IAP 2015 Activities by Sponsor - Women's and Gender Studies

Esther D. Shilcrat, Former MIT Fellow and former Simmons CS Professor

	Jan/13	Tue	02:00PM-04:00PM	14-0637
	Jan/15	Thu	02:00PM-04:00PM	14-0637

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/05
Limited to 14 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

If you have ever used a calculator even for simple computations, you are already a programmer! In this class we will show
how to translate you've already been doing - using memory, giving input, getting output, into small programs in the JavaScript language. To make it more visual, and more fun, we will work in small teams to use our new knowledge to create graphic displays

Great for those with no programming experience and especially those who are put off by what they thing programming is like.  Both students and non-students are welcome to attend.

Please bring a calculator or a smart phone and some blank paper and a pen or pencil.

 

Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Women's and Gender Studies
Contact: Esther D. Shilcrat, estherds@mit.edu

Sandy Alexandre, Professor of Literature

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

This course explores Beyoncé’s songs, music videos, and photographs as a way to reflect on issues of black feminism, womanism, and intersectionality. What do those terms even mean? How exactly does race and feminism intersect, and why is that particular intersection important, especially in the case of this singer? How successful or forced are efforts to view Beyoncé as a paragon of black feminism? What does a practice of womanism in action actually look like, and how might a performance of it on a music video, for example, invite someone to emulate it (or tailor it for feasible, productive, and pleasurable use) in the real world? How can we use popular entertainment as a foray into deeper examinations of race, gender, class, and sexuality? Is palatable, and entertaining black feminism any different from—a diluted version of—the black feminism we read about in scholarly books? This course will include in-class discussions of Black Feminist Thought (1990) by Patricia Hill Collins, along with supplemental essays, which we will read over the course of one week.

Sponsor(s): Literature, Women's and Gender Studies
Contact: Sandy Alexandre, 14N-422, 617-253-4450, alexandy@mit.edu

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Beyonce: Black Feminist Thought

	Jan/20	Tue	02:30PM-04:30PM	14E-304
	Jan/21	Wed	02:30PM-04:30PM	14E-304
	Jan/22	Thu	02:30PM-04:30PM	14E-304
	Jan/23	Fri	02:30PM-04:00PM	14E-304

Sandy Alexandre - Professor of Literature

Marianna Novellino, Graduate Student, Julia Somerdi, Graduate Student

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/01
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: None

Are you exasperated by the process of finding a workable outfit for interviews? Figuring out what exactly 'business casual' means? What the best 'cocktail attire' is for your body type? 

Would you like to know exactly how to find clothes that work with your figure, your personal style, and the different spheres in your life? 

This workshop is designed for you! Our goal is to help women in STEM  be smarter about style and gain confidence in their ability to take control of their wardrobes, without all the stress and worry.  We are preparing this session for women interested in learning how to put together outfits that work for their different life styles, present and future, with guidance from fashion advisors and students in apparel design from top tier schools.

We will have sessions with our fashion advisor about the basics of fashion and tricks about working with 'realistic bodies' instead of what we most often see in the fashion 'industry'. Then we will give you the opportunity to put these guidelines into practice and become experts about fashion for yourselves.  The students from design school will help us understand their theory for design and we will teach them how we, as end users, experience wearing their designs and how we could improve the fashion standards of design to be Smarter! 

It will be difficult and challenging on many levels, but we hope you are ready and willing to become the first class of MIT Fashion Smarts!

Sponsor(s): Women's and Gender Studies
Contact: Marianna Novellino, (857) 209-6808, MNOVELLI@MIT.EDU

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Intro to Fashion Workshop and Agenda

Jan/08

Thu

05:00PM-06:30PM

Introductions

Present workshop goals, objectives, and agenda

Q/A

Marianna Novellino - Graduate Student, Julia Somerdi - Graduate Student

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Closet Smarts Presentation

Jan/09

Fri

03:00PM-05:00PM

Closet Smarts, by Emily Neill

- Fashion that works for you and your body (not the other way around!)

- (The Skeletons in) Your closet - what to keep, what to toss, how to craft an outfit from what is there

- Fashion Versus Style - Developing personal style and the best possible version of you 

 

Marianna Novellino - Graduate Student, Emily Neill - Women and Gender Studies

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Your Closet Smarts experience

Jan/15

Thu

05:00PM-06:30PM

Review of assigments from Class 2 

- Bring your style to class session

- What did you learn from your closet inventory?

- What would you change in your styles after this exercise?

Julia Somerdin - Graduate Student, Emily Neill - Women and Gender Studies

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Designers Session

Jan/16

Fri

03:00PM-05:00PM

Fashion - from conception to realization

- Presentation from fashion designer students

- Interactive session with class

- Comments about session and lessons learned

Marianna Novellino - Graduate Student, Julia Somerdin - Graduate Student

Renee Blackburn

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Like a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats, gender stereotypes of women in car films should be broken. The dominant stereotype of gender in car films centers on a beautiful woman with little or no knowledge of cars who plays the eye candy or prize to be won of the dominant male “car guy.”  During this IAP series we will examine this portrayal of gender in car films and challenge its validity as a stereotype. After each film, we will discuss questions such as: What is “car culture” and how is it portrayed in the film? What gender stereotypes were present? What are the major themes of the film? How are minorities portrayed? Do these films break any barriers or stereotypes about gender and cars?

During this short series we will watch four films.

Heart Like a Wheel (1983)

Christine (1983)

Disney's Cars (2006)

Trucker (2008) 

 

Snacks will be provided. The website for the series, with additional content and the required registration form to sign up for each film, is availabe here:

http://iapfullthrottle.weebly.com

 

Please note that this is taking place in 3-310, the Margaret Cheney Room, MIT's Women's Community Center. Usually a women's only space, for this series the main community room will be open to the entire MIT community regardless of gender.

Sponsor(s): Student Activities Office, Women's and Gender Studies, Science, Technology, and Society
Contact: Renee Blackburn, RMBLACK@MIT.EDU

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Heart Like a Wheel (1983)

Jan/20

Tue

05:00PM-08:00PM

3-310

Shirley Muldowney is determined to be a top-fuel drag racer, although no woman has ever raced them before. Despite the high risks of this kind of racing and the burden it places on her family life, she perseveres in her dream. From IMDB

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Christine (1983)

Jan/22

Thu

05:00PM-08:00PM

3-310

A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it. From IMDB

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Disney's Cars (2006)

Jan/26

Mon

05:00PM-08:00PM

3-310

A hot-shot race-car named Lightning McQueen gets waylaid in Radiator Springs, where he finds the true meaning of friendship and family. From IMDB

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Trucker (2008)

Jan/28

Wed

05:00PM-08:00PM

3-310

A trucker, leading a life free of depth and on the way to nowhere, is forced to make a decision about her aggressive loner 11-year-old son whom she openly deserted ten years previously. From IMDB

Note: movie is rated R for reasons including a scene involving a sexual assault.

Maia Weinstock, Deputy Editor, MIT News, Kim Surkan, WGS Lecturer

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 16 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: none

Although Wikipedia is one of the most popular encyclopedias in the world, women are highly underrepresented on its pages. In this workshop, students will create original Wikipedia articles about notable women in history. Emphasis will be placed on women in the STEM disciplines, but students may chose women from any field. Participants will learn the nuances required of successful Wikipedia biographies; discover how to add appropriate images to Wikipedia articles; research notable women missing from Wikipedia's pages using multimedia resources from MIT's libraries; and come away having created a viable new article. No Wikipedia editing experience required.

Sponsor(s): Women's and Gender Studies
Contact: Emily Neill, 14E-316, 617 253-8844, ERNEILL@MIT.EDU

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Jan/12

Mon

07:00PM-09:00PM

14E-304, Bring your laptop

Maia Weinstock - Deputy Editor, MIT News, Kim Surkan - WGS Lecturer

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Jan/13

Tue

07:00PM-09:00PM

14E-304, Bring your laptop

Maia Weinstock - Deputy Editor, MIT News, Kim Surkan - WGS Lecturer

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Jan/14

Wed

07:00PM-09:00PM

14E-304, Bring your laptop

Maia Weinstock - Deputy Editor, MIT News, Kim Surkan - WGS Lecturer

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Jan/15

Thu

07:00PM-09:00PM

14E-304, Bring your laptop

Maia Weinstock - Deputy Editor MIT News, Maia Weinstock - Deputy Editor, MIT News, Kim Surkan - WGS Lecturer