Rural Women's Studies Association Newsletter June 2021
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RWSA NEWSLETTER June 2021 th Reflections on the RWSA’s 14 Triennial Conference 11-14 May during COVID During 11-15 May 2021, 221 people gathered at the RWSA 14th Triennial Conference, hosted by the University of Guelph. This was the RWSA’s first virtual conference and a great success. The conference theme, Kitchen Table Talk to Global Forum, attracted people from fourteen countries who shared their research about rural women, food, and other issues on the table: activism, feminism, social justice, mental health, innovation, community development, and cultural expression — both historical and contemporary — locally and globally. For two years, the Local Arrangement Committee (LAC) had been making plans to hold the conference on the University of Guelph campus in Canada. They had arranged pre- and post-conference tours, performers, special dining events, and raised $40,000 in cash and in-kind sponsorship. Then the pandemic hit in March of 2020 and these much-anticipated events were replaced with uncertainty and risk. It was no longer feasible to meet in person. No vaccine existed, some people had lost funding and were worried about their jobs, and others were not able to travel internationally. Organizers did not want to put participants at risk. Outright cancellation was not good for the organization, as six years would have passed before the next scheduled conference. Postponing it to 2022 raised questions about whether the economy and travel would be normalized by then. Rural Women’s Studies Association Newsletter 1 The RWSA decided to go virtual, and the great pivot began. The Program Committee notified panelists of the decision and the LAC renegotiated with sponsors and performers and cancelled tours and venues. The LAC created a conference website and selected Hopin as a virtual hosting platform because it was supported by the University of Guelph and had session rooms, a stage, an expo hall, AND attendees could chat with a friend, network with colleagues, and make new contacts, valued informal experiences that are the hallmark of RWSA conferences. The conference began with the launch of A Taste of Backstories: The Kitchen Table Talk Cookbook which featured our members’ heirloom recipes, storytelling, and scholarly content. Special events throughout the week included keynote speaker Métis Dr. Kim Anderson’s presentation on Indigenous “Kitchen Table Methodologies,” food as a tool of colonization, and making a territorial acknowledgement a practice. Rural Women’s Studies Association Newsletter 2 In a special plenary session, panelists and the audience discussed how COVID-19 was affecting rural women. Another plenary addressed mentorship and development networks. Performances included music therapist Mary Parkinson who told her family’s rural life story through period music, and the week ended with theatre artist Taylor Graham and her students presenting excerpts from the Canadian classic play The Farm Show. Throughout the week, the expo hall featured culinary collections, rural organizations, farm yoga, and historical mini documentaries. Going virtual was the right decision. It gave presenters and organizers the security of knowing they could plan the event occurred according to our triennial schedule, without risk to participants and with less expense for the organization and attendees. Our attendance doubled, as with no travel and accommodation costs, more people joined who might otherwise have found it too expensive. The reach of the conference extended making our conference theme “Kitchen Table Talk to Global Forum” even more meaningful as people joined in the discussion from France, Australia, Nigeria, India, Netherlands, Argentina, Canada, the U.S., and other countries. The experience had its challenges and some unexpected advantages too. We had to work with a world clock as the program took shape. Participants needed training within the virtual environment and with varying home equipment and internet access sometimes struggled to upload their slides and videos. Such challenges pulled people together as we helped each other. Once familiar with the online environment, participants engaged in lively discussions in thirty-five sessions, thematic break-times, and in the lounge area. Displays and live demonstrations took place in the expo area. We missed the opportunity to hug friends, the bus tours, the Saturday morning trip to the market, those chance encounters in the cafeteria lineup, and dinners on the town, but the online experience provided advantages beyond those listed above. One could knit while listening to a panel from the comfort of their home office and no one needed to pack a suitcase, stand in long airport lineups, or struggle with sleepless nights in a strange bed. Altogether people found the experience rewarding so that future conference organizers are considering the possibility of hybrid conferences. Catharine Wilson (Co-Chair 2015-2021 and Conference Host) Rural Women’s Studies Association Newsletter 3 Backstories: The Kitchen Table Talk Cookbook The Rural Women's Studies Association is proud to announce the publication of Backstories: The Kitchen Table Talk Cookbook. Sharing recipes is a form of intimate conversation that nourishes body and soul, family and community. Backstories: The Kitchen Table Talk Cookbook integrates formal scholarship with informal reflections, analyses of recipe books with heirloom recipes, and text with images to emphasize the ways that economics, politics, and personal meaning come together to shape our changing relationships with food. By embracing elements of history, rural studies, and women’s studies, this volume offers a unique perspective by relating food history with social dynamics. It is sure to inspire eclectic dining and conversations. With over 20 contributors and 60 selections, Backstories takes the reader from the East Coast’s Delmarva Peninsula to the American and Canadian Midwest, the Mexican-American border, to Hawaii and beyond and situate the kitchen across a range of cultural and historical contexts. Edited by Cynthia C. Prescott and Maureen S. Thompson, this innovative academic cookbook is available now as a free download; paperback copies available for $20 USD (plus shipping & handling). Paperback copies autographed by co-editor Cynthia Prescott are available for shipping anywhere in the USA as a fundraiser for RWSA. Proceeds of orders placed via the RWSA website benefit RWSA's Jensen- Neth Fund. Paperbacks are also available for direct shipping worldwide. RWSA Blog Announcement Did you know that RWSA has its very own blog? Its purpose is to improve the visibility of rural women’s studies research and activism around the world. The blog has been less active in recent months, but we are looking to return to weekly or biweekly posts. Posts range from roughly 200 to 2,000 words. Timeline is flexible. Bring your ideas to Cindy Prescott at [email protected]. Opportunity National Park Service - Postdoctoral Fellowship in Women’s History in the Pacific West http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=61460 Application s due June 30, 2021! AHS News The Agricultural History Society recently announced that it has honored RWSA members Catharine Wilson and Valerie Grim by naming them as Fellows of the Society. Rural Women’s Studies Association Newsletter 4 RWSA 2024 RWSA 2024 will be hosted by Arkansas State University (A-State). A-State is located in Jonesboro, the largest city in northeast Arkansas with 76, 000+ people and is an hour away from Memphis, Tennessee and two hours away from Little Rock. The recently built Embassy Suites by Hilton Jonesboro Red Wolf Convention Center (https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/jbrjoes-embassy-suites-jonesboro-red-wolf-convention-center/) is located on A- State's campus. Situated on Crowley's Ridge and serving as the gateway to the Arkansas Delta, Jonesboro and the surrounding area offers such important rural historical sites as the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum (Southern Tenant Farmers Museum (astate.edu)), the Pfeiffer-Hemingway Museum and Educational Center (https://hemingway.astate.edu/), the Parkin Archeological State Park (https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/parkin-archeological-state-park), and the Historic Dyess Colony | Johnny Cash Boyhood Home (astate.edu)). The ASU Regional Farmers Market (http://www.asuregionalfarmersmarket.org/), is also open on Saturdays from May to October from 7 am to 1 pm! RWSA 2027 RWSA 2027 will be hosted by the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. A leader in online education, UND will support RWSA's efforts to host "hybrid" conferences, combining in-person and virtual formats. Grand Forks is located on the North Dakota-Minnesota border, 75 miles north of Fargo, ND, and 150 miles south of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The "Grand Cities" are home to "Olive Garden Lady" Marilyn Hagerty and Molly Yeh, star of Girl Meets Farm. You can read about them in the new RWSA cookbook! Rural Women’s Studies Association Newsletter 5 Member News New Books In Making Circles, Barney Nelson unveils working-class cowboy culture through the eyes of one who has lived the life she chronicles. From living on ranch camps to surviving both cowboy school and graduate school, Nelson’s story is a journey through time and place, pointing out that cowboys inhabit every continent and century, from Lakota Indians and Hawaiian paniolos to Argentine gauchos and Australian ringers, from Pegasus to Cervantes and Tolstoy. Even Thoreau called himself a cowboy. Nelson's story is both personal and expansive, guiding the reader in circles around the modern West, from Montana to Mexico. Along the way, she celebrates the many characters she has encountered and considers role models. Unafraid to challenge the status quo, Nelson fearlessly defends embattled ranchers as well as the humanities, while speaking truth to the powerful forces of environmentalism, tourism, and urban voters. Both a primer for aspiring journalists and an insider’s reflection on horse and ranching cultures, this tour de force memoir honors the practice of writing and its manifold benefits: embracing solitude, avoiding boredom, and accepting aging and death as part of human and animal life.