The Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture at Hamilton College continues its 2002-2003 series "Masculinities," with a lecture by Anne Fausto-Sterling on Thursday, Sept. 19, at 8 p.m. in KJ Auditorium on the Hamilton campus. Her lecture, "Thinking Systematically about the Emergence of Gender," will be followed by a reception and book signing. It is free and open to the public.
Fausto-Sterling, biologist, feminist, and historian of science, is professor of biology and women's studies at Brown University. Author of Myths of Gender and Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, she has been at the forefront of inquiry about the dividing line between sex and gender (including whether there is one). Her talk will address these and other issues: How do gender differences emerge? What kind of research plan is necessary to study gender differences?
In addition to having served on the Brown faculty for more than 25 years, Fausto-Sterling has been a visiting professor at a number of institutions both in the U.S. and abroad. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been the recipient of grants and fellowships in both the sciences and the humanities.
Fausto-Sterling is the author of scientific publications in the field of developmental genetics and in developmental ecology. Her current laboratory research focuses on the evolution of regeneration and sexual reproduction in a group of flatworms known as planaria. In addition she has written several papers which critically analyze the role of preconceptions about gender in the structuring theories of development. Her current work in this field includes a study of embryologist Edwin Grant Conklin, whose pioneering work on cell lineage was critical to the formation of contemporary developmental biology.
Fausto-Sterling's most recent book, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, was published in February, 2000. It examines the social nature of biological knowledge about animal and human sexuality. She has also written about the role of race and gender in the construction of scientific theory and the role of such theories in ideas about race and gender. She advocates the idea that understanding science is of central importance to feminist students and scholars, and that understanding feminist insights into science is essential to science students and researchers.
For more information about this lecture or other programs in the series, please contact the Kirkland Project at 315-859-4288.
