About Teaching Bio Bio

Aa Aa Aa

Hi friends of women in science,

I am almost at the end of my first year seminar, Biographies of Biologists, at Pomona College. It's the first time I've taught it using my own memoir, Breaking Through the Spiral Ceiling, thus including the life of a woman trying to balance family and science career and feeling good about the balancing act. I also included Neena Schwartz's thought-provoking memoir, A Lab of My Own, where she tells about her drive to run her own laboratory and the anti-woman bias she encountered, which for many years kept her convinced she would risk too much to tell others about her lesbian relationships. My students felt great relief when she finally was able to be open about it at work. This book was the way she chose to let the world of physiologists know.

We talked repeatedly during the semester about memoir versus biography, how deeply interior a memoir can be and how rare it is for a biography to get that level of insight, no matter how closely the writer studies the subject. Sometimes, for example in Brenda Maddox's biography of Rosalind Franklin, if it weren't for her letters, there would be little grist for any interior thoughts at all. Perhaps in this day of "show, don't tell" writing, we expect not to see inside their heads and hearts. But my students, trying to understand what motivated these people to stay in science and make it their life-work, were frustrated by the biographies in general. They found Francois Jacob's thoughts in his memoir much more enticing. And in Manning's Black Apollo of Science, about Just, they found meticulously researched details about what happened over and over with almost no interiority, much to their frustration. That book, in particular, put barriers between the readers and the man portrayed, just because we couldn't see inside his thoughts.

The students did appreciate the diversity of points of view in the class, including the chance to see both memoir and biography treating the same people sometimes. I would say it has been a valuable experience for them. Evaluations are next week, so I'll get the proof of the pudding then, but my prediction based on thoughts in their last series of papers is that they really used the opportunity to rethink their own possible trajectories and life components. I hope so!

cheers,

Laura

3 Comments | Post a Comment

Hi Laura, Interesting post - I'll be quite curious to see you add info on your students' final feedback. And, a list of other books you chose for the class, if possible? I voted for biography, but actually like memoir very much, too. Perhaps 50:50?

From: Donna Simmons | December 3, 2012

I think there may be an age factor that dictates preference here. Memoirs can be more interesting later in life, when you may empathize with some of the experience/decisions of the author, and learn some things about yourself along the way. Biographies are more relatable or helpful at any age. But overall for me it makes no difference if the writing is engaging and skillful and fluid.

From: Ilona Miko | December 1, 2012

Hi Laura,

It's the truth or the lies, or do you think it's all lies? I prefer the biographies myself, because every person tells him or herself lies about life and the biographer can try to dig down and tell the real truth. But I've heard biographers say there is no assurance one has the real truth. I feel better if it's based on research, and show don't tell works for me!
Fran

From: Frances Straughn | November 30, 2012

Previous Topic | Next Topic

About Teaching Bio Bio

Share

Email your Friend