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Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)

Project Director, Dr. Mary Wyer

The Women’s and Gender Studies curriculum initiative in the sciences and engineering is called the WISE (women in science and engineering) Curriculum Project. The purpose of the project is to develop “two-way streets” between women’s studies and science and engineering faculty who are committed to addressing the under-representation of women and people of color in their fields. The project’s primary focus is on faculty development, to assist faculty in the revision of old courses or the development of new ones, to encourage their interests in the new scholarship on women in science and engineering, and to provide intellectual community and support for extending their research and writing interests into the field of feminist science studies. The project participants have produced a major textbook to provide an introduction to feminist science studies, several other publications, conference panels, and local and national speakers.

The immediate goals of the WISE Curriculum Project are to build community among the participants, address their interests in theory and research from women’s studies, and promote informed conversation within science and engineering departments and classrooms about social inequality. The long-term goals of the curriculum project are (1) to provide an institutionally sustainable vehicle for the recruitment and retention of women and people of color as faculty and graduate students in science and engineering, (2) expand curricular offerings that integrate women’s studies and science/engineering topics, (3) foster new scholarship by and about women in science and engineering to the field of women’s studies, (4) and promote the national dialogue about “best practices” in accomplishing all of the above.

WGS WISE Curriculum Project – WISE Course

  • ​WGS 210, Women & Gender in Science & Technology

WGS WISE Curriculum Project – WISE Publication

NSF Grant Project Abstract

WGS WISE Curriculum Project

Project Director, Dr. Mary Wyer 

This award from the National Science Foundation supports an expansion of the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Project in the Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) Program at North Carolina State University. The WISE project award is for innovative approaches to advancing the careers of women in science and engineering.

In the last ten years, and with sustained support from NSF, Dr. Wyer has organized and facilitated dozens of seminars for science and engineering faculty, to introduce them to the new scholarship on women. The current initiative builds on these previous efforts to promote the advancement of women and people of color in science and engineering through the integration of women’s studies into the undergraduate and graduate curriculum.