Webinar: The Whispers of Mary Anning and Other Pioneer Women Geologists

here are stories that we do not find in any official history and that can only be liberated by listening closely and paying attention to the whispers of women.

Rosa Montero

 

‘The Whispers of Mary Anning and Other Pioneer Women Geologists’ was a special webinar that took place on 30 March 2022, 17:30-18:30 CEST (Brussels time). The recording of the webinar is now available on the ENGIE YouTube channel.

Some pioneer women paved the way in geology. However, they faced challenges for their voices to be heard and their remarkable work to be recognised at their time and even today some of them are forgotten.

We invited two great initiatives that pay tribute to these pioneer geologists: GEAS – Women Who Study the Earth and Mary Anning Rocks. ENGIE project partner Iva Kolenković Močilac, was the host of the session.

 GEAS is an illustrated book featuring 12 pioneer women geoscientists. The publication is a travel through time to give voice to women geologists of different times, historical contexts and nationalities. They all have something in common: they made an indelible mark on the strata of our knowledge. Spanish geologists Rosa María Mateos and Ana Ruíz Constan are the authors of this book and these 12 women were really an inspiration to them. The artist Nívola Uyá is the author of the beautiful illustrations of GEAS. If you would like to know more about this publication, we invite you to check the social media campaign we recently published on our channels for International Women’s Day. In addition, the English and Spanish versions of GEAS have been released open access during! The remarkable palaeontologist Mary Anning is one of the women showcased in the book and she leads us to the great initiative Mary Anning Rocks.

Evie Swire was nine years old when she heard for the first time about Mary Anning a woman who lived closed to her hometown, Dorset, and whose findings would change the world. Evie got to know more and more about Mary Anning and was fascinated by her work and findings in palaeontology. Consequently, Evie asked her mother, Anya Pearson, to take her to see a statue of Mary Anning. Evie assumed there would be a statue of such a remarkable woman in Lyme Regis, the palaeontologist’s hometown. But to Evie’s surprise, there was not a statue of Mary Anning there. To change this, Anya and Evie started an energetic crowdfunding campaign to build a statue of Mary Anning in Lyme Regis. The official unveiling of the statue of Mary Anning will be this year, on 21 May 2022, and Anya told us more about it during the webinar.

 

The structure of the webinar was the following:

  • Welcome and brief introduction of the ENGIE Project by Éva Hartai
  • Presentation of the book GEAS – Women Who Study the Earth by Ana Ruíz Constan
  • Presentation of the Mary Anning Rocks Campaign by Anya Pearson
  • Q&A Session & Closure by Éva Hartai

 

SPEAKERS’ BIOGRAPHIES:

  • Anya Pearson

Anya Pearson is a graduate from Northumbria University with a BA Hons degree in Fashion Design & Marketing and has worked in the fashion industry for over thirty years. She is Co-Founder, Trustee, and Spokesperson for the charity Mary Anning Rocks. A feminist and activist spearheading a spin off campaign called VISIBLEWomen, a group of 15 organisations raising statues across the UK to the forgotten Sheroes of our past.  Anya is also a part-time lecturer at several leading universities, specialising in ethical and sustainable solutions within the clothing and textile industries. Recipient of the prestigious RSPCA award for her work on Animal Welfare Policies for the fashion industry.

  •  Ana Ruíz Constan

She is a geologist. Our planet soon lured her, as a curious person and nature lover, through the charm of earthquakes and volcanoes. Currently, Ana radiographs the interior of the Earth and analyses its external scars to get a little closer to its history and most intimate secrets. She is in search of any initiative that helps to show geology for what it is: an exciting science that is useful for society.

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