Tag Archives: culture

I Love the #Victorian #Era. So I Decided to Live In It. | Vox #research #studies #culture #society #historians #OffGrid #lifestyle

Posted on by

My husband and I study history, specifically the late Victorian era of the 1880s and ’90s. Our methods are quite different from those of academics. Everything in our daily life is connected to our period of study, from the technologies we use to the ways we interact with the world. READ MORE: I love the Victorian era. So I decided to live in it. | Vox

You May Also Like:  

Human Library Stories [Video] | CBC #libraries #documentaries #culture #stereotypes #society

Posted on by

http://www.cbc.ca/i/caffeine/syndicate/?mediaId=2674238485

This 45-minute documentary delves into the stories of the human books who participated in the CBC’s Human Library project…. SOURCE: Human Library Stories | Absolutely Ottawa | CBC Player

You May Also Like:

Who Won #ScienceFiction Hugo #Awards, and Why It Matters | WIRED #diversity #books #SciFi

Posted on by

SINCE 1953, TO be nominated for a Hugo Award, among the highest honors in science fiction and fantasy writing, has been a dream come true for authors who love time travel, extraterrestrials and tales of the imagined future. Past winners of the rocket-shaped trophy—nominated and voted on by fans—include people like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and Robert A. Heinlein. In other words: the Gods of the genre.

But in recent years, as sci-fi has expanded to include storytellers who are women, gays and lesbians, and people of color, the Hugos have changed, too. At the presentation each August, the Gods with the rockets in their hands have been joined by Goddesses and those of other ethnicities and genders and sexual orientations, many of whom want to tell stories about more than just spaceships. READ MORE: Who Won Science Fiction’s Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters | WIRED.

Women’s Groups and the Rise of the #BookClub | JSTOR #books #reading #women

Posted on by

Since 1989, leisure reading groups have become a full-fledged phenomenon and are now found everywhere from offices to religious communities to, increasingly, virtual platforms. Although exact numbers are hard to come by, the New York Times reports an estimated 5 million Americans belong to a book club. Even more belong to online reading groups like those housed on the popular site goodreads.com, which has 40 million members. Large-scale book clubs even have the power to influence the publishing market. When Mark Zuckerberg announced in January he was starting an online reading group humbly titled A Year of Books, his first pick shot up amazon.com’s sales list, surging overnight from 45,140 to the top 10. The public, it seems, has fully embraced book club culture.

Or, at least, a certain demographic has. The population of in-person book clubs skews heavily toward college-educated women, and a large proportion of these groups are single-sex, either by default or design. READ MORE: Women’s Groups and the Rise of the Book Club | JSTOR Daily.

Creating the First Cultural #DigitalLibrary in Canada’s North | University of Alberta #libraries #culture

Posted on by

(Edmonton) When you live 400 kilometres from the nearest library, getting information can be a real challenge. Professor Ali Shiri of the University of Alberta’s School of Library and Information Studies is leading a project to address this issue. Together with co-investigator Dinesh Rathi, Shiri and a team of collaborators have begun to bridge the information gap for some of Canada’s most isolated people with a project called Digital Library North.

Currently, people in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region—an area that spans 90,650 square kilometres—must travel to the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre to access hard-copy information. The challenges with distance and winter above the treeline limit the access. The SSHRC-funded project will create a digital library infrastructure to address the unique information needs in Canada’s northern regions over the next three years. READ MORE: Creating the first cultural digital library in Canada’s North | University of Alberta.

Best Children’s #Books To Celebrate #Diversity | HuffPo #kids #reading

Posted on by

Canada is known as a cultural mosaic because it’s home to many people of different ethnicities, cultures and languages. This diversity presents a great opportunity to teach our kids about other nations and their customs, as well as to celebrate our similarities and differences from them. Reading is one the best ways to learn, so we’ve rounded up 13 of the best children’s books that celebrate diversity. READ: Best Children’s Books To Celebrate Diversity | Huffington Post.

You May Also Like

#Sex Talk in #Literature: How It’s Changed Over 200 Years | Flavorwire #books #research

Posted on by

Sex Talk in Literature: How It’s Changed Over 200 Years | Flavorwire

A British health website, DrEd.com, delved into the entire corpus of literature, both fiction and nonfiction, to explore the way certain words having to do with “venereal” matters have appeared, faded, or been associated with new companion words over the last two centuries. READ MORE: Sex Talk in Literature: How It’s Changed Over 200 Years | Flavorwire.

Biodiversity Heritage Library Launches #Crowdsourcing #Games | Library Journal #libraries #search #gamification #volunteer

Posted on by

The Purposeful Gaming and BHL project recently launched its first two browser-based video games, Smorball and Beanstalk.  Both are designed to offer players a fun online diversion while helping the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) enable full-text searching of digitized materials. Funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which was awarded in December 2013, the project is exploring how games might be used to entice people to participate in crowdsourcing efforts at libraries and museums. READ MORE: Biodiversity Heritage Library Launches Crowdsourcing Games | Library Journal

Here Are 5 Contenders For A New, #Female #MacGyver – Will One Help Drive #Girls To Engineering? | Co.Create #STEM

Posted on by

Awesome on so many levels!!

Could television be the secret weapon that gets more girls into science There is no shortage of initiatives that aim to get girls interested in STEM careers from an early age. From GoldieBlox’s building kits and storybooks to the 8-week summer camp Girls Who Code teaching teens the fundamentals of robotics and web development. That’s because in order to right the lopsided gender balance in science, engineering, and math, research indicates that it’s important to engage girls while they are young and encourage them to continue to pursue STEM careers. And we all know how important diversity is to business, particularly as it becomes more globally connected.

Yet engineering toys and school programs can’t necessarily stem the tide of media images that continue to push the idea the typical scientist, programmer, or engineer is a white guy working alone. That’s why the USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering and the National Academy of Engineering pooled their resources in partnership with the MacGyver Foundation and together they’re crowdsourcing a concept for a new television show starring a strong female scientist —the next MacGyver. READ MORE: Here Are 5 Contenders For A New, Female MacGyver–Will One Help Drive Girls To Engineering? | Co.Create | creativity + culture + commerce.

To Hold #Women Back, Keep Treating Them Like Men [Opinion] | HBR #business #genderequality #diversity

Posted on by

Are men and women different? While almost every executive I have ever met, anywhere in the world, says yes, most diversity policies are designed as if the answer were no.

Last week, the Global Head of Diversity of a leading professional services firm told me that she “didn’t want to be treated differently.” That, I answered, is why most professional services firms are still hovering well below the 20% female partner level. As long as men and women are treated exactly the same by organizations, most women will continue to be shut out of senior roles.

And yet for the past 30 years, managers have been taught to do just this: treat men and women exactly the same. That is considered the progressive thing to do. Any suggestion of difference was, and often still is, labelled a bias or a stereotype, especially by many women, eager to demonstrate that they are one of the guys, or the in-group. READ MORE: To Hold Women Back, Keep Treating Them Like Men | HBR.