in Science class (an interdisciplinary Science and Women Studies class) made what they termed the Women in Science Quilt. Forty students, each in pairs, designed, sewed, and quilted twenty quilt squares about often overlook women in science to be stitched together into one quilt to be housed at NIU’s Center for the Study of Women, Gender & Sexuality (CSWGS). The teacher who led the students was Geography professor Dr. Courtney Gallaher. The project was done in conjunction while NIU Pick Museum of Anthropology was running its most popular exhibit ever, The Human Rights Quilt Project, curated by quilter, museum curator, and magazine writer Laura McDowell-Hopper. McDowell Hopper led the project and sewed together the final quilt.
The Women in Science Quilt documentary goes behind-the-scenes as the students learn quilting techniques and concepts all the way through to the reveal event of the final quilt. Interviews include Laura McDowell Hopper, Courtney Gallaher, and on-the-spot interviews with various students talking about their chosen women scientists, the quilt designs they inspired, and the value of the process of making this transformative quilt about the power of representing women in the sciences.
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