[UA] Invitation to October 3 event on Silent Technical Privilege

[Chrysonthia Horne]

[image: Inline image 1]

Dear Undergraduates,

You are cordially invited to join a public conversation on:

*Challenging Technical Privilege: How Race and Gender Matter *

*Where:* W20-307 (Mezzanine Lounge), to be followed by a networking
reception from 2-3:00 pm, Mezzanine Balcony
*When:* Friday October 3, 12-2:00 pm
*Contact:* Emily Neill, erneill at mit.edu

*Register: *here <http://challengingtechnicalprivilege.weebly.com/> (preferred
deadline September 29th)

Silent Technical Privilege
<http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/programmer_privilege_as_an_asian_male_computer_science_major_everyone_gave.html>
occurs
when those who "look the part," or conform to society's stereotype of what
a tech-savvy, number-crunching programmer or engineer looks like, receive
the benefit of the doubt or implicit endorsement in technical settings. The
flipside of Silent Technical Privilege is Stereotype Threat, and other
hidden obstacles that those who do not fit the profile often experience in
pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education or
technical careers. Women, particularly women of color, have been largely
marginalized and underrepresented in STEM. This interactive symposium will
ask how Technical Privilege, Stereotype Threat and other forms of Implicit
Bias contribute to this underrepresentation. We aim to highlight,
elaborate, and develop strategies to address these issues. Join the
conversation at #techprivMIT <http:/#techprivMIT>.

*Speakers:*
- Jane Stout, Director, Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP),
Computing Research Association
- Gabriela A. Gonzalez, Senior STEM Strategist, Intel Corporate Affairs
- Jean Yang, PhD student, MIT EECS/CSAIL
- Tami Forrester, MIT Course 6, Class of 2015
- Donna Milgram, Executive Director, National Institute for Women in
Trades, Technology and Science (IWITTS)

*Facilitated by: *Prof. Edmund Bertschinger, Prof. of Physics and Institute
Community and Equity Officer, MIT

The goal of this event is for students, faculty, staff and others in our
community to understand the impact of Implicit Bias, and to collectively
strategize with nationally-recognized experts and industry representatives
on the necessary steps to overcome it. We hope attendees will walk away
with practical strategies for combating Technical Privilege and Stereotype
Threat and building a truly inclusive and meritocratic tech community.

Co-sponsored by MIT Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS), the Institute
Community and Equity Office (ICEO), the Office of Minority Education (OME),
the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and
the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Sincerely,

Chrysonthia Horne & Morgan Moroi

UA Student Support & Wellness Chairs
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/undergrads/attachments/20140927/33d2f286/attachment-0001.htm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: UA header.png
Type: image/png
Size: 591354 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/undergrads/attachments/20140927/33d2f286/attachment-0001.png