Lectures with Londa Schiebinger – Impulses for top-level research

At invitation from the Presidential Board, the University Göttingen is pleased to welcome an international expert on the integration of gender analysis in natural and life sciences as its guest: Londa Schiebinger is the John L. Hinds Professor for History of Science at Stanford University and director of the EU/US project „Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment“. Three different lectures on 19th and 20th of November will offer an insight into Schiebingers research.

19.11.2018, 6-8 p.m - Pauliner Church

In her evening lecture “How sex and gender analysis creates better research in Natural and Life Sciences” Schiebinger will use case studies from current research projects to illustrate how gender analysis can have a creative and innovative impact on research.
The lecture is open to the general public. Admission is free.

20.11.2018 12-14 p.m. Faculty of Chemistry, Tammanstr. 4, Building E, Room MN30

At a brown-bag lunch headed „How to Apply Gendered Innovations in Research“ Londa Schiebinger and interested young academics will discuss which methods can help to gain a new perspective on ones own research project and to bring forth new innovative approaches. Open for junior scientists of all subjects, no registration necessary. Lunch will be provided free of charge. Attendance of the evening lecture is recommended for participants, though not mandatory.

20.11.2018, 16-18 p.m., Multi-Purpose Building (VG), Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Room 1.108

In her workshop for students „Political Plants. The Movement, Triumph and Extinction of Knowledge in the Atlantic World” Londa Schiebinger will give an insight into her research in the history of science. The focus will be on her book „Plants and Empire“ (2004).No registration necessary. Chapter 3 of Plant and Empire is recommended as reading material (not mandatory). The text is available on request, please contact Laura Kajetzke (contact information below).

Information about “Plants and Empire” (2004): Plants seldom figure in the grand narratives of war, peace, or even everyday life yet they are often at the center of high intrigue. In the eighteenth century, epic scientific voyages were sponsored by European imperial powers to explore the natural riches of the New World, and uncover the botanical secrets of its people. (…) But some secrets were unearthed only to be lost again. In this moving account of the abuses of indigenous Caribbean people and African slaves, Schiebinger describes how slave women brewed the "peacock flower" into an abortifacient, to ensure that they would bear no children into oppression. Yet, impeded by trade winds of prevailing opinion, knowledge of West Indian abortifacients never flowed into Europe. A rich history of discovery and loss (…).

Further Information about Londa Schiebinger: Schiebinger received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1984. Over the past thirty years, her work has been devoted to teasing apart three analytically distinct but interlocking pieces of the gender and science puzzle: the history of women’s participation in science; gender in the structure of scientific institutions; and the gendering of human knowledge. The Gendered Innovations Project combines theoretical knowledge with practical application. Case studies in research and development illustrate how gender analysis improves methods of research and is a driving force for innovation.