FemRhet 2023: Awards Committees Volunteers Needed

Hello Coalition!

By now you have likely seen the exciting CFP for Feminisms and Rhetorics at Spelman College, September 30- October 3. In anticipation of this amazing event, the Coalition needs your help reviewing submissions for a handful of awards to be presented in Atlanta.Are you able to help by serving on an award committee? If so, please follow this link and complete the brief survey of interest: https://forms.gle/oj8JZG7vUct5yiAo9Awards to be made at FemRhet 2023 are described briefly below. More details about each award, including submission and past recipient information, can be found on the CFSHRC website’s Awards page: https://cfshrc.org/awards/.

  • The 2023 Presidents Dissertation Award is given to the author(s) of a recently completed doctoral dissertation that makes an outstanding contribution to our understanding of feminist histories, theories, and pedagogies of rhetoric and composition. This award is adjudicated every year and carries a $200.00 honorarium. 
  • The Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship Award is intended to encourage feminist scholarship (particularly historical in nature) by graduate scholars from diverse and historically un or underrepresented groups.  The award will be given to first-time presenters at the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference and includes both a monetary award ($500 each for up to 6 awardees) and participation in a specially designated session at the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference.
  • The Nan Johnson Graduate Student Travel Award is presented biennially in odd years to graduate students working in the field of composition and rhetoric and it recognizes outstanding scholarship and research in the areas of feminist pedagogy, practice, history, and theory. The award is designed to enable students to attend the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference by providing $200.00 travel stipends plus conference registration.
  • The Lisa Ede Mentoring Award is presented biennially in odd years 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. The award carries an honorarium of $200.00 per person or $500.00 for a group of three or more people and is announced at the biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference.

My thanks in advance for your willingness to help, and feel free to contact me at sharerw@ecu.edu if you have questions. -Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Awards Coordinator

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

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)

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

Webinar: Asian Women and the Model Minority Myth in North America (1/18/21)

Please join us for this important event, a part of the Coalition’s Feminist Scholarship Webinar Series!

Tuesday, January 18, 4:30-6:00 PM Eastern Time

Registration is required. Please register using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtceqgpz4sGNOboyD3F_P2tBVrFAOnCqEM


From the recent mass shooting in Atlanta, to the high profile case of Brock Turner, to the historic discrimination against Asian women in North American immigration policy, violence against Asian women is part of the legacy of racism and white supremacy in the United States and Canada. One of the stereotypes that this legacy draws upon is the Model Minority myth, which is the idea that Asians are quiet good minorities who exceed at all levels: academically, economically, professionally. This panel explores and reflects on the harm created by the Model Minority myth in shaping constructions of gender/sexuality of Asian women.

Session Leaders:

Dr. Kim Hong Nguyen Dr. Kim Hong Nguyen (she/they): Moderator, Associate Professor Communication Arts University of Waterloo

 

 

 

Dr. Thy PhuDr. Thy Phu (she/her)Distinguished Professor of Race, Diaspora and Visual Justice in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media at the University of Toronto, Scarborough

 

 

Dr. Jennifer Sano-Franchini Dr. Jennifer Sano-Franchini (she/her): incoming (2022) Gaziano Family Legacy Professor of Rhetoric and Writing Studies at West Virginia University

 

 

Nisha Shanmugaraj Nisha Shanmugaraj (she/her)fourth year PhD Candidate in Rhetoric at Carnegie Mellon University, Winner of the Coalition’s Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship Award

 

 

Dr. Shui-Yin Sharon Yam Dr. Shui-Yin Sharon Yam (she/her)Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky

Online Event! “Let’s Talk about Mentoring: A Feminist Approach to Compassion and Care in Academic Spaces” (Tues. 11/9, 4-5:30 PM EST)

The Coalition is very pleased to present the first event in our 2021-2022 Feminist Scholarship Webinar Series! Read below for details, and don’t forget to register by November 2nd!


Image including the details of the Event. The title is "Let’s talk about mentoring: A feminist approach to compassion and care in academic spaces." The date and time are: Tuesday November 9, 2021 1pm PST/4pm EST -2:30pm PST/5:30pm EST

***Please register for the event by Tuesday, November 2nd
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvcumtqDsoHt1DNhwJamnw_6ZZvL_XfCp1 

Join our charla to explore how feminist mentoring can help shape academia into a compassionate and caring place for BIPOC students and faculty. Drawing on our award-winning work on comadrismo, a feminist mentoring approach based on kinship and care, this webinar provides space for reflection, conversation, and practical takeaways to facilitate the success of underrepresented populations.

 

One week before the webinar, participants will be invited to read the article and participate in s Slack discussion facilitated by Sonia and Ana. Drs. Ribero and Arellano are winners of the 2021 Kathleen Ethel Welch Outstanding Article Award for “Advocating Comadrismo: A Feminist Mentoring Approach for Latinas in Rhetoric and Composition,” published in Peitho (21.2, 2019).

Your session leaders from left to right: Ana Milena Ribero, Sonia Arellano, Mallory Henderson, Genevieve Garcia de Mueller

2021 Presidents Dissertation Award Winners

This image shows the Coalition banner and headshots of Emily Smith and Luhui Whitebear.

The Presidents Dissertation Award was created in 2016 to celebrate recently completed doctoral dissertations that make “an outstanding contribution to our understanding of feminist histories, theories, and pedagogies of rhetoric and composition.” This year’s judges had the honor of vetting a set of projects that not only met these standards but did more, including reflecting innovative research methodologies and illuminating oft-neglected cultural and intellectual traditions. Additionally, the 2021 submissions celebrated advocacy and praxis, were elegantly composed, and rigorously engaged—or even challenged—extant frameworks, enhancing our understanding of feminist academic work in general by inviting subsequent inquiry and exchange.

In a non-COVID year, we would have conferred this award at Feminisms and Rhetorics 2021; however, this year, we are conferring awards online. Thus, on behalf of the 2021 Presidents Dissertation Award Committee, I am pleased to announce this year’s award recipients, in alphabetical order: Emily N. Smith (Penn State University) and Luhui Whitebear (Oregon State University).

Emily N. Smith, recipient of the 2021 Presidents Dissertation Award for

“Performing Histories: Archival Embodiment as Rhetorical Historiography.”

Dr. Smith is currently a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow in the Writing and Communication Program at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she will spend the next year working alongside 25 other scholars from the US, UK, and Canada, developing teaching and scholarship in writing and communication that emphasizes rhetoric, process, and multimodality. In May 2021, Smith completed her PhD in Rhetoric and Composition at Penn State University, where she was also a Dissertation Fellow at the Center for Democratic Deliberation. Her dissertation project argues that artists, scholars, and community members use performance to compose and circulate shared cultural histories through a methodology of “archival embodiment,” emphasizing Suzan-Lori Parks’s The America Play, the ouvre of American photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris, and Philadelphia’s Monument Lab project.

A related article, “A View from the Hill: ‘One Shot’ Harris and The Pittsburgh Courier,” appeared in Rhetoric Society Quarterly this past spring, demonstrating some of the “idiomatic visual rhetorical strategies of representation” that Smith argues for in her dissertation. One judge wrote the following of Smith’s project:

“Outstanding areas of inquiry—how people enact historiography through performance. Great objective: understanding performance as a mode of historiography and a significant genre of public memory. Excellent notes on the pedagogical implications of interconnections between rhetoric and embodied/multimodal performances.”

Another judge concurred:

“This is a conceptually rich study of performance, embodiment, and historiography. Smith’s project demonstrates some of the heretofore ‘untapped potential’ of multimodal composition pedagogies and helps readers to think in expansive and yet exacting ways how embodying archives implicates the rhetorical practices of historical storytelling and historiography. Especially compelling is the chapter on Harris’s quotidian photography as counternarrative, and the role that contemporary bodies play in reconstituting Black Pittsburgh’s history across time.”

Luhui Whitebear, recipient of the 2021 Presidents Dissertation Award for

“Secrets of Survival: Intergenerational Storytelling and Cultural Healing Through Gendered Rhetoric and Representation in Indigenous Activist Circles.”

Dr. Whitebear is an enrolled member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and the Assistant Director of the Oregon State University Native American Longhouse Eena Haws. She completed her PhD in Spring 2020 through the Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies program at OSU, where she also received a B.S. in Ethnic Studies, a second B.S. in Anthropology, and a M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (WGSS, Ethnic Studies, and Queer Studies focus). She is a mother, poet, and Indigenous activist, as well as an award-winning diversity advocate on her campus and in the Corvallis community.

Her research generally focuses on Indigenous rhetorics and she has published widely in the following areas: Indigeneity and reclaiming Indigenous identity/gender roles; murdered and missing Indigenous women; Indigenous resistance movements; and national laws and policies that impact Indigenous peoples. As such, Whitebear is passionate about disrupting systems of oppression and creating positive change in society. Her dissertation in particular works through rhetoric and representation in order to locate the Indigenous people and voices that are missing in the stories circulating through Indigenous activist communities, including both recorded stories and stories told verbally. One judge wrote the following of Whitebear’s project:

“The motivating question of study—how indigenous methodologies might fit within colonized epistemologies—provides an instructive case study. Feminist rhetorical scholars can better understand the deliberate ways that indigenous rhetorics can disrupt settler colonialism while centering practices of intergenerational healing. The result is a methodologically impressive and compelling narrative of reclaiming rhetorical sovereignty, one that not only theorizes about but also demonstrates the strength of intergenerational storytelling.”

Another judge concurred:

“This dissertation does address an important rhetorical intervention into storytelling and its relation to indigenous identity and activism. It illuminates memory and how that memory manifests in modern storytelling practices. The project is well versed in relevant academic work but extends that work. Even though the focus is on women’s studies, the same methods, methodologies, and praxis are relevant to rhetoric and composition. … The project does a good job of saying, this is just a step in the longer process, which invites more future scholarship. The methodology … offers an interesting and effective application of theories, particularly the concept of survivance.”

We offer our “Congratulations” to Whitebear and Smith, and to the faculty mentors who constituted their committees! Both of these winning projects drew simultaneously on the embodied, the historical, and the theoretical, but all of this year’s submissions were noteworthy. Thus, in addition to congratulating these scholars on their achievements, we gladly acknowledge the following individuals whose excellent work was also nominated or submitted for this award: Nancy Fox Edele (U of Washington, Seattle); Kathleen Hardesty (Texas Tech); Sarita Mizin (Lehigh U); Ruby Nancy (Eastern Carolina U); and Lena Ziegler (Bowling Green). Please look for their work, both in the ProQuest dissertation database and in their ensuing publications.

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

and members of the 2021 Presidents Dissertation Award Committee

Moushumi Biswas
Maureen Johnson
Amanda Pratt
Patrick Thomas

Online Mentoring Program 2021-2022

Dear Coalition Members,

We’ll be offering our online mentoring program again this year, in response to continued interest! Whether you are new to the program or are returning to it, the online mentoring arrangement is a way for us to share knowledge about research, teaching, activism, and professional development by matching mentor-mentee pairs who will collaboratively establish a schedule whereby the mentee can make good progress on an agreed-upon project (i.e., job market/prepping application materials; planning research projects/fieldwork; writing/revising materials for publication; developing a syllabus; applying for grants; etc.) within six months or less. Mentors and mentees may continue to work together beyond one six-month cycle if desired.

We want to be as flexible as possible so that mentoring pairs can figure out what works best for them, but we do offer some suggestions for getting started:

  • Determine which specific project you would like to work on with a mentor, or whether you would like help with less tangible things, such as gaining confidence in coursework or dealing with challenges in your workplace.
  • Determine how long you plan to commit. You may wish to start with a six-month commitment, and see how it goes.
  • Determine how often you would like to check-in with your mentor/mentee. Do you want to engage weekly, bi-weekly, monthly? What makes the most sense for your goals and schedules?
  • Determine which medium works best for your relationship (FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, email, phone, etc.).

We are seeking both mentors and mentees. If you are interested in participating either as a mentor, a mentee, or both, please fill out this registration form by August 1, indicating your interest. There is a spot on the form to indicate whether you want to continue with last year’s arrangement, as well.

Feel free to direct any questions to tarez.graban@gmail.com.

With many thanks and well wishes,
-Tarez Samra Graban
Immediate Past President

 

Event: “Art in the Time of Chaos” featuring Alexandra Hidalgo

In lieu of the Coalition’s annual “Wednesday Evening Event” at CCCC, we hope you will join us for a conversation with feminist scholar, teacher, and filmmaker, Alexandra Hidalgo (details below). Don’t worry–we haven’t forgotten about the second half of our annual event! Information about virtual “mentoring tables” is coming soon.

Alexandra Hidalgo

“Art in the Time of Chaos: Intersectional Feminist

Collaborations Between Latinas Across Continents”

Tuesday, April 20th @ 3 PM Eastern

Registration is free but required. Register at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JlZedxV1SFSGaUske5QVLA

photo of Alexandra Hidalgo  holding a camera in one hand, looking relaxed, in a pink patterned dressAs cofounder of the online publication agnès films: supporting women and feminist filmmakers and author of Cámara Retórica, Alexandra Hidalgo has spent over a decade theorizing feminist filmmaking as a methodology and activist tool.

In this presentation, Hidalgo will use film scenes and crew interviews in order to discuss her in-production feature documentary A Family of Stories, which tells the story of how her life was transformed by her journey to investigate the mystery of her father’s 1983 vanishing while he was buying gold in the Venezuelan Amazon and the secrets she uncovered about him, her family, and herself.

To capture her journey of self and familial discovery, Hidalgo works with producer Natalia Machado, editor Cristina Carrasco, and consulting editor Andrea Chignoli—fellow Latinas living in Argentina, Spain, and Chile. Her collaborators have brought their own experiences into shaping the film, enriching the story with their perspective. In the presentation, Hidalgo will screen scenes from the film and describe their collaboration process to argue for the value of intersectional feminism when working on memoir projects.

About Alexandra Hidalgo

Alexandra Hidalgo is an award-winning Venezuelan filmmaker, film and TV critic, theorist, memoirist, and editor whose documentaries have been official selections for film festivals in 15 countries and been screened at universities around the United States. Her videos and writing have been featured on The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, NPR, The Criterion Collection, and Women and Hollywood.

 

More Awards and a Call for Awards Committee Members

This is a rather rich year of award competitions, so I send a reminder that we are still accepting applications and/or nominations for three upcoming awards: (1) the Nan Johnson Graduate Student Travel Award; (2) the Lisa Ede Mentoring Award; and (3) the new Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship Award. These awards were created to celebrate the lives, legacies, and accomplishments of three outstanding women. We encourage you to apply directly for the Nan Johnson and Shirley Wilson Logan Awards, or to nominate your mentors for the Lisa Ede Award!

I am also pleased to post the first call for nominations for the 2021 Presidents Dissertation Award (due June 15, 2021)!

Feel free to direct any queries to tarez.graban@gmail.com. For a list of past award winners, and to learn more about our awards in general, visit https://cfshrc.org/awards.

We also need several robust committees to help adjudicate these awards! If you are interested in serving, please reach out to me (tarez.graban@gmail.com) as soon as possible, indicating your interest.

With thanks and well wishes for 2021,

Tarez Graban
CFSHRC Immediate Past President
2020–2022 Awards Chair

 

NAN JOHNSON OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL AWARD

The Nan Johnson Outstanding Graduate Student Travel Award is presented biennially in odd years to graduate students working in the field of composition and rhetoric and it recognizes outstanding scholarship and research in the areas of feminist pedagogy, practice, history, and theory. This award is usually tied to the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference, but because our 2021 programming is in flux, a temporary adjustment has been made to this award for 2021.

This year, the Coalition will confer up to 5 awards of free conference registration for graduate students to virtually attend a Summer or early Fall 2021 conference of their choosing (occurring between June 1 and October 31), where the recipients can share and deepen their understanding of the areas of feminist pedagogy, practice, history, and/or theory—including the 2021 RSA Summer Institute!

Please see the award description for eligibility criteria and application details. Applications are due April 1, 2021. Awards will be conferred virtually during Summer 2021.

 

SHIRLEY WILSON LOGAN DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

The new Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship is presented biennially in odd years to encourage feminist scholarship (particularly historical in nature) by graduate scholars from diverse and historically un or underrepresented groups. This award was designed for first-time presenters at the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference, but because our 2021 programming is in flux, a temporary adjustment has been to this award, as well.

This year, the Coalition will confer up to 6 awards of $500 each to first-time presenters at a Fall 2021 conference – occurring between September 1 and December 1 – at which they are presenting feminist scholarship.

Please see the award description for eligibility criteria and application details. Applications are due May 1, 2021. The Coalition will confer the awards and host a one-time virtual session bringing awardees together sometime during Fall 2021.

 

LISA EDE MENTORING AWARD

Finally, we invite you to submit nominations for outstanding feminist mentors to the Lisa Ede Mentoring Award, which is presented biennially in odd years to an individual or group with a career-record of mentorship. In this case, “mentoring” can include 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. The award carries an honorarium of $200 per person or $500 for a group of three or more people and is typically announced at the biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference. However, for 2021, the Coalition will confer this award virtually during Fall 2021.

Please see the award description for eligibility criteria and application details. Applications are due May 15, 2021.

 

PRESIDENTS DISSERTATION AWARD

In recognition of the close relationship between scholarly excellence and professional leadership, the Presidents Dissertation Award is given to the author(s) of a recently completed doctoral dissertation that makes an outstanding contribution to our understanding of feminist histories, theories, and pedagogies of rhetoric and composition. This annual award is adjudicated every year and carries a $200.00 honorarium, but it is presented in odd years at the biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference. However, for 2021, the Coalition will confer this award virtually sometime during Fall 2021.

For the 2021 Award, any doctoral dissertation that engages feminist histories, theories, and/or pedagogies of rhetoric and composition — and is completed between 6/1/2020 and 5/31/2021 — is eligible. Please see the award description for details. Nominations (including self-nominations) are due June 15, 2021.