The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science

Published by Columbia University Press 2020

The Bearded Lady Project

Challenging the Face of Science

Edited by: Lexi Jamieson Marsh and Ellen Currano
Photographs by: Kelsey Vance and Draper White

https://doi.org/10.7312/curr19804

Overview
Contents

About this book

Challenging persistent gender biases in the sciences, the Bearded Lady Project puts the spotlight on underrepresented geoscientists in the field and in the lab. This book pairs portraits of these scientists after donning fake beards with personal essays in which they tell their stories.

Author / Editor information

Lexi Jamieson Marsh is the founder of the independent production company On Your Feet Entertainment and the director and producer of The Bearded Lady Project short and feature-length documentary films. She is currently visiting assistant professor of media and culture at Miami University.

Ellen Currano is a paleontologist at the University of Wyoming with a joint appointment in the Department of Botany and the Department of Geology and Geophysics. Her research focuses on the response of ancient forest communities to environmental changes.

Reviews

Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences:
“The stories within are compelling, and I wish I had been able to read them before I embarked on my own career as a scientist. The contributors’ and editors’ voices emanate clearly from the pages. The writing is an impressive combination of approachable yet sophisticated, powerful yet playful, meticulously researched and fact-based, yet balanced with personal, often painful narratives.

Emily Graslie, chief curiosity correspondent at the Field Museum of Natural History:
The Bearded Lady Project is a necessary novelty. It’s snarky, beautiful, and increasingly powerful in the evolution of its message: Don’t ever assume you know what a scientist looks like. These essays—critical, poignant examinations of societal and historical perceptions of genius—remind us how much scientists have to say about the world in which their research takes place.

Marcia Bjonerud, professor of geosciences at Lawrence University, author of Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World:
The portraits in The Bearded Lady Project intentionally cause double takes, forcing the viewer to look, then look again. But their real power lies in how they require us to look inward and see that antediluvian ideas about who can and cannot do science still linger. The accompanying stories of remarkable women in paleontology make one hopeful that soon these old stereotypes will finally go extinct.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Foreword Lexi Jamieson Marsh Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Part I: Why Challenge the Face of Science
1. “Pictures in Our Heads”: Challenging Stereotypes of Scientists and Science Amanda Diekman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	2
2. What’s in a Name? Amy K. Guenther Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
3. Sex, Science, and Beards Kimberly A. Hamlin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
4. What Is Paleontology? Ellen Currano Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
5. Spaces Paleontologists Inhabit Ellen Currano Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
6. The Lost Legacy Ellen Currano Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
7. The Power of Contradiction Catherine Badgley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Part II: Women in Paleontology
Stereotypes
8. “Fitting In”: Freedom in the Carole S. Hickman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
9. A Female Paleontologist in the 1970s and 1980s Anna K. Behrensmeyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
10. From Microfossils to Museums: Reflections on My Journey as an Earth Scientist Lisa White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
11. Can You Be a Paleontologist Without a Ph.D.? (The Answer Is Yes) Ashley Hall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
12. The Path Is Not Always Straight ReBecca Hunt-Foster Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
13. A Less Traveled and More Meandering Path Karen Chin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Women
14. Definition: Woman Amy K. Guenther Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
15. The Moments When I Am Not a Woman Leslea J. Hlusko Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
16. My Love-Hate Relationship . . . with Waders Andrea D. Hawkes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
17. The Balancing Act Patricia H. Kelley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
18. Being Brave Bonnie Jacobs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Gender
19. Definition: Gender Amy K. Guenther Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
20. Just a Paleontologist Denise F. Su Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
21. Performing Gender in Paleontology Amy K. Guenther Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
22. Taking Off the Beard for Good Sara B. Pruss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Part III: Behind the Lens
23. Behind the Lens: Filming a Documentary Lexi Jamieson Marsh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
24. Being with Artists in the Field Ellen Currano Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
25. Creating Portraits for The Bearded Lady Project Kelsey Vance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
26. Field Notes Lexi Jamieson Marsh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Why Diversify Science Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
Pledge for Equality in the Sciences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
The Photographers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Illustrations
- Other: 11 photographs

eBook

Published: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 9780231552462