It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Dr. Audrey Guinchard (left) as today's guest blogger.Audrey is a Lecturer in Law and Director of the LL.B./Maîtrise program at University of Essex in Colchester, England. Before joining Essex in 2000, she taught at France's University of Jean Moulin (Lyon III), from which she earned a Ph.D. in Criminal Law upon completion of a thèse entitled « Les enjeux du pouvoir de répression en matière pénale. Du modèle judiciaire à l’attraction d’un système unitaire » ("The power to impose penalties in criminal matters. From the judiciary model towards a unitary criminal system"). Focusing her scholarship on French Law, Comparative Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, and Cybercrime, Audrey is the editor of the blog Cybercrime at Essex, newest addition to our "connection" blogroll at right. In her guest post below, Audrey describes her analysis of hate crime online, the subject of her forthcoming article in the journal Information & Communications Technology Law (2009).
Audrey dedicates her post to 2-time Nobel Prizewinner Marie Sklodowska Curie (below left) (prior IntLawGrrls posts here and here). Audrey writes that Marie Curie
lived at a time where women did not work in science, certainly not at her level of knowledge and skills. She was Polish, emigrated to France, had to learn a new language, adapt to a different society, and overcome prejudices among male colleagues who, with rareexceptions, just considered she was insane. Yet, her discovery of radioactivity, with Pierre Curie, her husband, changed the world as we know it today. During the first world war, she created the first mobile X-ray ambulances, changing the lives of millions of soldiers whose injuries would have killed them had it not been for the X-rays and the new opportunities they offer to surgeons to try new techniques. If, at the time, the dangers were not fully understood (and Marie probably died of them), X-rays are now a common tool for doctors and at high doses, they are used to treat cancer. It is a well deserved
homage that some European funded fellowships are named after her. She was a pioneer and a true European/international woman, interested in improving people's lives wherever they are and whoever they are.
Curie joins other IntLawGrrls transnational foremothers in the list just below our "visiting from ..." map at right.
Heartfelt welcome!
