President’s note
I was recently part of the judging panel for the Earth Futures Festival, which is an international film and video competition that aims to highlight the role of geoscience in our sustainable future. The films I judged were inspiring, thought-provoking and covered a huge diversity of topics. The finalists have now been announced and are available online for you to watch until the end of October. There are many that would be perfect as part of undergraduate teaching; I know I will be telling my first year students to check out ‘Magnetic Mosaic’ and ‘Nevado del Ruiz’ as we just covered Earth’s magnetic field and volcanoes over the last few weeks. Huge congratulations to WOMEESA cofounder and past President, Heather Handley, who is the festival creator and director. What an inspiring initiative!
Speaking of impressive efforts by WOMEESA members, Marissa Betts recently won the Geological Society of Australia SA division Walter Howchin medal for her work on the SA early Cambrian fossils in South Australia. Marissa’s film was also selected as a finalist in the Earth Future’s Festival, so she is having a really brilliant month. Huge congratulations Marissa! There is more information about Marissa’s film and voting for the people’s choice award in the EFF below.
Finally, I am eagerly anticipating this month’s WOMEESA seminar from Dr Jenni Hopkins about why having a family as a female academic is such a difficult decision. Jenni is soon to be a first time Mum and has been looking into the research about the effects of families on careers. At the end of the talk she’ll be hoping to hear from the audience on their experiences, both good and bad. I get a lot of female students asking me about this topic and when is the best time to have kids, and its quite a difficult topic to provide advice on so I am really looking forward to hearing from Jenni and other WOMEESA members.
Melanie Finch
WOMEESA President
WOMEESA News
WOMEESA seminar series
Each month we host a seminar via zoom from a WOMEESA member. Our seminar series aims to increase the visibility of women in science and provide inspiring role models. Attendance is open to everyone, including non-members.
Details of upcoming seminars on posted the seminar webpage here, and past seminars are posted on our YouTube channel here. We’re also compiling a list of talks by women in earth and environmental sciences in the region which you can find on the seminars webpage.
The August WOMEESA seminar was presented by Helen Williams from Auckland University of Technology. You can watch it here.
Don’t miss the next WOMEESA Seminar:
Wednesday 14 September 2022, 2pm AEST (Sydney time)
Dr Jenni Hopkins, Victoria University of Wellington - Te Herenga Waka
“Why is having a family as a female academic such a difficult decision?”
See our website for more information and register for the zoom link here
Talk summary: When I give this seminar I will be into the third trimester of my first pregnancy, and I wanted to research the answer to this question that has challenged me over a number of years. Studies have shown consistently that having children will impact female academics in all aspects of their career to a significant level in comparison to their male counterparts. In this seminar I will (1) discuss the challenges I have faced within the academic system in New Zealand; (2) outline from the literature how, why, and what the globally recognised impacts are (some that are obvious, others than are not so); and (2) consider ways in which this is, or could be mitigated. We will end with a discussion where I would like to open the floor to hear other people’s experiences, questions for the group, or recommendations.
Bio: Dr Jenni Hopkins is a Lecturer in Environmental Science at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Jenni is originally from the UK but came to NZ in 2011 to complete her PhD on the Auckland Volcanic Field. After completing her PhD, she has worked on numerous fixed-term post-doc projects. Her research focus is in tephrochronology, volcanology and geochemistry.
Local meet ups
WOMEESA organizes bi-monthly local meetups, which are a great opportunity to network with members in your local area and build a stronger community. In September meet ups planned for Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. All the details are below.
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
When: Sunday 25th September at 12 pm
Where: Boatshed Cafe, Albert Park (3 Aquatic Dr, Albert Park VIC 3206) Register here! Please RSVP so that we can contact you in case we change the location due to weather conditions
Brisbane, QLD, Australia:
When: Wednesday 14th September at 6 pm
Where: Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers South Bank (Shop/10 Little Stanley St, South Brisbane QLD 4101). Register here!
Sydney, NSW, Australia:
When: Wednesday 28th September, from 5:30 pm
Where: Shelbourne Hotel, 200 Sussex St, Sydney NSW 2000 Register here!
You don’t need to be in a capital city to organise a local meetup, WOMEESA members are everywhere! If you would like to organise a meetup in your local area, contact our events coordinator Fernanda.AlvaradoNeves@monash.edu before September to get help or to let WOMEESA know your plans so we can help you with publicity.
WOMEESA #SUAW session
On the last Friday of the month we hold an online Shut Up and Write #SUAW session via zoom. We get together and talk briefly about what we want to achieve in the session, then write for about 50 minutes.
It’s a great opportunity to connect with other members and get some uninterrupted writing done. Even if you don’t have anything to write, you can just come along and say hi.
Next event will be Friday 30 September, 12 pm (Sydney time) and you can register for the zoom link here.
Other WOMEESA news
Earth Futures Festival finalists announced
The Earth Futures Festival is an international film and video competition founded by Heather Handley and organised in collaboration with UNESCO. Over 900 films were entered into the competition and the finalists have just been announced. A huge congratulations to WOMEESA member Marissa Betts whose film ROLA (Stone) was selected as a finalist. You can watch her film and all the finalists films online now at https://www.earthfuturesfestival.com/the-films. Be sure to also check out the entries into the “Women in Geoscience” category for some inspiring stories from women in our field. People’s choice voting is open now, until 15 September.
Who gets to work in Antarctica
Meredith Nash from ANU recently penned an article (linked here) about her research on menstruation in Antarctica. She found that talking about menstruation is still taboo, so people who menstruate are going into these remote locations and having to improvise solutions in the field, take medication to prevent periods, and/or risk their health by keeping menstrual products in their bodies longer than recommended. This is a particular problem in Antarctica where expeditioners have to keep used products with them for long periods of field work, but it is also an issue for anyone working in remote conditions where where proper toileting facilities are not available, including remote field work. I have heard of students avoiding undergraduate classes that involve field work because of the lack of toilet facilities. Professor Nash makes a list of recommendations for improving access to field work for people who menstruate, including the provision of toilets, menstruation products, and information about access to facilities. She points out that “over the decades, toileting has been a primary way for men to control who has access to extreme environments”. It is about time this came to an end.
New La Niña alert
Earlier this month the BOM announced that a third consecutive La Niña event is likely, bringing high rainfall in spring and summer, and renewed concern for communities on the East coast that are vulnerable to flooding. Associate Professor Mel Taylor and Dr Katharine Haynes wrote an article (linked here) about why preparation matters and what can be done ahead of time to avoid getting into dangerous situations.
reNewed volcanism in Iceland
This month we saw renewed volcanic activity at the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland after days of shallow earthquakes. Again there is wonderful live footage on YouTube as well as an excellent commentary from Icelandic geologist @geology_with_helga on instagram. Associate Professor Heather Handley (WOMEESA cofounder and former President) wrote an article for the Conversation exploring how eruptions like this one are becoming more common due to climate change, as well as the effects of volcanic eruptions on the climate. It is a particularly excellent article to share with undergraduate classes as it explores complex phenomena in a way that is easy to understand.
New USYD leadership team
The University of Sydney recently recruited five new members into its executive team (including WOMEESA member Emma Johnston) and the successful applicants all happened to be women. This is unusual because applicants for this job are typically professors, and most professors are men. However, according to the Vice Chancellor who leads the exec team, they were not deliberately seeking women, but rather they carefully considered what sort of leadership the university needed, then hired the right people to achieve that outcome. Sounds like a great university to be a part of. More info via this link.
Jobs and opportunities
Exploration geologist job in Perth. There are lots of jobs in mining available but we mention this one specifically because we know the company has a good record of hiring and retaining women.
Two Level B UniSA FII/SANTOS fellowships. Women only. Applications close on 4th September.
Post-doc at the University of Adelaide working on a highly-metamorphosed mineral system in the Gawler Craton as part of the MinEx CRC - https://minexcrc.com.au/.
Phd scholarship at Curtin University in Exploration Seismology
PhD at Curtin University in Earth Science as part of the the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Project
Newsletter Editor-in-Chief
Melanie Finch
Melanie is President of WOMEESA and a geoscience lecturer at JCU. Email her at womeesa.network@gmail.com if you have news or opportunities to include in the next newsletter.
