Jillian Rix Mulligan- GWISE Feature by the OSDO
For Women’s History Month, The Office of the Senior Diversity Officer (OSDO) put out a feature on women at BU making an impact on our community. In this composition, Jillian Rix Mulligan (PhD ’27) was touted for their work as president of BU’s Graduate Women in Science and Engineering or GWISE at BU. The purpose of GWISE at BU is to strive “to create a community to support and promote women in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.” The following is an excerpt from the Women’s History Month post created by the OSDO in an interview with Rix Mulligan.
Why did you join GWISE?
GWISE is a really good opportunity to connect with other women and get this broader support network. My experience, and the experiences of others I’ve talked to, is that some STEM environments tend to remove identity from what’s happening in our work because science is seen as an objective, quantitative discipline. I find that identity is a critical part of what kind of research we are doing and who we serve with that research. GWISE is a space to have good dialogue about what it means to hold a marginalized identity in STEM and build community around that.
Why are gender-minority focused student groups important?
Many spaces on campus focus on one dimension of identity. It’s lovely to come into a space and know that – even though GWISE is a diverse group — there are many things about your identity that you don’t have to explain, or you know that people share some aspect of your experiences. There are a lot of spaces in STEM where you must be worried about the way you present your gender because it could impact the resources or opportunities that you get. It’s nice to have a community that advocates for addressing issues that affect women, non-binary folks, and other gender minorities in STEM. We partner with other organizations on campus because we aim to be intersectional in our work.
How does it feel to be the president of GWISE?
It’s absolutely such a team effort with GWISE. We have an incredible board, and we’ve been working together for quite a while. I find it personally rewarding to work with folks from different disciplines in STEM on this unifying mission. It’s been one of the best experiences of my graduate school experience.
We are proud to support our students and love to hear when they are thriving in their leadership roles. If you have someone you would like to highlight or would like to plug work that you are doing within the BU Community, please email Anya Blount at blounta@bu.edu.