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Women’s Committee

Report of the Women’s Committee 2005

In October 2004, Irene Ramalho Santos took over from Barbara McCaskill as chair of the Women’s Studies. She served as chair until May 2005, when Katherine Ledford and AnaLouise Keating became co-chairs. Since this time, the Women’s Committee has continued to engage with its charges, following the lead of former chairs Irene Ramalho Santos and Barbara McCaskill. The highest appreciation is due to their leadership in strengthening the Committee’s commitment to facilitating partnerships between women from both academic and community settings; fostering networking opportunities for women academics and students; collaborating with other ASA committees and task forces, such as the International Committee, the Minority Scholars’ Committee, the Task Force on Ethnic Studies, the Committee on Secondary Schools, the Students’ Committee, and the Queer Caucus, on issues of common concern; and facilitating greater visibility and acknowledgement of independent scholars and international scholars and scholarship on global issues. This same spirit continues to inspire the Women’s Committee. The Committee is also grateful that Barbara McCaskill, with the help of Julia Erhardt (another past chair of the Women’s Committee), has offered to chair the Task Force to address the Report on Women in American Studies.

Following the resolutions of the 2004 Atlanta meeting, the focus of the Women’s Committee has been on four major issues: 1) sponsored panels for the 2005 ASA convention; 2) the 2005 ASA convention breakfast speaker; 3) the Gloria Anzaldúa Award for Independent Scholars; and 4) the Directory of International Women in American Studies. The issues are described below.

1. ASA Conference Panel:
The Women’s Committee is delighted to sponsor a panel, proposed by Marcy Newman and Kristen Hogan, featuring the DC Guerilla Poetry Insurgency. We believe that the performativity of this grassroots artists’ collective of radical poets, singers, drummers, and musicians—who refuse to separate art from politics—will make a valid counterpoint to scholarly endeavors at the ASA convention aimed at understanding the different issues of contemporary American society and politics.

Another panel, also conceived by Marcy Newman, concerns teaching American studies in conversation with a Palestinian and an Israeli professor. The Women’s Committee agreed to sponsor this panel as well, but since its proposal is dependent on international initiative grants, this second panel will not be ready for submission before 2006.

2. Women’s Breakfast:
In an attempt to give greater visibility to the Women’s Breakfast and attract a wider and more varied attendance, the Committee explored the possibility of sponsoring a women’s lunch, rather than a 7 a.m. breakfast. However, we determined that a women’s lunch would create even more problems (program conflicts, schedule overlaps, etc.), limiting attendance even further. The Committee concentrated instead on selecting a speaker who could address crucial issues of broader concern in our time, thus drawing a larger audience. After some lively exchange, we decided to invite Ella Shohat to deliver the 2005 ASA Convention Breakfast Speech. First approached by Marcy Newman, Ella Shohat accepted our invitation.

Ella Shohat, who received her PH.D. from NYU, is Professor at CUNY in the departments of Art and Public Policy and Middle Eastern Studies; Professor Shohat is also affiliated with Comparative Literature and the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. A widely acclaimed and award-winning scholar, with a vast range of interests pertaining to cultural studies, multiculturalism, postcolonial theory, visual culture, and feminist theory, Shohat has published and lectured extensively, both nationally and internationally. Her work, some of it translated into many languages, includes the following books: Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of

Representation (1989), Unthinking Eurocentrism (co-authored with R. Stam, 1994), Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation and Postcolonial Perspectives (co-edited, 1997), Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age (1998), Forbidden Reminiscences (2001), Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media (co-edited with R. Stam, 2003). Ella Shohat has developed innovative ways of “multiculturalizing” (her term) the issues. She has developed critical approaches to the study of the Mizrahim (Oriental Jewry), and addresses with particular sensitivity the predicament of Arab-Jews, both in the Middle East and the United States.

3. Gloria E. Anzaldúa Award for Independent Scholars:
Originally proposed by AnaLouise Keating at the 2004 October Women’s Committee business meeting, this award is designed to honor the memory of the cultural theorist and feminist scholar, Glória E. Anzaldúa who passed away unexpectedly in May 2004. Professor Sonia Saldívar-Hull presented the proposal to the Executive Committee in May 2005, and it was approved. The prize will consist of a lifetime membership in the ASA; it will be awarded annually to an independent scholar (that is: a scholar who is not employed full-time by a university or college) who has made transformative feminist contributions to issues of gender, ‘race,‘ and sexuality in the field of American Studies. This award is designed to reflect 1) Anzaldúa’s status as an independent scholar; and 2) Anzaldúa’s groundbreaking contributions to women-of-color studies and queer theory.

The award requires an endowment of $28,000 with an annual return of 5%. The $28,000 will be achieved when 112 people made tax deductible contributions of $250 each to the American Studies Association for a Gloria Anzaldúa fund. Although the Award will not be announced until November 2005, four people or groups have already pledged to make $250 contributions, and we anticipate that many others will do so as well. Once we receive approval from the National Council, we will begin soliciting additional contributions via ASA publications, Crossroads, and listservs in a variety of disciplines. We also anticipate working in conjunction with other ASA committees such as the following: Minority Scholars’ Committee, Committee on Ethnic Studies, Queer Caucus, and Students’ Committee, as well as groups such as the National Council of Independent Scholars.

4. The Directory of International Women in American Studies:
This directory was conceived by the Task Force for International Women in American Studies (1999-2002) to facilitate the networking of American Studies women scholars in the United States and abroad, and encourage the participation of non-US-based women scholars in American studies events and exchanges worldwide. A website that enables members to search by name, region, and field can be visited at http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/community.html. It includes some 100 names of non-US-based women scholars willing to have their addresses and major academic interests publicized with a view to scholarly intercourse and joint initiatives by Women Americanists in the US and elsewhere. Former President Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s International Initiative would seem to reinforce the importance of such a Directory. Because of privacy issues, however, it may be difficult to expand its present relatively modest number of names. Irene Ramalho Santos investigated this issue and, after consulting with John Stephens and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, recommends that the Women’s Committee decide whether we would like to purse this issue further.

In her summary, Irene Santos notes the Directory’s usefulness: “There is no question as to its potential usefulness to facilitate the networking of American studies women scholars in the United States and abroad, and encourage the participation of nonUS-based women scholars in American studies events and exchanges worldwide.“ However, she also reiterates several problems: 1)

Privacy:“ the delicate question of privacy, of which John Stephens has always been wary, and which kept, and would probably continue to keep, many scholars out of it.“ 2) Manageability

: “The present inefficacious system that runs it makes it almost impossible to use the Directory easily. Unless this can be changed, it is hard to see how nonUS-based scholars can connect amongst themselves through the Directory, let alone American US-based Americanists reaching out to international colleagues.“ Despite these difficulties, the Directory could be very useful: “And yet, the Directory, if properly updated and expanded, and made more visible and easy to access, could occasionally be used by ASA members, and the Women’s Committee itself, with the International Initiative in mind, to call for international participation in their panels or workshops.“

Respectfully submitted,

AnaLouise Keating and Katherine Ledford, ASA Women’s Committee Co-Chairs
7 October 2005