Café Science

No RSVP necessary. This event is free and open to the public.

About Café Science: Women on the front line for conservation at home and abroad
The Field Museum's Café Science lectures are free public forums held at bars, grocery stores and other locations throughout the city to engage audiences on scientific issues. Community members have the opportunity to openly discuss "hot topics" with Field Museum scientists and their colleagues. Chicago Foundation for Women is proud to cosponsor the March Café Science program, in celebration of Women's History Month. 

"Women on the Front Line for Conservation at Home and Abroad" will highlight the contributions of women to the world of science. The speaker will be Dr. Alaka Wali, Nuveen Curator in Anthropology and Applied Cultural Research Director for the Environment, Culture and Conservation Center at The Field Museum (and a 2008 Breaking Barriers Award honoree).

About Dr. Alaka Wali
Dr. Wali will share her experiences in the Peruvian Amazon and here in Chicago to illustrate the role that women play in the care and stewardship of their "home places," whether that be the Amazon wilderness or the Chicago wilderness. Women have a special relationship with the places where they live because so much of their daily chores are bound up with using water, food and energy to nurture their families. As they care for domestic space, they extend that care to the world around them.

Dr. Wali was born in India and received her BA from Radcliffe College and a PhD in anthropology from Columbia University (among others). She is the author of several monographs and more than 30 articles and, with co-author Leith Mullings, wrote Stress and Resilience: The Social Context of Reproduction in Central Harlem (2001). Her work, which has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, currently focuses on pathways to social and environmental sustainability in the Amazon and in the Chicago region.

Accessibility
The Hopleaf Bar is not wheelchair accessible on the second floor. If you have accessibility questions or requests, please contact Takeesha Hart-Holmes at 312.665.7530 or tholmes@fieldmuseum.org.