Call for Applications: The Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship Award

Dear Colleagues,

Are you planning to attend Feminisms and Rhetorics 2025 and need travel funding? If so, read this call for applications for the Shirley Wilson Logan Diversity Scholarship to presenters at the 2025 Feminisms and Rhetorics conference in Durham, New Hampshire. Please apply and/or circulate! See details below.

Description

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.

Eligibility

As an organization, we are defining un/underrepresented groups as:

  • Scholars of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds
  • International scholars
  • Scholars who identify as LGBTQIA
  • Scholars with disabilities
  • Graduate scholars who were first-generation undergraduates

In addition, scholars must meet the following requirements:

  1. Be a first-time presenter at the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference
  2. Be a member of the Coalition at the time of application
  3. Have an already accepted presentation for the conference
  4. Have firm plans to attend the conference (scholars who do not attend will forfeit the financial compensation for the award)

Review Criteria

The goal of the award is diversity and inclusion of underrepresented scholars vs. topics (as long as the work itself falls within the broader category of feminist rhetorical studies). Please keep this in mind as you submit your materials.

How to Apply

The next award will be conferred in 2025. The application deadline the 2025 Feminisms and Rhetorics conference is March 28, 2025. Applicants should submit a completed application form, a letter of recommendation for the award, a current CV, and a copy of their conference acceptance and confirmation. Please direct application materials and any questions to Jess Enoch Immediate Past President (jenoch1@umd.edu).

Feminisms and Rhetorics 2025 Decisions Are Out

Hi, everyone!

We received hundreds of proposals for this year’s conference, which were reviewed by members of the Coalition, past FemRhet conference participants, and members of UNH’s conference committee in consultation with anti-racist reviewing processes. Thank you to everyone who submitted and/or reviewed proposals. A huge thanks to the Conference Planning Committee for overseeing this process and keeping us organized. The Conference Planning Committee is:

  • Chair: Patrick Thomas
  • Holly Anderson
  • Cristy Beemer
  • Moushumi Biswas
  • Erica Cirillo McCarthy
  • Rhea Lathan

For everyone who was invited to present, please complete the following steps:

1. To accept or decline this invitation, please complete the Invitation Acceptance form here no later than March 1, 2025. This form should be completed by all presenters. If you cannot accept this invitation, please select the “decline” on the Invitation Acceptance form by March 1st. (Direct link to invitation acceptance form: https://forms.gle/8a7wK67LByAYSQPK7)

2. Please note that to reserve your place in the program, online registration will be available in April through our conference website: https://femrhet2025.cfshrc.org/

Accessibility Guide: conference planners are hard at work composing the accessibility guide for the conference. It will be available to attendees as soon as it is completed.

If you have any questions about the conference, please direct them to the 2025 Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference Committee:  feminismsandrhetorics@gmail.com. 

Best wishes,

Becca Richards, President CFSHRC

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.