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Distinguished Lectures in Computational Innovation: Dr. Gina Helfrich
April 11, 2019 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm EDT
Join or Die: The Future of Computational Innovation and the End of the Academy as We Know It
Academia presently faces an existential crisis. Tenure-track positions are shrinking. Adjunct positions are on the rise. Scientific and technical fields are losing talent to lucrative industry jobs, while humanities programs graduate a glut of doctorates whose career prospects in the field are slim. In this lecture, Dr. Helfrich will argue that the rise of networked technologies and their spread into virtually every area of life and business pose a challenge to the existing structure of advanced degree programs in the United States. The future depends on the ability of academics to meet these challenges by breaking down research silos and coming together to leverage our collective strengths.About
About Gina Helfrich
Dr. Gina Helfrich is Director of Communications and Culture at NumFOCUS, a non-profit that supports better science through open code.
Dr. Helfrich holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Emory University with a specialization in ethics and critical social theory. She is also the former Director of the Harvard College Women’s Center. After teaching and leading culture change programs at Harvard, Dr. Helfrich moved to Austin, Texas, where she began working in the technology industry managing strategic programs and communications. She was co-founder of recruitHER, a women-owned recruiting & consulting firm committed to making the tech industry more inclusive and diverse. At present, she consults on diversity and inclusion for rapidly growing organizations, in addition to her work for NumFOCUS. Dr. Helfrich is a vocal advocate for inclusion and diversity in tech and business and a frequent speaker on this subject; she has been a selected speaker at South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW) and the Texas Conference for Women. Despite having left academia, Dr. Helfrich continues to engage with questions of ethics and technology as a practitioner in the tech industry.
About the Distinguished Lectures in Computational Innovation
At 4:00 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month in the Brown Institute for Media Innovation (2nd Floor, Pulitzer Hall), the Distinguished Lectures in Computational Innovation series will highlight programmers, data scientists, and other practitioners from the private sector who lead cutting-edge technology initiatives such as Python, C++, and the Open Source Initiative.