It was Robyn Arianrhod’s book, Seduced by Logic, that prompted me to write this series of posts about my mother’s working life and her education in maths and science. Arianrhod’s book is about two female mathematicians, one from the eighteenth century and the other who lived in the nineteenth century. These women made significant contributions to the scientific revolution … [Read more...] about Glimpses of a Young Woman Working in Laboratories 1959-1963
Victoria
Quietly Pushing Barriers Aside
This week came the disappointing news that the participation in Maths by girls in their final year of school in New South Wales is declining significantly. In 2001, the first year when students were no longer required to study a Maths or science subject in year twelve in order to qualify for university entrance, 90.5% of girls studied Maths whereas 96.9% of boys did. The … [Read more...] about Quietly Pushing Barriers Aside
Book Review: Flood Country by Emily O’Gorman
I would never have read this book if it wasn’t for twitter. Last year I came across the twitter stream of the University of Wollongong’s, Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research (@AUSCCER) and those of researchers who work at the Centre. I have enjoyed these tweets about geography and the environment . One day I noticed their tweets about the Sydney launch of a … [Read more...] about Book Review: Flood Country by Emily O’Gorman
GLAMming it Up – Two Days in Melbourne
Galleries, libraries, archives and museums are known as the GLAM institutions. I spend a lot of time in these places doing research, but I also enjoy visiting exhibitions and taking behind the scenes tours. When I travel I try to squeeze in an exhibition or two. Unfortunately I find that I often don't have much time to do this so I either miss out or I have to cram as much as … [Read more...] about GLAMming it Up – Two Days in Melbourne
Historical Evidence – Sometimes we will never know
This post started as a simple report of a few presentations at last week’s Buildings, Books and Blackboards conference in Melbourne, then it became more reflective than a report before finally morphing into a discussion about how historians construct history. Conferences are gatherings where historians learn and share. However, as a result of writing these blog posts about … [Read more...] about Historical Evidence – Sometimes we will never know