Gender and the Ethics of Memory: Women Scientists of the Manhattan Project March 31, 2011

Speaker: Pnina Abir-Am
In this lecture, I examine the efforts to reclaim the legacy of women scientists who worked on the atomic bomb but somehow did not make it into the public memory of this historical endeavor. I will review the “memoirs” of 1970s and 1980s under the impact of the women’s movement and inquire why the 50th anniversary of the atomic bomb in 1995 finally opened the way to interrogating the ongoing omission of women’s role in the “Project”. Do we have a moral obligation to remember those women scientists, especially if their omission from public memory continues to shape current debates on the under-representation of women in science.
Location: Women’s Studies Research Center, Epstein Building, Brandeis University
Contact: Rosa Taormina, taormina@brandeis.edu, http://go.brandeis.edu/wsrc