Greetings friends of feminism!

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As the president of the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CWSHRC) for 2012-2014, I would like to welcome you to our newly re-designed web site.  Here, we have a virtual space for connecting past theories, practices, and pedagogies of women’s rhetoric and composition with the current and future interests of our constituents.  Since its inception in 1990, the CWSHRC has served as a vital network for feminist scholars and teachers in our field.  As a group, we are dedicated to sharing our experience in feminist research methodology and pedagogy; in teaching courses, workshops, and seminars; in mentoring colleagues, friends, and students; and in contributing to many types of community-focused projects.  If these are your interests, our Coalition can help you.

Even for a non-joiner like me, the CWSHRC has been a tremendous source of inspiration and strength.  I am not just talking about moral support.  I am talking about colleagues who are willing to collaborate, read, review, recommend, network, and offer tangible professional help to those who share similar goals and interests.  Let me be more specific.  At the recommendation of my dissertation director, I joined the Coalition in 2005 when I was a graduate student—that is, a pregnant middle-aged graduate student starting my second career.  By the time I finished my Ph.D. in 2007, I was divorced with three kids and a new profession that I had grown to love.  I had defended my dissertation, published my first article (in the Peitho newsletter), and landed a tenure-track job at a middle-tier state university–just in time to save my life, or so it felt.  Later that same fall, in October 2007, when I attended my first Feminisms and Rhetorics conference in Little Rock, AR, I discovered that I was not alone as a feminist scholar, teacher, single mother, and professional academic female.  Of course, intellectually, I already understood there were other professionals of my ilk, but at the FemRhet conference, I was surrounded by feminist academics of all ranks and stripes and at many stages of life.  It was like coming home…

In keeping with the open and invitational spirit that I have found in the CWSHRC, I encourage any individual interested in learning about feminist historiography, theory, practice, or pedagogy in the fields of rhetoric and composition to browse our site and join our organization.  I also encourage new and ongoing members to get involved in CWSHRC, submit to Peitho, attend the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference, subscribe to our listserv, and use this site to keep up on professional developments, make connections, and share ideas.  Please note that this president’s blog will serve as a special place not only for the president but also for invited scholars in the field to reflect on the ways they have done and do feminist historical and theoretical work.

I appreciate your visit to our new site.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth Tasker Davis
President, CWSHRC

Feminism and Rhetoric – 2013 CFP

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CFP Feminisms and Rhetorics 2013

Linked:  Rhetorics, Feminisms, and Global Communities

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

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

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

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

Deadline for submission: February 1, 2013

Questions or comments?      femrhet2013@stanford.edu

Call for Peitho Editor

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Call for Peitho Editor

The Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CWSHRC) is seeking an editor for Peitho, our biannual peer-reviewed online journal, beginning spring 2013.

In supporting the Coalition’s mission as “a learned society composed of women scholars who are committed to research in the history of rhetoric and composition,” Peitho seeks to publish research that advances the feminist study of our profession.

In cooperation with an associate editor (Lisa Mastrangelo will hold this position until 2015), Peitho’s editor has full purview over the editorial content and production process of the journal, including managing the editorial board, issuing calls for papers, refining the journal’s submission process, and publishing the journal. The editor has the support of the Coalition’s Publication Committee and Executive Board for all matters requiring approval.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will hold a position at an institution willing to contribute support/release time for this position, and she will have a solid publication record in the areas of feminist rhetoric and/or composition history and pedagogy, as well as a significant record of service work relevant to the field. The position also requires outstanding planning, communication, and editorial skills and strong technical/digital skills.

Responsibilities:

  • Shadow Barb L’Eplanttenier, Peitho’s current editor, through production of the spring 2013 issue and then assume full responsibility for the fall 2013 issue.
  • Serve as editor for four years, from 2013-2017.
  • Manage the submission, editorial, and online publication process for two issues of Peitho per year (Fall and Spring)—with the support of Lisa Mastrangelo, the associate editor.
  • Participate in the search for a new associate editor who will start in 2015 and become editor in 2017.
  • Hire a student intern, if desired.
  • Serve as ex officio (nonvoting) member of the CWSHRC advisory board.

Compensation:

The Coalition will pay for the editor to take a training workshop on InDesign (the publishing program), and the editor may also hire a student intern for 15-20 hours per issue at a total cost of $500 per year. The editor will also receive a stipend of $200 after the successful completion of each issue. Finally, the Coalition will pay the editor’s registration fee for the Feminisms and Rhetorics biennial conference.

Please note that  a letter of support from Coalition president Elizabeth Tasker, detailing how the position can be of benefit to the editor’s home institution, is available upon request.

Applicants should email a CV and cover letter, describing their qualifications and detailing how their institution will support their editorship, to Lindal Buchanan, ljbuchan [at] odu.edu, by Oct. 1, 2012.

Join us!

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Join us for the annual Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition Wednesday evening event at the 2012 CCCCs:

Wednesday, 21 March, 6:30-8:30 pm in Renaissance Hotel, Majestic Ballroom, Salon A/B, Second Floor.

The first part of the session consists of the panel, “Women Reading and Writing Women: Recent Trends in Feminist Scholarship.”

Speakers:

Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Florida State University, “Can You Picture That? Visual Imagery at the Interface”

Sue Hum, University of Texas at San Antonio, “Dance of Bodies, Dance of Words: The Rhetoric of Difference”

Rebecca Richards, St. Olaf College, “The Transnational Turn of Feminist Rhetorics and Composition”

By examining the feminist relationship of the self in scholarship, the three speakers discuss visual, ethnic, and transnational rhetorics in answering the question from the 2012 CCCCs call: “What scholarly and methodological gateways has the field constructed, and do they limit or open up possibilities for inquiry?” These scholars address their professional commitment to these chosen fields, the field’s potential for the discipline, and areas of future research. These women represent advanced, middle, and beginning career moments and a range of institutional locations.

The second part of the session consists of the Coalition’s traditional mentoring groups led by Coalition members and disciplinary leaders such as Nan Johnson, Lynee Gaillet, Krista Ratcliffe, and others. Topics of these mentoring groups include Transforming the Dissertation; Designing Proposals for Fellowships and Grants; Coming Up for Tenure in the 21st Century; Publishing Options and Opportunities; Working in Digital Spaces; and other professional subjects.