I'll be at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Francisco next week. FairerScience friends Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, Annalee Newtiz and Abbe Herzig, will be presenting on "Miscommunications, Misunderstandings, and Mistakes: Gender, Science and the Press."

And if that is not enough to get you there, Eric Jolly and Shirley Malcom will be discussants. It is Sunday from 3:30 to 5:00 at the Hilton Continental Ballroom (2).

Here is how the symposium is described:

In earlier ages, it was believed that women could not pursue mathematics and the sciences because their heads were too small, their nervous systems too delicate or their reasoning capacities insufficient. Recent comments from sources ranging from college presidents to the Financial Times indicate that these notions are still around. Gender researchers have not been effective communicators. We have not provided our results in ways that allow people to understand and evaluate the findings and to incorporate them into their personal knowledge and belief systems. There are particular challenges when one is trying to communicate gender based knowledge. Often when people talk about gender differences, they're not talking about specific empirical claims. Instead, they are drawing on and contributing to a complex mix of beliefs about the way the world is, the way the world should be, and the way we should be. This has implications for how research is reported, interpreted and understood.

In this symposium, a researcher, a linguist and a journalist, all of whom are have experience with gender and gender issues in the sciences will discuss not just ways to have better communication between researchers and the press but the particular challenges of communicating and reporting research on gender in the sciences.

Hope you can join us!