Congratulations to the 2023 Lisa Ede Mentoring Award and Presidents Dissertation Award Recipients

Coalition Friends,
It was wonderful to see so many of you in Atlanta for Feminisms and Rhetorics! For those of you who were not able to attend, I am thrilled to share information about two awards presented at Spelman: the 2023 Lisa Ede Mentoring Award and the 2023 Presidents Dissertation Award. Details about award recipients are below: please take a moment to read about and celebrate the winners’ accomplishments!

-Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Awards Coordinator

2023 Lisa Ede Mentoring Award

The Lisa Ede Mentoring Award recognizes 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. This year’s recipient is Dr. Gwendolyn Pough, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Dean’s Professor of the Humanities at Syracuse University. Dr. Pough exemplifies the kind of mentoring this award was created to acknowledge and amplify.
Gwendolyn Pough, in a red top and dark-framed glasses, stands in front of a bookcase
Her significant contributions to the study and application of feminist rhetorical theory include an edited collection, Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminist Anthology; a single-authored book, Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere; over two dozen articles and book chapters; and more than fifty scholarly presentations, lectures, and keynotes. Pough has also led major professional organizations, including both the Conference on College Composition and Communication (for which she was Chair) and the Rhetoric Society of America (of which she is currently President). Too, she has served and continues to serve the Coalition through her membership on our Advisory Board since 2014.

Through all of these endeavors and accomplishments, Dr. Pough has been an invaluable resource–professionally and personally–for the many, many people she has mentored, a fact reflected in the multiple letters from current and former students and colleagues that were submitted in support of her nomination. Regarding these letters, the Lisa Ede Mentoring Award Committee explains,

“It would be difficult to summarize the love and gratitude expressed for Pough by those mentees who contributed to her nomination. Many talk about her presence, her generosity, her intellect, and her mentorship in terms that are reserved for someone who has been among the most impactful people in their lives. Pough’s mentees seem not only stirred but transformed by her example. Indeed, the committee was impressed by the holistically strong nomination filled with letters from a diverse and equally impressive collective of mentees. Those who have taken her classes or worked with her on dissertation projects describe a fierce teacher who shows up everyday ready to do the work. Those who have met her through professional networks comment on how she takes up labor that she doesn’t need to do simply because she wants to do her part in building our collective field. Those inspired by her scholarship express how she makes deep, complex inroads into the ongoing conversations about Black rhetorics, feminism, hiphop, and more, and makes it look easy! In sum, the nominating letters powerfully demonstrate that she has a wide range of talents and mentoring styles, all rooted in Black feminist, hip-hop pedagogies. Pough has radically changed the game and challenged white feminism her entire career.”

Congratulations and thank you to Dr. Pough!

Thank you as well to the Lisa Ede Mentoring Award Committee: Moushumi Biswas, Sherri Craig (Co-chair), Laura Davies, Allison Durazzi, and Gavin Johnson (Co-chair). Your contributions to the Coalition are greatly appreciated!


2023 Presidents Dissertation Award

This year, the woNisha Shanmugaraj, wearing a white top, stands in a hallwayrk of two scholars was recognized with the 2023 Presidents Dissertation Award. The first recipient is Dr. Nisha Shanmugaraj, who completed her dissertation, “Negotiating the Model Minority: HowIndian American Women Rearticulate Dominant Racial Discourse,” at Carnegie Mellon University and currently holds the rank of Assistant Professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In her dissertation, Dr. Shanmugaraj builds on work by Aja Martinez, Jay Dolmage, Lisa Flores, Tamika Carey, Ursula Ore, and many others as she analyzes case studies of and interviews with twenty-five second-generation Indian (South Asian) American women to consider their rhetorical strategies for responding to and challenging the “model minority” stereotype.

The award committee praised the project for being “densely rooted in the coalitional and intersectional frameworks of feminist studies” and noted that its “contributions in terms of identity formation and vernacular rhetorical practice are many. And the grounded theory approach to the robust data set is well suited to the coalitional stance the author takes.” Congratulations to Dr. Shanmugaraj!

The second award was earned by Dr. Salma Kalim, Assistant Professor at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. Dr. Kalim researched and composed her dissertation, “Affect and Digital Circulation in PakistanDr. Salma Kalim, wearing a brown top and tortoise shell framed glasses, stands in front of a white and red walli Feminist Rhetorics,” at Miami University in Ohio. The project draws on the work of Sara Ahmed, Gesa Kirsch, Eric Darnell Pritchard, and Jacqueline Jones Royster, among many others, and employs rhetorical analysis and interviews to explore how Pakistani women create and circulate messages of feminist activism–both digital and offline–to further regional and transnational alliances and to create change in conservative, oppressive contexts. The award committee praised Dr. Kalim’s project, noting that it is “thoroughly and richly situated within transnational feminist rhetorics and circulation studies” and that it effectively opens multiple avenues for future research. Congratulations to Dr. Kalim!

Much gratitude is due to the hard-working committee that read multiple dissertations and selected these deserving recipients: TJ Geiger, Maureen Johnson, Temptaous Mckoy (Chair), Temitope Ojedele, , and Jill Swiencicki. Thank you!

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”

 

 

Seeking Donations for Fundraising Auction at FemRhet 2023

The CFSHRC Development Team seeks donated items for a silent auction at FemRhet 2023. Proceeds from the auction will be used to sustain/expand the Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship and the Nan Johnson Outstanding Graduate Student Travel Award in future years. Descriptions of both awards, from the Coalition’s website, are included below.

Items should be small and light so that you can bring them to the conference with you and so that winning bidders can transport them back from Atlanta. Such items might include handicrafts, books, jewelry, clothing, etc. We also request that items connect in some way to the theme of the conference—“Feminisms and Reckonings: Interrogating Histories and Harms, Beginning Restorative Practices”—and/or to the mission of the Coalition.

If you have questions or are interested in donating an item, contact Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Development Team Chair, at sharerw@ecu.edu. If you are considering donating an item, please provide the following in your email:

  • a brief description of the item
  • a photograph of the item (if possible)
  • a reasonable opening bid amount for the item

Thank you for your efforts to assist fellow feminist scholars and teachers. I look forward to seeing everyone at Spelman in a couple month!

-Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President
 sharerw@ecu.edu

The Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship
The purpose of the Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship award is 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. 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.

The Nan Johnson Outstanding 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.

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

FOUR Upcoming Awards: Call for Nominations!

Coalition Friends,

While we are not even halfway through April, I know that June and July will come quickly, so I want to make sure that you have these FOUR upcoming award deadlines on your radars:

  1. The 2023 Presidents Dissertation Award (6/15 deadline)
  2. The Lisa Ede Mentoring Award (6/15 deadline)
  3. The Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship Award (7/7 deadline: requires acceptance to Feminism & Rhetorics Conference)
  4. The Nan Johnson Graduate Student Travel Award (7/7 deadline; requires acceptance to Feminisms & Rhetorics Conference)

I encourage you nominate yourself or others for the Presidents Dissertation Award and the Lisa Ede Mentoring Award, and I hope that, after acceptance notices come out for the 2023 Feminisms & Rhetorics Conference, you will consider applying for the Nan Johnson and/or Shirley Wilson Logan Awards! Details about each of the awards follow.

2023 PRESIDENTS DISSERTATION AWARD

The CFSHRC 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 award will be conferred at the 2023 Feminisms & Rhetorics Conference, September 30 – October 3, at Spelman College in Atlanta.

Please see the award description for eligibility criteria, previous award winners, and application details. Applications are due June 15, 2023.

LISA EDE MENTORING AWARD

The Lisa Ede Mentoring Award is presented biennially in odd years to an individual or group with a career-long record of mentorship. In this case, “mentoring” can include 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 per person or $500 for a group of three or more people and is announced at the Feminisms & Rhetorics Conference.

Please see the award description for eligibility criteria, previous award winners, and nomination/application details. Applications are due June 15, 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 7, 2023.

NAN JOHNSON OUTSTANDING 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 7, 2023.

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

-Wendy Sharer, Immediate Past President and Awards Coordinator

Feminisms and Rhetorics 2023: Call for Site Hosts

The Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric & Composition (CFHSRC) is pleased to invite proposals for hosting for the 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference. The CFSHRC’s Conference Committee and Executive Board seek hosts who are committed to creating a conference that is antiracist, inclusive, and accessible. We welcome interdisciplinary, as well as cross-institutional, collaborative hosting arrangements.

Proposals should be submitted to Jessica Enoch, Coordinator of the CFSHRC Conference Committee, at vice-president@cfshrc.org, by December 1, 2021.

What are we looking for in a site proposal?
Proposals for the 2023 conference should

  • explain plans to “front themes of antiracist activism and center the work of feminists of color,” in keeping with the CFSHRC summer 2020 resolution.
  • identify ways to amplify the voices of disabled scholars and emerging scholars
  • articulate possibilities for antiracist, inclusive conferencing practices through conference planning, featured events, conference themes, and programming
  • address how conference organizers will engage the complexity of their conference location, e.g., acknowledging racist or other exclusionary practices that inform the history of the campus and/or the local community
  • describe strategies to ensure accessibility for all conference participants
  • discuss steps to promote affordability: how will the costs of travel, lodging, food, etc. be approached in order to keep registration costs manageable for those who have limited or no funding? Feminisms and Rhetorics has traditionally drawn around 400 registrants and the conference has been held in the fall, historically starting on a Wednesday and running through Saturday afternoon. In the interest of affordability, we are happy to consider alternative time frames moving forward. Details about previous conferences, along with a hosting FAQ, can be found on our website: https://cfshrc.org/femrhet-conference-call-for-hosts/

Proposal Components
While there is no set format, we encourage proposers to address the following areas:

Conferencing Plans

  • Possible theme(s)
  • Potential keynote speakers and/or featured sessions
  • Ideas for special events and/or social events, particularly programming that amplifies scholars of color, disabled scholars, and emerging scholars
  • Ideas for programming that welcomes participants new to the Coalition and Feminisms and Rhetorics. Applicants might consider programming that moves beyond presenting formal papers to programming around mentorship, community-building, community outreach, pedagogical investments, mentoring, etc.

Venue Information

  • Location: institution, cross-institutional, town/city, region
  • Facilities: meeting rooms, exhibition space, technical resources
  • Possibilities for community outreach and/or engagement with historical-present-day complexity of the site

Conference Details

  • Tentative dates for the conference and for submission of abstracts/proposals from potential presenters
  • Rationale for date selection and opportunities that come with these dates

Accessibility

  • Access to local interpreters and CART services
  • Connection to/collaborations campus/institutional accessibility office
  • Identification of possibilities and opportunities to welcome and amplify the work of disabled scholars
  • See note about Access Coordinator and Coalition Conference Committee below

Travel, Accommodations, and Commitments to Affordability

  • Distance from international airport/s
  • Estimated travel costs from a range of major cities
  • Access by bus, cab, coach, train, etc. and costs
  • Travel between conference venue and accommodation
  • Lodging: university/hotel options, location in relation to conference venue, capacity, costs per person/night, discount rate options
  • Meal options and costs
  • Attention to affordability and cost-savings

Organization and Support

  • Conference committee participants: Details about organizers, responsibilities, administrative support, etc.
  • Institutional support: Level and nature of possible department/institution involvement and funding
  • Additional support: Details of funds, facilities, sponsorship or other involvement from additional organizations

What can the CFSHRC offer site hosts?
Beginning with the 1997 “From Boundaries to Borderlands” conference at Oregon State, the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference has been a centerpiece of the Coalition, serving as an intimate, dynamic, and engaging gathering place for feminist scholars to exchange ideas, build community, and create support networks. To support the teams who make these conferences possible, the Coalition provides the following for FemRhet site hosts:

  1. $2000 seed money, which does not need to be returned later, to conference hosts;
  2. Funding for offsetting costs for graduate students (25% of any proceeds from the previous FemRhet conference). Conference hosts are to use these proceeds specifically to reduce expenses of attending the conference for graduate students;
  3. Flexibility for scheduling the conference. As noted, Feminisms and Rhetorics has traditionally been a fall conference. We recognize that such scheduling may mean higher costs, particularly given greater demand on campus and community resources during the semester. Thus, we ask only that, when determining possible dates for the conference, potential site hosts  be sensitive to the dates of other, similar conferences;
  4. Assistance from our newly established Conference Committee to help ensure  an antiracist, accessible, and inclusive conference experience for all. This committee will work with the Feminisms and Rhetorics Host Committee. Assistance from the Conference Committee includes
    • Funding and arranging for the training of a conference Access Coordinator. The Access Coordinator will be selected by and become a member of the local site host committee. Their work will involve coordinating the majority of access services for the conference, including an accessibility guide for the conference.
    • Providing guidance and support for inclusive conferencing practices such as  an antiracist, inclusive, anti-ableist proposal review process and the selection and engagement of featured speakers or sessions.
    • Creating a Rapid Response Team (RRT) tasked with collecting feedback and responding, in a timely fashion, to grievances relating to antiracism, inclusion, or accessibility during the conference.

The Conference Committee is happy to speak with potential site hosts. Please direct any questions about hosting or the site host proposal process to Jessica Enoch, Coordinator of the CFSHRC Conference Committee, at vicepresident@cfshrc.org.

In the Coalition Archives: The Feminisms and Rhetorics Collection

I am pleased to share this post on behalf of Alexis Ramsey-Tobienne, Coalition Archivist and Historian.  -Wendy


If you, like me, are missing the community of our C’s Wednesday night SIGs or are pining for the quick hallway conversations between sessions at Fem/Rhet, I invite you into the CFSHRC archive where we have a collection devoted to the Fem/Rhet conferences. From the program for the inaugural conference at Oregon State University in August of 1997 to the student-created archive for the latest conference at James Madison, the Coalition archives has some great materials to browse. 

To access the archives, please visit the finding aid on the archives page of the Coalition website. The finding aid is regularly updated with processed materials from the collection. If you are interested in any materials, please contact Alexis Ramsey-Tobienne, the current archivist and historian for the Coalition to access the holdings (ramseyae@eckerd.edu). 

In addition to programs from nearly every year, the collection also features planning documents and FAQ for institutions considering hosting Feminisms and Rhetorics Conferences, conference hosting proposals, emails among liaison committee members, book exhibit information, and photographs and videos from various conferences. 

The collection takes us through the evolution of the conference and the Coalition, as we see in the variation of themes: 

  • From Boundaries to Borderland (Oregon State University, 1997) with plenaries including Jacqueline Jones Royster on “Borderlands and Common Spaces: Care and Maintenance in our Neutral Zone” and Nancy Tuana “Fleshing Rhetoric: Speaking Bodies/ Reconfiguring Sex/Gender.” 
  • Cross-Disciplinary Sites of Feminist Discourse (Univeristy of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1999) with exhibits from a variety of feminist art collectives, bookstores, and non profits  in Minneapolis.  The conference featured Voices of Women Writers, a series of readings by novelists and non-fiction writers Judith Katz, Barrie Jean Borrich, Sandra Benitez, Aurora Levins Morales, and the Tight Spaces Collective. 
  • Millikin University, 2001.There was no stated theme for this conference. Featured Keynote speakers at this conference included Krista Ratcliffe “Silence and Listening: Rhetorical Arts for “Resisting Disciplines,” Elizabeth Birmingham “Marion Mahony and Milliken Place: Gender, Erasure, and Architectural Attribution,” Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford “Feminism(s) and the Politics of Style” (read by Nancy DeJoy), Elizabeth Flynn “What’s in a Name?: Reconfiguring Feminist Traditions,” Joyce Irene Middleton “The Rhetorical World of Black Women Filmmakers: Camille Billops, Julie Dash, and Cheryl Dunye,” Nan Johnson “A Feminist Writes the History of Rhetoric: What does THAT Mean,” and Susan Applegate Krouse “Transforming Images: American Indian Women’s Narratives in Academia” and Jacqueline Jones Royster and Ann Marie Mann Simpkins “Marking Trails: Race, Gender, and Culture in the History of Rhetoric.” 
  • Intersections: Critical Locations of Feminist Rhetorical Practice (Ohio State University, 2003), where the introductory note highlighted participants from “46 states and 10 nations.” Featured panels included Feminist Historiography with Patricia Bizzell, Cheryl Glenn, Laura Gurak, Winifred Bryan Horner, Jan Swearingen, Kathleen Welch; “Feminist Pedagogy” with Nancy DeJoy, Lisa Ede, Hildy Miller, and Krista Ratcliffe; “Clearing the Clouds, Learning to Speak, and I Got Thunder” with Jacqueline Jones Royster, Shirley Wilson Logan, and Joyce Irene Middleton; and plenary addresses from Andrea Lunsford “All Available Means of Persuasion for Feminists,” Marcia Farr “Speech Play and Verbal Art: New Perspectives on Feminist Rhetorics” and Susan Jarrett “A Sustaining Meloncholy: Feminist Theories and Public Rhetorics.” 
  • Affirming Diversity (Michigan Tech, 2005) with Keynotes including Min-Zahn Lu “Class Matters: Gender, Critical Literacy, and the Global Restructuring of Capitalist;” Donna Harraway “We Have Never Been Human: Companion Species in Naturecultures;” Jacqueline Jones Royster “Gender, Race, and Nation;” Andrea Lunsford “Women Against War;” and Helena Maria Viramontes reading from selected works. 
  • Civic Discourse (University of Arkansas–Little Rock, 2007) where the proposal called for presentations beyond the read-aloud academic essays to more interactive and alternative formats and included a note for graduate students on how to approach the conference. Featured panels included those from outside of academia:  “The Women of Central High” and another “When Worlds Collide: Feminist Art vs. Images of Empire;” Wendy Kline “Bodies of Evidence: Activists, Patients, and the FDA Regulation of Depo Provera; Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General, and a panel on Civil Rights/Civic Discourse. Keynotes included:  Malea Powell “Making NDN Culture: American Indian Women Civic Materialities;” a welcome address from Krista Ratcliffe “Unwilling to Listen: How do you Engage in Civic Dialogue When Each Side Isn’t Civil?” a moderated panel with each of the past conference chairs; Carol Mattingly “A Habit of Civic Engagement: Nineteenth-Century Nuns Dispelling Prejudice; Jessica Rayman “Copyright, Feminism, and Digital Discourse; Hui Wu “Whose Feminism is It? The Rhetoric of Post-Mao Chinese Women Writers;  Shirley Wilson Logan “Daisy Bates and Ida Wells: Talking Across Gender.” Another highlight was a reception and tour at the Clinton Presidential Archives. 
  • Enabling Complexities: Community/Writing/Rhetoric (Michigan State University, 2009). Featured speakers included Gwendolyn D. Pough “On Prince Charming and the Strong Black Woman: Race, Representation, Rhetoric and Romance;” Ceclia Rodriquez Milenas “My English is Not Very Good Looking–Accents and Identities;” Rochelle L. Harris “From Zombies to Writing Groups and Motorcycle Rallies to Memoir: My Search for the Fifth Trope of Rhetoric;” Resa Crane Bistro “Diagnosing Intergenerational Post Traumatic Disorder: Or, a Fat Old Indian Woman Fistfights the American Psychiatric Association in East Lansing;” Terese Guinsatao Monberg “Pinay Peminists: Listening for New Locations and Re/visions of Rhetorical Theory;” and Dora Ramirez-Dhoore “Racial and Scientific Rhetoric in Eco-Political Matters: Third World Women Workers in Helena Maria Viramontes Under the Feet of Jesus and Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s Desert Blood.” This conference also opened with a community event “A Legacy of Conflict and Possibility: an Examination of Racism Between Women of Color and White Women” hosted by M. Carmen Lane from the Lane-Leota Group. 
  • Feminist Challenges or Feminist Rhetorics?: Locations, Scholarship, and Discourse (Minnesota State Mankato, 2011). Keynote speakers included Gayle Salamon, AlisonPiepmeier, as well as a number of keynote roundtables from Kate Ronald, Eileen Schell and Rebecca Dingo who discussed who feminist methodologies and practices. Mumbi Mwangi and Kyoko Kishimoto discussed Women of Color Feminisms, and Sondra Perl and Betsey Sargent revisited the intersections between felt sense, the body and feminism in pedagogy. A lunch time keynote roundtable included Jenn Melby, owner of Mankato’s Coffee Hag, and a cohort of local feminist and LGBTQI business owners. 
  • Networks and Connections: Feminisms, Rhetoric, and Local/Global Communities (Stanford University, 2013). The conference program is not currently in the archives, but it is available here. 
  • Women’s Ways of Making (Arizona State University, 2015). Currently the archive does not have the conference program in its processed holdings, but it is available here. This folder holds a variety of materials related to securing publisher tables. 
  • Rhetorics, Rights, (R)evolutions (Dayton University, 2017). Currently the archive does not have the conference program in its processed holdings, but the program is available here. 
  • Redefining Feminist Activism (James Madison University, 2019). Currently the archive does not have the conference program in its processed holdings, but the program is available here.

The programs and accompanying materials from the collection also highlight the importance of community engagement to the conference–with exhibits featuring local non-profits (such as at University of Minnesota–Minneapolis) or with community leaders offering plenaries (such as at University of Dayton) or with a roundtable with local feminist business owners (such as at the University of Minnesota Mankato). The welcome message from the 2009 Michigan State  conference directors Malea Powell and Sue Webb and conference assistant co-directors Kendall Lion and Jennifer Sano makes this connection explicit: “we have created a conference that both examines the knowledge work we already do as scholars and community activists and that creates more space for the complicated, difficult work that must follow if we want to adequately reflect the deep structure of connections/intersections/overlaps that are critical to our shared future.” They then continue by encouraging participants to “reach across the category” they identify with to forge new connections and new possibilities. 

The idea of blurring binaries was again present at the ASU conference in 2015 where organizers expressly worked to “collapse several impoverished binaries: mind/body, producer/consumer, passive recipients/active consumers, public/private, male/female, and craft/art.” The conference featured artists, weavers, knitters, and other artisans and crafters who presented alongside the more traditional conference format to showcase different ways of making.  That said, throughout all the conference programs, you see the conference encouraging broad understanding of what it means to participate in the conference–from locals housing grad students, to online reading rooms, to performing in plays. The blurring of practice and theory was also evident during the Dayton Conference where attendees helped to raise funds for Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria. 

A long-standing feature of the conference that we can observe evolving through the conferences are the shared meals. From the early conferences where nearly all the meals were shared, to the more recent iterations of the conference with fewer shared meals and more emphasis on shared experiences. These experiences include the archival collection highlighted at the 2019 JMU Conference featuring exhibits on the ERA and women’s activism on campus, to the opening cocktail and hors d’oeuvres celebration at the 2017 Dayton Conference featuring a rare book collection, that included first editions of noted feminist texts, to the performance of the award-winning Scottsdale Chorus at the 2015 ASU Conference, to the catered dinner in the Rodin Sculpture Garden at the 2013 Stanford Conference, to the visit to the Clinton Presidential Library during the 2007 ULAR Conference. For me, first as a master’s student and now as a professor, these moments beyond the presentation rooms where I got to metaphorically (and sometimes literally) play with fellow conference attendees is where the magic of feminisms and rhetorics happen. 

The Feminisms and Rhetorics Collection is a reminder that the hard work of feminist rhetorical theory, practice, teaching, and learning can be extended and enriched when we gather to ask critical questions of ourselves and each other in a spirit of inclusivity and encouragement

-Alexis Ramsey-Tobienne, CFSHRC Archivist and Historian

Exciting Feminisms and Rhetorics News!

I am pleased to share news that the Advisory Board of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition recently passed the following motion regarding the 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference:

That the Coalition delay of the re- release of the call for 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics site hosts until the spring of 2021 and require within this call that potential site hosts front themes of anti-racist activism and center the work of feminists of color.

I also want to make you aware that several members of the Advisory Board and the broader Coalition have started work in two task forces: one that seeks to “fill the gap” left by the cancellation of the 2021 FemRhet Conference, and one that aims to investigate and propose potential structural and procedural changes to the FemRhet Conference.

In the remainder of this post, you will find background information about the timing of the call for FemRhet 2023 site hosts and the decision to front anti-racist activism and the work of feminists of color at that conference. In addition, you will learn more about the task forces. As you read and consider these items, please know that your input is strongly encouraged and most welcome. Please contact me (mailto:president@cfshrc.org) or the coordinators of the task forces (their contact information is below) with any ideas, recommendations, or feedback. Members of the Executive Board are also happy to talk through ideas with you if you are already thinking about submitting a site proposal for the 2023 conference. Please direct communications about possibly hosting the FemRhet 2023 to me or to Tarez Graban, Immediate Past President, at tarez.graban.gmail.com.

Background and Task Forces Details

During its virtual annual business meeting in March 2020, the Coalition Advisory Board voted not to co-host a Feminisms and Rhetorics conference in 2021. At that same meeting, the Board also decided to temporarily suspend site-host proposals for the 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics conference. These decisions were made in response to ongoing conversations about the workflows, formats, and processes associated with the conference and in light of COVID-related uncertainty regarding the possibility of planning for and holding a large gathering in the near future.

With these decisions and situations in mind, the Coalition established two task forces:

  1. An “Alternative Interactions” (AI) task force that is investigating ways to enable conversations, education, mentoring, and other activities that would have occurred at our CCCC 2020 Wednesday evening action hour and during the FemRhet 2021 conference. Lisa Shaver (lisa_shaver@baylor.edu) is coordinating this task force.
  2. A “Workflow, Process, and Format” (WPF) task force that is reviewing past practices and future possibilities related to these aspects of the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference and building on the work of the Coalition’s FemRhet Policies Task Force from last year. Jessica Enoch (jenoch1@umd.edu) is coordinating this task force.

To ensure that our WPF task force members have time to complete their work and that we can, as desired, incorporate changes that they might recommend, and to allow more time for clarity with regard to how institutions and communities will resume life and business in the wake of the pandemic, it seemed advisable for a revised call for site-hosts for FemRhet 2023 to be released in the spring of 2021.

We also felt that the second part of the motion is an essential part of larger Coalition efforts to amplify voices of scholars of color, interrogate white privilege, and promote anti-racist organizational change. While many members and supporters of the Coalition have critiqued white supremacy and engaged in racial justice work in the past, current events and the enduring, centuries-long oppressions and injustices that inform them make it undeniably clear that this anti-racist emphasis for the next FemRhet gathering is not just reactive but is necessary to promote the Coalition’s mission. There are many ways to accomplish this focus in a conference gathering, and members of the Executive Board, as noted above, are glad to make themselves available to discuss ideas in advance of the re-issued call for site-host proposals.

With gratitude and hope,

Wendy Sharer, President CFSHRC