Category Archives: Academia

A new study published by the Royal Society found that men’s superiority over women at chess at the top levels can be explained by population size.

Karen Hopkin reports in Scientific American: Women are so much better than men at so many things. But according to a report published by the Royal Society, chess is not one of them. The topic of sex differences when it … Continue reading

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Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee: Does Title IX preempt an Equal Protection claim brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983?

At the ACS Blog Dina Lassow writes: The Fitzgerald case began in 2001, when Jackie, who was then in kindergarten, told her parents that one of the boys on the school bus was forcing her to lift her skirt, pull … Continue reading

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A case of sexual harassment and mistaken identity in the digital age?

This “First Person” column in the Chron describes what the pseudonymous author asserts was a false charge of sexual harassment. His claim is that he was charged with sexually harassing a student who was also a university employee. The student, … Continue reading

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26 Course Evaluation Excerpts

Hard to tell if these are real, but some are certainly funny. Below are some samples: 19.”This course kept me out of trouble from 2-4:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.” 20.”Most of us spent the 1st 3 weeks terrified of the … Continue reading

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From the Department of One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: In the 1970s, over 90 percent of the collegiate women’s teams were coached by women, but now just over 40 percent of women’s teams are headed by female coaches (and only 17.7 percent of women’s and men’s teams combined).

A post at the AAUW Dialog blog noted: …Title IX has made an enormous positive difference in women’s sports: two years before the enactment of Title IX in 1970, there were only 2.5 women’s teams per school, but as of … Continue reading

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Four Oklahoma City University law professors allege discrimination and harassment.

Details here and here. Paul Secunda has some observations here.

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A Sermon Against Preachy People

Here, at A  Woman In Law School.

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How much ad revenue can various for profit blogs reap off the misery and misfortunes of a desperate and depressed law student?

A lot, apparently. I’m not going to link to any of them, because whether they are being disgustingly licentious or self-aggrandizingly professing great concern, at the end of the day they are all about the links and the clicks and … Continue reading

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Steal This Seal

Here’s the official University of South Carolina Seal: Here is a two color version with “sample” across the front to prevent subversive bloggers like me from making illicit millions by using it without permission: Here’s the official University information about … Continue reading

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Funniest Blawgprof Post I’ve Seen In Weeks:

Law Schools Ranked By the Number of Corrupt Public Officials They Graduated As usual, Yale and Harvard come out on top. (You might have already guessed the source.)

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Deanships and Diversity

There are currently between 10-15 active law school dean searches being conducted around the country. It’s no secret that women, people of color, and every other category of academic short of a white male are under-represented in the higher reaches … Continue reading

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Today Is Final Day to Comment on ABA’s Proposal to Eliminate Student-Faculty Ratio Data

Paul Caron has a critique of the proposal here. The impact on student/faculty ratio was one of the arguments that finally persuaded the doubters at my law school to hire a professional, full time legal writing faculty, which has been … Continue reading

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10 Things You May Not Have Learned In Law School

“10 things I didn’t learn in law school” is here, at A Public Defender. Don’t miss the Kingsfield clip at the end! Via Law Ingenue.

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“Letter from Women’s Historians to President Elect Obama” asking for gender equity in the proposed economic stimulus package.

Friends and colleagues, Attached is a letter to President-elect Obama making a historical case for more attention to gender equity in the proposed stimulus package. It is based on a draft circulated by Linda Gordon with input from several others. … Continue reading

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Measuring Scholarly Impact

Via, by way of The Faculty Lounge.

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Cheerleading accounted for two-thirds of all catastrophic injuries among female high school and college athletes.

That’s a statistic from this WaPo article, entitled: “Rooting for Safety: Cheerleading Is Risky But Ill-Regulated.” Below are a couple of excerpts: … Concerns about cheerleading safety arise whenever a high-profile accident occurs. But alarm spiked again this summer when … Continue reading

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Sex Based Medicine

Great post here, below is a short excerpt: Now, Dr. Isis quite frequently blogs about being a girl, so a letter in this week’s Science entitled Flaunting the Feminine Side of Research Studies certainly caught the eye of the domestic … Continue reading

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The NCAA tries to prevent men from blaming Title IX for cuts to sports that are actually recession related.

And, I’d bet most readers join me in hoping this works! From USA Today: NCAA President Myles Brand has a message for member institutions: Don’t blame Title IX. Brand expects some schools to drop men’s teams in coming months because … Continue reading

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Noting the Passing of Jan Kemp, UGA Athletics Whistleblower

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Jan Kemp, the controversial former English professor at the University of Georgia who blew the whistle on preferential treatment afforded to student athletes, passed away Friday of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease. She was 59. Named a”hero … Continue reading

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Patients v. Medical Students: A Provocative Discussion.

One of my favorite law profs sent me a link to a medical student discussion board, where a very long thread started off with this post: From some personal experience and hearing stories from others, there seems to be a … Continue reading

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Holiday Decorations Regulations

From an e-mail sent by our University Fire Marshall: In keeping everyone safe to enjoy the holidays, we want to remind the members of the USC community of the regulations governing fire safety and holiday decorations. Chapter 8 of The … Continue reading

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Catharine A. MacKinnon has been appointed Special Gender Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

From here: Prof. Catharine A. MacKinnon was appointed as Special Gender Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. She will provide strategic advice to his Office on sexual and gender violence, an area where expertise is required under … Continue reading

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Abortion and Medical School

The Wapo has a lengthy article entitled A Hard Choice on this topic, an excerpt is below: You think you are pro-choice, Carole Meyers was saying. But, really, “how pro-choice are you? What does it mean for you? What’s your … Continue reading

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Fight Songs Of Southern Universities

So today I was ruminating on the University of South Carolina’s fight song, called “Step to the Rear,” a fight song in which the only lyrics are “Go Cocks!” Here’s a version played at a football game by The Mighty … Continue reading

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Penn Program on Documentaries and the Law

From the Program’s homepage: Lawyers need to be knowledgeable participants in the cultural and social debates such films provoke about the significance of our roles in the creation and maintenance of a just, democratic society. To fulfill this role, we … Continue reading

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Webs, Tapestry, Life and Law Schools

  With the web metaphor on my mind, today I thought of this quotation from Justice Sandra Day O’Connor differently than I have before: We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone … and whatever happens is the result of … Continue reading

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An Open Door Is Not Enough

Today’s Chronicle of Higher Education features a provocative “Balancing Act” column by  Mary Ann Mason (Berkeley).  In “Frozen Eggs  Oocyte Cryopreservation is not the Secret to Professional Success in Academe,” Mason reports some eye-catching statistics: Among the professions charted by … Continue reading

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What To Do When There is an Internal Sphincter Eruption (or the Importance of Being a Good “Host” Even When There Are No Guests)

Ann’s post here  about the importance of courteous behavior towards job candidates got me thinking.  When a school hosts faculty candidates or guests, and there is an “asshole eruption,” there is a clear need for damage control.  But what about … Continue reading

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“How to be a good host–for schools that are still hiring”

Lesbo Prof has some interesting recommendations. Here is the part I liked the best: Second, don’t play “get the candidate.” While a spirited discussion about a candidate’s research is exciting and fun, and can show a candidate that you are … Continue reading

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This Sounds Awfully Familiar!

Historiann has a post up about an e-mail exchange wherein a complete stranger demands her assistance, and is then very rude to her. Via Historiann, I saw this post at Female Science Professor about a stranger demanding something from her. … Continue reading

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Why Women Don’t Have “Cool Cred”

The “Observer” column in the November 14, 2008 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education caught my eye.   In “Cool Cred: High Theory, Daffy Duck, and the Blues,” Jim Courter (Western Illinois) takes a close look at ways in … Continue reading

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Campaign to Expose Fake Abortion Clinics

From FeministCampus.org: …so-called “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” or “Pregnancy Resource Centers” on your campus or in your community. They pose as legitimate health centers and offer “free” pregnancy tests. In reality, most crisis pregnancy centers (CPC’s) are not medical facilities at … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Reproductive Rights | 1 Comment

Research Associateships at Five College Women’s Studies Research Center

From the FLP mailbox, this notice of Research Associate positions at the “Five College Women’s Studies Research Center”: The Center invites applications for its RESEARCH ASSOCIATESHIPS for 2009-2010 from scholars and teachers at all levels of the educational system, as … Continue reading

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A different kind of physics conferences – the ladies room was always crowded.

The third International Conference for Women in Physics! First person account at the f word.

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Women and Intellectual Property law, a dialogue

An account of a fabulous round table discussion I took part in last week in Toronto, sponsored by Osgood Hall Law School (more precisely IP Osgoode, the Institute For Feminist Legal Studies, and Putting Theory To Practice (An International Speakers … Continue reading

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Feminist Law Profs Among New ALI Members

The ALI has announced the names (here) of its newly-elected members, including Feminist Law Profs Ann Bartow (South Carolina), Miriam Cherry (McGeorge),  Tony Infanti (Pitt), Margaret Russell (Santa Clara) and Margaret Taylor (Wake Forest).  Congratulations!   -Bridget Crawford  

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Bloggers as Handmaidens of True Public Intellectuals?

Anne Applebaum, Barbara Ehrenreich, Malcolm Gladwell, Christopher Hitchens, Fareed Zakaria, Paul Berman, Debra Dickerson, Rick Perlstein, David Rieff, Robert Wright, William A. Galston, Robert Kagan, Brink Lindsey, Walter Russell Mead, Eric Alterman, Michael Bérubé, Joshua Cohen, Tyler Cowen, Jared Diamond, … Continue reading

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Rethinking Faculty Recruitment

Instead of the traditional Faculty Recruitment Conference, what if the AALS coordinated a matching program à la medical school residencies?   My talented colleague Karl Coplan made this suggestion during a recruiting break today.   I have initial thoughts on … Continue reading

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AutoAdmit Lawsuit Update

Here, from Leiter.

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Love-Hate at the Faculty Recruitment Conference

I  simultaneously like and dislike  the Faculty Recruitment Conference.   I like meeting people, reading the scholarship of professors-to-be; talking to candidates about their interests in teaching and scholarship; seeing friends from other faculties; spending time with my current colleagues … Continue reading

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Mary Lily Research Grants – Duke University

The Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, part of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, announces the availability of Mary Lily Research Grants for research travel to our collections. The Sallie Bingham Center … Continue reading

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How does one juggle breast feeding and landing a law teaching job? Advice needed!

I’m writing for advice on an issue peculiar to female law profs and I was hoping that I could post a question on Feminist Law Profs seeking advice. Specifically, I am on the legal teaching market this year and I … Continue reading

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College Papers Back Obama, 63 to 1

Story here. Note that the Daily Gamecock is part of the 63. –Ann Bartow

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Dean Search at Texas Tech School of Law

Texas Tech University invites applications and nominations for the position of Dean of the School of Law. The preferred date for the individual to begin duties is on or about July 15, 2009. Texas Tech University, with over 28,000 students, … Continue reading

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On Grades, Sorting, and Sucking Up

Brian Leiter has another post about grading changes at several top law schools, noting: “There are rumors aplenty that Columbia and NYU may move to something like the Yale system of essentially two grades–Honors/Pass–now that Harvard and Stanford are going … Continue reading

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“Baylor University is being called ‘the poster child for SAT misuse’ after the student newspaper revealed an unusual practice: paying admitted freshmen to retake the SAT and offering large financial rewards for those whose scores go up by certain levels.”

That’s the first line of this article in Inside Higher Ed. Via Historiann, who adds the usual colorful commentary and illustrations that make her so popular around these here parts. Of course here in law school land, we are witnessing … Continue reading

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The report found that men in the department operated like a “club,” the Chronicle reported.

According to this Phila. Inq. article: Rutgers University is investigating complaints of discrimination from female faculty in its political science department, including allegations of pay inequities and charges that male senior faculty members have held long-standing, decision-making dinners that exclude … Continue reading

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Guest Post by Nick J. Sciullo: On Womyn and Humyn With A”Y”

This story is a story of the law review process and one scholar’s attempt to do something, anything, about the patriarchal underpinnings of law schools, law, and legal thoughts. My ideas on feminism have not always been well tolerated and … Continue reading

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Gender Imbalance In Law Reviews, A Continuing Saga

Concurring Opinions features the tables of contents of select law reviews when new issues appear. Judging by the first names, admittedly an imperfect measure, it looks like neither the Michigan Law Review nor the Boston College Law Review published anything … Continue reading

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Comments You Are Most Likely to Hear From Feminist Law Professors

On the Freakonomics blog at the New York Times, Justin Wolfers reminded readers  (here) of  economist  George Stigler‘s  suggestion that during presentations of a scholarly work, audience members would increase academic efficiency by shouting out a number that corresponded to … Continue reading

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