What’s New at University of Venus? Week Ending 28 April 2012

What’s New at UVenus:

• Sarah Emily Duff at UVenus at the Guardian with Dispatches From South Africa: Making the Case for Vocational Training.
• Liana Silva at UVenus at the Guardian with My Graduate School Journey - Eight Years On
• If you missed our recent #femlead Twitter chat on Public Engagement, Higher Education, and Women’s Leadership, led by Mary Churchill, you can catch up by reading through the archives on Storify.

What’s New With Our Writers:

• Dr. Liana Silva successfully defended her dissertation on April 23rd, 2012 at Binghamton University.
• Anamaria Dutceac Segesten participated with a paper on religion and nationalism at the 17th Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, Columbia University, New York
• Melonie Fullick joined the McMaster Public Intellectuals Project (Twitter page is here) working on social media management and research/editing.
• Janni Aragon participated in a presentation about Twitter Outside and Inside the Classroom; gave a presentation on the 2012 Presidential Election to Silver Threads, a local Active Seniors organization; and co-organized-Breathe Now, a women's conference.  Janni is finishing up her first year as the Chair of the Academic Women’s Caucus and looks forward to next year’s array of event.
• Afshan Jafar was a speaker at TEDxConnecticutCollege, April 14, 2012. The theme for the event was “Rethinking Progress” and she spoke on the subject of “Women’s Bodies”. Link to videos coming soon!

Our Writers At Other Blogs:

• Melonie Fullick wrote about the norms of classroom behaviour that make “introverts” and “extroverts” stand out; she also posted a new Prezi based on her TEDx talk, “Building paths to impact: Academics using social media”.
• Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe rotated through Motherhood 360 and placed the current debate on Republican Mothers in historical perspective.
• Liana Silva posted at Words Are My Game about making it to her Dissertation Defense Day.
• Bonnie Stewart explored the unbearable lightness of being...digital, framed Bourdieu’s concept of distinction in terms of social media and wished somebody important a happy sixth birthday.
• Anamaria Dutceac Segesten on the Danish Flag Controversy or the Importance of Political Symbols at her blog European Political Symbols and Communication
• Lee Skallerup Bessette wrote about Degrassi and Abortion over at BitchFlicks.
• Janni Aragon wrote about the importance of reflecting about the term, catching her breath, needing to take time out for yourself, and thinking about reviewing student work.

Coming Up:

• Don’t miss the next #Femlead Twitter chat, on Academic Leadership Opportunities for Graduate Students, led by Bonnie Stewart (@bonstewart) on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 from 2-230pm EDT.
• Bonnie Stewart is developing and teaching a week-long course (May 7-11) on Digital Identities in “Mother of All MOOCs”: #Change11: Education, Learning, and Technologies Massive Open Online Course