Join us on September 15th at 3 pm in B192 JFSB for our first Picture a Social Scientist lecture of the semester. Come learn and ask questions from our panel of experts about the challenges and joys of being a woman in a social science field. Panelists include Jessica Preece, political science professor, Dawn-Marie Wood, psychology professor, and Hayley Pierce, sociology professor. Wendy Birmingham, psychology professor, is the moderator.
Meet our Panelists
Professor Jessica Preece received her PhD from UCLA in 2010 and joined Brigham Young University’s Political Science Department that Fall. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of women’s presence in politics. She has special interests in candidate ambition and recruitment, as well as in experimental research design. Her publications include pieces in the American Journal of Political Science, the Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Gender and Politics, among others. She and her coauthor were winners of the 2020 CQ Press Award for Best Paper in Legislative Studies, the 2021 Pi Sigma Alpha Best Paper Award, and the 2021 Marian Irish Award for Best Paper on Women and Politics. She spent the 2018-2019 academic year as a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan and as a fellow with Harvard’s Women and Public Policy Program.
Professor Dawn-Marie Wood is an assistant teaching professor of psychology with a background in behavioral neuroscience. She specializes in scientific writing, diversity studies, and the psychology of gender. Teaching a variety of courses for BYU's Department of Psychology, she has oriented hundreds of students to the major and has served as a designated faculty mentor to dozens of undergraduates throughout their experiential learning and senior capstone experiences. In addition to speaking at forums and participating as a panelist at campus-wide events, she is a co-investigator in ongoing research studying the effects of mindfulness training among marginalized groups of BYU students and has also examined the effects of psychology of gender courses on religiosity, views of gender roles, and perspectives on homosexuality in the campus community. Professor Wood was the 2018-19 recipient of the FHSS "Martin B. Hickman Excellence in Teaching by an Adjunct Faculty" Award, is a research associate with the Utah Women & Leadership Project (publishing most recently on the gender disparity in Utah poverty rates), and currently chairs the Psychology Department's faculty and student-led Diversity & Inclusion Committees.
Broadly, Professor Hayley Pierce’s research interests are at the intersection of family, health, and gender. Specifically, she focuses on mother and child well-being. This primary research interest is grounded in the idea that childbirth, marriage, and family are universal experiences but drastically differ based on location, community characteristics, social norms, policy, and the status of women. Her research shows how the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and constraints are inextricably intertwined with individual health and well-being outcomes, and further suggests a path towards improved health outcomes. These factors are most often national, community-level, or individual phenomena, and they drastically affect the lives of women and children around the world.
This lecture qualifies for experience points. For more information about experience points, go to the experience points page.