U.S. and Non-U.S. Scholars

Fulbright New Century Scholars Program
Overview • Previous NCS Programs • NCS Scholar List • NCS Brochure • 2005-2006

Colatrella, Carol

• Professor
  
• Georgia Tech
  
• Department of Literature, Communication & Culture
  
• United States

Dr. Colatrella has received research grants from the NEH, NEMLA, the University of Oregon Humanities Center, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Rockefeller Foundation; she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Denmark in 2000. As a member of the Georgia Tech National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation project (2001-2006), Colatrella edits the annual magazine Energeia, works on the ADVANCE Research team, and serves as primary writer and project developer for Awareness of Decisions in Evaluating Promotion and Tenure (ADEPT), a website and computer instrument (http://www.adept.gatech.edu) for faculty evaluation candidates and committee members. Colatrella and her WST Center co-directors were awarded a 2005 Best Practices Commendation from Georgia Tech's Office of Organizational Development for developing the WST Learning Community (2000-present). In 2005 Georgia Tech also awarded Colatrella its Faculty Outstanding Service award.

Dr. Colatrella received her Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers in 1987. Her scholarly interests focus on the cultural study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European literary, historical, and scientific narratives, topics on which she has produced several monographs and articles in journals, including Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Comparative Literature, and American Literary History. She is writing a book analyzing popular culture representations of women engaging with science and technology, Toys and Tools in Pink: Cultural Narratives of Gender, Science, and Technology. Colatrella is collaborating with Mary Frank Fox on series of articles based on ADVANCE research that consider the advancement of women faculty.

Selected Publications

• "Emerson's Politics of the Novel," Emerson at 200: Proceedings of the International Bicentennial Conference, Rome, October 16-18, 2003. Ed. Giorgio Mariani. University of Rome, 2004: 265-277.
• "The Innocent Convict: Character, Reader Sympathy, and the Nineteenth-Century Prison in Little Dorrit." In the Grip of the Law: Prisons, Trials, and the Space in Between. Eds. Monika Fludernik and Greta Olson. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004: 185-204.
• "Transforming Medical Care in the Age of AIDS: Science and Parental Love in Lorenzo's Oil." Translated into Italian as "Come trasformare l'assistenza medica nell'età dell'AIDS" by Cinzia Scarpino. Ácoma: Rivista Internazionale di Studi Nordamericani. Rome, Italy. 28 (2004): 114-126.
• Sue Rosser, Mary Frank Fox, and Carol Colatrella, "Developing Women's Studies in a Technological Institution." Women's Studies Quarterly. 30.3-4 (Fall/Winter 2002): 109-125.

Equity in access and advancement are key components of the democratic viability of universities because educational institutions model and inform broader social and economic practices and their progress. As part of my participation in the New Century Scholars program, I will research how gender affects processes of access and advancement for faculty members in Denmark. Women's access to educational and professional opportunities has improved in many countries over the past three decades, but achievement gaps between men and women persist in the United States and in Europe. My collaborative project will investigate aspects of the academic profession in Denmark to compare and contrast perceptions of faculty working environments as well as considering the outcomes of equity efforts in a smaller, more socially homogenous industrialized nation that, like the U.S., has preferred raising awareness of equity issues to passing specific laws forbidding inequities. Although Denmark is a nation with progressive attitudes and laws regarding sex roles and work-family arrangements, its universities, like those in the U. S., experience a dearth of women at upper ranks and in administrative positions.

Together with Kirsten Gomard of Aarhus University, during spring 2006 I will adapt Georgia Tech ADVANCE protocols developed by Mary Frank Fox to survey and interview Danish faculty and administrators, analyze perceptions related to the advancement of women in the academy in Denmark, and consider the outcomes of recent solutions to encourage equal access to educational employment in that country. Gomard and I will jointly write analyses of surveys and interviews to be conducted with faculty members in four Danish universities and of current Danish mechanisms regarding equity and access. We plan to publish our research in two articles to be placed in U. S. and European journals. One will describe the results of the Danish surveys and interviews on faculty resources, their level of decision-making, departmental collegiality, and related issues. The other article will compare existing and proposed means of establishing equity in Denmark and the U.S. Eliciting comparable data in Denmark enables our comparing and contrasting attitudes, programs, and outcomes in different countries and of outlining constraints and benefits, model programs, and best practices in academic environments that affect women's participation and that can be further disseminated to other countries.

Other Fulbright New Century Scholars can provide perspective on the project concerning their national systems, reporting on mechanisms and outcomes affecting the under-representation of women in upper university ranks and related fields. Studying the barriers and facilitators affecting the advancement of women and men in the United States and Denmark will encourage the continuing prospects of educational research to advance equity of access and advancement of faculty in many places.