2023 Nan Johnson Outstanding Graduate Student Travel Awards

I write to share more good news! On behalf of the Nan Johnson Outstanding Graduate Student Travel Award Committee, I am pleased to announce this year’s recipients, each of whom will receive complimentary conference registration for Feminisms and Rhetorics and a $200 stipend to help offset travel costs. Many thanks to those who served on the committee for their time and careful consideration of our many applicants! Members of the committee included Stephanie Jones, Callie Kostelich, Shirley Wilson Logan, Tara Pauliny (Chair), and Kaia Simon.

Below are the recipients, along with information about their sessions at FemRhet. Congratulations to all!

Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Awards Coordinator

 _________

Marissa Boglin, wearing a turquoise blouse with pink, blue, and black floral pattern, stands in front of a grey background.

Marissa Boglin

Marissa Boglin, University of Alabama

F.2, “Centering Silence and Reflection for Justice in the Writing Classroom”

 

Samira Grayson, wearing a white shirt with black horizontal stripes and clear-framed glasses, stands in from of a grey background.

Samira Grayson

Samira Grayson, Middle Tennessee State University

L.2, “Methods: Co-Authorship, Rhetorical Mapping, and Tools to Become Agents of Change”

 

Juliette Holder, wearing a gray and white striped shirt light brown blazer, stands in front of a tan wall.

Juliette Holder

Juliette Holder, Texas Women’s University

F.1, “Interrogating White Feminism”

 

Julie Kidder, wearing a light blue sweater with white shapes, stands in a hallway.

Julie Kidder

Julie Kidder, Carnegie Mellon University

A.2, “Critical Race Theory: Counterstory, Autoethnography, and Multiracial Bodies”

 

Jeanetta Mohlke-Hill, wearing a red top and tortoise shell glasses, stands in front of trees.

Jeanetta Mohlke-Hill

Jeanetta Mohkle-Hill, Michigan State University

F.4, “Finding Theory in Material Storytelling:

Embodied Textile Literacies of Social Justice Quilting, Home-Making, and Yoruba Weaving Practices”

 

Temitope Ojedele, wearing a blue shirt and black jacket, stands in front of a white background.

Temitope Ojedele

Temitope Ojedele, Virginia Tech University

G.6, “Transnational Feminism in Multiple Contexts and Countries in the Global South” (Roundtable)

 

Sidney Turner, wearing a white top with leaf embroidery, stands in from of a brick wall.

Sidney Turner

Sidney Turner,  Syracuse University

G.2, “Interrogating Media Representations of the ‘Ideal’ Feminine”

 

 

Graduate Student Awards–Feminisms & Rhetorics 2023!

Attention Graduate Students!

Notices about Feminism and Rhetorics sessions have now gone out. If you plan to attend the conference, consider applying for one or both (you may apply for both, if applicable) of these awards. Please share widely. Applications for both awards are due July 14, 2023.

SHIRLEY WILSON LOGAN DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

The 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.

The award is given to first-time presenters at the Feminisms & 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.

Please see the award description for eligibility criteria, previous recipients, and application details. Applications are due July 14, 2023.

NAN JOHNSON 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. The awards will be announced at the 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference.

See the award description for eligibility criteria, previous recipients, and application details. Applications are due July 14, 2023.

Please feel free to contact me (sharerw@ecu.edu) with any questions. I look forward to receiving your applications!

-Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Awards Coordinator

2023 Kathleen Ethel Welch Outstanding Article Award Recipients

Named in recognition of the Coalition’s co-founder and first president, Kathleen E. Welch, the CFSHRC Welch Outstanding Article Award is presented biennially in odd years for refereed work published in Peitho journal that illustrates exceptional scholarship and research in the areas of feminist pedagogy, practice, history, and/or theory. I am thrilled to share the news that this year’s award goes to Sarah Dwyer for their article “A Question of Affect: A Queer Reading of Institutional Nondiscrimination Statements at Texas Public Universities,” which appeared in the Winter 2022 issue (vol. 24, no. 2). Additionally, honorable mentions were earned by Ronisha Browdy for her article “Black Women’s Rhetoric(s): A Conversation Starter for Naming and Claiming a Field of Study,” and by Efe Franca Plange for her article “The Pepper Manual: Toward Situated Non-Western Feminist Rhetorical Practices.” Both Browdy’s and Plange’s articles were published in Peitho 23.4, the Summer 2021 special issue on Race, Feminism, and Rhetoric, which was co-edited by Gwendolyn Pough and Stephanie Jones.

Details about each recipient and their articles appear below, but I first want to offer my deepest thanks to the committee members who carefully read the 17 excellent articles that were eligible for the award and did the difficult work of selecting the winner and honorable mentions. This year’s Welch Award Committee members were Lilly Campbell, Fangzhi He, Lauren Rosenberg, Kate Ryan, and Jenna Vinson (chair). THANK YOU for your efforts on behalf of the Coalition and the field of feminist rhetorical studies!


Winner:  Sarah Dwyer, “A Question of Affect: A Queer Reading of Institutional Nondiscrimination Statements at Texas Public Universities,” Peitho 24.2.

Sarah Dwyer is a Senior Lecturer at Texas A&M University—San Antonio and a PhD candidate in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program at Texas Tech University.

Sarah Dwyer brown hair pulled back, wearing a black, blue, and white plaid shirt in front of an asexual pride flag

Sarah Dwyer

The awards committee noted that “this article is exceptionally timely in offering readers means of addressing exclusionary practices. The closing call, to ‘do better: our students’ safety—our safety—depends on it,’ rings ever more urgent since this was published, with DEI initiatives and trans rights under further attack in Texas and nationwide.” Too, committee members were impressed by how well the article “synthesizes a range of university policies into an accessible and actionable dataset. Weaving together quantitative analysis and personal/professional examples from [the writer’s] institutional position, the article provides a compelling method for feminist scholars in rhetoric and composition to use to investigate and challenge policies at other universities.”

 

Honorable Mention: Ronisha Browdy, “Black Women’s Rhetoric(s): A Conversation Starter for Naming and Claiming a Field of Study,” Peitho 23.4.

Ronisha Browdy, long, braided brown hair, smiling and wearing an olive green top with silver necklace and hoop earrings agains a white background.

Ronisha Browdy

Ronisha Browdy is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Florida State University.

One judge noted how beautifully the piece invokes a search for belonging, a search that makes clear why framing this field of study is needed. Another judge expressed admiration for the ways in which the article connects current work in Black Feminist Rhetorics with the deep history of scholarship in this field: “This article does some really nice generational building by taking the contributions of pioneering black women rhetors in writing studies such as Shirley Wilson Logan and Jacqueline Jones Royster and acknowledging their impact through the contemporary work of Deborah Atwater and Carmen Kynard.”

 

Honorable Mention: Efe Franca Plange, “The Pepper Manual: Toward Situated Non-Western Feminist Rhetorical Practices,” Peitho 23.4.

Efe Franca Plange is Doctoral candidate in the Rhetoric & Writing Studies Department at the University of Texas—El Paso.

Efe Franca Plange with long, braided brown hair, wearing a red and black top, leaning on a bookshelf in a library with a book in her right hand.

Efe Franca Plange

The committee particularly appreciated seeing this article’s thoughtful engagement with non-western feminist rhetorics, bringing much-needed attention to under-considered feminist interventions by African women rhetors. One member noted that they are using the article in an “Introduction to Rhetorical Theory” course and that it is “by far, the students’ favorite piece assigned that semester. The students loved the multimodal examples from Pepper Dem Ministries because they made clear the theoretical claims of the piece while illustrating that rhetorical resistance can employ humor!”

 

 


Hearty and well-deserved congratulations to these three feminist scholars!

All best,

Wendy Sharer,

Immediate Past President

2022 Presidents Dissertation Award Winner and Honorable Mentions

At CCCC in Chicago I had the pleasure of announcing the winner and honorable mentions for the 2022 Presidents Dissertation Award, and I am thrilled to share the good news here with those of you who were not able to attend in person.

The winner of the 2022 award is Dr. Katie Bramlett, currently Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Across the Curriculum Program at California State University, East Bay. Bramlett completed her dissertation, “Genres of Memory and Asian/American Activism,” at the University of Maryland. Katie Bramlett, with long brown hair and black-framed glasses, wearing white shirt with polka dots in front of green and pink flowers

In the dissertation, Bramlett deconstructs the narrative layers of Asian and Asian American history—narratives mediated by colonialism, anti-Asian rhetoric, patriarchy, and activism—through in-depth analyses of specific activism. This intersectional and decolonial approach complicates traditional stereotypes and brings to light the activism surrounding three genres commemorating Asian and Asian American women. Bramlett explains

how memorials to Filipina Suffrage activists, Japanese “Comfort Women,” and Afro-Asian activist Grace Lee Boggs remember past activism and reframe current conversations about Asian/American women. At a time of increased Asian hate in the United States, Bramlett’s work reminds readers that the struggle to counter race-based violence requires critiquing the systemic racism entrenched in history.

One judge characterizes the dissertation as a model for scholarship: “Bramlett’s analysis of past activism provides a model for how we, as a field, can look at resistance to biocapital, racial violence across contexts contemporarily.”

Another judge concurs, adding, “This work engages many forms of rhetoric and invites us to expand how we think about memory and feminist rhetorics. It also engages in historical research in a fresh way that connects it to our current political atmosphere.”

Congratulations, Katie!

The selection committee also identified two honorable mentions from among the many entries received. Honorable mentions went to Dr. Danielle Griffin, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Teaching of Writing at the University of Delaware, for her dissertation “Working Literacies: Gender, Labor, and Literacy in Early Modern England,” which was completed at the University of Maryland, and to Dr. Melissa Marie Stone, Assistant Professor of English at Appalachian State University, for her dissertation “Rhetorics of Menstruation: Mattering Menstrual Healthcare Technologies,” which was completed at North Carolina State University.
Danielle Griffin, shoulder-length blond hair in a blue dress with cityscape in backgroundGriffin explores the literacy abilities and practices of early modern working women, paying attention to the ways that ideologies of patriarchy and labor, as well as the institutionalization of poor relief, mediated their engagements with literacy. Analyzing the often-overlooked literacy artifacts of economically disadvantaged groups, Griffin deftly explains how that evidence sheds light on the literacy of working women of the time period at different points in their lives. This work illuminates the complex ideological interconnections of gender, labor, and literacy to energize conversations about women and labor as      well as histories of literacy and rhetorical education.

One judge notes the strength of the dissertation and offers this assessment: “From the Literature Review to the Conclusion, this dissertation provides readers with a superbly close analysis of a group marginalized by history. Uncovering the literacy practices of these multifaceted early modern women is a key goal of the Coalition.”

In “Rhetorics of Menstruation: Mattering Menstrual Healthcare Technologies,” Stone identifies the difficult material-discursive circumstances communities face in their interactions with menstruation. By applying material feminist approaches to analyze the rhetorical implications of material arrangements that include menstruating bodies, reproductive health discourses, menstrual healthcare technologies, and their ersatz technical instructions, Stone advances the call for more scholarship in material feminist rhetorics and social justice. Technologies associated with menstruation have historically followed a hegemonic patriarchal bias advocating efficiency and invisibility concerning women’s health care needs. Stone’s dissertation project provides astute insight into the importance of menstrual healthcare and more inclusive technological designs and instructional compositions at a time when period poverty is beginning to be taken seriously by some governments and industries.
Melissa Stone with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing black top in front ot a white background
One judge provides the following praise for this dissertation: “This work is long overdue and comes at a time when activists are finally getting governments to take women’s health care concerns more seriously. It’s a solidly feminist approach and an important topic in light of moves towards establishing ‘Menstruation Czars’ and advocating ‘Period Poverty Policies’ that many vulnerable individuals need.”

Congratulations to Danielle and Melissa!

In closing, I want to offer my sincere thanks to the 2022 Presidents Dissertation Award Committee: Ashley Canter Meredith, Sarah Hallenbeck, Maureen Johnson, Emily January Petersen, and Aaron A. Toscano (Chair). This group dedicated a lot of time to reading and discussing many excellent submissions. Your work on behalf of feminist scholars is greatly appreciated!

Best,
Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Awards Coordinator

Welcome Jennifer Nish to the Peitho Editorial Team

Jennifer Nish is a white woman with short brown hair. In this photo, she smiling, wearing a green crew-neck blouse and in front of a grey backdrop.

Dr. Jennifer Nish, incoming Associate Editor

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jennifer Nish will serve as the next Associate Editor of Peitho.

Dr. Nish is Assistant Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University. Her research interests include transnational feminism, activist rhetoric, disability, and digital media. Her book, Activist Literacies: Transnational Feminisms and Social Media Rhetorics, was recently published by the University of South Carolina Press. She has published and forthcoming work in Peitho, Genre and the Performance of Publics, and College Composition and Communication. Her ongoing research explores writing program administration, crip community, and the pandemic-era rhetoric and activism of ME/CFS and Long Covid communities.

Peitho’s Associate Editor supports the journal in several ways, but two very important ones: assisting with the author mentoring program, and managing all aspects of book reviews in each issue. Dr. Nish is a long-standing and dedicated manuscript reviewer for Peitho, and she brings to her new role innovative ideas for diversifying the journal’s pool of book reviewers and reviews, in order to highlight the work of underrepresented, multiply marginalized, and/or first-time book authors. She also brings extensive experience with and a deep commitment to mentoring, in and between institutions, within organizations, and across the profession. Finally, she brings prior editorial experience on first-year writing textbooks and conference proceedings.

We could not be more pleased to welcome her to the journal’s editorial team!

Online Mentoring Program, 2022-2023

In response to continued interest, the Coalition is pleased to offer our online mentoring program again this year! 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 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 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, indicating your interest. There is a spot on the form to indicate whether you want to continue with last year’s arrangement, as well.

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 (Zoom, WebEx, Facetime, email, phone, etc.).

Feel free to direct any questions to sharerw@ecu.edu.

All best,

Wendy Sharer,
Immediate Past President

Welcome to our new Archivists & Historians!

The Coalition is pleased to announce the appointments of Michael Healy and Michelle Smith to the role of Archivist and Historian! We are thrilled to gain their support and expertise as we expand, diversify, and publicize our digital and physical archival holdings while also ensuring that those holdings are searchable and accessible to a broad swath of scholars and researchers.

Headshot of Michael Healy in dark blue collard shirt with blue glasses and window in background

Michael Healy

Michael Healy completed his dissertation, Tracing Techne: Distributed Histories of Invention, Creativity, and Text-Technologies in Rhetoric and Composition Scholarship from the 1990s, at Florida State University in 2021 and, this fall, begins a position at Western Kentucky University. Michael’s background in online archiving and digital curation includes serving as a research fellow for FSU’s Linked Women’s Pedagogues Project. As a research fellow, Michael gathered and curated data and metadata highlighting women’s pedagogical and intellectual labor. Additionally, during his time at FSU, Michael served as a graduate co-administrator for the Museum of Everyday Writing, an online archive that he helped develop and maintain while also collaborating with undergraduate interns on the curation of artifacts and exhibits for the museum.

Headshot of Michelle Smith with blue blouse, grass and trees in the background

Michelle Smith

Michelle Smith joins us from Clemson University where she is an Assistant Professor of English. Michelle brings passion for archival research and experience as an archival researcher to the position, as her publications engage archives ranging from the Kenneth Burke archives at Penn State University to the National Archives in D.C. In addition, her 2021 book, Utopian Genderscapes: Rhetorics of Women’s Work in the Early Industrial Age (Southern Illinois UP), draws heavily on the archival records of three nineteenth-century utopian communities. Her exceptional archival work earned the book an honorable mention for the Coalition’s 2022 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award.

Welcome, Michael and Michelle!!

Effusive thanks are due to outgoing Archivist and Historian, Alexis Ramsey-Tobienne. Alexis served for six years as the Coalition’s inaugural Archivist and Historian and was instrumental in collecting, sorting, and launching an online, searchable archive of administrative records and scholarship from the Coalition, including items related to our annual “Wednesday Evening Event” at CCCC, the biennial Feminisms & Rhetorics conference, and CFSHRC’s journal, Peitho. Alexis also chaired the search committee that identified her successors. THANK YOU, Alexis, for your foundational work on our archives and your dedication to ensuring their future!

Thanks are also due to the other members of the Archivist and Historian Search Committee, Tarez Samra Graban, Rebecca Dingo, and Jen Almjeld. Your efforts on the Coalition’s behalf are greatly appreciated!

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