Author Archives: Judi

Lab Girl lunch discussion Oct 18

AWG’s next lunch discussion 
Lab Girl and Other Writings on Anxiety and Mental Health in Academia” 
will be held
Weds, Oct. 18 from 12-1 pm in Deike 541
Discussion will be led by Joanmarie Del Vecchio and Prof. Liz Hajek
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For this lunch discussion we encourage you to do a little background reading for insight into the challenges some of your students, classmates and colleagues may face.
Excepts from Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl can be downloaded here.
Chronicle of Higher Ed articles on students with mental health struggles and anxiety more generally.
A beloved internet cartoonist takes on depression in parts 1 and 2.
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In addition to the readings, here are a few resources for students on campus:
This campus group has a lot of helpful resources:
Info/program about suicide prevention:
And CAPS, of course:

Accessibility in the Geosciences Lunch Discussion

AWG hosted students, faculty and staff for a discussion on accessibility in the geosciences. Associate Professor of Geoscience Peter LaFemina presented his ongoing work collaborating with Associate Professor of Geography Alex Klippel, his lab and the Teaching and Learning with Technology office on creating virtual-reality field trips.
For online resources related to this discussion, visit these webpages:
Teaching and Learning with Technology http://tlt.psu.edu/
ChoroPhronesis, Alex Klippel’s virtual reality lab page on geoscience applications https://sites.psu.edu/immersivegeosciences/
 
Penn State Student Disability Resourceshttp://equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources

 

The International Association for Geoscience Diversity – “Ending the Awkward” entryhttp://www.theiagd.org/resources/ending-the-awkard/

Earth Magazine – “Geology for everyone: making the field accessible” article https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/geology-everyone-making-field-accessible

 

YoutTube video – Immersive Virtual Reality for Thrihnukagigur Volcano in Icelandhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RCsEQys_sE

Associate Professor Peter LaFemina website: http://poe.geosc.psu.edu/people/lafemina

Stay tuned for our next discussion on October 18th 12-1 pm (location TBA)

Status of women in academics report

We had breakfast this week with Dr. Kate Freeman, who chaired a committee to report on the status of women in faculty positions in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Kate shared the committee’s findings with us and led discussion on the meaning of these results.

Summary: there is a lot that EMS is doing well in terms of numbers of female representation, but there is definite room for improvement in workplace culture to reduce feelings of isolation in both women and men.

You can take a look at the full report here (will download a pdf).

There was also some discussion about conducting a similar survey amongst geoscience grad students and postdocs. More later on the status of that!