Dr. Amy C. Chambers (Manchester Metropolitan University): "If She Can See It, She Can Be It: Women, Science, and Screens"

Wednesday, December 16, 2020, 2:15-3:45 p.m., online lecture
Zoom-Call ID: 985 2095 3535 (opens at 2 p.m. sharp)

Women’s voices have been historically underrepresented in the practice, reporting, and representation of science. On screen and page they have often been secondary or almost entirely absent from the discourses of science in mainstream media. This lecture explored the intersection of science, media, and gender by analysing different creative and communicative platforms and how they capture and give voices to women in and adjacent to STEMM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine). (Re)voicing of women in STEMM in these fields of communication provide agency and allows for an intersectional approach to the analysis of how science and scientific expertise is communicated to the public.

Dr Amy C. Chambers is a Senior Lecturer (associate professor) at Manchester Metropolitan University working in the fields of science communication and screen studies. Her research examines the intersection of science and entertainment media with specific focus on women and science, and discourses surrounding science and religion on screen. Amy’s current book project From Star Child to Star Wars: American Science (Fiction), Film, and Religion 1967–1977 explores how leaders and members of US religious institutions interpreted, understood, and shaped science content in Hollywood movies in the immediate post-censorship era. Recent and forthcoming publications explore the representation of science, gender, and race in Star Trek Discovery; women-directed pregnancy horror; 1970s science-based apocalypse cinema; medical research and The Exorcist; science fiction and the sociology of science; women directors of science fiction; and the presentation of women's scientific expertise in the mass media. https://amycchambers.com/@AmyCChambers@WomenMakeSF