Writing Our Future: Feminist Collaborations between CCCC Feminist Caucus and the Coalition

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Because of our shared interest in feminist work within writing studies and rhetoric, the co-authors, who are 2 of 4 co-chairs of the Feminist Caucus, provide here a brief history of the work of our group, projects that overlap with the values and interests of Coalition members, and an update on our current project, creating a online archive of the Feminist Workshop held annually at CCCC. We also describe some ideas we’ve been co-developing with Coalition president Tarez Graban for collaborative ventures in the future. 

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Calling for Intellectual Labor and Discussion

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Dear Coalition Friends and Colleagues:

As co-editors of a proposed collection, Rhetorics of Reproduction: Rights, Health, and Justice, we wanted to let you know why we’re looking forward to this year’s Feminisms and Rhetorics conference.

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#CallingAllFeminists to WSRL 2019

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Dear Coalition Friends and Colleagues,

As organizer of the 2019 Western States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference, I invite you to submit your proposal(s) in response to our CFP, if you haven’t already done so. This year, we’d love you to join us on October 25-26 at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, to explore our theme of “Contemplative Rhetorics and Literacies.” While there is always a chance that we’ll have inches of snow on the ground by late October, it is more likely that our weather will be crisp, sunny and beautiful, providing an unmatched natural backdrop for the conference.

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#TheFeministsAreComing To RSA 2018

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#TheFeministsAreComing

Believe it or not, the Rhetoric Society of America’s 50th anniversary conference is next week! That means it’s time to dust off the conference duds, finish those talks, and fire up the social media accounts.
 
Two years ago at #RSA16 we held the happiest of happy hours, and we celebrated our new nomenclature. This time, the program boasts more than 100 sessions with feminist perspectives, including presentations on sex, gender, and sexuality in conjunction with all aspects of rhetorical studies. #TheFeministsAreComing all right.

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#FemRhet2017 Recap: Day 4

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Last Day of FemRhet 2017!

By Karrieann Soto Vega and Patricia Fancher

The close knit community that the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Writing is stronger than ever. Throughout the day you could see people collaborating in dynamic and interactive panels, which contributed to building new relationships and strengthening old ones. Conference goers were able to learn about Publishing an Edited Collection as a Process Approach, and Approaches to Feminist Research in Technical Communication, for example. They also had opportunities to work through the complexity of asking for a Consent to Discomfort, and engage in critical conversations about asking students to acknowledge and question their own privilege. This last day, most folks seemed to be full of appreciation for a job well-done by the organizers and staff at the University of Dayton. Read more

#FemRhet2017 Recap: Day 3

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By Jennifer Burgess

#Day 3 of #FemRhet2017 started off with another fantastic session of #FemRhetYoga.

At 8 am, morning meetings and a workshop kicked off, offering attendees ample opportunity to engage with the conference theme of rhetorics rights(r)evolutions. Brenda Brueggeman, Jane Detweiler and Patti Wojahn led the Feminist Leadership Workshop (8 am – 11:15 am), while many others led engaging morning meetings around the topic of “Organizing for Activism.” The “Organizing for Activism” were “devoted to envisioning, strategizing, and planning activism that bridges feminist academic work to activist work outside the academy.

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#FemRhet 2017 Recap: Day 2

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By Sherita Roundtree and Laura Tetreault

Day two of the 11th Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics invited conference goers to begin their day with an early morning #FemRhetYoga session led by Sara Moseley, where “everybody & everybody” was welcome. A series of concurrent sessions in the morning led to three plenary sessions during lunch. The plenaries centralized one aspect from the conference theme (“Rhetorics, Rights, (R)evolutions”) by recognizing Berkenkotter, Enos, and Swearingen as feminist rhetorical studies foremothers; understanding “the intersection of academic and public feminist rhetorical practices”; and revisiting the history of the relationship between the Coalition and the conference while imagining its future. After an afternoon of more concurrent sessions and a meet and greet sponsored by the Medical Rhetoric community, the evening ended with a beautiful evening reception at the Dayton Art Institute. We look forward to an exciting day three of the conference and continuing to follow the conversations on social media. #FemRhet2017

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Reminiscing 20 years of #FemRhet with Dr. Jennifer Bay

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20 years ago in the fall of 1997 when she was a graduate student, Dr. Jennifer Bay attended the first ever Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference. Since then, she has missed only one of all the FemRhet conferences as the conference coincided with her daughter’s birth. Now, Dr. Bay is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University and her research interests includes: Engagement Theory, Digital  Rhetorics, Feminisms and Rhetorics, and Professional/ Technical Writing.

Sweta Baniya, PhD Student at Purdue University and also one of the Social Media Curators for the #FemRhet2017, prepared a special podcast where Dr. Bay talks about her first as well as past 2 decades of experiences with the conference, her experience of co-editing Coalition’s journal Peitho, and provides excellent advice to graduate students and conference attendees. We hope you will enjoy this special podcast prepared on the occasion of 11th Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference.

Listen in SoundCloud here.

#TeamFemRhet

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Review of CCCC Feminist Workshop 2017: Intersectionality within Writing Programs and Practices

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white program with the words The feminist Wrokshop, standing group on the status of women in the profession

Image of The Feminist Workshop Program and buttons.

By the co-chairs of the CCCC Feminist Workshop

The Feminist Workshop at the 2017 Conference on College Composition and Communication held in Portland, Oregon titled, “Intersectionality within Writing Programs and Practices” explored intersectional feminism(s) and social justice in teaching, administrative work, and rhetorical practices. For the 2017 conference organizers, including Lauren Connelly, April Conway, Nicole Khoury, Jennifer Nish, Lydia McDermott, and Patty Wilde, intersectionality was an important theme to revisit, in light of the current national, political, and social discourse. Read more

Teaching & Researching Feminist Rhetorics:

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Digital Curation as Collaborative Archival Method

post by Pamela VanHaitsma, Cassandra Book, Meagan Clark, Christopher Giofreda, Kimberly Goode & Meredith Privott

Collaboration has long been a central practice within the research and teaching of feminist rhetorics (Lunsford and Ede). Yet as feminist scholars take up “invitations” to embark on “meaningful engagements” with digital humanities, the fruitfulness and even necessity of collaboration takes on new valence (Enoch and Bessette; Enoch, Bessette, and VanHaitsma). In digital contexts, “archives 2.0” are participatory (Ramsey-Tobiene). Scholars not only examine but produce digital archives, and digital production often involves collaborative practices of curation (Kennedy). Indeed, as we have found through our work together in a graduate seminar on women’s and feminist rhetorics, the digital curation of archives may function as a collaborative method for scholars interested in bringing together our field’s strengths in historiographic scholarship with emergent digital practices. Read more