A Laboratory of Her Own

Description

A Laboratory of Her Own gathers diverse voices to address women's interaction with STEM fields in the context of Spanish cultural production. This volume focuses on the many ways the arts and humanities provide avenues for deepening the conversation about how women have been involved in, excluded from, and represented within the scientific realm.

While women's historic exclusion from STEM fields has been receiving increased scrutiny worldwide, women within the Spanish context have been perhaps even more peripheral given the complex sociocultural structures emanating from gender norms and political ideologies dominant in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spain. Nonetheless, Spanish female cultural producers have long been engaged with science and technology, as expressed in literature, art, film, and other genres. Spanish arts and letters offer diverse representations of the relationships between women, gender, sexuality, race, and STEM fields.

A Laboratory of Her Own studies representations of a diverse range of Spanish women and scientific cultural products from the late nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries. STEM topics include the environment, biodiversity, temporal and spatial theories, medicine and reproductive rights, neuroscience, robotics, artificial intelligence, and quantum physics. These scientific themes and other issues are analyzed in narratives, paintings, poetry, photographs, science fiction, medical literature, translation, newswriting, film, and other forms.

Table of Contents
 
Acknowledgments
 
Foreword
Roberta Johnson
 
Introduction
“The Story of Women and STEM in Spanish Culture”
Victoria L. Ketz, Dawn Smith-Sherwood, & Debra Faszer-McMahon
 
Part I: On Role Models: Female Scientists and Spanish Letters
 
Chapter One
“Las chicas raras de STEM: Recuperating #WomensPlace in Spanish Literary and Scientific Histories”
Dawn Smith-Sherwood
 
Chapter Two
“‘The Doctor Is In’: Elena Arnedo Soriano (1941-2015), Women’s Health, and the Cultural History of Gender and Medicine in Spain”
Silvia Bermúdez
 
Chapter Three
“Gender and the Critique of ‘Ascientific Traditions’: Science as Text and Intertext in Rosa Montero’s La ridícula idea de no volver a verte”
Ellen Mayock
 
Chapter Four
“From la santidad de la escoba to la trinidad higiénica: Rosario de Acuña (1851-1923) and a More Inclusive Vision of Spain’s Public Health
Erika M. Sutherland
 
Chapter Five
“Science, History, and Gender: An Interview with María Jesús Santesmases”
María Jesús Santesmases, Victoria L. Ketz and Debra Faszer-McMahon
 
 
Part II: On STE(A)M: Integrating Scientific Inquiry into the Cultural Realm
 
Chapter Six
“Science in the Works of Clara Janés: A Poetics of Theoretical (Meta)physics”
Debra Faszer-McMahon
 
Chapter Seven
“An Extension of Sympathy: Science and Posthumanism in the Paintings of Remedios Varo”
Marta del Pozo Ortea
 
Chapter Eight
“Subversive, Combative, Corrective: Carmen de Burgos’ Interventionist Translation of Möbius’ Űber den physiologischen Schwachsinn des Weibes [The Mental Inferiority of Women]”
Leslie Anne Merced
 
Chapter Nine
“Contrasting Images of Women Scientists in the Early Post-war Period (1940-45)
and the Novel María Elena, ingeniero de caminos by Mercedes Ballesteros
Miguel Soler Gallo
 
Chapter Ten
“Unorthodox Theories and Beings: Science, Technology, and Women in the Narratives of Rosa Montero”
Maryanne L. Leone
 
 
Part III: On Gender: Using STEM to Critique Gendered Roles
 
Chapter Eleven
“Biotech, Barceló, Bustelo: Reproduction, Motherhood and Gendered Hierarchies
in Spanish Science Fiction”
Mirla González
 
Chapter Twelve
“Challenging Boundaries of Time, Science, and Gender: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in Mayoral’s ‘Admirados colegas’”
Victoria L. Ketz
 
Chapter Thirteen
“Technological Portrayals: Framing Fernandinas in the Colonial Context through Photography and Press during the Spanish Second Republic”
Inés Plasencia
 
Chapter Fourteen
“Punishing Narratives: The Challenges of Gender and Scientific Authority
in Spanish Science Fiction Film”
Raquel Vega-Durán
 
Appendix: List of Works by Genre Addressed in this Volume
 
Index

Sujets

• Histoire
• Women
• Mayoral
• Belén
• Barceló
• Gache
• Role Models
• Gabriela
• Acuna (disambiguation)
• Visibility
• Remedios Varo
• Elia
• Agency
• Mayor
• Gender role
• Woman
• Uncertainty principle
• Technology
• Quantum mechanics
• The Women
• Belen
• Marina
• Marie
• Remedios
• Acuña
• Glossaire de la tauromachie
• Arenal
• Zafra
• Montero
• Barcelo
• Technologie
• Bustelo
• History
• Remedios Varo Uranga
• Concepción
• Ballesteros
• Clara
• Gaze
• Elena
• Authority
• Carmen
• Rosa
• Curie
• Albert
• Mercedes
• Burgos
• Science
• Albert Einstein

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826501301
• Langue: English

Extrait

A Laboratory of Her Own
A Laboratory of Her Own
Women and Science in Spanish Culture
Edited by
VICTORIA L. KETZ, DAWN SMITH-SHERWOOD, AND DEBRA FASZER-MCMAHON
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS
Nashville
Copyright 2021 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First printing 2021
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ketz, Victoria L., editor. | Smith-Sherwood, Dawn, 1968– editor. | Faszer-McMahon, Debra, 1974– editor.
Title: A laboratory of her own : women and science in Spanish culture / edited by Victoria L. Ketz, Dawn Smith-Sherwood, and Debra Faszer-McMahon.
Description: Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020034108 (print) | LCCN 2020034109 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826501288 (paperback) | ISBN 9780826501295 (hardback) | ISBN 9780826501301 (epub) | ISBN 9780826501318 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Women in science—Spain. | Women in science—Spain—History. | Women in science—Social aspects—Spain.
Classification: LCC Q130 .L33 2020 (print) | LCC Q130 (ebook) | DDC 500.82/0946—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034108
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034109
For young women (y las chicas raras ) everywhere, that they might be welcomed into and challenged by both the STEM fields and the arts
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Roberta Johnson
Introduction. The Story of Women and STEM in Spanish Culture
Victoria L. Ketz, Dawn Smith-Sherwood, and Debra Faszer-McMahon
PART I. ON ROLE MODELS: FEMALE SCIENTISTS AND SPANISH LETTERS
1. Las chicas raras de STEM: Recuperating #WomensPlace in Spanish Literary and Scientific Histories
Dawn Smith-Sherwood
2. “The Doctor Is In”: Elena Arnedo Soriano (1941–2015), Women’s Health, and the Cultural History of Gender and Medicine in Spain
Silvia Bermúdez
3. Gender and the Critique of “Ascientific Traditions”: Science as Text and Intertext in Rosa Montero’s La ridícula idea de no volver a verte
Ellen Mayock
4. From la santidad de la escoba to la trinidad higiénica : Rosario de Acuña (1851–1923) and a More Inclusive Vision of Spain’s Public Health
Erika M. Sutherland
5. Science, History, and Gender: An Interview with María Jesús Santesmases
Victoria L. Ketz and Debra Faszer-McMahon
PART II. ON STE(A)M: INTEGRATING SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY INTO THE CULTURAL REALM
6. Science in the Works of Clara Janés: A Poetics of Theoretical (Meta)physics
Debra Faszer-McMahon
7. An Extension of Sympathy: Science and Posthumanism in the Paintings of Remedios Varo
Marta del Pozo Ortea
8. Subversive, Combative, Corrective: Carmen de Burgos’s Interventionist Translation of Möbius’s Öber den physiologischen Schwachsinn des Weibes (The mental inferiority of women)
Leslie Anne Merced
9. Contrasting Images of Women Scientists in the Early Postwar Period (1940–1945) and the Novel María Elena, ingeniero de caminos by Mercedes Ballesteros
Miguel Soler Gallo
10. Unorthodox Theories and Beings: Science, Technology, and Women in the Narratives of Rosa Montero
Maryanne L. Leone
PART III. ON GENDER: USING STEM TO CRITIQUE GENDERED ROLES
11. Biotech, Barceló, Bustelo: Reproduction, Motherhood, and Gendered Hierarchies in Spanish Science Fiction
Mirla González
12. Challenging Boundaries of Time, Science, and Gender: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in Marina Mayoral’s “Admirados colegas”
Victoria L. Ketz
13. Technological Portrayals: Framing Fernandinas in the Colonial Context through Photography and Press during the Spanish Second Republic
Inés Plasencia
14. Punishing Narratives: The Challenges of Gender and Scientific Authority in Spanish Science Fiction Film
Raquel Vega-Durán
Appendix. List of Works by Genre Addressed in This Volume
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
Many of our female colleagues, including two of this collection’s editors, initially focused on the sciences in their educational formation, only to abandon this line of inquiry to pursue a career in the humanities. While humanistic pursuits have provided us with fascinating and fulfilling work, this pattern of shifting disciplinary focus sparked an interest in exploring the factors dissuading many of our female colleagues from STEM fields. While such patterns have been shifting over time, the power of academic structures and gender norms still seems to hold strong sway, and we see this in our own classrooms and with our female students. As our collection demonstrates, women in science, in Spain and worldwide, have faced pervasive and systematic discrimination that has affected their interactions with STEM fields. Yet our story is one of hope, experimentation, and interdisciplinarity. Spanish female cultural producers have insisted since at least the nineteenth century on connecting science and art, and we have attempted to honor their work and their passion for interdisciplinary STE(A)M endeavors throughout this volume.
The rejection of disciplinary silos and the importance of diverse perspectives is the focus of Banu Subramaniam’s Ghost Stories for Darwin: The Science of Variation and the Politics of Diversity . 1 She offers intriguing examples of how women scientists might challenge the boundaries of established scientific research in order to connect with humanistic pursuits. Her own personal story echoes “la mirada tuerta” posited by Peninsular novelist and journalist Montserrat Roig. In the preface, subtitled “On Interdisciplinarity,” Subramaniam describes the challenges of looking in both direc tions simultaneously: “Traversing liminal spaces, traveling the hallways of academia, at the borderlands of disciplines. [ . . . ] Dare I speak? Almost there, but never quite. Almost a scientist, yet a feminist; almost a feminist, yet a scientist; almost a native, yet an alien; almost an alien, yet a native; almost an outsider, yet inside; almost an insider, yet outside . . . Almost there, but never quite” (vii). Her words communicate the frustration of attempting to live in the liminal spaces between disciplinary boundaries and gender norms. Yet those frustrations, in her work and in the work of many Spanish women writers, have led to incredible creative contributions. This project is an attempt to bridge the divides defining the “borderlands of disciplines” such that future women, from all parts of the world, will feel less alien, less outsider, less divided, and will dare to speak. We have not yet arrived, but this collection, with its focus on women and STE(A)M in Spain, is an effort within our own discipline to traverse those divides.
We would like to thank our contributors for sharing with us their provocative research and for being patient and responsive throughout the editing process. We hope that you have benefited from the experience as much as we have. We would also like to express our appreciation to our respective institutions (La Salle University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Seton Hill University) for their research support. Although all institutions of higher learning are under increasing financial constraints, our communities have nonetheless assisted us generously as we pursued important research in our disciplines. Moreover, we would like to acknowledge the valuable role played by both the Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literatures (MACHL) and the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference (KFLC), where our collaborators were able to present papers that would later become the essays contained in this volume. A special thanks to our favorite KFLC breakfast joint, Shakespeare and Company, where we often met to discuss ideas and plan the stages of this project. We are also grateful to our editor at Vanderbilt, Zachary Gresham, whose enthusiasm, encouragement, and patience have made working on this collection an enjoyable experience. This volume would not have been possible without the generous support of Vanderbilt University Press’s entire editorial staff, who assisted us with every aspect of the publication process.
We would also like to acknowledge the Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York / VEGAP for allowing us to publish the images of Remedios Varos’s paintings, included in Chapter 7 by Marta del Pozo Ortea. A note of thanks to the Archives at the Liverpool Records Office, to the Spanish National Library, the Spanish Patrimonio Nacional – Real Biblioteca del Palacio, and to Spain’s Archivo General de la Administración at the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte for sharing with us the wonderful photographic images in Inés Plasencia’s contribution on the Fernandinas in Chapter 13 . We would also like to thank Laida Memba for graciously allowing us to reprint images from her personal archive in this collection.
Finally, we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to our families for their patience over the past several years. Thank you for supporting us through this process, for getting takeout and making meals, for putting up with our early morning Google Hangout sessions, and for reading and rereading our drafts (Patrick, Kenneth, and Christopher). The co-editing of this volume has been a rewarding experience for us as it has allowed us the opportunity to create a community that has often been denied to women.