Double Dose, Part II: Recruiting More Female Science Professors; Nobel Prize Winner Doris Lessing; Dumbledore is Gay

Listen Up: Professor Kim recommends Farai Chideya’s interview on NPR with actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist and organizer of the benefit show Divas Simply Singing.

Women and Science: “During a Congressional hearing focused on the recruitment and retention of female faculty members in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields Wednesday, witnesses discussed how the federal government can combat the underrepresentation of women through targeted grants and incentives — and even the creation of a new quasi-governmental agency that would expand the enforcement of Title IX, the landmark 1972 gender equity law, to better encompass academic practices,” reports Inside Higher Ed.

Plus: Female Science Professor, a blog by a professor at a research university, offers an inside look at her life and job.

Harassment Unchecked at Army Hotel: “For active and retired military members and their families, the U.S. Army-owned Hale Koa Hotel in Honolulu is a place to relax in a tropical paradise at affordable rates,” writes Kari Lydersen in In These Times. “For hotel parking manager and veteran John “Jack” Lloyd, it appears to be a place to touch and proposition female workers, mostly Filipina — according to complaints filed with the military’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) office and testimony from several workers.”

When Writing the Personal was Revolutionary: “By writing honestly about the ways in which women struggle with gender roles, motherhood, and sexuality, she threw open the doors to a more complex understanding of social interactions, and validated women’s experiences as key to political transformation,” Phoebe Connelly writes in this American Prospect essay on author Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

J.K. Rowling Outs Dumbledore: “Harry Potter” phenom author J.K. Rowling, responding to a question from a child about master wizard Dumbledore’s love life, made the big reveal: “I always saw Dumbledore as gay.” Interesting comments over at KnowThyNeighbor.org.