I N S I D E Network News T H I S ISSUE: VOLUME XXX, ISSUE 3 SEPTEMBER 2013 President- 2 Elect column Stability & Dynamism Executive Of- 7 fice updates laws that expect us to oper- the Strategic Task Force has ate—at least organize some been working for over a year. parts of our operational struc- Many of you participated in the Business 8 tures--as a bureaucracy. For Task Force’s meeting at Tamaya meeting instance, the IRS expects us to this year. The Task Force has minutes operate in specific bureaucrat- developed recommendations that ic ways to maintain our status emphasize our goals now, and Local chapter 10 as a not-for-profit corporation. they will recommend some struc- updates Our status requires we create tural changes that are likely to structures that are compliant move us forward. They have Bandana Purkayastha, Call for 12 with labor and contract laws. been consulting with a lot of SWS President nominations At times, our feminist wish to people. They will share their When do the right thing seems to be findings with members in Nash- Award 18 I first got my full time job in in conflict with the way these ville in February 2014, so that winners academia, the only woman of rules expect us to operate. We we can all participate in working color in our department, a dear encountered several challenges out our best strategies for action colleague, who knew what it Summer 24 this year, but thanks to two during this phase of our collec- felt like to be one of very few wonderful feminists, Nancy tive lives. meeting faculty of color on campus, Mancini our CPA and Sally highlights gave me a piece of advice. He Geertz, our lawyer, we have At the programmatic end we said, don't treat this job as a been able to balance our over- have been offering a veritable Fact sheet 34 sprint, treat it as though you all goals with the rules we feast of workshops to help us are running a marathon; the have to follow. As we have ourselves within corporatizing Hey, Jane! 40 course will keep changing, and grown as an organization, we academic institutions and a larg- that you will have to keep de- have learned a lot about good er neo-liberal political-economic context. We are in the midst of Members’ 42 veloping new strategies for legal and financial practices keeping yourself stable. I for our organization. During another battle to justify the im- Bookshelf have been reminded of his my term as an officer I have portance of feminism and social advice many times this year as been grateful for the self-less, justice to academic endeavours. Celebrations! 44 we accomplish many signifi- invisible work of some amaz- Just as our students are graduat- cant tasks that are necessary ing SWS-ers, and your strong ing in larger numbers, it is be- coming increasingly more diffi- Job Ads 45 for SWS during this stretch of support, that helped us to get the course. We have been us to this place. I feel really cult to find full-time jobs. We pioneers in transforming our good about our future, but I continue to use our collective Current SWS 47 discipline; our challenge is to also know that we will have to networks to make sure our SWS Officers find ways to sustain our mo- review how we operate regu- members find jobs, get tenure, mentum within changing con- larly and make sure we do this and get promoted, and we are Network News 48 texts. in ways that ensure the long- able to maintain our feminist principles as we break some Deadlines term health and stability of It seems to me that a key chal- SWS: the collective, and the glass ceilings. lenge we face now is to figure effective bureaucracy. out smart ways to balance our We are all learning or develop- principles of a participatory We have been doing several ing further expertise in the use feminist collective as we get things that will help us in this social media to disseminate our formally enmeshed in web of direction. As you all know, (continue on pg. 2) P A G E 2 NETWORK NEWS (from pg. 1) ideas, to organize protests, and gen- have had several meetings to flesh out these themes and the erally remain activist scholars. We also continue committee has come up with some great ideas for how to or- to transcend national boundaries through our glob- ganize a series of exciting plenary panels designed to address al exchanges. Did you realise that this year we the conference theme. In addition, standing SWS committees had scholars from South Africa, India, Taiwan, are organizing a series of workshops aimed at professional Sweden, West Indies, Italy, China, and England at development, networking, SWS’s international organizing, our conferences? I am convinced that SWS re- critique me sessions, feminist activism, breakfast with schol- mains stable because we are dynamic! ars, and more! And finally, our by-laws committee has been working extremely hard to develop new by-laws to better re- So I offer a salute to all of you as you start another flect and structure our current organization. They will unveil busy year. And thank you for remaining engaged, their ideas at a plenary meeting during the Winter Meeting to activist-scholars. solicit input from the membership. The local arrangements committee has almost convinced me SWS Winter Meetings & The to move to Nashville with their wonderful ideas and enthusi- asm for their town. The committee consists of Terrie Spetal- Role of the President-Elect nick, Chair (Vanderbilt University), Pallavi Banerjee (Vanderbilt University), Laura Carpenter (Vanderbilt Univer- I would like to say what an honor it is to serve as sity), Barbara Gurr (University of Connecticut), Kumiko Ne- president-elect of SWS. As president-elect, my pri- moto (Western Kentucky University), and Andi Stepnick mary responsibility is to organize the winter meet- ings and I’m excited about our upcoming meeting in (Belmont University). They have been hard at work organiz- Nashville which will be held at the beautiful Hutton ing the hosted dinners, which will include options for live Hotel. We were able to music, restaurant lists, suggested walking tours, and a gradu- ate student happy hour. In addition, they have arranged for secure great rates for Vanderbilt Sociologist Larry Isaac to conduct a “civil rights singles, doubles, triples, tour” for the first 40 people who sign up, showing where some and even quads which of the most important events of the civil rights movement took should make it more place and explaining their sociological significance. affordable for everyone. The theme for the Winter I have also decided that SWS should follow NPR’s lead and try to reduce the on-air fundraising time for the auction. So in Meetings is “Gender and addition to the silent auction which we will still hold, we have Multi-Institutional Poli- Mary Bernstein, devised two supplementary ways to raise money. First, when tics.” The inspiration for SWS President-Elect you register for the conference, you will have the opportunity this theme came from to purchase an SWS fitted t-shirt. The sale of these t-shirts noticing that despite feminist challenges to gender will benefit three great organizations: Triple Thread Apparel inequality in almost every institutional setting, gen- who makes the t-shirts and Act Like a Grrrrl and Magdalene der inequality persists. While some people work to House, our two auction recipients who will receive the profits theorize the reproduction of inequality and others seek to explain how inequality changes over time, from the sale of the t-shirts. Please see the article by Barb my goal is to sort out why some aspects of inequali- Gurr for more details on these three great organizations! We ty are successfully challenged, while others remain will also be conducting an online auction prior to the confer- instransigent. What can we learn about gender ine- ence for gift cards to local restaurants and museums. Thanks again to the local arrangements committee for their creativity quality when we examine multiple institutions? and hard work and for ensuring that this will be a fabulous How do race, class, sexuality, and nation influence these challenges? Do destabilizing some inequali- meeting! ties shore up other inequalities? What do compara- In addition to the program and local arrangements committee, tive and transnational approaches reveal about these I am fortunate to have UConn graduate student Devon Goss to processes? help organize the conference and to make sure that everything gets done! Devon, along with UConn graduate students Bren- In addition to myself, my fabulous program commit- tee includes Orit Avashai (Fordham University), na Harvey and MJ Taylor will be organizing the roundtables. Youngjoo Cha (Indiana University), Afshan Jafar We hope to open registration by mid- to late-October. (Connecticut College), Nancy Naples (University of Connecticut), CJ Pascoe (University of Oregon), and So finally, I leave you with a list of highlights about Nashville Gayle Sulik (University at Albany (SUNY)). We created by the local arrangements committee: VOLUME XXX, ISSUE 3 P A G E 3 16 SWEET EXPERIENCES UNIQUE TO NASHVILLE. Within a mile of the Hutton Hotel: Centennial Park. Home to a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon, a 42 foot high gilded reconstruction of the long lost Athena Parthenos statue, and original photographs from the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Frist Center for the Arts. Gorgeous Art Deco building (formerly Nashville's main post office), varied exhibitions and installations.