Gangster Feminism and Gaskets

From the academic forefront come some very cool resources, of course, these days. In case you missed it(!), the Summer 2007 issue of the journal Feminist Studies focuses on Feminism and Mass Media. It includes an essay on the feminist cultural work of The Sopranos by my gal Lisa Johnson ("Gangster Feminism"). And on a very different subject--so different that I can't even think of a way to link other than the fact that I admire all the authors--the University of Michigan Press is coming out this month with a book on everything you need to know about advancing academic women in science and engineering, Transforming Science and Engineering: Advancing Academic Women, wouldn't you know. Take that, Larry Summers ole pal.

(So Marco and I were trying to figure out what a gasket was last night, so I looked it up and had to use it somehow in a post. A gasket, for the record, is a mechanical seal that fills the space between two objects, generally to prevent leakage between the two objects while under compression. You don't want to "blow a gasket," if you know what I mean.)