Zuska's Fact Sheet

Why I Blog

Zuska Stats

Chronically Educated:

B.S. Engineering Science, Penn State
M.S., Nuclear Engineering, MIT
PhD, Biomedical Engineering, Duke University
Women's Studies Graduate Certificate, Duke University
M.Ed, Secondary Education - Mathematics, Arcadia University

Eminently Employable (post Phd):

German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
Covance, Inc., Princeton, NJ
Hoechst Marion Roussel, Kansas City, MO
Quintiles, Kansas City, MO
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
Pharmion, Inc., Overland Park, KS

Science Scribblings:  (note my name was previously S. F. Shedd)

"Investigations of Multidrug Resistance in Cultured Human Renal Cell Carcinoma Cells by (31)P-NMR Spectroscopy and Treatment Survival Assays," W. E. Hull, N. W. Lutz, S. E. Franks, M. H. Frank, and S. Pomer, MAGMA, 18(3), 144-161, 2005.

"Phosphomonoester Concentrations Differ Between Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Cells and Normal Human Lymphocytes," S. E. Franks, M. R. Smith, F. Arias-Mendoza, C. Shaller, K. Padavic-Shaller, F. Kappler, Y. Zhang, W. G. Negendank, and T. R. Brown, Leukemia Research, 26(10), 919-926, 2002

"31P-MRS of Human Tumor Cells:  Effects of Culture Media and Conditions on Phospholipid Metabolite Levels," S. E. Franks, A. C. Kuesel, N. W. Lutz, and W. E. Hull, Anticancer Research, 16, 1365-1374, 1996

"The Influence of Medium Formulation on Phosphomonoester and UDP-hexose Levels in Cultured Human Colon Tumor Cells as Observed by 31P-NMR Spectroscopy," S. F. Shedd, N. W. Lutz, and W. E. Hull, NMR in Biomedicine, 6, 254-263, 1993

Gender & Science Manifestos:

" 'Suzy the Computer' vs. 'Dr. Sexy':  What's a Geek Girl to Do When She Wants to Get Laid?"  S. E. Franks.  In She's Such a Geek!  Women Writing About Science, Technology, and Other Geeky Things, ed. Charlie Anders and Annalee Newitz.  Seal Press, forthcoming 2006

"Building a Network to Support Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics."  J. D. Spears, R. A. Dyer, S. E. Franks, and B. A. Montelone.  J. Women Minorities Sci. Engg. 10(2), 99-202, 2004

"Telling Stories About Engineering:  Group Dynamics and Resistance to Diversity."  S. E. Franks and C. Burack.  In (Re)Gendering Science Fields, special issue of NWSA Journal, 16(1), 79-95, Spring 2004

"They Blinded Me With Science:  Misuse and Misunderstanding of Biological Theory," S. E. Franks.  In Fundamental Differences:  Feminists Reply to Social Conservatives, ed. Cynthia G. Burack and Jyl J. Josephson.  Rowman and Littlefield, 2003

"Feminist Transformations of Science," S. F. Shedd, Nytt om kvinneforskning (News on Women's Research), No. 1, 22-28, 1991

Proudest Accomplishment:

Founding Director of K-State's Women in Engineering and Science Program (WESP).  Go check out all the fantastic things they are doing!  It was just me, an office, and some part-time support staff in 1999.  Three and a half years later: nearly $5 million dollars raised through private, corporate, foundation, and government grants; an office suite with full time staff and student workers; outreach programs for middle and high school girls; on campus programming for students.  Just after I left, grant proposals to the Clare Boothe Luce Foundation and to the NSF ADVANCE program were successfully funded.  Check out the results for the Clare Boothe Luce Fellowships and K-State's ADVANCE program. 

Zuska's Story

I was born in the back seat of my father's car.  Yes, really.  On the way to the hospital.  Just couldn't wait.  My grandfather - who called me by the name Zuska - always said "Zuska, you were in a hurry to get into this world, and you haven't slowed down since!"  I suppose it is true.  I am not known for the virtue of patience.  And I definitely do not have any patience with the glacial pace of change in the exclusionary culture and recruiting practices of science and engineering.  I am the sister, daughter, and granddaughter of coal miners, so I am also sensitive to the issues of working class children in the academy.  My mother is the one who suggested engineering for me, and the one who encouraged me to stick with it after that D in my first calculus class, when my advisor said, "yeah, maybe you should switch out of engineering."  Mom - thanks!   

In the late 1980's, while my friends in graduate school were bemoaning the fact that they had to struggle to get approval for feminist topics in their dissertations in history, English, political science, we women in engineering were dealing with things like this:  pornographic screen savers hacked onto our lab computer by fellow (male) graduate students.  Pornographic pictures taped up on the walls in the lab.  A professor who remarked about a newly arriving postdoc that he was "happy she's coming, because she has really big breasts."  Graduate program directors who told us, "you don't belong in this program, so why don't you just switch to a non-engineering major?"  Or, "you'll probably have a nervous breakdown when you try to write your dissertation." Or who publicly announced that they did not think women should be allowed in the department.  And much worse. 

Is it any better here in the new millenium?  Perhaps marginally.  But I have heard and witnessed stories just as bad as any of these from young women pursuing engineering educations today, working as summer interns, or newly hired at engineering firms. 

I have been hearing, since I first entered engineering in 1980, that things have changed and discrimination is a thing of the past, and all kinds of opportunities are open for women, and we just have to wait for the old guys to retire and the young guys who are more open-minded to get in there, and things are improving, and it takes time, and the numbers of women on the faculty will be increasing as soon as more women get PhDs, and...these stories are very, very old, and worn very, very thin.  I feel like the young child who asks the parent, "Can I have some ice cream? " and the parent says "We'll see" and the child knows that "we'll see" means no.  The soothing phrases we've been hearing for thirty years or more now about how "it just takes time" and "things are changing" and "the women at the assistant prof level have to work their way up to the upper ranks" and FILL IN YOUR FAVORITE PHRASE HERE are just so much pablum.  They are all meant to keep us pacified while maintaining the status quo.  It is time for women to become much more angry than we have let ourselves be, and to stop shielding men from the knowledge and consequences of our anger. 

It is often said, when women begin to show their anger, that they must be man-hating lesbians.  I can't speak to everyone's sexual orientation but I myself am solidly heterosexual.  And I don't hate men.  I've married two of them.  But I am angry at what male privilege has taken away from women, and I want to see that change.  The anger men most need to fear is not that of lesbians but of the straight women whose lives are most intertwined with theirs.  Because we can, if we choose, cause the most direct change in their lives.  Straight women, with our lives so tied up with that of men, are often afraid of rocking the boat - of withholding our affection from or showing our anger to men, any men, even those who are oppressing us in the workplace.  If we would just quit being so nice all the time, it would make for some interesting days at work.

© Copyright 2006 Suzanne E. Franks. Last update: 7/31/2006; 3:37:14 PM.