Rita
“I enjoy playing with all the different roles and tropes traditionally ‘assigned’ to both women and men. The times I think about being a woman the most are the times I notice that I’m treated a certain way because of it.”
Rita is an accomplished artist, academic, and Director of Education at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, specializing in the fields of nanotechnology and biotechnology. Having been published in both areas of work, she seamlessly pulls her science background into her artwork, and has created educational resources to merge science with design, engaging young students in the world of STEM. Beyond the success she has been met with in her career pursuits, she attributes a large part of who she is to the wonderful people she surrounds herself with, having collected a valuable range of friends over the years. Meet Rita. This is her story.
K: Please introduce yourself!
R: Hi! My name is Rita Blaik, and I go by she/her pronouns.
K: Describe yourself in your own words
R: I'm a scientist by training and an artist and science educator by passion. I love dance, cooking, making cocktails, and weightlifting.
K: What is your favorite thing about yourself?
R: My favorite thing about myself has to be my community of friends that I've cultivated over the years. I love them all, and they represent all the different stages of my life, parts of my personality, and my interests.
K: Tell us a story. Have you had an experience that’s defined you or made you stronger?
R: I think an experience that defined my life for a long time was back in kindergarten. I had a teacher who was very lovely, but they told me that I didn't know how to color correctly. As a sensitive child (and let's face it, adult too) I took that pretty hard and figured I wasn't meant to be an artist. It took years of unlearning and meeting the right mentors in grad school (ironically perhaps, since I was in grad school for materials science) to teach me that I could in fact be an artist. I just needed the confidence in myself.
K: What is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
R: Invest in Apple stock! But really, I'd tell myself to take care of my mental health and be confident in who I am. Don't let impostor syndrome break you.
K: What does being a woman mean to you?
R: To be honest, I have no idea how to answer this. I'm sure this is speaking from a place of privilege, but I'm pretty ambivalent about gender, and I enjoy playing with all the different roles and tropes traditionally "assigned" to both women and men. The times I think about being a woman the most are the times I notice that I'm treated a certain way because of it. But I wouldn't want to change who I am and how I do things just to satisfy other people.
K: Who is one woman that inspires you? What would you say to them if they were here now?
R: There are so many women who inspire me! Lately, I've been thinking about Mary Shelley. If I could travel in time and meet her, I would love to talk about intersectional feminism. She did so much for women in her time and I'd love to get her perspective on a more modern feminist theory.