CWSHRC seeks Web Designer

/in , , /by

Image Caption: CWSHRC SEEKS WEB DESIGNER FOR JOURNAL’S REINVENTION. Peitho will relaunch Fall/Winter 2015 w/media-rich content (webtexts, video). Share your vision & get paid ($500-1K). New platform/format must be compatible w/current one plus improve media-rich content delivery, accessibility, searchability. Timeframe: 4 months (5/1/-9/1). Application deadline: 17 April. BE THE ARCHITECT OF *PEITHO* 2.0

The Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition seeks an individual with web experience to help redesign the online platform for its scholarly journal, Peitho. The timeframe for desired work is 1 May to 1 September 2015.

Peitho is currently hosted at http://peitho.cwshrc.org and operates on a WordPress platform. Since its conversion to an online peer-reviewed journal, Peitho has elicited a growing number of web-based submissions and media-rich contributions that call for a more flexible and sophisticated format.

With that in mind, a new journal platform and format should enable:

  • improved accessibility, including but not limited to providing SEO and article indexing capabilities (optimized for Google Scholar/Google searches);
  • integration with current member services (i.e., PayPal, membership lists);
  • publication of increasingly sophisticated media-rich content, including webtexts, audio-visual publications, and so on;
  • appropriate backend access for editors and editorial staff;
  • easy updating by current and future journal staff;
  • sustainability over time.

The new journal platform and format should also:

  • retain the http://peitho.cwshrc.org URL;
  • remain technically compatible with the cwshrc.org platform, whether or not the journal continues to use WordPress*;
  • remain visually compatible with the cwshrc.org site, incorporating the Peitho logo and a complementary color scheme;
  • enfold existing content, ensuring it remains accessible and is accurately indexed. 

The budget range for this project is $500-$1000. The timeframe for completing this job is five months: May 1st to September 1st, 2015. The Peitho editorial team intends to publish the Fall/Winter 2015 issue using the new journal format in September 2015.

Please direct questions about the redesign to Jenny Bay, Jenn Fishman, and Lindal Buchanan.

Submit proposal (including estimate and rationale for proposed fee), portfolio, and resumé by 17 April 2015 to Lindal Buchanan.

*While the Coalition will consider proposals that include use of platforms other than WordPress, both compatibility and cost are matters of significant concern. Proposals for migrating to a new platform should offer detailed information as well as a strong rationale and a full accounting of initial as well as annual fees that might be involved.

Help @CWSHRC Tweet #4C15

/in , , /by

Who’s in, Coalition? 

The image featured in this post shows a tweet posted by @CWSHRC that reads, “A Q for @CWSHRC #4C15-goers: Who can help tweet our 3/18 6:30pm session? It’s Marriott Salon E—& here, hopefully! .” Below @jcburgess25 replies: “@CWSHRC Looking forward to attending & to tweeting from the session!

Help Us Keep Improving

/in , , /by

This image shows a red wall with a roughly cut square hole in the middle, where grey metal mounts for two electrical switches sit partially covered by blue electrical tape.

As a group, we’ve been busy this year with any number of new projects and initiatives. Two important efforts have been led by two recently formed task forces, the Task Force on Digital Media and the Task Force on Mission Articulation.

The TL;DR goes like this: you can help these two groups by taking their surveys:

For readers who would like additional details:

The Task Force on Digital Media was formed to review the Coalition’s scholarly communication needs and goals, study members’ engagement with digital media both in general and specific to Coalition business, and evaluate the organization’s capacity to support new roles (i.e., social media director), resources (i.e., Tumblr), and activities (i.e., regular blog series). Members include Estee Beck, Cristy Beemer, Kris Blair, Jenn Fishman, Mariana Grohowski (Chair), Laurie McMillan, and Alexis Ramsey-Tobienne.

This image shows the tops of three differently sized paintbrushes in a clear glass jar.

The TF on Digital Media survey is currently available online. The group will circulate their report and recommendations to the CWSHRC Advisory Board and interested Coalition members in time for discussion at FemRhet 2015, October 28-31 in Tempe, AZ.

 

The Task Force on Mission Articulation was formed to address Coalition members’ concerns that the organization does not engage the full range of teachers and scholars doing feminist work in rhetoric and composition, including feminist research, histories of women, studies of gender and sexuality, mentoring, and advocacy for gender-based justice both in and beyond higher education. Recognizing the prominence of white, cis-gendered women and feminisms within the CWSHRC, this task force is working to understand how organization can better support more scholars, including (but not limited to) scholars of color, LGBTQ scholars, and scholars with disabilities.

The TF on Mission Articulation includes Risa Applegarth, Jess Enoch, Barb L’Eplattenier, Kate Navickas, and Wendy Sharer (Chair). They have two surveys: one for current Coalition members and one for nonmembers. They will be gathering data through FemRhet 2015 and circulating a report along with recommendations to the CWSRHC Advisory Board and interested members prior to 4C16, April 6-9 in Houston, TX.

This image shows a white peg board with six rows of differently colored drawer pulls.

We welcome your comments and questions as we continue our work, and we look forward to sharing the results of our labors in the future.

 

Image 1: “Switching Color and Light” by Robert S. Donovan: ; Image 2: “DIY” by Alan Cleaver; Image 3: “Home Improvement, 2011” by Marc Gautier.

The Critical Work of the *Peitho* Associate Editor

/in , , /by

A guest blog by Peitho editors Jenny Bay and Patricia Sullivan

The call for Peitho‘s assistant editor describes the job in this way:

The Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CWSHRC) seeks an Associate Editor for Peitho, its biannual peer-reviewed online journal. The Associate Editor is responsible for book reviews in each issue; for following up with authors who receive revise and resubmits and, if desired, finding mentors to assist them with interpreting reviewer comments and refining drafts; and for coordinating efforts with the journal Editors. Additionally, the selected applicant can expect to participate in Editorial Team meetings, CWSHRC Advisory Board meetings, and the CWSHRC Wednesday night open meeting held annually at the Conference for College Composition and Communication. For full consideration, applications are due 12/10/14.

From our perspectives as editors, the associate editor contributes work that is critical to achieving the feminist goals of the journal in terms of mentoring less experienced researchers and honoring feminine ways of coming to know. Let us say more.

This post addresses two questions from our perspective: what does the above description mean to us, and who should consider applying for the position of associate editor of Peitho?

What is the job?
We are trying in Peitho to serve two mistresses: one that preserves the scholarly double-blind review that is preferred for academic promotions and the second that seeks to mentor scholars by using feminist support. The editor(s) oversee(s) the first role and the associate editor oversees the second.

Mentoring is a major plank for the journal, and it is one of the associate editor’s major responsibilities. The coalition believes in peer mentoring of researchers; thus, we institutionally support scholars by having the associate editor oversee mentoring for those scholars whose article submissions to Peitho call for revision. This does not mean that the associate editor does developmental editing for all submissions that receive “revise and resubmit.” Instead, authors will be advised that mentoring is available and is coordinated by the associate editor. Those who contact the associate editor will be paired with an editorial board member and that person will work together to plan how the revision can go. The “mentor” will ultimately help the author assess when the revision is ready for resubmission. The associate editor keeps this work on track as best she can.

Peitho is also a journal that believes in book reviews. So handling book reviews is the other major part of the associate editor’s job. The associate editor solicits book reviews that are appropriate for the journal and helps manage their submissions and copyediting.

Who is needed?
Our ideal associate editor will be someone with tenure and/or years of experience with the study of women in rhetoric and composition. A wise woman such as Lisa Mastrangelo, our out-going associate editor, is needed.

We also want to solicit someone who has a vision for the future of feminist scholarship and work in the field.

Not all scholars in the Coalition hold positions that include work with graduate students, and those scholars have much mentoring to share. This position would help the associate editor demonstrate the mentoring of less experienced scholars for promotion purposes. It would also provide an outlet to give advice and assistance to newer scholars.

For full consideration, applications are due 12/10/2014. The online submission form is available on the Peitho webiste. Please direct questions to Peitho editors Jenny Bay and Patricia Sullivan.

Situating Composition, Celebrating Lisa Ede

/in , , /by

Thanks to our colleagues at Oregon State University, the generous hosts of “Situating Composition,” aka #LisaCon, we can all recognize Friday, October 24th 2014 as Lisa Ede Day. So many of us are so lucky to know Lisa, who is (to quote Twitter) our most wonderful, most fabulous, most magnificent and lovable teacher, collaborator, mentor, and friend. She is also the inspiration for a new Coalition award: the CWSHRC Lisa Ede Mentoring Award. 

Since it’s founding 25 years ago, the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition has been an organization of mentors and mentoring. We might say scholarship is the head of the organization, mentoring is the heart, and teaching is the open hand. While it is true that we look to our colleague Lisa Ede as an example of each of these activities, we cannot think of anything more fitting than to honor her work by establishing an award for mentoring in her honor.
Beginning this fall at the 10th Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, which will be held at ASU (10/28-10/31/15), we will proudly and with great pleasure give the first Lisa Ede Mentoring Award to a colleague or colleagues who follow Lisa’s example. Specifically, this award will be given to an individual or group with a career-record of mentorship, including formal and informal advising of students and colleagues; leadership in campus, professional, and/or local communities; and other activities that align with the overall mission and goals of the Coalition.

For more information about how to nominate a colleague or colleagues (materials are due 5/1/2015) and how to contribute to the award fund, please download our informational flyer, and don’t hesitate to contact us with questions. Please, too, congratulate Lisa the next time you see or write to her.
(W/thanks to OSU and @WritingAtLaneCC for the first and last images, respectively.)

Count ’em: 5 New CWSHRC Opportunities!

/in , , /by


There is a lot going on with the Coalition these days, and as a result we have five new scholarly and volunteer opportunities to announce. Specifically, we are currently looking for 1) a new Assistant Editor to Peitho; 2) a Curator for the Digital New Work Showcase that will appear in Peitho 17.2; 3) volunteers for a new Task Force on Digital Media; 4) volunteers for a new Task Force on Mission Articulation; 5) and FemRhet 2015 liaisons.

Read all about these great opportunities to get (more) involved with the Coalition and volunteer!

1) Assistant Editor, Peitho

A great opportunity for a Coalition scholar who would like to join the Peitho Editorial Team and learn more about Peitho and scholarly editing, the Associate Editor is responsible for book reviews, author correspondence, and (if desired) contributor mentoring. You can read more here. For full consideration, applications are due 12/10/2014.

back to top

2) Curator, Digital New Work Showcase

Attention digital scholars: The Coalition would like to collaborate with you on the digital version of this year’s 4Cs New Work Showcase. The event itself will feature new scholarship by 12 Coalition colleagues, and the digital version of the event will make everyone’s work accessible to Peitho 17.2 readers. Volunteers for this role should be experienced multimedia composers familiar with Word Press. Interested? Volunteer by 10/27. 

back to top

3) Task Force on Digital Media

Are you a social media maven? Do you research digital scholarly and social communication? If you answered, “Yes!” to one or both of these questions, then you are half way to joining the Task Force on Digital Media, which will help the Coalition develop and use its online resources. Ready to take that next step? Click the link and volunteer by 10/27.

back to top

4) Task Force on Mission Articulation

As many of you know, members of the Advisory Board have become increasingly concerned that the Coalition is failing to engage the full range of teachers and scholars who are doing feminist historical work (broadly defined) in rhetoric and composition. In particular, we worry that our group’s nomenclature, language in our governing documents, and/or our organizational practices contribute to a culture that undermines the CWSHRC mission and alienates scholars we wish to include: scholars of color, LGBTQ scholars, scholars with disabilities, male-identified feminists, and more. Members of this task force will lead an organizational self-study and make concrete recommendations to the Advisory Board. Be part of this important group: volunteer by 10/27.

back to top

5) CWSHRC-FemRhet Liaison Committee

Are you *both* a FemRhet fan and a CWSHRC devotee? Join this committee and help coordinate conference-related communication and projects, including the FemRhet 2015 Book Exhibit. Everyone interested in hosting a future FemRhet conference is especially encouraged to apply (by 10/27).

back to top

With thanks to Michie.ru for “Volunteer.”



KEWOAA!

/in /by

Coalition scholars had even made up a secret code name . . . a name admired around the world: KEWOAA, the Outstanding Feminist Scholar!*

Every other year, the CWSHRC invites nominations for the Kathleen Ethel Welch Outstanding Article Award (KEWOAA), and the time has come. From now through January 1st, 2005, we are accepting nominations for the journal article or book chapter that demonstrates outstanding scholarship in the areas of feminist pedagogy, practice, history, and/or theory within the field of composition and rhetoric.

What works are eligible? Articles and book chapters published in the last two years (2013-2014) and composed by current CWSHRC members, whether  individually or collaboratively authored. In addition works should:

  • be broadly situated within and relevant to feminist research in rhetoric and composition;
  • address a research problem clearly couched within existing scholarship of the field;
  • demonstrate a fair and balanced research agenda in the form of feminist inquiry (i.e., archival, historical, classroom-based, community based, empirical, or theoretical);
  • fill a clear and compelling need;
  • provide a framework that can be advanced by other researchers;
  • make a substantial contribution to the field. 

Nominations must be received by January 1, 2015. All must include a brief nominating statement. Electronic nominations should also include a complete, unannotated PDF copy of the nominated work. Hardcopy nominations should include three complete, unannotated photocopies of the nominated work.

Please send submissions to : 

Elizabeth Tasker Davis, Past President and Chair of the Awards Committee
Department of English
Stephen F. Austin State University
PO Box 13007, SFA Station
Nacogdoches, TX 75962-3007
taskerea at sfasu dot edu

*The original passage reads, “Evelyn had even made up a secret code name for herself . . . a name feared around the world: TOWANDA, THE AVENGER!” Fannie Flagg, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe

Volunteer to Mentor a CWSHRC Scholar

/in , /by

Mentoring is an activity and ethos fundamental to the CWSHRC, and this year Coalition members have a unique opportunity to mentor scholars who are knee-deep in important new work. Read on for details, including the 9/21 deadline for volunteering. 

As you may recall, our Wednesday night session  at the CCCC in Tampa will begin with an hour-long New Work Showcase featuring 12 scholars’ simultaneous, showcase-style presentations of new work. This group will also remediate their presentations for inclusion in the Spring 2015 issue of Peitho.

To prepare, we are matching each scholar with a mentor. Specifically, are pairing presenters with Coalition members

  1. whose scholarly interests and expertise overlap,
  2. who can offer suggestions and feedback on presenters’ mediation plans for the conference;
  3. who can also offer suggestions and feedback on presenters’ remediation plans for Peitho.

Nota bene: Conference presentations include posters, audio-visual laptop displays, brief activities, and so on. Peitho remediations will translate face-to-face presentations into formats that will be meaningful and accessible to online journal readers. The latter are *not* meant to extend conference presentations into full-length articles.

To become a mentor, review the list of Showcase presentations below and email me your request no later than Sunday, September 21st.

Best and looking forward!
Jenn, CWSHRC President (2014-2016)

2015 CCCC/CWSHRC New Work Showcase Presentations

1. From Research to Archive Building: A Model for Feminist Scholars Working with and for “Participants—This project is a prototype for a digital archive I hope to make with and for former unwed mothers. A StoryCorps-style interview will capture two mothers’ memories of being shamed and silenced, hiding their pregnancies, and relinquishing their children for adoption.

2. “Making the Most and Best Use of Eggs”: Producer-Consumers, Modernist Labor Periodicals, and the Rhetoric of The Farmer’s Wife—The Farmer’s Wife (c. 1906) is a periodical as unique as its intended audience. But should it remain a “ladies’ magazine” in scholarship? Or can connections be made to rhetorics of labor? This speaker will confront these questions, exploring 1916 issues of TFW & other magazines.

3. Recasting Aurora in a New Light: Rhetorical Agency, Genocide, and Cinema—The subject of this project is Aurora Mardaganian, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide and a historical figure in American silent-cinema. As a historiographical recovery effort, it will examine the rhetorics Mardaganian deployed in order to understand what has not been considered or has yet to be theorized about Mardaganian’s rhetorical agency.

4. Madams, Memory, and Myth in a Wide-Open Mining Town—This project examines rhetorical patterns of historic discourse that enabled the open secret presence of brothel-based sex work in a rural northern Idaho mining town from 1894-1991. How do community values negotiated through gossip impact the way we create and change culture?

5. “I Apologize”: Promiscuous Audiences, Surveillance, and the Risks of Televised and Online Black Feminist Discourse—Ironically, successful shows like MSNBC’s “Nerdland” seem to amplify threats against Black women after verbal missteps. By analyzing recent controversies through a reimagining of the “promiscuous audience” (Zaeske 1995), this paper considers how to reduce risks of public activism.

6. Introducing the Digital Archive of the Colored State Normal School of Elizabeth State University, Elizabeth City, North Carolina—Resisting an essentialist view of the New England normal school and southern black industrial school, this presentation employs strategic listening to the journalist writings of young female teachers committed to literacy and community uplift despite legal disenfranchisement.

7. A Decade of Growth: An Overview of Feminist Research Methods and Methodologies—This presentation reports on feminist studies published in six leading journals in rhetoric and composition. This overview presents the types of feminist work valued in the discipline, and it identifies sites of intervention that feminist scholars should attune to in the future.

8. Middle Eastern Feminist Rhetorics—To challenge the persistent silencing of Middle Eastern women and address their exclusion from histories of rhetoric, this presentation reads contributions of Lebanese and Arab feminists to Al-Raida (1976-present) as integral to understanding contemporary transnational rhetorics.

9. Doing it All the Time: A Queer Consent Workshop—In queer and pro-sex feminist communities, sexual consent is an embodied process and a set of teachable practices. This mini-workshop uses the methodology of peer education to teach consent. Participants will learn consent practices and get consent zines as takeaways.

10. Black Feminists Make Online Community not War over Beyoncé and Feminism—In 2013, singer Beyoncé asserted herself as a feminist in her self-titled visual album. This project uses computer-mediated discourse analysis (Herring 2004) of blog responses to the album to demonstrate how Black female bloggers build community through both assent and dissent.

11. Conscious Cleansing: Rhetorics of Reconciliation and Ireland’s Magdalen Laundries—This showcase will examine the impact of the Irish government’s apology to Magdalen laundry survivors as an act that alters the rhetorical space afforded to victims. As a way forward, a rhetoric of reconciliation is offered in conjunction with the work of Christine de Pizan.

12. Cross(dress)ing the Mason-Dixon Line: Recovering Rhetorical Histories that Disrupt Normative Notions of Gender—Featuring two memoirs that portray women’s experiences as crossdressing spies and soldiers in the American Civil War, this presentation advocates for recovery and study of histories that illuminate and disrupt assumptions about gender within rhetoric and composition scholarship.

Help Make Coalition History

/in , /by

Dear Coalition Friends and Colleagues,

This blog post is an invitation. It’s addressed not only to current Coalition members, but also to past and future members as well as allied scholars and teachers who have contributed to Coalition events over the past 25 years.

We invite you to help make Coalition history by sharing your CWSHRC media.

What’s the occasion? As you may remember, Alexandra Hidalgo is currently producing a documentary about the first quarter century of the Coalition. She filmed our 25th Anniversary Gala, and she conducted a series of interviews at CCCC 2014. Of course, she could not talk with everyone, nor could she travel back in time to collect footage of past events.

But who needs time machines when you have rhetoric and composition historians?

To contribute to Alex’s efforts as well as the Coalition’s archives, we ask you to share your media (i.e., still images, video, document scans), including but not limited to mementos from:

  • CCCC Coalition meetings and related sessions;
  • Feminisms and Rhetorics conferences;
  •  and informal meet-ups with Coalition colleagues.
To support Alex’s work, upload still pictures and other media over the next 2 weeks: by Friday, September 12th.

This invitation is open to all, and the resulting archive will be available to Coalition members for both scholarly and organizational purposes. If you have any questions, please contact Coalition President Jenn Fishman.

 

[fu-upload-form title=”Upload Coalition Media Here:” suppress_default_fields=”true”][input type=”text” name=”author_name” class=”required” description=”Enter your name if/as you wish to be credited for your contribution:”][textarea name=”post_content” description=”Please indicate the title(s) of the media you are uploading (if any) and offer a brief description of the person(s)/object(s)/occasion(s) represented:” class=”required”][input type=”file” name=”photo”  id=”ug_photo” description=”Your Media” multiple=”true”][checkboxes name=”permissions” class=”checkboxes required” description=”By checking this box I give my permission for the file(s) I upload to be included by Alexandra Hidalgo in her documentary about the Coalition and in related scholarly publications and presentations. I also give permission for my file(s) to be archived in perpetuity by the Coalition of Women Scholars and to be used by Coalition members for organizational/educational/scholarly purposes including public presentations and both print and electronic publications.” values= “value:I agree for my images to be used.”] [input type=”submit” value=”Submit”] [/fu-upload-form]

Feminism and Rhetoric – 2013 CFP

/in , , /by

CFP Feminisms and Rhetorics 2013

Linked:  Rhetorics, Feminisms, and Global Communities

The Program in Writing and Rhetoric and the Hume Writing Center invite proposals for the Ninth Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics conference, to be held at Stanford University September 25-28, 2013. Our emphasis this year is on links, the connections between people, between places, between times, between movements. The conference theme—Linked: Rhetorics, Feminisms, and Global Communities—reflects Stanford’s setting in the heart of Silicon Valley, a real as well as virtual space with links to every corner of the globe. We aim for a conference that will be multi-vocal, multi-modal, multi-lingual, and inter-disciplinary, one in which we will work together to articulate the contours of feminist rhetorics.

Building on the 2011 conference, with its focus on the challenges and opportunities of feminism, the 2013 conference will seek to explore links between and among local and global, academic and nonacademic, past and present, public and private, and online and offline communities. In particular, we invite conversations about cross-cultural and global rhetorics, science and technology, entrepreneurship, outreach, or intersections among these.

We invite proposals (panels or individual submissions) treating any links between feminisms and rhetorics. The following questions are of particular interest:

  • What links do we make or fail/neglect to make in the work we do (in communities, in our field(s), in the classroom setting, across cultures)?
  • How are cross-cultural rhetorics embodied?
  • How do feminist rhetorics intersect with/operate in global, social, financial, activist, and communication networks?  How can we use these links for productive outreach?
  • How does or can writing link multimedia worlds?
  • What are the specific spaces (geographical, virtual, etc.) where solidarities (strategic, impermanent, etc.) are formed? How do new audiences, contexts, ideas, movements emerge in these spaces? How are the feminisms of the 21st century “linked in”?
  • What kind of genderings/racings/classings happen in the rhetorical situations of internet-based social networks?
  • How does the link between feminism and rhetoric help us interrogate nationalism, fundamentalism, violence, and/or war?
  • What can feminist theory/ies bring to cross/intercultural communication?  How can entrepreneurial or social-entrepreneurial efforts help us redefine or improve cross/intercultural communication and outreach?
  • How might the study of intercultural rhetorics enrich and complicate accepted narratives of feminisms, western rhetoric and science?

Deadline for submission: February 1, 2013

Questions or comments?      femrhet2013@stanford.edu