September 21, 2012

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Talks and Trips, Fall 2012

By Kate Clancy

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

It’s that time of year when I take stock of how many more times I’ll be away from my family before the semester is through. I’ve pared things down quite a bit this year after traveling too much last year, and so my talks are semi-local, but open to the public. Stay tuned because there may be two more in the works.

September 24-25th, Purdue Conference for Pre-Tenure Women. Obviously I am just an attendee for this conference, but as you probably know I was a huge fan last year. If any of you are going I hope you’ll tell me so we can say hi. I may be a bit battered and bruised because I have a sanctioned scrimmage on the 23rd in Evansville against Sioux Falls (they play Demo City the night before). And incidentally, I’ll be back in West Lafayette the following weekend to play the Lafayette Brawlin’ Dolls. But this is to tell you of my science whereabouts, so onward!

October 5th, Chambana Science Café. Science Cafés are local, casual events where the public and scientists get to engage with each other. The blurb for the one I’m a guest at is: “Kate Clancy is an assistant professor of biological anthropology, blogger of ladybusiness, avenger of bad science, and roller derby athlete. Come hear Dr. Clancy talk about science communication, her research, and how important it is to understand the female body in the face of cultural and political attacks on choice.”

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  • Where and when: 5:30pm, Espresso Royale Café (1117 W. Oregon St., Urbana).

October 16th, Bradley University, Peoria, IL “Women in Science” lecture series. My talk title is “The importance of public anthropology to the battle for women’s health.” I’m looking forward to meeting some great women’s studies students earlier that day, and then giving this talk intended for the general public.

I am Dr. Kate Clancy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. On top of being an academic, I am a mother, a wife, an athlete, a labor activist, a sister, and a daughter. My beautiful blog banner was made by Jacqueline Dillard. Context and variation together help us understand humans (and any other species) as complicated. But they also help to show us that biology is not immutable, that it does not define us from the moment of our birth. Rather, our environment pushes and pulls our genes into different reaction norms that help us predict behavior and physiology. But, as humans make our environments, we have the ability to change the very things that change us. We often have more control over our biology than we may think.

More by Kate Clancy

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