Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A nationally recognized historian will lead a Wednesday [Oct. 19] public program at Mississippi State focusing on 19th and 20th century American women who sought careers in the male-dominated engineering professions.
"Should Women Become Engineers? The History of Female Engineering Students in the U.S., 1880-1980" is the topic both of Amy Bix's 7 p.m. presentation at the university and the title of her forthcoming book from the Johns Hopkins University Press.
The 128 Dorman Hall program is co-sponsored by MSU's College of Arts and Sciences and its Institute for the Humanities, as well as the history department.
In addition to serving as an associate professor at Iowa State University, Bix is executive director of the Society for the History of Technology, an international organization. She also is senior associate editor of the National Women's Studies Association Journal, a professional publication.
A 1994 Johns Hopkins doctoral graduate, Bix has focused her research on how, when and why American universities began admitting women to their engineering programs. She has given special emphasis to such questions as the gendered nature of technical knowledge and the boundaries of professionalization.
"Feminism Where Men Predominate: The History of Women's Science and Engineering at MIT" and "'Engineeresses' Invading Campus: Four Decades of Debate Over Technical Coeducation" are among her journal articles. She also is author of an earlier book, "Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs? America's Debate Over Technological Unemployment" (also JHUP). All three were published in 2000.
At ISU, Bix teaches courses on American women's history and a history of women in science, technology and medicine.
For more information on the program, contact MSU history department head Alan I. Marcus at (662) 325-7075 or aimarcus@history.msstate.edu.