Preface to “Female Academics: Volume I”
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Personal SubStack
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/08/09
Contents
I Acknowledgement …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
II Biographies ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5
III Preface……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11
IV Social Sciences………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15
i Dr. Janet Metcalfe: Professor, Psychology, Columbia University ……………………….. 15
a. Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………… 22
ii Dr. Neda Kerimi: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Psychology, Harvard University …………… 24
iii Dr. Adele Diamond: Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience; Professor, Psychiatry, The University of British Columbia ……………. 30
a. Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………… 46
iv Dr. Maryanne Garry: Psychology Professor, Victoria University of Wellington ……. 50
v Dr. Rakefet Ackerman: Assistant Professor, Psychology, Technion: Israel Institute of Technology ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 56
a. Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………… 66
vi Dr. Gira Bhatt: Principal Investigator and Project Director, AT-CURA ……………….. 68
vii Dr. Diana Sanchez: Associate Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University ………… 78
viii Dr. Miriam Erez: Professor Emeritus, Vice Dean MBA Programs, Technion: Israel Institute of Technology ………………………………………………………………………………….. 85
a. Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………… 92
ix Dr. Carla MacLean: Psychology Instructor, Kwantlen Polytechnic University ……… 94
x Dr. Elizabeth Loftus: Distinguished Professor of Social Ecology, and Professor of Law, and Cognitive Science at the University of California, Irvine ……………………. 102
V License and Copyright ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 116
Acknowledgement
To women with an impact in personal life, good and bad, for the thorough lessons in various aspects of the human experience; and specific appreciation for approval provided by Dr. Janet Metcalfe, Dr. Neda Kerimi, Dr. Adele Diamond, Dr. Maryanne Garry, Dr. Rakefet Ackerman, Dr. Gira Bhatt, Dr. Diana Sanchez, Dr. Miriam Erez, Dr. Carla MacLean, and Dr. Elizabeth Loftus to conduct and publish these uncensored and enlightened interviews, especially for an unknown and random undergraduate, some time ago.
Preface
Female Academics: Volume I converges from four directions. First, personal interest in international women’s rights. Second, a curiosity about individual stories. Third, one personal year committed to interviews in a series devoted to female academics entitled Women in Academia in the non-refereed journal In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal(ISSN 2369-6885) in the culmination of three issues – over seventy-thousand words. Fourth, an opportunity to collaborate with the University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality (Ethics Center) under the deep knowledge and high ability leadership, mentorship, supervision, and tutelage of Professor Kristen Renwick Monroe in the Department of Political Science and Philosophy from the School of Social Sciences based on the recommendation of the strong mentee of Professor Francisco Ayala, Associate Professor Mahtab Jafari. While in Irvine, California at the UCI Ethics Center, Professors Monroe and Jafari mentored me. Professor Ayala had coffee with me. Lastly, I mentored Professor Jafari’s son, Matin. A bright, diligent, and kind young man.
Professors Monroe and Jafari remain highly intelligent and competent guides for me. I had, and have, a lot to learn from them, especially in their patience with me. Professor Monroe on issues of scientific ethics and morality, international women’s rights, and their relationship to the university system or Academia with an emphasis on the American university system and in STEM education for women. Professor Jafari in terms of insights from a woman’s perspective, which I do not have first-hand and found enlightening from her. Numerous coffees, lunches, and discussions provided the necessary insight for me. In preparation for a more comprehensive production, Female Academics: Volume I amounts to a small publication to represent some of the work involved with this continued endeavor.
The modern women’s movement built into the academic system amounts to three streams: opportunity, representation, and outcome – as far as I can tell. The first two seem the most direct goals with outcome as the unification factor among them. Equal opportunities aim to open doors for women. Every academic door with the possibility available for women to enter without the traditional, or modern, glass ceilings in their way. Those desiring equal representation aim for the ratio to be 1:1 between men and women in all fields of the university system. All levels, all disciplines, all sub-disciplines, with equivalent ratios. Those wanting equal outcomes are taking a long-term view with continual upkeep of the balance over time. In that, eventually having equal numbers of men and women in each academic sector, and then having this renewed over time.
Of course, we have the dual-problem in the international context with boys, and young men, in terms of poor academic performance and low completion rates from kindergarten through grade 12 into undergraduate and graduate school with magnified effects on “men of color,” or “male minorities,” in The United States of America and Canada, for two instances, and the representation of professional women in various sectors, for example, academic, corporate, economic, social, political, and so on, in addition to the deep concerns, for many, including me, related to pervasive violation of their fundamental privileges and rights as human beings. A male crisis in education, or in general adaptation to the rapid alteration in the personal and professional landscape, continues on a global scale as reported in numerous venues. Both perspectives compatible, logically and in actuality. Most emphasis appears on one sex, or gender, or the other in times of rapid change such as the present era, or the early 21st century. Even so, to cover the aspects of these socio-political and economic shifts would require an enormous volume devoted to the issue with numerous levels of analysis, the focus of this short volume represents a specific endeavor to interview a small sample of female academics not “because female” but as “important academics with interesting research, whom are female.” An important distinction based in conversation with Professor Elizabeth Loftus at a separate time than the interview and the research time in Irvine, California, a coffee in between the two events.
Many, many individuals – men and women – no longer alive took part in this journey for equality. Dead and forgotten, not even remembered in name, men and women; earlier productions discussed these topics in In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. Each issue of the journal comes with an introductory Letter of Appreciation. A lot of individuals help behind the scenes for the construction of the journal, the essential gears in the proverbial clockwork. The Letter of Appreciation for In-Sight Issue 2.A, Idea: Women in Academia stated:
Insofar as we inherit the legacy of previous generations’ transgressions through implicit biases and explicit reinforcement of these biases, once conscious of them, we own the option to override these assumptions through changes in personal thinking, behavior, organization of groups and collectives, and the legal codes and public policy that function to shape the overarching attitudinal and behavioral trends of the culture. This may sound arrogant or idealistic arising from the mind of an undergraduate, but I see the unprecedented rise in women as such a phenomenon counter to the past, which requires new frameworks for understanding and functioning in contradistinction to older ways. I can assure you in full confidence to any claim of arrogance and idealism with a resounding, “Both.” I understand the lack of power in my hands, but I recognize an internal imperative to do my part. In other words, I see the responsibility to contribute my part to progressive ideas in concrete terms within the context and constraints of my current position.
With respect to current developments in professional and personal life, my personal sensibilities continue forward with the same intent and force from this statement whilst rejecting the comedic notion of “arrogance” taken in its literal meaning, but rather to soften the mood for the serious material because, as far as my rationale and emotive force concern this issue, these remain important, unprecedented, times for women in every nation. A pragmatic sense of global ethics necessitates consideration of comprehension about one’s “lack of power” and, therefore, the limitations of one’s extent of influence. In that, my efforts, by necessity, must remain limited by a lack of influence, which does not diminish personal responsibility to issues of concern to me. Women’s progress matters. However, my idealism, bolstered and bounded by realism, did not waver in any respect since the beginning of this decision to pursue this course. Do not take this as proselytizing, but as a consideration; if one summarized this production in a phrase, it would be as follows: “please consider the following.” Nonetheless, please think for yourself on these matters and come to personal tentative conclusions based on the reasoning and its apportionment with the evidence external to this production, or utilize the data provided by female academics, these female social scientists, apart from the arguments and the international and national context as interesting personal stories.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen
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