Conference Topics

NorWiP

Nordic Network of Women in Physics was established in 2005. It is a network of female physicists in Denmark, Finland, Island, Norway and Sweden. In addition, Russia is represented as the first of the neighboring countries towards east. Norwip serves as an umbrella organization for the existing national networks for women in physics in the Nordic countries; Netvaerk for Kvinder i Fysik in Denmark, Nettverk for Kvinner i Fysik in Norway and Women in Physics in Sweden.

The objectives of NorWiP is to significantly strengthen the recruitment, education and career possibilities of Nordic female students and young researchers. In order to acheive this, partial goals of the network include:

• To train, encourage and retain female Ph.D. students and post.docs.
• To allow students and young researchers to find female advisors, mentors and role models in their field and to allow female physicists at all career stages to exchange information and experiences and to establish contacts to other female physicists in the Nordic countries.
• To increase the visibility of nordic female physicists and to maintain an open database of women researchers in physics in the nordic countries.
• To identify gender barriers in the career paths of women in physics and to work toward removing such barriers.
• To facilitate international networking by developing contacts with women in physics organizations around the world.

The first in history meeting of NorWiP took place in Bergen, Norway, in 2005. This years meeting will be held in conjunction with GenDADA, workshop on gender and physics.

GenDADA

Physics is done in a cultural and social context, structured by gender, which can be experienced by the active physicist. However, the scholarly exploration of this experience is most often done within the discipline of gender research. Until now little dialogue has taken place between active physicists and gender researchers. The aim of this joint NorWiP and GenNa conference, is to bring representatives from both fields together and facilitate exchange of knowledge and perspectives.

We encourage contributions exploring topics such as:

Detecting Gender: Knowledge-Making in Physics
What role does gender play in the experimental and theoretical practice of physics? What research has been done, what is missing? What possibilities are opened up by crossing the borders between gender and physics research?

The Anomaly of a Woman in Physics
From historical and sociological viewpoints, how are male and female physicists perceived and how do they perceive themselves in the scientific and academic environments? What structures affect the careers of physicists? How and why are their identities as insiders and outsiders created in and by the scientific networks?

Dynamics of a Masculine Field: Learning & Teaching
Where does gender influence the teaching and learning of physics? How can a gender perspective help us understand the experience of learning physics? When teaching physics, how can we take gender issues into account? What would a liberating physics education look like?

Applying Physics at our Service
What gender questions can be answered by applied physics methods? For example, can we utilize the techniques of engineering physics, medical physics, communication physics or material science to support women’s environmental concerns or to enhance the visibility of women’s cultural creativeness? What problems do we want to be discussed and treated by applied physics? Furthermore, are there any theories that are gendered in their applications?