A Unicorn, Butterflies, and Rainbows, Coalition Style

If you follow the Coalition on Facebook or Twitter then you know May 5th turned out to be a banner day. In the throes of third quarter for some and the end of the semester and academic year for others, the meme to the right turned out to a rallying cry for our membership—along with more than 5000 of our friends, friends of our friends, friends of friends of our friends, and so on.

Oh, how tempting it is to try turning that runaway meme into an ad hoc membership drive. Oh so very, very tempting.

Instead, I offer everyone reading this post a unicorn, a variation on the theme of butterflies, and some rainbows.

To start, a unicorn along with the first rainbow:

This particular unicorn and the figure we now know as Everyprofessor, all revved up to grade all the things, are both the work of Allie Brosh. Although she did not create the meme, she is well known through her website, Hyperbole and a Half, her book by the same name, and all kinds of cool swag. Brosch writes humorously and movingly about any number of subjects, including her own childhood and depression. Increasingly, her work appears on rhetoric and composition syllabi alongside Lynda Barry‘s, Alison Bechdel‘s, and others’. When you have a chance, take a look. Meanwhile, we owe Brosh one heckuva hat tip.

As for butterflies, they’re aspirational. At least here along the shores of Lake Michigan it’s early for caterpillars let alone butterflies. As a substitute, how about a button? Back in March at #4C14 we gave everyone able to attend the Coalition’s 25th Anniversary Gala a keepsake pin. Today we pair it with a button. Specifically, and thanks to Alli Crandell, our most wonderful webmistress, we offer you a  Peitho recommendation button.

Click it and you’ll find yourself on a page with a short form where you can tell Peitho‘s editors about colleagues with as-yet-unpublished projects on feminist research, histories of women, and/or studies of gender and sexuality in rhetoric and composition. If you are attending conferences this summer, starting with RSA in San Antonio, try it out. Please, too, let us know if you have any problems or suggestions for how it can be improved.

Now rainbows, a topic that has at least some of you thinking about 4Cs, Cs the Day, and those ever-sought-after Sparkleponies. (If you missed the post-conference controversy, read all about it here, here, here, and here.) Whether you plan to celebrate the sixth year of the conference’s first (formal) augmented reality game at #4C15 or not, as you get ready to upload your proposals plan to use Joyce Carter’s innovative keyword system to help Coalition members identify—and attend!—your sessions.

So far, three keywords have emerged as Coalition members’ favorites: Coalition, CWSHRC, and FemRhet. If your session addresses feminist research, histories of women, and studies of gender and sexuality in rhetoric and composition, use one or more of these terms, and next spring we’ll be there.

As promised, then, a unicorn, butterflies (more and less), and rainbows. Check this space again in a week or two for news about the Coalition’s 2014-15 volunteer survey among other things.