Joan Williams, a distinguished professor of law at the University of California, is the featured speaker at a series of workshops and lectures being held Oct. 23-24, as part of MSU’s Women and Minorities in Sciences Lecture Series.
Williams will give a free public lecture from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Oct. 23 in Room 147 of the MSU Communication Arts & Sciences Building. This lecture, “Self “Bro”-Motion getting you down? Successful self-promotion for, women, people of color – and modest men,” provides 10 steps for successful self-promotion.
Williams also will hold a seminar from 10 to 11 a.m. Oct. 23 in Room 1400 of the MSU Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building for deans, department chairs and directors that will focus on how to get and retain women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers.
In addition, she will speak at a workshop and catered lunch for women graduate students and postdocs at noon Oct. 23 in Chittenden Hall, and one for women faculty members on Oct. 24 at noon at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. Both workshops will provide strategies for successfully navigating STEM careers. Registration is required for both of these workshops. For more information, contact Cynthia Jordan at jordancy@msu.edu or (517) 355-1722.
Williams has played a central role in reshaping the debate over women’s advancement for the past quarter-century. As the founding director of WorkLife Law, Williams helped document workplace bias against mothers, leading to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s 2007 Guidance on Caregiver Discrimination. She has received numerous awards for her work and was described by the New York Times as having “something approaching rock star status.”
The College of Natural Science is one of eight sponsors of the lecture series, which is part of an ongoing effort by Michigan State to promote awareness on diversity issues of relevance in a scientific environment.