Let’s Talk About It: Coalitional Conversations We Need to Have (April 9, 2025 6-8pm)

Dear CFSHRC friends and colleagues,

As you make your plans for attending CCCC 2025 in Baltimore, make sure you arrive in time to attend the annual CFSHRC Wednesday Night Event (April 9) from 6-8pm in the Baltimore Convention Center Meeting Room 308.

We invite all conference-goers—(bring your friends!)—to make the most of this occasion to be together and attend small-group roundtable discussions about issues that help build our coalition during our Wednesday night event, “Let’s Talk About It: Coalitional Conversations We Need To Have.” In the past four years, many of you have expressed feeling isolated as one of a few, or maybe even the only composition and rhetoric scholar on their campuses. After the COVID closures and cancellations of 2020-2021, we sought out opportunities to gather in new ways, and we have learned to treasure the times that we are together. To that end, our Wednesday evening of Cs event provides an opportunity for us to get together and talk about the urgent topics of our lives.

In recent years, we have seen school and program closures, the banning of books and DEI initiatives, racism, homophobia, climate change catastrophes, white supremacy, global violence, campus protests, and transphobia. While some pursue “business as usual” or a “return to (a new) normal,” the Coalition leadership will structure 45-minutes for members to talk and write about “It.”

First, we hope you’ll attend. But additionally, we’re asking for your input and expertise to make our Wednesday evening event engaging, meaningful, and coalitional. Below, fill out the survey to suggest topics and/or volunteer to serve as discussion leader. Discussion leaders will guide groups of 4-8 in documenting feminist coalitional thinking about these exigencies.

We will also continue our tradition of hosting mentoring tables for the second hour (7-8pm). If you would like suggest a topic for a mentoring table and/or volunteer to host/organize a mentoring table, please submit your ideas below. In the past. we’ve had mentoring tables on: mid-career life, parenting and the academy, alt-ac, the job market, writing a book, publishing in journals, career changes, approaching retirement, archival research, queer pedagogies, feminist historiography, community-engaged teaching, etc. You don’t have to do any prep work for table mentoring; just come and share your hard-earned lived experiences with others.

Here’s the link to the survey: https://forms.gle/5v9D3btDowBCiF4a8

Please submit your survey responses by February 15, 2025, so we have plenty of time to plan the event. Thanks, in advance, for your guidance and attention. We hope to see you in Baltimore!

Best,
Becca Richards, President

2024 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award Recipients

A little over a week ago, the Coalition had the pleasure of recognizing recipients of the Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award at our CCCC Wednesday evening event in Spokane. The Horner Award recognizes outstanding scholarship and research in the areas of feminist pedagogy, practice, history, and theory and carries a $200.00 honorarium. For this award cycle, the selection committee read and discussed 20 outstanding, diverse books—monographs and edited collection from multiple presses—published in calendar year 2022 or 2023. From among this impressive pool of nominated books, the committee selected two winners and four honorable mentions. 

Dr. Heather Brook Adams, wearing dark glasses and a black shirt, smiling in front of a gray background.
Our first award winner is Heather Brook Adams for her book, Enduring Shame: A Recent History of Unwed Pregnancy and Righteous Reproduction (U of South Carolina P, 2022). Dr. Adams is associate professor of English and a cross-appointed faculty member in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at the  University of North Carolina Greensboro. In addition, she has coedited Inclusive Aims: Rhetoric’s Role in Reproductive Justice (Parlor P, 2024) with Nancy Myers, and her work has appeared in journals including Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Rhetoric Review, Women’s Studies in Communication, Peitho, Computers and Composition, and Pedagogy as well as in several edited collections. She currently directs the UNCG Humanities Network and Consortium.

Our second award winner is V. Jo Hsu for their book, Constellating Home:V. Jo Hsu, wearing a black shirt, black pants, and a patterned cap, smiling while standing in front several buildings.Trans and Queer Asian American Rhetorics (Ohio State UP, 2022). Dr. Hsu is assistant professor of Rhetoric & Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. They approach rhetorical studies through the lens of disability justice, queer and trans of color critique, and critical ethnic studies. The questions driving their work are: What can the field(s) of rhetoric do to foster connection and care across difference? And, what stories must we tell to remake worlds conducive to one another’s thriving? You access most of their work via www.vjohsu.com.

Honorable mentions were conveyed to the following scholars:

Jane Greer wearing glasses and a scarf smiling while standing next to a brick wall.
Jane Greer for Unorganized Women: Repetitive Rhetorical Labor and Low-Wage Workers, 1834-1937 (U of Pittsburgh P, 2023). Dr. Greer is a Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor in the English Department at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, where she is also affiliated faculty member with the Center for Digital and Public Humanities. Her archival research focuses on the rhetorical performances and literacy practices of women and girls in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and she has collaborated with museums and cultural institutions across the Kansas City region to create opportunities for students to share stories of our collective past by composing museum tours and creating exhibits.

Dr. Gruwell smiling and wearing glasses, a blue shirt and a white sweater.Leigh Gruwell for Making Matters: Craft, Ethics, and New Materialist Rhetorics (Utah State UP, 2022). Dr. Gruwell is associate professor of English at Auburn University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in writing and rhetoric. Gruwell’s research centers on digital, feminist, and new materialist rhetorics as well as composition pedagogy and research methodologies. Along with Charles N. Lesh, she is the editor of Mentorship/Methodology: Reflections, Praxis, Futures.

Dr. Nish smiling and wearing a grey shirt

Jennifer Nish for Activist Literacies: Transnational Feminisms and Social Media Rhetorics (U of South Carolina P, 2022). Dr. Nish is associate professor of rhetoric and composition at Michigan Technological University. Her research engages with transnational feminism, digital media, activist rhetoric, and disability. Her research is also published in College Composition and Communication, Peitho, and several edited collections. Her current projects include a co-edited collection (with Belinda Walzer, Mais Al-Khateeb, and Sweta Baniya) titled (Re)Mobilizing Solidarity in/and Transnational Feminist Rhetorics and a book project that explores the activism and advocacy of people with Long Covid and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

Dr. Royster, smiling, wearing a multi-colored top and elephant necklace

Jacqueline Jones Royster for Making the World a Better Place: African American Women Advocates, Activists, and Leaders, 1773-1990 (U of Pittsburgh P, 2023). Dr. Royster is former Ivan Allen Jr. Chair in Liberal Arts and Technology and Dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology (2010-2019), and Professor Emerita at both The Ohio State University and Georgia Tech. In addition to Making the World a Better Place, her book publications include  Double-Stitch:  Black Women Write about Mothers and Daughters (co-edited, 1991); Southern Horrors and Other Writings:  The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1997; 2nd edition 2016), Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change among African American Women (2000), Profiles of Ohio Women, 1803-2003 (2003); Calling Cards: Theory and Practice in the Study of Race, Gender, and Culture (co-edited, 2005); Feminist Rhetorical Practices: New Horizons in Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies (co-authored with Gesa Kirsch, 2012, and recipient of the 2014 Horner Book Award); one college textbook and two school textbook series. She is also past recipient of The Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize and the Frances Andrew March Award from the MLA and the Braddock Award and the Exemplar Award from CCCC. She has also been named a Fellow of the Rhetoric Society of America.

Congratulations to all recipients! 

The Coalition would like to extend sincere gratitude to the members of the 2024 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award committee:

  • Risa Applegarth, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
  • Nicole Clawson, University of Utah
  • Regina Duthely-Barbee, University of Puget Sound
  • Nanette Hilton, College of Southern Nevada, *Committee Chair
  • Jennifer Love, Lane Community College

THANK YOU for all you do for the Coalition!

-Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Awards Coordinator

Seeking Donations for Fundraising Auction at FemRhet 2023

The CFSHRC Development Team seeks donated items for a silent auction at FemRhet 2023. Proceeds from the auction will be used to sustain/expand the Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship and the Nan Johnson Outstanding Graduate Student Travel Award in future years. Descriptions of both awards, from the Coalition’s website, are included below.

Items should be small and light so that you can bring them to the conference with you and so that winning bidders can transport them back from Atlanta. Such items might include handicrafts, books, jewelry, clothing, etc. We also request that items connect in some way to the theme of the conference—“Feminisms and Reckonings: Interrogating Histories and Harms, Beginning Restorative Practices”—and/or to the mission of the Coalition.

If you have questions or are interested in donating an item, contact Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Development Team Chair, at sharerw@ecu.edu. If you are considering donating an item, please provide the following in your email:

  • a brief description of the item
  • a photograph of the item (if possible)
  • a reasonable opening bid amount for the item

Thank you for your efforts to assist fellow feminist scholars and teachers. I look forward to seeing everyone at Spelman in a couple month!

-Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President
 sharerw@ecu.edu

The Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship
The purpose of the Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship award is 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. The award 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 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. The award is designed to enable students to attend the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference by providing $200.00 travel stipends plus conference registration.

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