美国国家公共电台 NPR Academic Science Rethinks All-Too-White 'Dude Walls' Of Honor

 

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

If you walk into a scientific institution in the United States, like a medical school or a university biology department, there's a good chance you'll see a dude wall. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce explains what a dude wall is and why some people say these walls should come tumbling down.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE¹: Leslie Vosshall says the term dude wall was born at Rockefeller University in New York where she works. Just outside its main auditorium² is a wall that's covered with portraits of scientists from the university who've either won the Nobel Prize or a major medical prize that sometimes called the American Nobel.

LESLIE VOSSHALL: One hundred percent of them are men, and it's probably 30 headshots of 30 men, so it's imposing³.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: She says a few years ago, TV host Rachel Maddow came there to hand out a prestigious⁴ award that's always given to a female scientist. Vosshall says someone overheard Maddow say...

VOSSHALL: What is up with the dude wall? That was her quote. What is up with the dude wall?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Vosshall says the word dude wall crystallized something that had been bothering her for years.

VOSSHALL: It just sends the message every day when you walk by it that science consists of old white men.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: She's now on a committee that's redesigning this display to add more diversity. And this isn't the only science institution having a discussion about its dude wall. At Yale School of Medicine, one main building's hallways have 55 portraits. There's three white women and 52 white men. They have a definite impact on people like Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako. He's a black medical student who grew up reading "Harry⁵ Potter" books, which feature painted portraits that can talk.

MAX JORDAN NGUEMENI TIAKO: Like, if this was "Harry Potter" or like "Harry Potter," if they could speak, like, what would they even say to me, right? Like, everywhere you study, there's, like, a big portrait somewhere of, like, someone kind of staring you down.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Yale medical student Nientara Anderson recently teamed up with a couple colleagues to study the effect of this art. The results were just published in a medical journal.

NIENTARA ANDERSON: Students felt like these portraits were not just ancient, historic things that had nothing to do with their contemporary experience - that they actually felt that the portraits reinforced contemporary issues of exclusion⁶, of racial discrimination, of othering.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Folks at Yale are pondering what to do about all these historic portraits. One option is to move them someplace else. That was the approach taken at the Department of Molecular⁷ and Integrative Physiology⁸ at the University of Michigan. Ally Cara is a Ph.D. student there. She says in the department's seminar room...

ALLY CARA: We had featured portraits of our past department chairs, which happened to be all male.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The 10 or so photographs were lined up in a row.

CARA: So when our interim⁹ chair, Dr. Santiago Schnell, began his service a couple years ago, he wanted to bring a more modern update to our seminar room, including bringing down the dude wall and relocating it.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The photos are now in a less noticeable spot - the department chair's office suite¹⁰. The seminar room will soon be decorated with artwork depicting¹¹ key discoveries made by the department.

CARA: We really want to emphasize that we're not trying to erase¹² our history. We're proud of the people that have brought us to where we are today as a department.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: She wants to emphasize this because these changes are sensitive. At Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, one of Harvard's teaching hospitals, there is an auditorium. For decades, its walls were covered with 31 paintings of men. Jeffrey Flier of Harvard Medical School says he walked in there one day...

JEFFREY FLIER: And I was taken aback because instead of this room filled with portraits of historically important figures from the Brigham, the walls were empty.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The portraits were relocated to different places around the hospital. Flier says he gets why there needed to be a change. Still, he prefers the approach taken in another Harvard meeting room. It had long been decorated with paintings of former deans.

FLIER: All of those individuals were white males. I am among them now hanging up there as the most recent former dean of Harvard Medical School.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says right there with his portrait are photographs of female and African American physician scientists. His predecessor¹³ added them to the walls. Flier says thoughtfully adding new portraits is the way to go.

FLIER: You don't want to take away the history of which you are justifiably¹⁴ proud.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Still, some argue that the old portraits themselves erased¹⁵ history, glorifying¹⁶ white men while ignoring the contributions made by women and minorities. One rare exception is Vivien Thomas. He was a black technician who worked for a white surgeon named Alfred Blalock at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Together, they pioneered techniques for heart surgery. Thomas only had a high school degree, but a group of top surgeons commissioned his portrait and formally presented it to the hospital in 1971. Thomas told the assembled surgeons that he felt proud and humbled¹⁷.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VIVIEN THOMAS: People in my category are not accustomed to being in the limelight as most of you are. If our names get into the print, it's usually in that very fine print down at the bottom somewhere.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He was astounded¹⁸ to hear the hospital plans to hang his portrait alongside its painting of Blalock. He was told you two always hung together and you should continue to hang together. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 auditorium   

n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂

参考例句：

• The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
• The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出，伸入观众席。

3 imposing   

adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的

参考例句：

• The fortress is an imposing building.这座城堡是一座宏伟的建筑。
• He has lost his imposing appearance.他已失去堂堂仪表。

4 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

5 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

6 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

7 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

8 physiology   

n.生理学，生理机能

参考例句：

• He bought a book about physiology.他买了一本生理学方面的书。
• He was awarded the Nobel Prize for achievements in physiology.他因生理学方面的建树而被授予诺贝尔奖。

9 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

10 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

11 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

12 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。

13 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

14 justifiably   

adv.无可非议地

参考例句：

• There General Walters would come aboard to greet me, justifiably beaming with pride at his arrangement. 在那儿沃尔特斯将军会登上飞机来接我，理所当然为他们的安排感到洋洋得意。 来自辞典例句
• The Chinese seemed justifiably proud of their economic achievements. 中国人似乎为他们的经济成就感到自豪，这是无可非议的。 来自互联网

15 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 glorifying   

赞美( glorify的现在分词 )； 颂扬； 美化； 使光荣

参考例句：

• I had no intention of either glorifying or belittling Christianity, merely the desire to understand it. 我并没有赞扬基督教或蔑视它的立意，我所想的只是了解它。
• You are glorifying a rather mediocre building. 你正在美化一栋普普通通的建筑。

17 humbled   

adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低

参考例句：

• The examination results humbled him. 考试成绩挫了他的傲气。
• I am sure millions of viewers were humbled by this story. 我相信数百万观众看了这个故事后都会感到自己的渺小。

18 astounded   

v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶

参考例句：

• His arrogance astounded her. 他的傲慢使她震惊。
• How can you say that? I'm absolutely astounded. 你怎么能说出那种话？我感到大为震惊。