FemRhet Conference | Call for Hosts

Beginning with the 1997 “From Boundaries to Borderlands” conference at Oregon State University, the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition has co-hosted a biennial meeting dedicated to defining and demonstrating excellent research at various intersections of feminisms and rhetorics—historical, theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical. The Feminisms and Rhetorics community is active and vibrant, and our conference attendance grows with each meeting. The conference has served as an intimate, dynamic, and engaging gathering place for feminists to exchange ideas. We encourage you to submit proposals to the upcoming conference and to consider being a site host.

Call for Site Hosts: 2023 Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference

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. A hosting FAQ can be found below and details from previous conferences to the right.

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?
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.

FAQs: Hosting a FemRhet Conference

(revised July 2021)

Official calls for site hosts typically circulate in the spring of odd-numbered years (e.g., 2011, 2013, 2015) and the site location is generally announced at the FemRhet conference later that year.

The Call for Site Hosts (CSH) will contain information about what should be included, and this may change somewhat from conference-to-conference, so we encourage you to read the CSH carefully.

In general, though, the Coalition’s Conference Committee–the group that reviews site proposals–looks for proposals that reflect a commitment to enacting anti-racism, inclusivity, accessibility, and affordability. Too, proposals should include a clear conference theme and demonstrate an ability to connect that theme to the proposed location. Exemplary proposals also typically do the following:

  1. highlight details in their proposed planning and conferencing practices that demonstrate the ability to develop and implement a conference that is anti-racists, inclusive, and accessible.
  2. articulate clear collaboration with community partners, including local artists, local organizations doing work relevant to the conference theme, or nearby colleges in the area, wherever relevant; Your conference theme will help determine whether your partnerships are local or cross-institutional; we encourage you to think as inclusively as possible.
  3. outline clear and sufficient administrative support for both conference planning and for the event itself (including carving out roles for various ranks of faculty and students to become involved);
  4. describe sources of actual and anticipated funding;
  5. offer details about what spaces the conference will inhabit and how those spaces and the activities to be carried out in them follow the conference theme as well as how they promote inclusion and access;
  6. describe how potential hosts might compensate for amenities not available–for example, if the proposed site is a smaller campus or not within immediate vicinity of a larger airport–and
    be realistic about the logistics built into their planning.

Ideal sites offer ease of access to the conference, allow conference participants to move around easily, are relatively affordable, are located in an area with reasonable proximity to inexpensive airports and hotels, and offer opportunities to engage and interact with both the campus and the local community.

FemRhet has typically been a fall conference. However, in light of rising costs for hosting and declining travel resources for many of our members and supporters, we currently welcome proposals for any time of year. We ask only that you be sensitive to other conference dates (e.g., the Watson Conference, Western States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference, the Cultural Rhetorics Conference, NCTE, NCA, RSA, Conference on Community Writing, etc.), and that you try to select dates when there will be significant availability of hotel rooms and transportation in and out of your area (i.e., at many large schools, football weekends probably aren’t ideal).

The conference has typically started on Wednesday and ended on Saturday afternoon, although some FemRhet conferences have operated on a more condensed schedule—from Thursday morning through Saturday noon. Again, due to rising costs and limited travel support, we invite alternatives to this traditional span of days. We just ask that you be mindful of other conferences or meetings that might create conflicts for people interested in FemRhet.

The registration deadline should occur in the same fiscal year as the conference (i.e., no earlier than July 1, 2023 for the 2023 conference, and preferably later than that). Many of our members rely on advances from their university departments in order to pay registration fees, and sometimes they are limited in terms of how many months in advance they may request conference funding.

Conference registration has consistently been around 400 people. Conference attendance per day fluctuates, of course, and you should take that into consideration when you negotiate your room block with the hotels.

This is entirely up to you based on the number of people that you accept for presentations. Above all, rooms should should be accessible for all participants. Past conferences have made use of a combination of lecture-style (rows of chairs) rooms, theaters, and roundtables, depending on the nature of the sessions. We encourage you to offer space options that not only are reasonable and feasible for your campus, but also work well with the location or theme.

Perusing past programs may give you the best sense of how various conference organizers have split their time and organized their space.

We do require at least one meeting room/conference hall that can hold all of the conference participants during the keynote(s), and in which the Coalition can confer its annual awards and make organizational announcements.

Additional space might be desirable for offering continental breakfast, setting up artists’ or authors’ exhibits, holding workshops or mentoring sessions, displaying digital projects or posters, or breast-feeding and childcare.

At minimum, ballrooms and lecture-style rooms should include a lectern or head table for presenters, and all rooms should have an LCD projector with screen. Internet access is highly desirable, although we recognize the prohibitive cost of this service on some campuses. If your campus provides interpreter and/or CART services, be sure to indicate this, and any associated costs, in your proposal.

Because shared meals can be a significant part of community building, we ask that the conference provide at least one event with food—a luncheon or dinner—where the conference can come together as a whole. Beyond that, there is no rule, but please keep in mind the following:

  • The number of meals you provide should reflect the ease with which people can get access to inexpensive and healthful food near the conference site. If participants must purchase a majority of their own meals, then they will need more varied and less expensive options than only the food offered at their hotels. They will also need time built into the schedule for them to eat their meals in a fairly relaxed manner without missing too many sessions.
  • About 50% of conference participants are graduate students, and an all-inclusive (or mostly inclusive) registration can help decrease their financial expenditures, though not always. There may be ways to negotiate food costs with your conference site, by offering a buffet or purchasing boxed meals on a certificate program (where you pay only for meals actually consumed).
  • Many of our conference participants have dietary restrictions: vegan, vegetarian (no fish, fish, no dairy, dairy, etc.), sugar-free, gluten-free, etc. It is helpful if people have options. We encourage you to ask participants if they will require a certain meal type during the registration process so you can evaluate the demand.

The more the better! Putting together a conference like this one is labor-intensive. We do not recommend that you do this without some explicit departmental support, in the form of course release(s), resources, collaborators, and/or student assistants.

As co-sponsors of FemRhet, we do have a few requirements, and we will work with you to ensure that they can be met within the parameters and flow of the conference that you and your team envision:

  1. List the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition as a co-host.
  2. Allow us some time at your first Plenary Session and again later in the conference to make announcements and confer awards (15-minutes time slots).
  3. Provide a dedicated time and space for the Coalition’s Advisory Board meeting, typically in the middle of the conference (~75-90 minutes).
  4. Provide two pages in the conference program to include relevant Coalition information.
  5. If requested, reserve one to two dedicated sessions for Coalition-sponsored activities (i.e., manuscript mentoring, roundtables, garden talks, etc.). At your and the President’s discretion, these dedicated sessions may occur prior to the conference, or as concurrent panels during the conference. Some years, they may not be requested at all.
  6. Represent both the Coalition and the Conference in a positive manner.
  7. Link your conference site to the Coalition’s website. How this will occur can be discussed with the Coalition’s Executive Board, but it will enable us to archive your CFP and program pages.
  8. Devise a registration process that accounts for two tiers of rates: one for current members, and one that includes the cost of a one-year (or longer) membership for non-members.
  9. Split any profits with the Coalition 50/50, and report estimated profits to the Advisory Board within six months after the conference.

Here is a sample list of budgetary items from a prior conference:

  1. AV and/or internet services
  2. Conference badges and registration packets
  3. Conference insurance
  4. Credit Card Fees (2.5% or 3% of all credit card transactions)
  5. Food (including 20% tax, 18% tip)
  6. Honoraria for plenary speakers
  7. Interpreter/CART services (if not provided by your campus)
  8. Miscellaneous office supplies—paper, pens, electric cords, thank you cards, etc.
  9. Printing costs (program, signs, buttons, maps)
  10. Registration Costs (if handled by an outside provider or conference planner)
  11. Thank you items/tips
  12. Transportation to/from off-site events
  13. Use of a conference planner for food, registration, and/or pre- or post-conference events

Membership Requirements: Beginning with the 2017 FemRhet Conference, we have asked conference organizers to ensure that all registrants are Coalition members, and to devise a conference registration fee schedule that includes a one-year membership (or longer) for registrants who need to join or renew. This means establishing tiers of rates. The Coalition handles membership purchases and renewals through PayPal [see our “Membership” page for current rates], and we will work with you to devise the best process for you, whether that means using an online marketplace through your university or creating a link from your registration page to our membership page.

Community Partners: The involvement of community partners—locally or cross-institutionally—takes time. It is wise to begin making queries at the proposal stage and to build community elements into the program at the outset, rather than including them later.

Insurance: We recommend that you obtain or purchase insurance for the conference if your institution or conference center does not have an existing policy. We will gladly sign a MOU or conference agreement acknowledging the policies you have in place.

Accessibility/Interpreter Services: Our attendees range in age and rank, from student to retiree, so we ask you to think about issues related to age and accessibility when scheduling sessions and planning special events. You will need to identify an “Access Coordinator” for the conference. This individual will be compensated by the Coalition. Furthermore, the Coalition’s Conference Committee is available to help with accessibility concerns. You may also want to query with the ADA office on your campus about their services and provisions for participants who are seeing- or hearing-impaired. We encourage you to ask participants if they will require an interpreter, special assistance, or accessibility aids during the registration process so that you can evaluate the demand and adjust accordingly.

Restrooms: We ask that you provide a gender-neutral or unisex bathroom. This allows everyone access to a safe restroom space. One way to do this is to provide information on the locations of single-stall restrooms or unisex restrooms. Another way is to convert a bathroom (preferably the men’s restroom, as our conference tends to attract more female members) into a unisex bathroom.

If you are holding the conference on your campus: We encourage you to find out whether your institution has a conference planning office that can help you organize the conference, handle registration, and schedule rooms. Most planning offices will negotiate an all-inclusive per-attendee fee depending upon the services they provide.

If you are holding the conference at an off-campus location: You might consider consulting with a conference planner, especially when negotiating the room block and the meal plans. It is good to have someone on your side who knows how to negotiate services and talk to hotel managers, as it may not always be in the best interests of the hotel to help you get the best deal. A conference planner is also useful if you want to arrange a Wednesday night or Saturday afternoon/evening event.

Local Convention Planning: Your city or town may have a local convention-planning center who could help. For example, the 2007 FemRhet conference registration was handled entirely by the Little Rock Tourism board for three dollars per registration. They established a conference account; accepted credit cards, checks, and purchase orders; returned registration fees; deposited monies into the conference account; settled with credit card companies; created name tags; created welcome banners for the airport; and managed the registration desk.

The Coalition offers the following forms of support, though we are more than happy to add to this list as your needs evolve:

  1. Seed money: The Coalition will provide you with up to $2000 seed money. (Seed funding remains separate from conference profits and need not be returned to us.)
  2. Advice and assistance from our Conference Committee: The Coalition’s standing Conference Committee can help to ensure  an accessible, inclusive, and welcoming conference experience for all. This assistance includes, but is not limited to, 
    • 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.
    • 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 session.
    • 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.
  3. Advice and assistance with insurance information: The Executive Committee and selected members of the Advisory Board will also provide support and/or advice with insurance information, where needed. Many of us have hosted the conference before and we are happy to answer any and all questions.
  4. Advice and assistance with establishing a bank/PayPal account or online marketplace: The Coalition can help you in working with your institution to manage conference expenses through an account you establish. Alternatively, you may use the Coalition’s bank account for drawing on and/or receiving conference funds; however, all requests for account activity would need to be managed as “contributions” through the CFSHRC Treasurer. For the greatest flexibility, conference hosts are strongly encouraged to deposit checks and pay expenses through an account established at their university, and strongly discouraged from using personal bank accounts to manage funds.