Feminism and Rhetorics '09

Feminisms and Rhetorics: Enabling Complexities: Communities/Writing/Rhetorics 

Michigan State University / East Lansing, Michigan / October 7–9, 2009

"The 2009 Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) conference will be sponsored by the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric & Composition and hosted by the Rhetoric & Writing program at Michigan State University. We invite proposals that:

reflect the complexity and diversity of who “we” are as a scholarly community;

make manifest the deep structure of the connections, intersections, and overlaps that actually make us a community;

help articulate who “we” are as a deliberate community of scholars, and what that means about our responsibilities and relationships to one another across scholarly areas and institutional positions;

highlight scholarly and teacherly activities that deliberately create space for more complex notions of scholarship and teaching within the discipline of Rhet/Comp;

include and significantly engage communities outside of the academy;

focus on antiracist pedagogies and scholarship; present interdisciplinary scholarship in Afrafeminist Rhetorics; American Indian Rhetorics, Chicana Rhetorics, Asian American Rhetorics, post/neo- colonial rhetorics;

highlight the intellectual traditions of women’s communities, especially communities constellated around specific identity markers such as race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation issues, geographic origins;

explore the relationships between written, oral, and material discursive production;

and other topics that address the connections in the conference theme.

We also welcome proposals on relevant topics not directly addressed above, that significantly engage disciplines other than Rhet/Comp, and that have consequences for communities located outside of the academy.

Although traditional presentations are acceptable, we encourage participants to create formats that go beyond the read-aloud academic paper. Interactive sessions that include discussions, dialogues, and performances are especially welcome. Proposals should be uploaded to the FemRhet 2009 web site (www.femrhet.cwshrc.org), and can be for:

20-minute individual presentations (250-word proposals)

90-minute 3–4 member panels (500-word proposals)

90-minute workshops or roundtables (500-word proposals)

Please plan to submit a title, a proposal the length indicated above, and a program-ready, booklet-friendly 50-word blurb for the presentation. Proposal System: December 15, 2008 Open Proposal Deadline: February 1, 2009 Acceptances Distributed: April 30, 2009 For more information: Contact Malea Powell (powell37@msu.edu), Nancy DeJoy (dejoy@msu.edu), or Rhea Lathan (lathan@msu.edu)."