Sexual Harassment and Gender Equity in Science

In October, 2015, BuzzFeed News reporter Azeen Ghorayshi broke an investigative story detailing astronomer Geoffrey Marcy’s long history of sexual harassment. Since then, more female scientists have come forward about their experiences with harassment. Ghorayshi, MIT astronomer Sarah Ballard, and Harvard history of science professor Evelynn M. Hammonds join science journalist and MIT Communications Forum coordinator Christina Couch to discuss barriers to gender equality in the sciences and steps to over come them. Speakers: Azeen Ghorayshi is a science reporter for BuzzFeed News and recipient of the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award and the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for young science journalists. She frequently covers gender and equality issues in the sciences. Sarah Ballard is an astronomer and a Torres Fellow for Exoplanetary Research at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. She frequently writes about the culture of science and equity issues therein. Evelynn M. Hammonds is a professor of the history of science and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is the former dean of Harvard College and the first woman and first African-American to hold that position. Moderator: Christina Couch is a science journalist and coordinator for the MIT Communications Forum. Her work explores the intersections of technology and psychology. This event was sponsored by Radius at MIT (https://radius.mit.edu).