Edited Collection: Women in STEM on TV

Edited Collection: Women in STEM on TV. Abstracts Due 5/15/2016

full name / name of organization: 

Ashley Carlson, University of Montana Western

contact email: 

ashleylynncarlson@gmail.com

A major publisher has shown interest in an edited collection on the portrayal of Women in STEM fields on television. I am currently soliciting chapter proposals for this collection.

Project Scope: This collection of essays will examine the portrayal of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields in recent television series. The significant gap between the numbers of women and men enrolled in post-secondary science and engineering programs and employed in these fields has garnered a great deal of public attention in the past few years, and a number of efforts to address the gender gap are underway. However, these efforts have largely focused on the educational setting, through programs such as the National Girls Collaborative Project and Girls Who Code. This project aims to examine how television, one of the most pervasive forms of popular media in the United States, is contributing to the public perception of women in STEM. Of particular interest are television series from the past two decades featuring characters in fields where women are underrepresented.

Some possible themes or topics include:
- Gender Imbalance in Education and the Workplace
- Gender Stereotypes
- Emotion v. Reason
- Workplace Discrimination
- Work/life Balance
- Children's Programming
- Specific fields/professions, such as computer programming, engineering, etc.

Some possible primary texts include:
- Annedriods (2013)
- Arrow (2012)
- The Big Bang Theory (2007)
- Bones (2005)
- Criminal Minds (2005)
- CSI Cyber (2015)
- Eureka (2006)
- Halt and Catch Fire (2014)
- Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013)
- Mythbusters (2003)
- NCIS (2003 – present)
- Project Mc2 (2015)
- SciGirls (2010)
- Scorpion (2014)
- Stargate SG1 (1997) & Atlantis (2004)
- X-Files (1993 and recently revived)
- TV Advertising

Please contact me with questions or for more information.

For consideration, please submit a 500-word proposal and a CV to Ashley Carlson (ashleylynncarlson@gmail.com) by May 15th, 2016. Accepted essays should be 5,000 – 7,000 words long and will be due September 1st, 2016.