From Silent Spring to Silent Night: A Tale of Toads And Men

I saw a great talk at the ath on Tuesday night by Tyrone B. Hayes. He was an amazing speaker: very funny, open, and warm. He spoke about public health and the use of dangerous chemicals. These chemicals are being used in agriculture all around California and the US, but are banned in Europe. His talk focused on his own research of frogs and the many generation effects of these chemicals. They actually caused male frogs to become infertile, stop producing testosterone and begin producing estrogen. These detrimental effects can also be traced to birds, fish, and even humans. His talk was scary, but enlightening. It is clear that something needs to change.

Publishing and Diversity Panel at the Ath

I attended the Publishing and Diversity Panel with Kima Jones, Rachel Kahan, and Yi Shun Lai, a book publicist, a publishing professional, and an author/literary editor respectively.  They spoke about the current diversity movement in Publishing, which is really only gaining traction in Children's Literature as of now.  They identified the major problems, especially within fiction for adult audiences, as being primarily economic.  The people that can afford to take unpaid internships that lead to high-up publishing jobs usually don't reflect the diversity of our country.

They also spoke of the VIDA count (http://www.vidaweb.org/) which started out assessing the percentage of female writers from every major publication but has now grown to include other ethnicity and queer representativeness as well.  Their numbers/stats are both interesting and kind of horrifying.

While most of the talk was shocking and a little disheartening, the panelists ended by sharing their reasons for hope in publishing (which speak to our nation in many other aspects as well).  They said that the most likely route to improved diversity and inclusion lies in unconscious biases becoming a more conscious change.  Our currently divided nation allows us to put the spotlight on accessibility and communication.  And as Kima Jones put it in the last, pre-Q&A sentence of the panel, her fear is what forces her out of bed each morning and hopefully we can all find motivation like that to inspire change.

Class blog

Collections and Collecting FHS with Professor Lobis