Dear Colleagues,

The FWSA Book Prize is intended to recognise scholarship which is innovative, interdisciplinary and grounded in feminist theory and practice. Sponsored by Palgrave Macmillan since its second year, the fourth round of this highly successful competition is open to scholars who were employed, postgraduate students at, or associated with a British or Irish University or research organisation between 1^st January 2009 and 31^st December 2011. Nominated books must be monographs or textbooks and published in English. We welcome single or jointly authored contributions. Edited collections and reprints of earlier editions are not eligible. Books must be first published between 1^stJanuary 2011 and 31^st December 2011; they do not have to have a UK publisher.

The deadline for the current competition is 29th February 2012.

Books may be nominated by authors or publishers, or you can nominate a book that inspired you. All entries will be judged by an external interdisciplinary panel of feminist, gender and women’s studies scholars. The winner and shortlisted entries will be featured on the FWSA website and in the FWSA newsletter. The winner will also be awarded a prize of £500.

For full details about the FWSA Book Prize 2012, including how to enter, please visitwww.fwsa.org.uk or email administrator@fwsa.org.uk.  

Call for Papers

Women in Magazines:

Research, Representation, Production and Consumption

In November 2011, Woman’s Weekly celebrated its 100 year birthday by including a reproduction of the first issue inside the centenary edition.  A month later, US Vogue launched a digital archive containing every page published since 1892. These events remind us of the rich history which lies behind  titles that continue to grace the shelves marked ‘women’s magazines’ on both sides of the Atlantic.  Academics, especially feminist scholars, have long explored this history and the relationship between women and the journals that target them, but in recent years this interest appears to have declined. ‘Women in Magazines’ seeks to reassert the importance of magazines, in Britain and America, as a significant source for women’s and gender historians, by showcasing their latest research.

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Dear all,

Please see this article written by an FWSA member on the LSE anti-discrimination case – Jonathan has also generously offered to donate his fee to the FWSA. Thanks Jonathan!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/07/gender-studies-anti-discrimination-case

We were asked to respond to this consultation as an Association which has been involved in nominating people to the panels. Our response is below – many thanks to all the members who were involved in drafting it. Individuals are also able to respond – so if you feel strongly about this issue please visit http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/ref/pubs/2011/03_11/consult/ to submit your comments.

The Feminist and Women’s Studies Association welcomes the attempts made in the REF 2014 draft criteria and working methods to support staff whose ability to produce outputs has been negatively affected by their circumstances. However, we believe that the provisions made for pregnancy and maternity leave are woefully inadequate. The proposal under ‘clearly defined circumstances’ specifies that the number of outputs submitted can only be reduced once 14 months of maternity leave has been taken. This does not go anywhere towards compensating for the impact of any period of maternity leave and subsequent return to work on an employee’s productivity. The alternative, to submit women who have taken maternity leave as having ‘complex circumstances’ which might justify a reduction in outputs (although this is not guaranteed), leaves too much discretion to individual institutions which may be tempted not to follow this route in order to avoid extra bureaucracy and potential problems. Continue Reading »

Finn Mackay’s article:

http://www.thefreshoutlook.com/index.php?action=newspaper&subaction=article&toDo=show&postID=5629

Stuart Basten’s article:

http://www.thefreshoutlook.com/index.php?action=newspaper&subaction=article&toDo=show&postID=5644

Dear all,

It gives me great pleasure to announce this year’s essay competition results. This year’s winning essay is:

Dieuwertje Dyi Huijg ”Tension in Intersectional Agency. A theoretical discussion of the interior conflict of white, feminist activists’ intersectional location”

The shortlisted essays which together with the winning essay will be published in the Journal of International Women’s Studies are:

Emilia Aaltonen ”‘Punching Like a Girl’: Embodied Violence and Resistance in the Context of Women’s Self-defense”

Jeanne Firth ”Health Choices and Heavy Burdens: Race, Citizenship and Gender in the ‘Obesity Epidemic’”

Aristea Fotopoulou ”Intersectionality and Queer Studies as methodological frameworks for social research”

Maria do Mar Pereira ”Gender Studies is Proper Knowledge, But…: Discourses of Dismissive Recognition of Feminist Scholarship”

Naomi Griffin ”Gendered performance and performing gender in the DIY punk and hardcore music scene”

Congratulations to all winners, and to everyone who contributed to making this round such a success! The judges agreed that the quality of essays received was strong, as always, though with a few more from the Social Sciences.

The FWSA is pleased to announce a new initiative in search for original and exciting cover illustrations for its biannual newsletter. We encourage artists, photographers and illustrators to submit a piece of their work for consideration as a cover image. Images should be – in the broadest possible sense – inspired by or relatable to the topics of women, gender and/or feminism. Artists whose work is selected for our newsletter cover will receive a feature in the form of an interview and/or prose piece in the same issue as well as a free copy of the newsletter. Please see below and attached for detailed submission guidelines and a submission form.

The FWSA Newsletter is a biannual publication with a readership of nearly 300 national and international subscribers from a wide range of disciplines and interest areas related to women, gender and feminism. In addition, the newsletter is distributed at a variety of conferences and locations relevant to FWSA’s remit. The newsletter is published in January and July.

Submission Requirements

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The British Historians of Women in the Americas (BHWAs) will hold their annual conference on Wednesday 6th July 2011.  The conference will be held at Brunel University, West London, and will run in parallel with the Feminist and Women’s Studies Association’s ‘Futures of Feminism’ conference.

We welcome papers on any aspect of women’s and gender history in North America, South America and the Caribbean.  Papers that investigate women’s lives from single or multiple vantage points whether topically or geographically are equally welcome.  Scholars working on related topics are encouraged to put together a panel of two to four papers.  Speakers at the event will have the opportunity to submit their paper for consideration in the BHWAs’ journal, History of Women in the Americas.

The event has two keynote speakers: Professor Steven Reschly, Truman State University, who will be speaking about his research on Amish women and consumer culture, and Professor Catherine Clinton, Queen’s University Belfast (tbc).

A 300 word abstract should be submitted to Jay Kleinberg (jay.kleinberg@brunel.ac.uk) and Rachel Ritchie (rachel.ritchie@brunel.ac.uk) by Friday 6th May 2011.  All other enquiries about the conference, the BHWAs and History of Women in the Americas, should be directed to Rachel Ritchie (rachel.ritchie@brunel.ac.uk).
Those interested in attending the conference as a delegate are also more than welcome.  Please register your interest by Friday 6th May 2011.