Equal Opportunities

Lecture Series "Gender and Neuroscience"

Women talk a lot, men don't. Women don't have good spatial reasoning, men do. Women are emotional, men are rational. There are two clearly distinguishable genders and clear differences between them that can be proven scientifically, e.g. with the help of neuroscientific studies of the brain - right? Whether this gender binary and differences between the sexes, often perceived as natural, are really so unambiguous, what research on biological gender differences can and cannot say, and what other perspectives there are on gender within the natural sciences - these and similar questions will be addressed in the lecture series. All researchers, students and interested parties are welcome! For questions and registration please contact Sarah Czerney.

26.10.2022 (15:00, online) Emily Ngubia Kessé (University of Freiburg) „Neuro SCIENCE – What’s race got to do with it? How societal values contaminate” Neuroscience research, theory and practice“
Neuroscience theory, research and practice (like any other natural science) is essentially tangled up in social power structures and discourses that it has -for as long as its existence- been unaware of, or unwilling to acknowledge. Where does this “contamination” take place, and is inevitable? How can it be operationalized to productively to enrich the way in which neuroscience research is conducted, the way the brain is theorized and in fact even the paradigms and methods used in collecting and analyzing the data? In this talk I would like us to think about the necessity of implementing the concept of intersectionality (that is, how we can take social values into consideration) and weave them into neuroscience research and theorizing.

07.06.2022 Daphna Joel (Tel Aviv University): " Rethinking sex, brain, and gender beyond the binary" (15:00, online)

Are the brains of women and men the same or different? Or maybe it’s the wrong question? Sex-related variables affect brain structure and function and there are group-level differences between women and men in specific measures of brain and behavior. These are often taken as supporting the existence of ‘male’ and ‘female’ brains. Studies in rats reveal, however, that sex effects on the brain may be different under different conditions – an observation that led me to formulate the ‘mosaic’ hypothesis – the claim that sex differences in the brain do not add-up consistently in individuals; rather, most brains comprise of both features that are more common in females and features that are more common in males. I will describe the development of the binary conceptualization of the relations between sex and the brain in response to the challenge posed by the mosaic hypothesis and its supporting evidence, and present the results of our recent studies, in which we applied machine learning algorithms to better understand the relations between sex and the brain beyond the binary.

09.03.2022 Cordelia Fine (University of Melbourne): "Avoiding Neurosexism in Neuroscience: 8 things you need to know about sex, gender and the brain" (10:00, online)

Biological explanations of differences in behaviour between women and men or girls and boys are to be found everywhere: from scientific articles, to bestselling self-help books, diversity and inclusion workshops, and Hollywood movies. However, researching, understanding, and interpreting male/female differences in brain and behaviour is surprisingly complicated, and particularly so when humans are involved. To help everyone parse the next biological explanation of female/male differences in behaviour that appears in the academic literature or popular media, this talk will review eight things everyone should know, look out for, and ask: from the nitty-gritty of whether there even is a difference, to the grand sweep of evolutionary explanations. (This talk is based on work co-authored with Gina Rippon and Daphna Joel.)

01.12.2021 Hannah Fitsch (HU Berlin/Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/M.): „What Leibniz has to do with binary (sex/gender) categories in neuroscience. Mathematical logic in the methods of computational neurosciences“ (14:00, online)

There has been a desire to formalize the complex structure of the brain and its neuronal processes for some centuries. This talk traces the history of the new approaches by using the concept of the mathematization of perception to show how methods and models from computer science and mathematics have found their way into brain research.

29.09.2021 Mercedes Küffner (Universität Freiburg): "Sex & Gender as biological Variables (SABV) - selected foundations“ (15:00, online)

Does the historic sex bias in neuroscience and biomedical research still exist? How can we integrate Sex and Gender to improve Human Health? The sexually dimorphic brain, similar to most sex differences, does not fall into a hard binary readout—but rather is on a continuum or spectrum with each cell and each brain region comprised of varying degrees of ‘male' and ‘female' (Hines, 2005; Joel and McCarthy, 2016). Sex and gender are therefore important variables to consider when designing studies and assessing results within biomedical research. Let’s have a look on how some publications and research policys in the US, Canada and Europe have shaped a new way of thinking and what efforts already have been made by Funding Organizations, Peer-reviewed journals and Universities to advance consistent sex and gender analysis within the research community. Moving away from a strict binary view of how sex/gender is manifested in the brain will be illustrated by selected publications and future challenges on how to establish SABV. By raising awareness from the biological perspective we may contribute to building a society where individuals identifying themselves in between the labels of male and female and feel included rather than discriminated.

17.06.2021 Kerstin Palm (HU Berlin): „Sex/Gender studies in biology - the critical view of sex/gender within the life sciences“ (14:00, online)

Gender studies is primarily characterized by a plethora of studies in the humanities and social sciences on Gender relations. Less well known is the critical sex/gender research within biology that has been taking place since the 1970s, which has been researching the biological foundations of sex/gender, sexuality and sex/gender difference. The lecture presents this biological research on gender with examples and explains the theoretical self-understanding of this research.

03.03.2021 Anelis Kaiser (Universität Freiburg): „From the female-vs.-male-brain to the human brain continuum“ (15:00, online)

The topic of sex/gender crosses the research field of neuroscience on different levels. But for some time now, studies have maily focused on examinations of sex/gender difference, i.e., research that reveals differences between women´s and men´s brains. Recently, however, the sex/gender variable has been started to be explored in terms of a human brain continuum. The talk will highlight this progression. 

23.10.2020 Sigrid Schmitz (HU Berlin): „The Gendered Brain:  Gender Research in Dialogue with the Neurosciences“ (14:00, online)

The lecture series will be continued in the second half of 2022. Further dates will be announced here in due time.

• 21.02.2019 Career Talk „Challenges and Opportunities for Young Women Scientists in Medicine and Natural Sciences“ with Prof. Jessica Bertrand
  In an informal setting, successful female scientists talk about their careers, give tips and answer questions from the young female scientists.
   
• 20.06.2019 Roundtable Discussion „Scientific Career and Child(ren)“ at Career Day
  Scientific career and parenting still seem to be quite incompatible. Many young scientists, especially women (but also more and more men), are wondering if they can pursue a career and start a family at the same time. In this informal discussion, scientists who are also parents talk about their experiences: How do they experience the balancing act between career and family life? How do they organize their careers and their everyday life? What challenges do they see? And what advices would they give to young scientists?
   
• 16.01.2020 Workshop Career Development with Annette Hoeschen
   
• 16.01.2020 AGG-training for counselors with Sandra Dänekas (AGG Network Office)
   
• 02.03.2020 „Symposium for Novel frontiers in molecular and systems neuroscience“
   
• 04.05.2020 Workshop Career Development for disseminator  (PhD und PostDoc) with OvGU Graduate Academy
   
• 23.10.2020 Sigrid Schmitz: „The Gendered Brain:  Gender Research in Dialogue with the Neurosciences“ - Lecture series „Gender and Neuroscience“
   
• 28.10.2020 Workshop „Equality plans as a means of quality assurance“with Gender Competence Center Saxony (Genderkompetenzzentrum Sachsen)
   
• 23.11.2020 AGG-training for managerial staff with Sandra Dänekas (AGG Network Office)
   
• 02./03.12.2020 Workshop and Coaching „Female Leadership“ with Deborah Ruggieri
  The workshop will focus on development of personal potentials as well as on empowerment of junior scientists. Based on a look at gender and stereotype, socially imprinted patterns of female behaviour will be looked at, and the implications at the workplace environment will be discussed. Conflict management, handling of male dominance and the development of your personal leadership style (and how it differs) will be further topics.
   
• 26.01.2021 2ndmeeting Equal Opportunities Commission to the topic gender bias
   
• 03.03.2021 „From the female-vs.-male-brain to the human brain continuum“ - Lecture series „Gender and Neuroscience“ with Anelis Kaiser
  The topic of sex/gender crosses the research field of neuroscience on different levels. But for some time now, studies have maily focused on examinations of sex/gender difference, i.e., research that reveals differences between women´s and men´s brains. Recently, however, the sex/gender variable has been started to be explored in terms of a human brain continuum. This talk will highlight this progression.
   
• 08.04.2021 Career Talk with Anne Albrecht
  In an informal setting, successful female scientists talk about their careers, give tips and answer questions from the young female scientists.
   
• 28.04.2021 3rd meeting Equal Opportunities Commission
   
• 11./12.05.2021 Workshop  and Coaching "Female Leadership" for female researchers with Deborah Ruggieri
   
• 21.05.2021 Training for executives „Excellence through gender-sensitive leadership“ with Dr. Sabine Blackmore:
  The requirements for managers in the science system have changed massively over the last 20 years. Whereas research performance and reputation were once central qualifications of a manager in science, today core capabilities such as human resources management and development as well as conflict management are indispensable. But gender and diversity sensitivity is also part of modern leadership in research institutions, in order to be able to meet the demands of leadership and "excellence in all areas". This training starts exactly at this point and opens in 4 events a repertoire of topics of gender- and diversity-sensitive leadership.
   
• 03.06.2021 FEM Café and career talk with Dr. Sanja Bauer-Mikulovic
   
• 09.06.2021 Impulse lecture and roundtable discussion atCareer Day  with Prof. Dr. Kathrin Pittius:
  "It’s a matter of self-management – or not? Science and parenthood in the context of New Work"  
• 17.06.2021 Lecture series „Gender and Neuroscience“ with Prof. Dr. Kerstin Palm (14:00 online):
  Gender studies is primarily characterized by a plethora of studies in the humanities and social sciences on Gender relations. Less well known is the critical sex/gender research within biology that has been taking place since the 1970s, which has been researching the biological foundations of sex/gender, sexuality and sex/gender difference. The lecture presents this biological research on gender with examples and explains the theoretical self-understanding of this research.  

• 23.06.2021 Virtual film screening "Picture a Scientist" (15:00) & Online panel discussion " How male is science?" (17:00 - 16:30):

  When you picture a scientist – what do you see?A man in a white coat, wearing large protective goggles, looking through a microscope or swirling a test tube - for many, this is probably still one of the first images that comes to mind when they hear the word ”scientist”. The documentary PICTURE A SCIENTIST gets to the bottom of the question as to why science in our minds is still a field dominated by men. Biologist Nancy Hopkins, chemist Raychelle Burks, and geologist Jane Willenbring take viewers on a journey through their own experiences in the sciences, ranging from brutal harassment to years of subtle slights. Along the way, from cramped laboratories to spectacular field stations, we encounter scientific luminaries - including social scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists - who provide new perspectives on how to make science itself more diverse, equitable, and open to all. The screening will be followed by the panel discussion „How male is science?“. Together with scientists from Magdeburg, amongst others the rector of the Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal, Prof. Dr. Anne Lequy, we want to discuss how male science really still is and what we all can do to change it. Everybody is welcome to join and exchange ideas with us! Here you can find the event report.

• 18.08.2021 FEM Café "Book Club: The Gendered Brain by Gina Rippon" (13:00-14:30)

• 23.09.2021 FEM Café: How to get funding for your research with Dr. Christina Spilker
• 29.09.2021 Mercedes Küffner „Sex & Gender as biological variables (SABV) - selected foundations“ (15:00 - 16:30 Uhr, online), Vorlesungsreihe „Gender and Neuroscience“:
  Does the historic sex bias in neuroscience and biomedical research still exist? How can we integrate Sex and Gender to improve Human Health? The sexually dimorphic brain, similar to most sex differences, does not fall into a hard binary readout—but rather is on a continuum or spectrum with each cell and each brain region comprised of varying degrees of ‘male' and ‘female' (Hines, 2005; Joel and McCarthy, 2016). Sex and gender are therefore important variables to consider when designing studies and assessing results within biomedical research. Let’s have a look on how some publications and research policys in the US, Canada and Europe have shaped a new way of thinking and what efforts already have been made by Funding Organizations, Peer-reviewed journals and Universities to advance consistent sex and gender analysis within the research community. Moving away from a strict binary view of how sex/gender is manifested in the brain will be illustrated by selected publications and future challenges on how to establish SABV. By raising awareness from the biological perspective we may contribute to building a society where individuals identifying themselves in between the labels of male and female and feel included rather than discriminated.
• 20.10.2021 FEM Café with Career Talk: Dr. Nicole Angenstein (13:00 - 14:30 Uhr)
• 17.11.2021 Training for executives „Excellence through gender-sensitive leadership“ with Dr. Sabine Blackmore (10 a.m. - 6 p.m.):
  The requirements for managers in the science system have changed massively over the last 20 years. Whereas research performance and reputation were once central qualifications of a manager in science, today core capabilities such as human resources management and development as well as conflict management are indispensable. But gender and diversity sensitivity is also part of modern leadership in research institutions, in order to be able to meet the demands of leadership and "excellence in all areas". This training starts exactly at this point and opens in 4 events a repertoire of topics of gender- and diversity-sensitive leadership.
• 29./30.11.2021 Individual Career Coaching for  young female scientists of LIN with Deborah Ruggieri (online)
• 01.12.2021 Hannah Fitsch „What Leibniz has to do with binary (sex/gender) categories in neuroscience. Mathematical logic in the methods of computational neurosciences“ (2 p.m., online), Gender and Neuroscience lecture series:
  There has been a desire to formalize the complex structure of the brain and its neuronal processes for some centuries. This talk traces the history of the new approaches by using the concept of the mathematization of perception to show how methods and models from computer science and mathematics have found their way into brain research.
• 02.12.2021 FEM Café "Goodbye 2021 - Hello 2022" (1 - 2 p.m.)
• 09.12.2022 5th meeting Equal Opportunities Commission: Workshop "Recognizing Unconscious Thinking Patterns and Stereotypes in Organizations" for the Equal Opportunity Commission and AGG-Consultants of the LIN with Ken Kupzok (VIERfältig), (10 - 2 p.m.):
  Our subconscious puts people into pigeonholes: These are necessary to simplify the immense complexity of our environment. These thought patterns lead us, for example, to find people who resemble us sympathetic. At the same time, unfamiliar things are initially suspicious to us. These distortion effects happen automatically and unconsciously: we take mental shortcuts by automatically filling in missing information about others. This reduces diversity in organizations, because it influences who is hired, receives promotion or takes the next career step. With a mixture of information, experience & discussion, the impulse and exchange workshop aims to clarify cognitive functioning, raise awareness of diversity and develop frameworks for one's own practice. Because it needs structural support, otherwise our brain thinks alone.
• 13.01.2022 Workshop "Developing and maintaining resilience during challenging times" for PhD students with Angela Daalmann, (9 a.m. - 5 p.m.): During challenging times, there is a quality that is more in demand than ever: resilience, i.e. maintaining or quickly restoring mental health during and after adversity. Some also refer to it as our mental immune system. The good news is that resilience is not innate but can be learned. Resilient people manage to master great demands and complex situations with inner serenity, sovereignty and strength. In this workshop you will receive impulses on how to regain strength even during difficult times, focus your energy on the positive and take care of your own stabilization. You will develop action steps in order to live your life with confidence and self-efficacy.
• 26.01.2022 FEM Café with career talk for female scientists of LIN, (1:00 - 2:00 pm) online
  The FEM Café is a place where female LIN scientists can exchange ideas, support each other and network in an informal setting. Regularly we invite stablished female academics to speak honestly about their professional careers, successes, challenges, but also failures, to give tips and answer questions. This time, Dr. Liudmila Sosulina will speak about her career and as always there will be time to chat and network. Please write to Sarah Czerney if you would like to partipate.
• 17.02.2022 FEM Café with carrer talk: science communication and science management with Dr. Esther Kühn (2pm-3pm)
• 24.02.2022 "Dealing with Resistance to Change in Organizations" for Gender Equality Stakeholders,  (9:30 am - 2:30 pm) online [in German]
  Despite all participation, preliminary arrangements and planning, there are repeated rejection or defensive attitudes towards the initiators, the working method or the topic in the implementation of measures in the area of equal opportunities and diversity. In the workshop, models for the design of change processes are presented, one's own practice is analyzed using examples and options for action are developed on this basis. The workshop is aimed at the equal opportunities officer, the AGG consultants and everyone who is interested in the topic. If you would like to participate, please write an email to Sarah Czerney.
• 9.03.2022 Prof. Dr. Cordelia Fine (University of Melbourne): „Avoiding Neurosexism in Neuroscience: 8 things you need to know about sex, gender and the brain“ (Lecture Series "Gender and Neuroscience")        Biological explanations of differences in behaviour between women and men or girls and boys are to be found everywhere: from scientific articles, to bestselling self-help books, diversity and inclusion workshops, and Hollywood movies. However, researching, understanding, and interpreting male/female differences in brain and behaviour is surprisingly complicated, and particularly so when humans are involved. To help everyone parse the next biological explanation of female/male differences in behaviour that appears in the academic literature or popular media, this talk will review eight things everyone should know, look out for, and ask: from the nitty-gritty of whether there even is a difference, to the grand sweep of evolutionary explanations. (This talk is based on work co-authored with Gina Rippon and Daphna Joel.)
• 24.03.2022 FEM Café with carrer talk with Dr. Janelle Pakan, Group Leader "Neural Circuits & Network Dynamics" at CBBS, online 
• 30./31.03.2022 Workshop and Coaching "Female Leadership" with Deborah Ruggieri, online
  Knowledge of power or status games can lead to a broader perspective and a wider range of communication and negotiation skills for managers. The participants are supported in recognizing the specific patterns of communication and status behavior in organizations and in developing tools to deal with them. Information on participation will follow shortly.
• 28.04.2022 FEM Café career talk from science to science management for female scientists of LIN (1:00 pm) with Dr.in Christina Spilker
• 10.05.2022 Training for executives "Excellence through gender sensitive leadership", (9:00 am - 5:00 pm) online with Sabine Blackmore
  The requirements for executives in the science system have changed over the last 20 years. Research performance and reputation were once the central qualifications of an executive in science, but today core competencies such as personnel management and development as well as conflict management are indispensable. Also gender and diversity sensitivity are part of modern leadership in research institutions in order to be able to meet the demands on leadership and excellence in all areas.
  The series of workshops starts exactly at this point and opens up a repertoire of topics for gender and diversity-sensitive leadership in 4 events. The date in May is the second workshop in the series and is aimed at the scientific managers of the LIN. Further dates in the workshop series will take place on 30.06. and 15.11.2022, also from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. The invitations will be sent out in advance of the event.
• 07.06.2022 „Rethinking sex, brain, and gender beyond the binary“, with Dr. Daphna Joel (Tel Aviv University), part of the Lecture Series "Gender and Neuroscience" (3 p.m.):
  Are the brains of women and men the same or different? Or maybe it’s the wrong question? Sex-related variables affect brain structure and function and there are group-level differences between women and men in specific measures of brain and behavior. These are often taken as supporting the existence of ‘male’ and ‘female’ brains. Studies in rats reveal, however, that sex effects on the brain may be different under different conditions – an observation that led me to formulate the ‘mosaic’ hypothesis – the claim that sex differences in the brain do not add-up consistently in individuals; rather, most brains comprise of both features that are more common in females and features that are more common in males. I will describe the development of the binary conceptualization of the relations between sex and the brain in response to the challenge posed by the mosaic hypothesis and its supporting evidence, and present the results of our recent studies, in which we applied machine learning algorithms to better understand the relations between sex and the brain beyond the binary.
• 8.6.2022 FEM Café 14:00-15:00 (online) „How to start you own business“ with Dr. Juliane Handschuh

•  

• 04.10.2022 FEM Café with career talk: "I want it all! How female scientists can balance career and family plans" mit Dr. Carina Giesen (1-2pm online)
   
• 17./18.10.2022 individual coachings for female scientists with Deborah Ruggieri
   

• 26.10.2022  „Neuro SCIENCE – What’s race got to do with it? How societal values contaminate Neuroscience research, theory and practice" with Dr. Emily Ngubia Kessé (University of Freiburg), part of the Lecture Series "Gender and Neuroscience" (3 p.m.):
  Neuroscience theory, research and practice (like any other natural science) is essentially tangled up in social power structures and discourses that it has -for as long as its existence- been unaware of, or unwilling to acknowledge. Where does this “contamination” take place, and is inevitable? How can it be operationalized to productively to enrich the way in which neuroscience research is conducted, the way the brain is theorized and in fact even the paradigms and methods used in collecting and analyzing the data? In this talk I would like us to think about the necessity of implementing the concept of intersectionality (that is, how we can take social values into consideration) and weave them into neuroscience research and theorizing.
   

• 16./17.10. 2022  Landesweiter Tag der Genderforschung Sachsen-Anhalt 
   

• 24.11. 2022 FEM Café with Career Talk with Dr. Barbara Schweitzer from Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG) (2-3pm, online)

• 29.11.2022 training for executives "excellence through gender-sensitive leaderhip" with Dr. Sabine Blackmore

• 16.12.2022 FEM Café with Career Talk with Dr. Carina Fürst (Boston Consulting) (12-1pm, online)