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

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

CFP for Feminisms and Rhetorics 2023 @ Spelman College

I’m thrilled to circulate this CFP for Feminisms and Rhetorics 2023 at Spelman College! More information on the conference to come, but I hope you’ll apply and pass this announcement along to colleagues and friends! I hope, too, to see you all in Atlanta!

CFP: https://femrhet2023.cfshrc.org/cfp/

Dilemmas in Feminist Ethnographic Methodologies

Are you interested in learning more about feminist ethnographic research methods? Join Coalition colleagues for our second webinar of the Advancing the Agenda series, Dilemmas in Feminist Ethnographic Methodologies!

Feminist ethnography considers various dilemmas that concern researchers, participants, and the spaces of the projects where we conduct our studies. In some ways, feminist ethnographic research thrives on these dilemmas in its interrogation of power dynamics and intersectionalities. In this webinar, Kelly Opdycke and Lauren Rosenberg, two qualitative researchers, tease out some of the dilemmas that continually arise as they work towards enacting ethical feminist principles. This webinar involves attendees in considering creative ways they might work through dilemmas in their own current and future research

We’ll convene on Friday, February 24 from 3-4:30pm Eastern Time/noon-1:30pm Pacific Time. Please register herehttps://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpf-uoqz8rE9HZc4qu4Rx0BBchl7GVdAgO

Kelly Opdycke (she/they) lectures and organizes with other contingent faculty in the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, Northridge and the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Her research interests include critical university studies, disability studies, and poor queer studies. She hopes for a more care-oriented, less neoliberal university.

Lauren Rosenberg (she/her) is an associate professor of Rhetoric and Writing Studies in the English department at the University of Texas at El Paso where she also directs First-Year Composition. Her research focuses on the writing practices of adult populations that are underrepresented in composition studies, longitudinal methodologies for qualitative research, and feminist research ethics. 

 

The Coalition thanks Nancy Small (Associate Professor, University of Wyoming) and JWells (Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky) and the Advancing the Agenda Committee for organizing this event! 

 

Coalition Event Weds Night of CCCC and 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics News

Greetings, Colleagues!

I’m writing with great excitement to let you know about Coalition events at the Conference on College Composition and Communication and details regarding the 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics conference.

CCCC Coalition Event: I’m looking forward to gathering with Coalition members and feminist scholars at our Wednesday night event at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. We’ll be meeting on February 15th from 6pm-8pm in the International Ballroom South.

All are welcome to this event; please bring a friend (or three!). To make our event more broadly accessible, we ask that people wear masks to better protect each other from airborne illnesses, including COVID-19. Thank you, in advance, for supporting one another.  

For the first half of the evening, our keynote panel, “Emerging Feminist Scholars: Listening and Learning from Graduate Student Researchers” (CFP here), will showcase the following presenters and their presentations:

  • Michelle Flahive (PhD Candidate, she/her, Texas Tech University), “Researching Graduate Student Instructor Mentorship Collectively: Applying a Chicana Feminist Methodology of Research at a Predominantly White Institution”
  • Danielle Koepke (PhD Candidate, she/her, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), “Complicating Ethics of Care: What I Learned about Caring for Stories and Storytellers from the Promotores de Salud”
  • Abigail Long (PhD Candidate, she/her, Syracuse University), “Engaging a Feminist Ethic of Seamfulness”
  • Nelesi Rodriguez (PhD candidate, she/her, U of Pittsburgh), “Accumulation in Ananya Dance Theatre as a Transnational Feminist Method for Invention in Movement”

The second half of the evening will be dedicated to mentoring tables: more information on these tables to follow!

2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference: I’m also thrilled to announce that the 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics conference will be held at Spelman College from Saturday, September 30, 2023 to Tuesday, October 3, 2023. The Call for Papers will be ready for distribution by CCCC. Thank you to Dr. Michelle Bachelor Robinson and the Spelman Host Committee, as well as the Coalition’s Conference Committee for all their work!

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!

CFP Peitho Cluster Conversation: Reclaiming the Work of Wendy Bishop as Rhetorical Feminist Mentoring

Cluster Conversation: Reclaiming the Work of Wendy Bishop as Rhetorical Feminist Mentoring

“Just as Virgil led Dante into the underworld, through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, so we will do for others.”

     -Cheryl Glenn, Rhetorical Feminism and This Thing Called Hope

If academics ever needed “this thing called hope,” we need it now in a time when Hell and Purgatory seem much closer than Heaven. Even as the pandemic has made visible, as well as exacerbated, problems with student success, retention, and mental health, previous struggles with enrollment, shrinking budgets, and sweeping challenges to the relevance and viability of higher education have created a crisis culture that is shaking the very foundations of our institutions. The Great Resignation continues to sweep dedicated faculty from classrooms and offices, while students struggle with the very technologies that are supposed to give them greater flexibility to persist yet often contribute to their failure to thrive. As academia lurches forward into an ever-uncertain future, those who remain search for sustainable means not simply to survive but to transform the conditions we collectively face.

In Rhetorical Feminism and This Thing Called Hope, Cheryl Glenn introduces rhetorical feminism as a hopeful tactic and theoretical stance that can create positive change through activism; intersectional identities; and inclusive theories, practices, methods, methodologies, teaching, administration, and mentoring. Glenn describes rhetorical feminist mentoring as “a generative model of ever-expansive teaching and mutually nourishing professionalism that can be shared, passed around, and passed on. Rhetorical feminist mentoring acknowledges that we academics ‘embody’ the discipline for the next generation of scholars, and it passes along and around a legacy of values, theories, habits, and assumptions that, especially when transformed, keep the discipline rolling” (173). While Wendy Bishop did not explicitly claim to be a feminist rhetorician, teacher, or mentor, her body of work, as well as the testimonials of those who knew her well, signal her participation in exactly the kinds of activities and activism that Glenn outlines in her book.

When Bishop died nearly twenty years ago in November of 2003, she was just fifty years old, but she had accomplished more than many people do in much longer careers. She authored or edited more than twenty books, crossed organizational borders (CCCC, AWP, MLA, WPA), often holding leadership positions, and she advocated for this very border crossing and intradisciplinary cross pollination within English Studies and beyond. Bishop transformed the binary of outsider/insider into a more inclusive, multivocal, multidisciplinary approach—an approach that others in the liberal arts are currently taking up to justify their existence within ever-shrinking institutions. We find that in this more fluid and flexible understanding of academic work lies hope not only for the future of our fields but also liberal education overall. In these difficult times, we need hope, we need examples and mentors, we need to find sustainable ways of working and being that enrich rather than drain us.

In this cluster conversation for the autumn 2023 issue of Peitho, we are interested in including work from a range of writers and scholars with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We especially welcome collaborations (especially between teachers and students, mentors and mentees, scholars and creative writers), mixed genres, remixes, and playful work. We ask that you write something—influenced or inspired by Bishop—that sustains you and others. For those not already familiar with Bishop’s work, we invite you to search out her books, articles, and poetry and write a piece inspired by her work. In what ways were you mentored by Wendy Bishop or her work? How did that mentoring affect your pedagogy, writing, administration, and/or life? How does Bishop’s work help you enact sustainable writing, pedagogical, and/or administrative practices? What “values, theories, habits, and assumptions” did Bishop espouse that you can you learn from and transform in ways that “keep the discipline rolling”?

This special issue will include longer pieces (up to 4,000 words) as well as shorter contributions and poems.

Please submit completed pieces to mgoldthw@sju.edu and cain@pfw.edu by June 1, 2023. Please also include a short biography (less than 100 words). We will provide notification of acceptance and suggestions for revision by July 1, 2023. Final drafts will be due on August 1, 2023.

Editors
Dr. Mary Ann Cain, Purdue University Fort Wayne (emerita)
Dr. Melissa A. Goldthwaite, Saint Joseph’s University

Advancing the Agenda Series: Rhetorical Then/Now: Reproductive Rights (Nov. 3)

Join us to reflect on Dobbs and Roe and how feminist rhetorical approaches might position us to best address reproductive rights in our pedagogy. This webinar, featuring Dr. Erin Clark Frost, offers opportunities for rhetorical reflection on where we started and where we might be headed post-Dobbs and provides space to consider how we can attend to our rights and those of our students.

We’ll convene on November 3rd from 12-1:30pm ET. Please register here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkcemhrD4uGtG-ZouYMvLtGTcJHDTyQfr0

Dr. Erin Clark Frost is a technical communication, rhetoric, and composition specialist. Her scholarly interests center on issues of gender and feminism in technical communication, most often as they manifest in rhetorics of health and medicine, environmental rhetorics, and risk communication. Her award-winning dissertation, “Theorizing an Apparent Feminism in Technical Communication,” included a study of ultrasound-for-abortion laws, and reproductive justice is a major focus of her scholarly attention. Her work has appeared in Computers and Composition, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, Programmatic Perspectives, and Peitho.

 

Call for Associate Editor of Peitho

The Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC) seeks an Associate Editor for Peitho (https://cfshrc.org/peitho-journal/), its quarterly peer-reviewed online journal. The Associate Editor holds primary responsibility for book reviews (identifying new titles for review, soliciting reviewers, working with reviews to revise and edit reviews prior to publication, etc.) in each issue and for the annual “Recoveries and Reconsiderations” feature of the journal, an annual forum for sharing innovative perspectives on existing feminist work, as well an incubator for new feminist research projects.

Additionally, the Associate Editor identifies mentors for authors whose work is identified by the Editor for participating in the journal’s mentoring program and facilitates communication between the mentor and the author as needed. The selected applicant can also expect to work with a supportive Editorial Team, and to participate in team meetings, CFSHRC Advisory Board meetings, and the CFSHRC Wednesday night open meeting held annually at the Conference for College Composition and Communication. For a full description of the editorial structure of the journal, please see our By-Laws, available here: https://cfshrc.org/about-peitho/#by-laws.

Associate Editor applicants should be current members of the CFSHRC in good standing. The selected applicant will hold the position for four years and be responsible for Peitho issues 25.1-28.4 (Fall 2022–Summer 2026).

For full consideration, please submit the following materials in a single PDF file (with your name in the filename) to Tarez Graban (tgraban@fsu.edu) by 10 November 2022:

  • brief letter of application that addresses qualifications for the position;
  • brief statement of institutional support, which can be folded into the application letter;
  • list of three references;
  • current vita.

 

Feel free to direct any questions to Tarez at the e-mail address above.

MENTORS NEEDED: CFSHRC Online Mentoring Program

In response to continued interest, the Coalition is again offering our online mentoring program this year. A version of the announcement below about the program went out in early September, and we received many responses, but we received several more requests for mentors than we can accommodate based on the number of people who volunteered to serve as mentors.  If you are able to serve as an online mentor, please contact Wendy Sharer (sharerw@ecu.edu), Immediate Past President, at your earliest convenience.  

We welcome all who are interested, but we have particular need for scholars who can help in the following research and professional development areas:

  • Article and/or book preparation, including dissertation-to-publication advice
  • Time management and work/life balance
  • Rhetorics of science, health, and medicine
  • Feminist pedagogy
  • Digital rhetorics/writing
  • Administration/moving into administrative roles

My sincere thanks in advance for your assistance!

-Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President

___________________________________________________________

CFSHRC Online Mentoring Program, 2022-2023

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

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

All best,

Wendy Sharer,
Immediate Past President