• Amy Laskowski

    Senior Writer Twitter Profile

    Photo of Amy Laskowski. A white woman with long brown hair pulled into a half up, half down style and wearing a burgundy top, smiles and poses in front of a dark grey backdrop.

    Amy Laskowski is a senior writer at Boston University. She is always hunting for interesting, quirky stories around BU and helps manage and edit the work of BU Today’s interns. She did her undergrad at Syracuse University and earned a master’s in journalism at the College of Communication in 2015. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 12 comments on Six Junior Faculty Receive Career Development Awards

  1. “they exemplify the breadth and caliber of rising talent across our campuses”
    Glad to know the breadth of the best and brightest at this school is all pale and male….

  2. In an email from Provost Jean Morrison dated 9.14.16, all members of the BU community were notified about the recipients of the 2016-2017 BU Career Development Professorship Awardees. Of those NINE award recipients, EIGHT were men, and the other individual was Jessica Simes (see previous BU Today article) whose award HAD to be given to a woman as stipulated in the gift itself (… this award is given to “advance the participation and success of women in the field of data science.”
    It is striking that nearly 90% of these Career Development awards were given to men, yet female faculty represent close to 50% of the junior faculty at Boston University. As a woman faculty member and Department Chair, I cannot help but wonder about a selection process that would lead to such an outcome particularly given the tremendous contributions by the many outstanding women at this institution. In particular, I worry about the message we are sending to our women junior faculty members who are eager to climb the ranks in academia. To not demonstrate, with such an opportunity as a Career Development Professorship Award, the value we put on women leaders at this early stage of their careers will certainly be disheartening to those women just starting out. Career Development Professorships provide funding support to young faculty members during the most stressful time of their career, when they are just launching their research programs and academic paths. Certainly for many women faculty, these times are made even more stressful by the added complexities of managing a family life and raising children. It is PRECISELY this type of award that would be most valued by women during this difficult time of their career. Added funding means protected time for research, and for young women faculty members, those precious moments of protected academic time are often few and far between.
    I hope Provost Morrison and other institutional leaders will take these facts into consideration for future university awards of this nature.

    Rhoda M. Alani, MD
    Herbert Mescon Endowed Professor and Chair
    Department of Dermatology
    Boston University School of Medicine

    1. Very well-stated. Thank you for speaking out. We desperately need more people like you advocating for female junior faculty at BU. The BU administration needs to hear your words.

    2. Thank you for giving more context for the awards, and who they would really benefit. I would love more clarity on the review process involving the “units” deciding the selection process for these awards.

      Women’s work should be – must be – valued. I am happy to begin a small (or large) group conversation with other female graduate students and faculty on campus to figure out how we can do better for junior female faculty at BU.

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *