Mentoring Table Announcements: Publishing Your Book (7/13, 12pm EST)

Dear Colleagues, 

It’s time to register for our second of four summer virtual mentoring tables! This time, we’re pleased to present: 

Writing and Publishing Your Book

Wednesday, JULY 13 @ 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Featuring

Cheryl Glenn, (she/her) Professor of English, 

Penn State University

Jennifer LeMesurier, (she/her) Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric, 

Colgate University

This virtual mentoring session offers an opportunity to ask questions about moving a project from conceptualization to publication. In keeping with the interactive tradition of the mentoring tables, we request that attendees come with questions to raise for the table.

For security purposes, registration is required. Register here:

 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqd–vrT8iGtN1G3KDSKePnWO5mL6avoc6

 

If you can’t attend this session, try to join us for one of the two sessions later in July/August:

  • Parenting and Academia,Wed, July 20th, 1pm ET/12pm CT
    • Courtnee Bishop, (she/her) PhD Student, Old Dominion University
    • Ruth Osorio, (she/her) Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies, Old Dominion University
    • Lamaya Williams, (she/her) PhD Student, Old Dominion University
  • Preparing for the Academic Job Market, Tues., Aug. 2nd, 2pm ET/1pm CT
    • Jo Hsu (they/them), Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Writing, University of Texas at Austin
    • McKinley Green (he/him), Assistant Professor of English, George Mason University

Remember too that the Feminist/Queer Pedagogies mentoring table is tomorrow. Here’s the information:

Feminist and Queer Pedagogies, Wed., July 6, 2pm ET/1pm CT

    • Christina Cedillo, (she/they) Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric, University of Houston–Clear Lake
    • Abby Knoblauch, (she/her) Associate Professor of English, Kansas State University
    • Timothy Oleksiak, (he/him) Assistant Professor of English, UMass Boston

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMucO6rrTkvHNNyoaKjYHJbin_Awu5ysmWY

 

Onwards,

Jess Enoch, President, and

Becca Richards, Vice President 

CFSHRC

 

CFSHRC Statement on the Overturning of Roe vs. Wade

The Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC) dissents with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn and end federal abortion rights as represented in Roe v. Wade. This decision clearly challenges the human right to have autonomy over our bodies and our reproduction. It also critically and disproportionately impacts already marginalized communities, as the Guttmacher Institute notes, which includes “Black and Brown communities, other people of color, people with low incomes, young people, LGBTQ communities, immigrants and people with disabilities.” We know too this decision was made in the midst of threats—made and anticipated—to a wide range of human rights in the United States. It aggravates our concerns for justice in this country and will result in injurious material and intangible consequences for many people. 

As the national context of anti-abortion laws continue to evolve and transform, we urge members—who need abortion care or who want to help—to engage local, expert organizations that are best equipped to support those who are directly impacted by this regressive decision. While, as a non-profit organization, we cannot endorse specific candidates or political officials, as feminist scholars and teachers, versed in the power dynamics of listening and speaking, we stand at the ready to support local activists, organizations, and health care professionals who are leading intersectional, anti-racist, trans* inclusive, community-based actions that are disability and trauma informed. 

Moreover, the Coalition recognizes that the Supreme Court’s decision joins a much longer history of reproductive injustice that has been named, theorized, and actively resisted by reproductive justice thought leaders, quite a few of whom are Coalition members. Much of this activism has been led by multiply marginalized people whose concerns include and exceed the right to an abortion. No doubt this moment is painful after many years of diligent and ongoing efforts to create a more just world. Please know the CFSHRC recognizes, supports, and appreciates your powerful and necessary interventions. 

This statement is not comprehensive or perfect; there is clearly more to say. While we knew this decision was likely coming, we recognize a range of emotions that we and others experience in response to this ruling. We hope that amid these responses, we find resolve to continue to act coalitionally and to use our knowledge and skills to speak up and out publicly and through our research and teaching. We list below a few resources that might offer insight, direction, and hope during this troubling time. As an organization of feminsit rhetoricians, we’ll continue to explore options to address this moment and map a path forward. We invite and welcome your ideas.

 

Additional Resources:

Adams, Heather Brook. “Goodbye, ‘Post-Pill Paradise’: Texturing Feminist Public Memories of Women’s Reproductive and Rhetorical Agency.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 105 (4), 2019: 390-417. 

DiCaglio, Sara and Lori Beth De Hertogh, eds. Special Issue: “Rhetorical Pasts, Rhetorical Futures: Reflecting on the Legacy of Our Bodies, Ourselves and the Future of Feminist Health Literacies.” Peitho, 21(3), 2019. 

Murillo, Lina-Maria, and Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz. “Rulings Ensure Further Cruelty From Restricting Abortion Care.” DesMoines Register. 24 June 2022.

Roberts, Dorothy. “Reproductive Justice, Not Just Rights.Dissent, 2015. 

“Supreme Court Overturns Roe, Upends 50 years of Abortion Rights: 5 essential Reads on What Happens Next.” The Conversation. 2022.

Yam, Shui-yin Sharon. “Beyond Choice: Why We Need Reproductive Justice.” Against the Current. 2022

Much appreciation goes to the CFSHRC Executive Board and to reproductive justice experts Shui-yin Sharon Yam and Heather Brook Adams for their guidance and labor in crafting this statement.

 

CFSHRC 2022 Volunteer Survey

Today, April 15th, marks the end of my term as President of the Coalition. The CFSHRC has accomplished a lot in the past 2 years, in spite of a global pandemic that prevented us from meeting in person. I cannot thank everyone who contributed to our many initiatives and events enough!! I am very excited to see where our new Advisory Board and Executive Board, headed by President Jessica Enoch, will take us next.

As we move forward, I hope all Coalition members and supporters will continue generously offering their time, effort, and brilliance to existing and emerging Coalition initiatives. To this end, I ask that you take a few moments to complete the 2022 CFSHRC Volunteer Survey (https://forms.gle/m5bTAaPRLYaahZje7). We have many possibilities—of varying types and time commitments—available for you to engage with our work, and we *need* your support to make that work happen!

Please complete the survey by no later than Wednesday, May 4th.

With much gratitude,

Wendy Sharer,  Immediate Past President

The Coalition Seeks an Archivist/Historian (apply by April 20, 2022)

CFSHRC Archivist and Historian: Call for Applicants

The Coalition invites applications for the position of Archivist and Historian. The person in this role will oversee the curation, organization, navigation, and promotion of the Coalition’s administrative archive, which contains meeting minutes, organizational correspondence, and other similar documents related to the Coalition as well as the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference and Peitho journal.

Position description: The CFSHRC Archivist and Historian will take responsibility for building and maintaining the Coalition’s archives in both digital and, as relevant, analog forms. This work will include ongoing collection and curation of administrative documents from members of the CFSHRC Executive and Advisory Boards, the Conference Site Hosts for the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference, and the editorial team of Peitho. The Archivist and Historian will also actively pursue the acquisition of relevant materials from past and present CFSHRC members.

Building on the substantial, foundational work of our first Archivist and Historian, Alexis Ramsey-Tobienne, the Archivist and Historian will also oversee the organization and searchability of the materials currently included in the Coalition’s digital archive and will design and implement initiatives to publicize materials held therein and to educate current and future members of the Coalition about the organization’s challenges and accomplishments.

Appointment and eligibility: The CFSHRC Archivist and Historian will be selected by a committee established by the CFSHRC President and will serve a 2-year term that will conclude in April 2024, with the option of reapplication and reappointment for a total of three, two-year terms served. This role will have Ex Officio status on the Advisory Board unless the individual appointed is already an elected Advisory Board member. All CFSHRC members are eligible to apply except next term’s officers (including the Member-at-Large). Applicants must be current members of the Coalition. To confirm membership status, please contact Coalition Treasurer Jane Greer at treasurer@cfshrc.org.

To apply: By Wednesday, April 20th, email a cover letter and current CV to outgoing Coalition President Wendy Sharer at (sharerw@ecu.edu). In the cover letter, please explain

  • your interest in the position,
  • your ideas for fulfilling the role,
  • your qualifications, including (but not limited to) relevant experience with archival work and scholarship.

Potential applicants are welcome to send preliminary questions to Wendy Sharer (sharerw@ecu.edu).

 

Reading Lisa Ede: A Tribute (4/6/2022, 4:30 PM Eastern)

Registration is free but required. Please register at  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsduGrrz8jGdEM0tmATsuZH_EvHf5DHfi_

Join the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition on April 6th at 4:30pm Eastern to celebrate Dr. Lisa Ede. Her work is foundational to our understanding of feminist rhetorics and constructions of audience; the dynamics of coauthorship; the process and post-process movements; writing pedagogies, including the advances of technology and social media in shaping instruction; issues of equity and access in academia; and the writing center as a space of possibility and coalition building. During her career, Lisa received the CCCC Braddock Award and the MLA Mina Shaughnessy Award, and in 2015 the Coalition dedicated the biennial Lisa Ede Mentoring Award to her example.

Learn more from colleagues who come together as Lisa’s readers as well as her students, coauthors, co-editors, co-conspirators, and friends.
Lisa Ede, a white woman with shoulder-length blonde hair pictured from the waist up, stands smiling in front of a blooming rhododendron bush.

Image: Lisa Ede in Her Garden. Photo credit: Greg Pfarr.

Speakers

  • “Lisa Ede’s Rhetorically Feminist Self-Reflection,” Jennifer Love, (Lane Community College)
  • “(Re)Reading Lisa: An Intertextual Remembrance,” Dodie Forrest (Yakima Valley College)
  • “On Learning from Writing Together: Career-Long Collaboration and Mentoring”  Lynée Lewis Gaillet (Georgia State University) and Letizia Guglielmo (Kennesaw State University)
  • “Comedy, or Rhetoric by Other Means,” Caleb Jones, Faith Kurtyka, and Joshua Prenosil (Creighton University)

Respondents

  • Nancy DeJoy (Michigan State University)
  • Cheryl Glenn  (Penn State University)
  • Andrea A. Lunsford (Stanford University)

2022 Nancy A. Myers Feminist Research Grant Announced!

The Nancy A. Myers Feminist Research Grant supports researchers in pursuing or continuing feminist projects that require funding to conduct such activities as archival research, translation, interview transcription, and digital archivization and/or digital project development, among other activities. In only its third cycle, this biennial research grant has been made possible by a generous gift from one of the Coalition’s past presidents whose service to the organization has been characterized by a deep and steady commitment to mentoring new and emerging researchers in the field.

Headshot of Brenna Swift

Brenna Swift

We are pleased to announce that the 2022 Nancy A. Myers Feminist Research Grant Award goes to Brenna Swift, PhD candidate in English Composition and Rhetoric, and assistant director of the Writing Fellows program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include feminist disability studies, the disability justice movement, community engagement, feminist and antiracist pedagogies, writing center studies, education for antiviolence, and disability justice approaches to trauma-informed practices.

The judges are excited about Swift’s dissertation project, which presents disabled peoples’ use of journaling as tools to build “just worlds.” By studying how disabled people invent accessible journaling, they believe Swift’s work will expand the field’s conception of journaling practices as well as the ways that journaling allows disabled persons and nonbinary persons who identify as disabled to tell their own stories, forge connections, advocate, and claim power. Swift’s project both draws on and will contribute to feminist histories of writing, literacy studies, writing pedagogy, feminist disability studies, and disability justice activism. Most of the grant will support the professional transcription of Swift’s 19 interviews with disabled writers in the U.S., the U.K., India, and China. With a portion of the grant, Swift also plans to create a website that will provide a space for her study participants to share their writing and artwork, promote disability justice, guide writing teachers, and provide a forum for other journalers.

In addition to congratulating Swift, we acknowledge and recognize the other six outstanding scholars whose work was nominated or submitted for this award: Ashley Canter (University of Massachusetts-Amherst); Dr. Jan Fernheimer and Dr. JWells (University of Kentucky); Cody Januszko (Carnegie Mellon University); Lia Schuermann (Texas Women’s University); and Merima Tricic (University of California-Irvine).

Tarez Samra Graban
Immediate Past-President
Awards Chair 2020–2022

 

and the 2022 Nancy A. Myers Feminist Research Grant Committee
Lisa Shaver (chair)
Abby Dubisar
Katherine Mack
Madiha Patel
Carl Schlachte

 

 

2022 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award Announced!

The Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award honors its namesake by recognizing outstanding, book-length contributions in the areas of feminist pedagogy, practice, history, and theory in rhetoric and composition. The award is presented biennially in even years for books published in the two years prior. For the 2022 award, our judges had the honor of reading and rating 13 excellent books from eight different presses. All of these books—some monographs, and some edited collections—presented diverse approaches to feminist and historical scholarship, pushing the boundaries of both field and discipline. Many of them reflected collaborative authorship or editorship. We want to thank everyone who nominated publications this year as well as the publishers of the print and digital books that were nominated. In addition, we want to thank all of this year’s authors for their inspiring contributions to feminist work in our field.

While we would normally confer awards at our Action Hour event on the Wednesday evening prior to the Conference on College Composition and Communication, this year we rely on virtual conferral and social media. Thus, on behalf of the 2022 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award Committee, I am pleased to announce this year’s award recipients and honorable mentions: Stephanie Larson (award recipient, for What It Feels Like); Karma Chávez (honorable mention, for The Borders of AIDS); Katie Fredlund, Kerri Hauman, and Jessica Ouellette (honorable mention, for Feminist Connections); and Michelle C. Smith (honorable mention, for Utopian Genderscapes).

Headshot of Stephanie Larson

Stephanie Larson

Stephanie Larson, winner of the 2022 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award for What It Feels Like: Visceral Rhetoric and the Politics of Rape Culture (Penn State U Press, 2021). Dr. Larson (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric in the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her B.A. at the University of Illinois and her MA and PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Larson’s research interests center on the circulation of cultural, institutional, and legal meaning about women’s bodies in the public sphere. Her work has been published in Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, Rhetoric Review, Hypatia, Quarterly Journal of Speech, and on blogs, podcasts, and edited collections. She is currently working on her second monograph tentatively titled “Lessons from Rape Culture: Sexual Violence, Precarity, and Higher Education.”

This year’s judges wrote the following of the winning text:

This simultaneously rhetorical and gut-wrenching analysis of rape/culture from the embodied experiences of victims is game changing in terms of understanding cultural, political, and intersectional interpretations of rape investigations and public perceptions of rapists/victims. Providing historical and archival insights into how we’ve arrived at current interrogations of rape, the author provides visceral and public examples of rape/trials interwoven with classical rhetoric terminology and interdisciplinary feminist, racial, and media scholarship. Reading not just her remarkable first book, but also her other publications, reminds us that our scholarship can be brave, bold, and unapologetic in its commitments to feminist inquiry.

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Headshot of Karma Chavez

Karma R. Chavez

Karma R. Chávez, honorable mention for The Borders of AIDS: Race, Quarantine, and Resistance. Dr. Chávez  (she/her) is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas-Austin

This year’s judges wrote the following of Chávez’s text:

A beautifully researched work, this monograph is grounded in archival, cultural, and legislative research/history. Chavez adds voices of the stakeholders to traditional narratives, and in the process complicates the reputations of elected officials and understandings of policies. Providing new terms and definitions for discussing the height of AIDS crises, this work breaks new ground and gives readers novel lenses and language for understanding motivations and ramifications of quarantine measures, particularly for migrant populations. While focused on histories and policies of the late twentieth century, The Borders of AIDS holds relevancy for contemporary pandemics and official medical policy/controversies.

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Headshots, from left to right: Katie Fredlund, Kerri Hauman, Jessica Ouelette

From L to R: Katie Fredlund, Kerri Hauman, and Jessica Ouellette

Katie Fredlund, honorable mention for Feminist Connections: Rhetoric and Activism across Time, Space, and Place. Dr. Fredlund (she/her) is Associate Professor of English and Director of First-Year Writing at the University of Memphis.

Kerri Hauman, honorable mention for Feminist Connections: Rhetoric and Activism across Time, Space, and Place. Dr. Hauman (she/her) is Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Communications, and Co-Director of the First-Year Seminar at Transylvania University.

Jessica Ouellette, honorable mention for Feminist Connections: Rhetoric and Activism across Time, Space, and Place. Dr. Ouellete (she/her) is Assistant Professor of English and Director of Writing Programs at the University of Southern Maine.

This year’s judges wrote the following of Fredlund, et al’s edited collection:

This beautiful collection of essays puts time, place, and space into rhetorical conversations that revisit and mash up traditional components of classical rhetoric. The editors clearly organize these insightful articles into three sections (revisionary, circulatory, response) that break new ground in archival and feminist research—focusing on various technologies, genres, and digital collections/work. Highlighting available means and rhetorical strategies, contributors address nuances of Rhetorical Transversal Methodology (RTM) in ways that illuminate/reify enduring significance of narratives we already know while shining light on new stories/storytelling. The result is most impressive, producing: new theories for future research, novel understandings of both historical social movements and our own, and models for re-envisioning archival research methods and delivering those findings.

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Headshot of Michelle Smith

Michelle C. Smith

Michelle C. Smith, honorable mention for Utopian Genderscapes: Rhetorics of Women’s Work in the Early Industrial Age. Dr. Smith (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of rhetoric and composition in the Department of English at Clemson University.

This year’s judges wrote the following of Smith’s text:

A beautiful archival examination of women’s labor through the lens of  historical utopian communities, this monograph offers a newly-imagined methodological lens—ecologies of gender—for viewing work within rhetorical historiography. Historians and cultural rhetorics scholars alike will appreciate this work, particularly the perception of women’s labor from the 18th to 19th centuries. Despite recent investigations of individual women, Smith argues that focused attention on the success of single women can potentially contribute to ongoing inequities in work, pay, and gender expectations. This work is grounded in archival investigations of the three profiled utopians, archival materials and artifacts, and a cultural lens—importantly concluding with a suasive list of reasons not to dismiss utopian societies of the past and arguing that we can currently learn much about our present moment from study of these past communities.

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Finally, this year’s committee would also like to recommend two notable titles: Erin A. Frost and Michelle F. Eble, eds. Interrogating Gendered Pathologies; and Amy E. Dayton and Jennie L. Vaughn, eds. Ethics and Representation in Feminist Rhetorical Inquiry.

They appreciated the interdisciplinary nature of both projects, offering the following comments:

Interrogating Gendered Pathologies is a tightly-edited collection of personal, cultural, and scientific essays from sixteen contributors, addressing medicine, gender, diagnosis/pathologies, science, and intersectionality. Written for a non-medical audience, authors adopt a range of hybrid rhetoric/composition methodologies to shine light on universal health issues, ones informed by first-hand experiences, rhetorical analyses, and topical social justice issues. The result is a collection that will appeal to a wide range of readers.

Paying homage to the influence of long-time staunch Coalition supporter Nan Johnson, Ethics and Representation in Feminist Rhetorical Inquiry is a must-read for feminist archival researchers and teachers. Sixteen contributors disrupt linear storytelling practices: they call for histories that resist the lure of crafting succinct narratives, expand definitions of collaboration and corroboration, and upend archival methods in ways that complicate the search for easy answers. This work provides historical scholarship that is timely and topical in its approach to methodology and invites readers to imagine how they might apply expanded hybrid research methods to a wide range of case studies and collections—resulting in expanded storytelling and an unsettling of existing archives and artifacts.

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Please join us in congratulating all of these scholars on their work. Calls for nominations for the 2024 Book Award (reflecting titles published in 2022 and 2023) will begin circulating in Fall 2023.

Tarez Samra Graban
Immediate Past-President
Awards Chair 2020–2022

and the 2022 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award Committee
Alexis E. Ramsey-Tobienne (chair)
Elisa Findlay
Lynée Lewis Gaillet
Sarah Bess McCullouch
Timothy P. Oleksiak

Call for Nominations: 2022-2024 CFSHRC Advisory Board (2/4 Nomination Deadline)

The Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition seeks nominations for its active Advisory Board for the 2022-2024 term. Both peer- and self-nominations are encouraged.The Coalition, founded in 1989, fosters inquiry in feminist histories, theories, and pedagogies of rhetoric and composition. As a network of diverse teachers and scholars, the Coalition promotes intersectionality, collaboration, and communication in the following areas:

  • the advancement of feminist research and pedagogy across histories, locales, identities, materialities, and media;
  • the education and mentoring of feminist faculty and graduate students in scholarship, research methods, praxis, and the politics of the profession.

As an organization of dedicated individuals and groups, we seek to cultivate a dynamic, intellectually challenging, and professionally nurturing community. We welcome and sustain all who do feminist work, inclusive of all genders, sexualities, races, classes, nationalities, religions, abilities, and other identities, in their research and/or classrooms.Most importantly, we are a busy and growing organization, offering many opportunities for involvement. Advisory Board members contribute to the Coalition in ways such as the following:

  • serving on organizational committees (e.g., standing committees as well as award and ad hoc committees);
  • serving on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed, quarterly journal Peitho;
  • liaising with the conference organizers of our biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics conference;
  • facilitating mentoring tables at the Coalition’s annual 4Cs session; and
  • attending scheduled Advisory Board meetings during the 2022-2024 term

Notes about Process:

  • To make a nomination, please send the nominee’s name, current institutional affiliation, and e-mail contact information. I will then reach out to the candidate to ask for supporting materials. Supporting materials include: a letter explaining their interest in serving on the AB and a CV. In the case of self-nominations, nominees will submit these materials to me.
  • Nominees need not already be members of the Coalition, but they will be asked to join upon accepting their nomination.

Please submit all nominations and self-nominations to Jess Enoch (jenoch1@umd.edu) by Friday, February 4th. Supporting materials will be due Monday, February 14th.

With thanks,

Jessica Enoch

Vice-President, CFSHRC

Annual Coalition Wednesday Evening Event: Online, 3/23, 6-8 PM (Eastern)

The Coalition is pleased to announce that we will host our annual “Wednesday Evening Event” via Zoom again this year. While we were not able to fit the session into the limited schedule for the now virtual Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), we hope you will join us for an engaging evening of discussion about the guiding values and priorities of feminist scholars, teachers, and activists in the field. Details are below.

Note that registration, which is free, is required. Registrants will receive a program for the event via email as the date nears.

REGISTER HERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpceigpzovH9RcfIwLsWfzCvdqbd6Loqwr


What do we really value?

Creating a Shared Values Statement to Guide Inclusivity

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

6:00-8:00 PM, via Zoom

with Chicago-based facilitator Julia Perkins, Founder and Chief Strategist, MBMD Strategic Consultants

Julia Perkins

Peitho Seeking Short Memorial Pieces on bell hooks (deadline 2-28)

The Coalition mourns the passing of bell hooks on December 15, 2021. In recognition of her immeasurable legacy, the editorial team at Peitho, the journal of  the Coalition, invites short memorial pieces for the winter 2022 issue. Contributions might reflect on how hooks influenced feminist teaching, research, activism, and more.