating to Women in Higher Education
Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Online Articles of Interest to WIAReport Readers
Each week, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.
A Group of Five Women Academics Who Are Taking on New Assignments at Major Universities
The five women scholars appointed to new positions are Chie Sakakibara at Syracuse University in New York, Jen Ames Stuart at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Lisa M. Anderson at Arizona State University, Radhika Nagpal at Princeton Univerity in New Jersey, and Nancy Freitag at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
In Memoriam: bell hooks, 1952-2021
The leading feminist scholar bell hooks, the Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies at Berea College in Kentucky, died at her home in Berea on December 15 at the age of 69.
Three State Universities That Have Announced the Appointment of Women to Serve as Deans
Cynthia Lietz has been appointed dean of the College of Public Service and Community Solutions at Arizona State University. Evelyn Fields has been appointed acting dean of the College of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences at South Carolina State University and Anne-Marie Deitering has been named the Donald and Delpha Campbell Dean of Libraries at Oregon State University.
Duke University’s Terrie Moffitt Has Been Selected to Receive the 2022 Grawemeyer Award in Psychology
Dr. Moffitt, a Duke University psychologist and King’s College, London, social development professor, discovered two types of antisocial behavior in juveniles. One persists from early childhood to adulthood, is relatively rare, and is seen mostly in males, while the other occurs only in adolescence and is seen in both males and females. Her insights have changed the way the courts prosecute juveniles.
Colleges and Universities Announce the Appointments of Six Women Administrators
Taking on new administrative duties are Jennifer Chambers-Taube at Washington State Univerity, Vancouver, Rosalind Dale at North Carolina A&T State University, Kelly Frick at the University of Delaware, Debra Bright at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Dolly Horton at Bladen Community College in Dublin, North Carolina, and Nichole Ipach at California State University, Northridge.
Amy Finstein of the College of the Holy Cross Wins Book Award
Amy D. Finstein, assistant professor of architectural history in the visual arts department at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, was recently honored with the 2021 Fred B. Kniffen Book Award from the International Society for Landscape, Place and Material Culture Studies.
A Trio of Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to University Endowed Professorships
Graça Vicente, a professor of chemistry at Louisiana State University was named a Boyd Professor at the university. Jacqueline Goldsby has been appointed the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of African American Studies and English at Yale University and Pamela L. Allison has been named to the Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
National Association of Biology Teachers Honors Two Arizona State Scholars With the Evolution Education Award
Dr. Sarah Brownell and Dr. Elizabeth Barnes have found that there are many simple strategies that can be used by educators to help students reduce perceived conflict between their religious beliefs and the teachings of biological evolution.
Three Women Who Have Been Selected to Serve as University Diversity Officers
Ivy Banks was appointed vice president for institutional diversity and inclusion at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Patricia Bradley was named vice president for inclusion and institutional equity at Towson University in Maryland and Christine Taylor is the new institutional equity officer, equal opportunity officer, and Title IX coordinator at the University of Oklahoma.
The Wide Gender Gap in Doctoral Degree Awards in Specific Academic Disciplines
Women made up a small majority of all U.S. citizens or permanent residents who earned doctorates in 2020. But when we look at doctorate degree awards in specific disciplines, we find a continuing wide gender gap in many specific disciplines.
Jennifer Collins Appointed President of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee
Collins has served since 2014 as the Judge James Noel Dean and professor of law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She was appointed to the law faculty at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 2003 and was named associate provost for academic and strategic initiatives in 2010 and vice provost in 2013. She will become president of Rhodes College on July 1.
Study Suggests That Stress Endured by Pregnant Women May Alter the Genes of Their Children and Grandchildren
Veena Prahlad, an associate professor of biology at the University of Iowa, conducted research on roundworms and found that a mother roundworm release serotonin when she senses danger. The serotonin travels from her central nervous system to warn her unfertilized eggs, where the warning is stored, so to speak, and then passed to offspring after conception.
Idaho State University Names New Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs
Valerie Martin Conley is currently the dean of the College of Education at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Before joining the faculty there in 2015, Dr. Conely was department chair and professor of counseling and higher education in the Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education at Ohio University. She will become provost at Idaho State in the summer of 2022.
The Pandemic Produced Some Positive Effects for Teenage Girls, Study Finds
A study led by Jennifer Silk, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, found that in the early days of the pandemic quality time with family was linked to better mental-health days, and girls were more likely to spend time doing healthy and creative activities that school and extracurriculars would normally leave no time for. They also were able to get more sleep.
Andrea Talentino Will Be the Next President of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois
Dr. Talentino currently serves as provost of Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. Before arriving at Nazareth, Dr. Talentino served as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Norwich University in Vermont. Prior to that, she was an associate dean at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. She also has served on the faculty at Tulane University in New Orleans.
In Memoriam: Irene Julia Blanchard, 1934-2021
Irene Blanchard, a longtime faculty member at what was then Lyndon State College in Vermont, died on December 5 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. She was 87 years old. A native of Bennington, Vermont, Dr. Blanchard attended a rural one-school house for seven years. After graduating from high school, she attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New […]
Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, Receives the Largest Donation Ever Made to a Women’s College
Hollins University, the liberal arts educational institution for women in Roanoke, Virginia, received a $75 million gift from an alumna of the university who prefers to remain anonymous. The gift is the largest donation in the history of the university and is thought to be the largest gift ever made to a women’s college.
Recent Books of Interest to Women Scholars
Women in Academia Report regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. Here are the latest selections.
Online Articles of Interest to WIAReport Readers
Each week, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.
In Memoriam: Mollie Rose Autry Molnar, 1931-2021
Mollie Rose Molnar was a former professor and chair of the department of music at what is now Missouri State University in Springfield. Both of her parents serve in the Arkansas House of Represenatives
Three Women Who Have Been Appointed to Positions as Deans
Judy Liesveld was appointed dean of the School of Nursing at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Ellen M. Bassett has been selected as the John Portman Dean’s Chair in the College of Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Jessica Lang was appointed dean of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College of the City University of New York.
Geological Society of America Bestows Award on Tulane University’s Cynthia Ebinger
Cynthia Ebinger, a professor in the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering, has won the 2021 George P. Woollard Award from the Geological Society of America. The award honors Professor Ebinger’s “outstanding contributions to geology through the application of the principles and techniques of geophysics.”
Five Women Who Have Been Hired to Administrative Positions in Higher Education
Taking on new administrative duties in higher education are Jesse Minton at Washington University in St Louis, Samira Malik at Northeastern University in Boston, Kimberly Reilly at Maine Maritime Academy, Youndy C. Cook at the University of Central Florida, Cindy Torstveit at the University of Wisconsin.
Michigan State’s Anna Maria Santiago Recognized by the Association for Community Organization and Social Action
Anna Maria Santiago is the associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. She joined the College of Social Science at Michigan State University as a professor of social work in 2015. She is the former holder of the Leona Bevis and Marguerite Haynam Professorship in Community Development at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Colleges and Universities Have Announced the Appointment of Three Women to Endowed Professorships
Pamela R. Jeffries has been named to the Valere Potter Distinguished Chair in Nursing at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.Regina Stevens-Truss was named to the the Dorothy H. Heyl Senior Endowed Chair in Chemistry at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and Jillian Scheer has been named the inaugural Cobb-Jones Professor of Clinical Psychology at Syracuse University in New York.
Neeli Bendapudi Has Been Selected as the Next President of Pennsylvania State University
When she takes office in the spring, Dr. Bendapudi will be the university’s nineteenth president and the first woman to hold the position. Dr. Bendapudi has been serving as president of the University of Louisville since May 15, 2018. Earlier, Dr. Bendapudi was executive vice chancellor and provost at the flagship campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
Jinx Coleman Broussard of Louisiana State University Honored for Her Mentoring Work in Public Relations
Jinx Coleman Broussard, the Bart R. Swanson Endowed Memorial Professor in the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State Univerity, has been selected as the 2021 Bruce K. Berger Educator Honoree from the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations. The center is housed at the University of Alabama.
Three Women Scholars Who Have Been Named to Diversity Positions in Higher Education
Emelyn A. dela Peña is the new vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Keisha Love was appointed vice provost for faculty advancement and academic inclusion at the University of Cincinnati and Tomicka Wagstaff was named vice provost for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Number of U.S. Women Earning Doctorates Dropped for the Third Year in a Row
In 2020, women earned 69.1 percent of all doctoral degrees awarded in education and 65.7 percent of all doctorates in the health sciences. In contrast, women earned only a third of the doctorates in the physical sciences. In engineering, women earned 24.8 percent of the doctorates awarded in 2020. In mathematics and computer science, women earned just under a quarter of all doctorates awarded in 2020.
East Carolina University Appoints Robin Coger as Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Dr. Coger is currently the dean of the College of Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. Before joining North Carolina A&T in 2011, Professor Coger was a faculty member in the department of mechanical engineering and engineering science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 1996 to 2011.
New Study Examines Impact of Industrial Robots on the Male and Female Workforces
In 741 U.S. regions that were more exposed to industrial robots, the research team found a statistical decline in men’s wages and workforce participation. They also saw a decline in marriage stability, marriage fertility, and the earning power of men. Men’s decreased income translated into a reduction in the gender income gap by 4.2 percent and the workforce-participation gender gap by 2.1 percent.
Ruth López Turley Appointed Director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston
Dr. Turley has been serving as associate director for the Kinder Institute. She has been at Rice since 2010. Raised on the U.S.-Mexico border, she experienced firsthand the hardships caused by educational inequities. She is a professor of sociology and founder and director of Rice University’s Houston Education Research Consortium.
Study Finds High Rates of Cervical Cancer in Lower-Income New York City Neighborhoods
Cervical cancer is highly preventable with vaccination and regular screening. But a new study finds that the rate of cervical cancer among women living in New York City neighborhoods with the lowest socioeconomic indices is nearly two times higher than the rate among New Yorkers who live in the city’s neighborhoods with the highest socioeconomic indices.