Peitho Announces Incoming Co-Editors in 2025!
/in Announcements, Peitho, President's BlogWelcome to the new Peitho Editors!
The Coalition is thrilled to early-announce the next co-editors of Peitho: Bryna Siegel Finer, Jamie White-Farnham, and Cathryn Molloy! Bryna, Jamie, and Cathryn will shadow the current editorial team until June 2025, when they officially begin their term with issue 28.1 (the Fall 2025 issue). They are a long collaborating team with years of experience, an interest in cross-disciplinary synergy, innovative ideas to help maintain and grow the journal’s reputation, and a strong desire to mentor current and future generations of its contributors. Individually, they have each served in editorial positions; collectively, they have co-edited three scholarly volumes—Writing Program Architecture with Utah State Press (Jamie and Bryna, 2017), Women’s Health Advocacy with Routledge (Cathryn, Bryna, and Jamie, 2019), Confronting Toxic Rhetoric with Peter Lang Publishers (Cathryn, Bryna, and Jamie, 2025)—and collaborated on a fourth, Rhetorics of Menopause (forthcoming in 2025).
Image 1: Photo of Bryna Siegel Finer
Bryna Siegel Finer is professor of English and Director of Undergraduate Writing Programs at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her academic interests include writing across the curriculum, rhetorics of health and medicine, writing teacher education, first-year writing, and developmental/basic writing. She is currently co-editor of the Writing Spaces book series, where she has worked with contributors to the series’ Activities and Assignments Archive and is collaborating with other editors on the new seventh volume. She is also associate editor of the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (RHM) journal, where she manages much of the journal’s web content and the Graphic Medicine column. She spent three years as the book reviews editor for Composition Studies, soliciting and managing submissions and pitching review essays to well-known scholars in the field. Her published work has appeared in Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, Rhetoric Review, Teaching Writing in the Two-Year College, Praxis, Composition Studies, and the Journal of Teaching Writing, among others. She is also co-author of the book Patients Making Meaning: Theorizing Sources of Information and Forms of Support in Women’s Health (Jamie White-Farnham and Cathryn Molloy).
Image 2: Photo of Jamie White-Farnham
Jamie White-Farnham is professor of writing and Director of the Jim Dan Hill Library and Markwood Center for Learning, Innovation and Collaboration (CLIC) at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where she provides oversight for a collaborative team of 13 professionals and 15 student employees, and facilitates strategic initiatives at the university level. Her research areas include feminism and rhetoric, women’s health rhetoric, grammar and language change, and higher education administration. From 2018-2022, Jamie served as an Associate Editor at Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments, managing desk-reviews and giving vital first-round feedback to the editors on submissions from a variety of disciplines on the authors’ engagement with relevant literature, research methods and methodologies, manuscript organization. In this role, she mentored first-time scholars and offered one-on-one guidance to all contributors through the revision process. She is also author or co-author of 18 academic articles, and co-author of the book Patients Making Meaning: Theorizing Sources of Information and Forms of Support in Women’s Health (with Bryna Siegel Finer and Cathryn Molloy).
Image 3: Photo of Cathryn Molloy
Cathryn Molloy is professor of writing studies at the University of Delaware. Her research interests include rhetoric of health and medicine, mental health rhetoric, feminist methodologies, and disability studies. Prior to joining the Department of English in 2023, Cathryn was a faculty member and associate director of the School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication at James Madison University for eleven years. She has been on the editing team of the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (RHM) journal since 2017, stepping into the lead co-editor position in 2020. During her term as co-editor, she has worked with her team to get the journal indexed at Scopus and has worked to implement anti-racist reviewing and editing practices that align with feminist ideologies. She is also author of the book Rhetorical Ethos in Health and Medicine: Patient Credibility, Stigma, and Misdiagnosis (2020) and co-author of the book Patients Making Meaning: Theorizing Sources of Information and Forms of Support in Women’s Health (with Bryna Siegel Finer and Jamie White-Farnham).
The incoming co-editors will join Jennifer Nish, who continues as Associate Editor, and Hannah Taylor, who continues as Web Coordinator. While it is still too early to bid goodbye to our current editors, Rebecca Dingo and Clancy Ratliff (they’re not going anywhere just yet!), we are excited for this next chapter in the journal’s history. The current editorial team have done much to foster Peitho’s legacy of cutting-edge feminist scholarship, introducing new features and collaborating with WAC Clearinghouse in vital ways; we know that vital work will continue with Bryna, Jamie, and Cathryn at the helm.
Peitho’s Editorial Board would like to acknowledge the other outstanding applicants for this position and to thank them, sincerely, for sharing their materials with us and for investing so much heart into the application and interviewing process. We wish them our very best and look forward to collaborating in other ways!
Spring 2024 issue of Peitho Live at the WAC Clearinghouse!
/in Announcements, Coalition, Peitho, President's BlogDear friends,
On behalf of the editorial team, I’m happy to announce the spring 2024 issue of Peitho, now at its new location, the WAC Clearinghouse! Three cheers for the co-editors, Rebecca Dingo and Clancy Ratliff, for overseeing this exciting transition.
https://wac.colostate.edu/peitho/archives/v26n3/
The issue has some great articles and book reviews, plus a Cluster Conversation on feminist new materialisms, featuring undergraduate research!
Oh, and for those on the Editorial Team: we choose the bear.
Happy reading!
Becca Richards, President CFSHRC
Call for Applications: Peitho Journal Editor(s)
/in Announcements, Calls, Coalition, Peitho, President's Blog, UncategorizedCall for Peitho Editor/Co-Editors
The Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC) is seeking an editor–or a pair of co-editors–for Peitho, our quarterly peer-reviewed online journal, beginning June 1, 2025, with early onboarding to begin on or around January 1, 2025.
In supporting the Coalition’s mission, Peitho seeks to publish research that advances the feminist study of our profession, including
- Peer-reviewed scholarly texts (i.e., essays, webtexts, standalone videos);
- Book reviews;
- Recoveries and Reconsiderations;
- Special edited content, including scholarship presented at the Coalition’s Wednesday night CCCC session.
In cooperation with an associate editor (Jennifer Nish will hold this position until Summer 2026) and Peitho’s editorial team, the editor has purview over the editorial content and production process of the journal, including forming the editorial board, issuing calls for papers, refining the journal’s submission process, and publishing the journal. The editor also has the support of its Editorial Board and of the Coalition’s Executive Board for all matters requiring approval.
Qualifications: A strong candidate or candidate team will have:
- A strong record of feminist academic work, including research and scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and service;
- A strong record of affiliation with the Coalition (i.e., membership, Coalition-related service work, participation in Feminisms and Rhetorics conferences, involvement in Peitho);
- Working knowledge of available resources for digital scholarship and digital publication;
- Demonstrated skill or relevant experience with information management and task delegation;
- Relevant editorial experience and a vision for the future of the journal;
- A career record of collaboration or coalition-building, as well as outstanding planning and communication skills;
- A firm commitment of support from their home institutions (i.e., release time, interns or research assistants).
Responsibilities:
- Serve as editor for four years, assuming responsibility for Peitho 27.1 (Fall 2025) through Peitho 30.4 (Summer 2029);
- Manage the submission, editorial, and online publication processes for four issues of Peitho per year (Fall launched by December; Winter launched by March; Spring launched by June; and Summer launched by September) in coordination with the Associate Editor;
- Maintain and model good communication with members of the editorial team and with authors;
- Participate in the search for a new Associate Editor and Web Coordinator when needed;
- Serve as an ex officio (nonvoting) member of the CFSHRC Advisory Board and attend regular Board meetings at the Wednesday afternoons at CCCC and during the biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics conference.
Compensation
Upon approval from the Coalition’s Executive Board, the Editor(s) shall be allocated an annual operating budget of up to $3,000 per year, in an account established by the Editor(s), to provide funding for software and technology, training, interns, stipends, publicity, and other costs associated with the development of regular and special issues. In addition, Editors receive a $250 courtesy remuneration each year, as well as free conference registration (up to $250) each year.
Applicants should email a CV and cover letter, describing their qualifications and detailing how their institution will support their editorship, to Tarez Graban, tgraban@fsu.edu, by September 30, 2024. Application review and interviews will be completed by November 30. Sample application letters are available upon request, and several members of Peitho’s editorial team and editorial board are on hand to answer questions about the role or to offer ad-hoc mentoring in advance of the application deadline. Please send all queries to Tarez Graban at tgraban@fsu.edu.
Call for Proposals for a Special Issue of Peitho, Summer 2025
/in Announcements, Peitho, Peitho Announcements, Peitho Call for Submissions, President's BlogHello All-
We are thrilled to announce a call for submissions to a summer 2025 special issue of Peitho focusing on Girlhood and Menstruation. Proposals are due Sept. 1, 2024 to editors Jen Almjeld and Sarah Hagelin at peithosummer2025@gmail.com. Acceptances to authors will go out Oct. 1, 2024 with full manuscripts due Jan. 15, 2025.
Find the full CFP below.
We look forward to reading your wonderful insights on this topic!
-Jen and Sarah
Call for Proposals for a Special Issue of Peitho, Summer 2025:
Girlhood and Menstruation
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Girls and menstruation in popular culture
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Menstruation in literature
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Menstruation and trans bodies
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Menstruation online and on social media
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#period content as “tactical technical communication” (Kimball, 2017) for/by girls
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Period health and education
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Socioeconomic impacts of periods on girlhood
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Material rhetorics of menstruation
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Health and medical rhetoric approaches to pediatric periods
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Menstruation as a rite of passage
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Period stigma, shame and resistance
Send questions to: peithosummer2025@gmail.com
Welcome Hannah Taylor to the Peitho Editorial Team
/in Announcements, Coalition, News, Peitho, Peitho AnnouncementsWe are pleased to announce that Dr. Hannah Taylor will serve as Peitho‘s next Web Coordinator.

Hannah Taylor, incoming Web Coordinator
Hannah is a Lecturer in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University. Hannah’s research focuses on the intersections of public health, feminist rhetorics, and reproductive rights. Specifically, she analyzes the material, technological, and public discourses that shape the ways we discuss reproductive processes, bodies, and freedoms.
Peitho’s Web Coordinator supports the journal in significant ways, including building or uploading all issues of the journal to its Web-based platform, converting all issues to accessible PDFs, and archiving past issues. We have been fortunate to have excellent and caring folks serve us in this role, and we know Hannah will continue this tradition of excellence and care. She has a demonstrated commitment to accessibility, both at the front- and back-end of journal production, has worked collaboratively on establishing Communication Design Quarterly as a stand-alone journal, and assisted with multiple publication projects at Clemson University’s Pearce Center for Communication while in graduate school.
Finally, when she is not working, Hannah likes to bake, read, and craft alongside her dog and cat. She is excited to join the editorial team of Peitho, and we could not be more pleased to welcome her to the team!
Welcome Jennifer Nish to the Peitho Editorial Team
/in News, Peitho
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!
Peitho Seeking Short Memorial Pieces on bell hooks (deadline 2-28)
/in Announcements, Calls, Coalition, Peitho Announcements, Peitho Call for Papers, President's Blog
- Please send statements of about 500 words (may include images) to peitho-editorial-team@cfshrc.org by February 28, 2022.
Peitho 24.1 (Fall 2021) Now Live!
/in Announcements, Coalition, News, Peitho, President's BlogThe most recent issue of Peitho (Volume 24.1, Fall 2021) is now live! Please take some time to enjoy tributes to the late Lisa Ede (contributed by Michael J. Faris, Jessica Restaino, Asao B. Inoue, Vicki Tolar Burton, Tim Jensen, Kristy Kelly, Sarah Tinker Perrault, Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder, and Rachel Daugherty), articles by Zosha Stuckey, Emily January Petersen, Breanne Matheson, Megan J. Busch, and Ashley Canter, Recoveries and Reconsiderations by Mary LeRouge, Jacyln Fiscus-Cannaday, Susan Ghiaciuc, Cathryn Molloy, and Vanessa Rouillon, and Nanette Rasband Hilton’s review of Opportunities for Feminist Research in Rhetoric and Composition edited by Jessica Enoch and Jordynn Jack.
Many thanks to the Editorial Team that made this issue possible: Co-Editors Rebecca Dingo and Clancy Ratliff, Associate Editor Temptaous Mckoy, and Editorial Assistants Kelli Lycke Martin, Stacie Klinowski, Ashley Canter, and Stacy Earp.
Review of Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy
/in Book Reviews, PeithoBaker-Bell, April. Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy. Routledge, 2020.
Introduction
In Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy, Assistant Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education at Michigan State University, April Baker-Bell shows readers she ain’t new to the Black Language (BL hereafter) conversation, but that she true to it. Conversations throughout the field of composition and literacy studies bout the literacy development of Black people within the American Education System been a hot topic and continues today. It ain’t no secret that Black people in America have been the topic of discussion in various conversations. Most of these conversations evolve round Black people…dare I say it…bein Black, literally. For example, the world has witnessed Black Americans of various ages be attacked and murdered by racist white people for doin seemingly normal activities like walkin, runnin, playin music, sleepin, singin outside, and complying with police demands to name a few. Moreover, Baker-Bell’s research on BL and pedagogical suggestions for how literacy educators, researchers, and students can benefit from first examining and then incorporating BL into the writing classroom, makes Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity and Pedagogy required reading for those who want to know about the conversations regarding the validity of BL and its use by Black and non-Black people alike.
What’s the 411?: Overview of Linguistic Justice
Wit more than 20 years’ experience teaching English at the high school and collegiate level, Baker-Bell blesses readers with six chapters in Linguistic Justice. In chapter one she identifies the purpose of Linguistic Justice in chapter one arguing:
people’s language experiences are not separate from their racial experiences. Indeed, the way a Black child’s language is devalued in school reflects how Black lives are devalued in the world. Similarly, the way a white child’s language is privileged and deemed the norm in schools is directly connected to the invisible ways that white culture is deemed normal, neutral, and superior in the world. (2)
Through this argument, Baker-Bell confronts the catalyst behind the continued conversation of BL and literacy education of Black students who speak and write using BL as it is an integral part of their identity: white supremacy. White supremacist ideologies within the American education system where Black students were and continue to be demeaned and labeled deficient because they don’t use “White Mainstream English” (WME hereafter) is because the idea of WME as the only acceptable form of English has been ingrained into the psyche of educators, parents, and students (3). Therefore, any language spoken or written that don’t mirror WME was/is deemed wrong, inadequate, deficit and the list goes on. As a teacher-scholar-activist, Baker-Bell challenges educators, scholars, and graduate students in various fields dedicated to language and literacy, to fight back against white supremacist ideologies which promote Anti-Black Linguistic Racism and subsequently Anti-Blackness, to Black students across the United States and the world. In addition to this argument, Baker-Bell presents “Linguistic Justice as a Black Language Theoreticum, a theory meets practicum” (8), for its contents expand seemingly traditional models of teaching. In chapter 2, Baker-Bell introduces readers to the theory of Anti-Black Linguistic Racism to show how prejudice against Black language is synonymous with racism against Black people and culture. Moreover, she offers Black Language Pedagogy as a method for students and Antiracist educators to resist and dismantle Anti-Black Linguistic Racism within the classroom, ultimately the world. Chapter 3 highlights the voices of several BL speaking high-school students who Baker-Bell worked with regarding their lived experiences with Black Linguistic Racism in and outside of school. This chapter is unique in that Baker-Bell centers these student voices to show how Anti-Black Linguistic Racism negatively impacts Black students’ identity and agency in and outside of the classroom. Chapter 4 showcases Baker-Bell’s Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy in action. Here, she details examples of lessons and activities she used to teach the high school students at Leadership Academy how to “challenge, interrogate, unlearn, and work toward dismantling Anti-Black Linguistic Racism” (64). In Chapter 5, Baker-Bell shares responses of the students she worked with previously (in chapter 3) on what they learned about Black Language and Anti-Black Linguistic Racism via the activities and lessons she taught using Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy. Finally, Chapter 6 considered a Bonus chapter by Baker-Bell, provides readers with an update on her research with the students from Leadership Academy in addition to activities for English teachers to incorporate Linguistic Justice as a framework within they classes. Specifically, these activities and lessons curated within chapter were developed from award winning Young Adult fiction author, Angie Thomas’ bestseller, T.H.U.G.: The Hate U Give. Through the various chapters, Baker-Bell takes readers on a journey that ain’t for the faint of heart, especially if they goal is to actively practice Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Anti-Racist Black Linguistic Racism.
Words from the Black Language G.O.A.T.
In Linguistic Justice, readers learn of Baker-Bell’s contribution to the ongoing BL conversation through the foreword that precedes its initial chapters. Michigan State University Professor of English, Emerita, the livin legend herself, Dr. Geneva Smitherman highlighted Baker-Bell’s contribution to the BL and literacy education conversation by continuing da work of those scholars who came before her in the foreword. Smitherman praises Baker-Bell sayin:
At long last, this is the book we have all been waiting for. A book designed to develop our students’ critical understanding of and historical consciousness about Black Language. A book that builds on that critical inquiry to motivate students to formulate ways of impacting and changing the linguistic status quo. As a leading member of a new generation of language and literature scholar-teacher-activists, Dr. April Baker-Bell represents for Black Language and it’s speakers because she gets it. (xii)
Dr. Smitherman’s declaration that Baker-Bell “gets it” is a statement that rings true and is shown throughout Linguistic Justice. As an early-career scholar in composition and applied linguistics whose research centers how Black Women English Teachers-Scholars (BWETS hereafter) navigate the field as BL speakers and writers, Linguistic Justice snatched the teeny tiny bit of edges I had left (my doctoral journey took the majority of them; but that’s a story for another publication).
Engaging with Linguistic Justice: How specific Chapters influenced my Pedagogy
As mentioned previously, Linguistic Justice challenges not only educators, but ANYONE in the field of English and literacy studies to critically examine they own beliefs regarding BL as well as the ways they intentionally or unintentionally perpetuate Anti-Black Linguistic Racism and Anti-Blackness in they teaching. For example, in chapter 3 “Killing Them Softly” I was forced to revisit my own experiences with Anti-Black Linguistic Racism as a young jawn, when Baker-Bell introduced the counterstories, a womanist practice, of Black students she worked with at Leadership Academy Charter School in Detroit. Specifically, I resonated with the experience of “Janel” who had spent the majority of her life navigating Anti-Black Linguistic Racism from teachers, administrators, Black elders and her own BL speaking family members. Resonating with Janel’s experience reinforced my commitment to actively dismantle Anti-Black Linguistic and Anti-Blackness within myself (ex. checkin myself when I start tryna judge someone’s level of customer service simply because they use BL to communicate). In my teaching, I encourage my students to bring their full selves not only to my course but to the assignments too. I encourage them to write in they home languages in an effort to recognize and honor the validity of languages outside of WME. I model this by usin BL in my syllabus and in the written feedback I provide on papers. I look forward to incorporating Linguistic Justice and Baker-Bell’s use of composite character counter storytelling methodology into my own research on BL speaking and writing BWETS. In chapter 5 “Black Linguistic Consciousness” Baker-Bell calls out language and literacy educators when she says
You can’t be out here saying that you believe in linguistic diversity at the same time of shutting students down as soon as they open their mouths. You have to be about this life for real for real! You have to be ready and willing to challenge everything you once understood about language and what students need in language education. You have to be ready for the messiness that comes with the process. (100)
Baker-Bell urges educators to move beyond talk about bein or becoming Anti-Racist Educators by challenging themselves and their colleagues to actively engage in dismantling Anti-Black Linguistic Racism. For students, Baker-Bell provides them with the academic receipts to protect themselves from and ultimately challenge Anti-Black Linguistic Racism and internalized Anti-Black Linguistic Racism from teachers, administrators, elders, and family members who still privilege WME as the gold standard. While Baker-Bell’s Linguistic Justice calls out educators, researchers, graduate students to focus on undoing Anti-Black Linguistic Racism, in true Black woman fashion, Baker-Bell shows that while she is calling these people out, that she ain’t gon leave em hangin’ to try to carry out this call on they own. Thus, she provided the previously mentioned bonus chapter (see “THUG LIFE”) with sample activities for how language and literacy educators can integrate Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy into they own teaching. Baker-Bell was gracious enough to share seven “Black Language Artifacts” “that can be implemented, altered, or used for inspiration to help teachers think through how to use literature in pursuit of linguistic and racial justice” (104).
Why You NEED Linguistic Justice…Periodt!
Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy ain’t no ordinary theory/research text, it is a movement. Linguistic Justice is a movement in that its content propels language and literacy educators and students to become movers and shakers within the continued fight against Anti-Black Linguistic Racism, Antiracist pedagogy, and Anti-Blackness as a whole—a critical component of womanist practices. Specifically, for the field of composition, Linguistic Justice directly addresses the common question of how to teach about BL as a vital part of literacy education for not just Black students, but non-Black students also. For teachers and scholars of composition, Linguistic Justice serves as a bold reminder of how many were taught to privilege WME as the correct way of writing and speaking within the writing classroom. Therefore, Linguistic Justice should be considered required reading in teacher education programs, as well as professional development for current teachers across the K-16 levels. What’s more, is Baker-Bell’s Linguistic Justice Framework could benefit not just composition but can be included in trainings and curriculums for non-humanities/social science fields. As Smitherman complimented sayin she “gets it”, I truly believe Linguistic Justice was Baker-Bell’s collective homage to the brilliance and beauty of Black Language, Black identity, Black education, Black people, and most of all Black freedom, and she desires for everybody and they mama to “get it” and get it (meaning purchase the book) you should, dear reader.