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

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

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

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

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

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

Speakers

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

Respondents

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

2022 Nancy A. Myers Feminist Research Grant Announced!

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

Headshot of Brenna Swift

Brenna Swift

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

 

2022 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award Announced!

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

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

Headshot of Stephanie Larson

Stephanie Larson

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

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

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

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Headshot of Karma Chavez

Karma R. Chavez

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Headshot of Michelle Smith

Michelle C. Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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