Keyword: feminist

Follow Our Guest Tweeters!

We thank all of you for following @CFSHRC on Twitter and Facebook. We’ve only been on social media for a couple of years, but we’ve already build a strong following and curated a rich set of conversations relevant to anyone interested in feminism and rhetoric. #thefeministsarecoming to social media and we’ve got a lot to say!

And now, we’re working to improve the way we use our social media platforms. We want to create a genuinely multi-vocal space that represents different coalitions of feminists in rhetoric and composition. Follow our social media experiment this summer as 5 different women take turns curating our twitter feed.

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Follow our curated twitter feed @cfshrc with Patricia Fancher, Marie Novotny, Ruth Osorio, Christine Martorana, Latoya Sawyer, and Karrieann Soto

July 18-24: Patricia Fancher is a lecturer in the Writing Program of the University of California Santa Barbara. Her research intersects rhetoric of science and feminist rhetoric, and she has a special interest in Alan Turing as well as the women who worked at Bletchley Park. She is the Director of Digital Media and Outreach for the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. In her free time, you’ll find Trish with her fat orange cat, who aspires to be internet famous.

July 25-Sep 7: Maria Novotny is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric & Writing at Michigan State University and a project partner with The ART of Infertility. Her research examines how infertile individuals must navigate across health and cultural systems and the challenges that this navigation poses as well as their dependence upon private and peer-led networks to exercise agency in these systematic spaces. In 2015, Marie received the CCCC Gloria Anzaldua Rhetorician Award for her research on infertility activism.

Aug 8-21: Ruth Osorio  is a PhD candidate in rhetoric and composition at the University of Maryland, College Park. She teaches courses in composition, digital writing, disability studies, and professional writing. Her dissertation examines the rhetorical strategies of disability activism in activist, queer, digital, and professional spaces. When not teaching or writing, Ruth is spending time with her daughter, spouse, and chihuahua rescue mutt.

Aug 22-Sep 4: Christine Martorana is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Writing Program at the College of Staten Island – CUNY. Her research interests circulate around feminist agency, feminist activism, and composition pedagogy. In her teaching, she espouse a collaborative, interactive, and multimodal approach, a pedagogical perspective through which she invites students to adopt more expansive notions of what it means to “write” and consider the diverse and impactful ways they function as rhetoricians both within and beyond the academic community.

Sep 5-18:  LaToya Sawyer doctoral candidate in Syracuse University’s Composition and Cultural Rhetoric program. Her research interests are Black women’s discourse, literacy and rhetoric, Black feminism and computer-mediated-communication. LaToya is a Hollis, Queens native, writer and educator. Her dissertation explores Black women’s language and identity performance as agency in social media spaces. She has taught in community-based and university educational settings within the African American community, the U.S. and China.

Sep 19-Oct 2: Karrieann Soto Vega is a PhD Candidate at Syracuse University, where she studies Puerto Rican Nationalist rhetorics as enacted by the figure of Lolita Lebrón. Her research interests run the gamut of decolonial feminist rhetorics, sonic and visual rhetorics, multimodality, new media, and cultural rhetorics, among others. For the year 2016-2017 she will be a Teaching Assistant at Syracuse University’s Women’s and Gender Studies Department.

Interested in contributing as a CFSHRC guest tweeter? Contact Trish Fancher at pfancher [at] writing.ucsb [dot] edu

Welcome to the Coalition of FEMINIST Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition

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Greetings all!  As the spring semester comes to a close for many of us, the Coalition is entering a new era!

Our biggest announcement:

The Coalition is changing its name!  We are very excited to announce that officially starting May 15, 2016, we will be the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Composition and Rhetoric. 
In addition, if you are missing us and thinking that there is no FemRhet this year, don’t despair!  Coalition folks will be meeting up at RSA this year. Join us on May 28th from 4-7pm at the Pulse Bar in the lobby of the Marriott.

Last (but of course, not least) we welcome several other women who are joining this leg of the run—new Advisory Board members Pamela VanHaitsma, Suzanne Bordelon, Charlotte Hogg, Mariana Grohowski, Staci Perryman Clark, and Lisa Shaver.

In addition, we have several new members joining us in positions both new and established:

We are so fortunate to have so many people who continue to give their time and energy to the Coalition.  Please know that we will be reaching out for volunteers throughout the year—stay tuned for ways that you can contribute.

Jenn Fishman has handed me the torch to carry for the next two years of the Coalition’s leadership—her energy and commitment to the Coalition have been unwavering and she cannot be thanked enough for all of her hard work.  I look forward to my new place in a long line of distinguished women who have served as Coalition Presidents.

I hope that you will join me for this next leg of the journey!

Lisa Mastrangelo
CFSHRC President

Lights, Camera, 4C16 Action!

Open Call for Proposals
Performing Feminist Action: CWHSRC@4C16

The Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition is an activist organization. Think about it. Twenty-five years ago, how could a learned society dedicated to feminist research, histories of women, and studies of gender and sexuality in rhetoric and composition be anything else? Certainly, the Coalition’s founders understood that the personal and professional are political. They also knew the importance of coalitions, of groups that represent, of alliances that capacitate everyone involved to act.

Today’s CWSHRC members share these goals and are eager to share strategies for taking action. To that end, at 4C16 the Coalition will host a Wednesday night Action Hour featuring up to a dozen concurrent micro-workshops or short, interactive lessons in both old and new ways of performing feminist action.

Proposals, including an abstract (140 characters) and description (250-300 words), can be submitted online through Friday, April 24th at 5pm Central: <http://tinyurl.com/CWSHRC-4C16>.

Download a copy of this CFP: <4C16-CWSHRC-ActionHourCall2>.

Some As to FAQs about the Coalition’s 4C16 Action Hour

Q: What is a micro-workshop?
A: Micro-workshops are focused and brief, 5- to 10-minute pedagogical interactions that engage participants in hands-on, active learning (i.e., demonstrations, writing on site).

Q: What are some examples of micro-workshops on feminist action?
A: A micro-workshop might teach past feminist actions by staging tableaux of iconic protests or writing new verses of well-known anthems. Micro-workshops might demonstrate actions taken by particular individuals or groups, or they might engage participants in making things: a graffiti wall with messages to a specific audience, Lego or clay models of inclusive spaces, classroom activities that creatively and critically address particular issues, etc. Sky’s the limit—well, almost.

Q: What are the limits?
A: Workshops should take no more than 5-10 minutes from start to finish and involve activities that can be performed either at a round banquet table seating no more than 8-10 people or a 3×3 space. Workshop leaders will need to provide their own materials and equipment.

Q: The CWSHRC is hosting this event: how are H, R, and C involved?
A: Whether micro-workshops focus on past, present, or future feminist actions, workshop leaders should make clear how their workshops draw on one or more traditions of rhetoric and composition.

Q: Who can propose a micro-workshop?
A: Individuals, pairs, and groups of 3 interested in attending 4C16 can propose micro-workshops.

Q: How will proposals be selected?
A: NCTE/CCCC caucuses and groups have been invited to sponsor up to 6 workshops; a committee of Coalition Advisory Board members will select additional workshops (for a total of 12) from proposals received through this open call.

Q: Do I need to be a CWSHRC member to submit a proposal?
A: Individuals and at least one member of pairs and groups responding to this open call must be CWSHRC members; colleagues involved in workshops sponsored by NCTE/CCCC caucuses and groups are encouraged but not required to be members of the Coalition.

Q: Can I participate in the Action Hour and have a speaking role in a regular session?
A: Yes! The CWSHRC session is classified as a SIG, which means participants can also hold speaking roles in regular, Thursday-Saturday sessions.

Keyword: feminist