ABSTRACT
Women’s studies had actually been considering hiring a “scientist” and when the department discovered that there was, in fact, a scientist on campus willing to combine women’s studies and science they advertised the position. This chapter explains a tenure-track position in women’s studies, a rather unusual location for a natural scientist. Working across the boundaries of the natural and social sciences makes possible rich analyses produced by multiple interests and perspectives. Working across women’s studies and the natural sciences poses other questions as well, such as how interdisciplinary scholarship is “counted” toward a faculty member’s research program. At a practical level, given the well-established disciplinary norms in the social sciences and the humanities, women’s studies programs seldom recruit faculty from the natural sciences. Raising a feminist awareness among scientists would make it difficult, if not impossible, to continue to ignore women and might even lead to some reorganization of research efforts.
