Our Fall 2008 potluck was a huge success!
We had close to thirty people turn out, and lots of delicious food for everyone to eat. People started arriving around 6:30, with loads of food and wine in tow. After we got to hang out, eat, and relax for a while, we got down to the business side of things. Layne and Erin first read from the FSG's mission statement, as a way to introduce all the new members to the group's initial goals and purpose. They also mentioned the shift taking place in the group, since its founding members are starting to go on the job market and will be at different institutions in the next year or so.
Next, each person who had volunteered for an activity or a panel briefly described her idea, and then passed around sign-up sheets. Connie went first, and spoke about her work with a group that would discuss financial options, coordinating a workshop where instructors would learn how to connect students to mental health resources, and scheduling RAV sessions. Lydia spoke about her continuing plans for a version of the "Family Matters" that would feature more fathers from the department. Jessica, Halah, and Pearl spoke about their plans for a panel that would offer a discussion of women and the job interview--the process itself, tips and strategies, and what not to do. Patty talked about her plans to compile the syllabi from the various E316K lectures, in order to look at how these professors cover gender in their courses. Layne spoke about her upcoming panel on feminism and the institution, and Erin talked about her workshop series on how to organize all the information we get in graduate school.
After everyone spoke, we took a break for more eating and drinking. Then we went around the room and each person named something about which she or he (or ze!) was proud.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The FSG so far!!
When preparing for our part in the 2008 CCCC Feminist Workshop, Layne and I put together this timeline that traces the FSG's activities from its inception to today. It's pretty awesome to look over all of the many, many things we have accomplished!
I thought this might also help fill in the long stretch of silence from last year until now, when posting to our blog kind of fell by the wayside.
January 2006: Layne and Erin meet at the Green Muse to discuss their ideas for a feminist graduate students’ group
March 2006: Creating of the Feminist Solidarity Blog @ Feministsolidarityblog. blogspot.com
March 4: First meeting of the group.
Excerpt from our notes: At the meeting, we discussed various names (listed below), putting together a mission statement (once the blog is up), signed up for committees, talked about whether or not the mentoring should be department-wide (and if so, how to implement that), and that a form for mentees to fill out would be forthcoming.
Possible names -- we all really liked the idea of the acronyms, but got stuck as to what words we wanted. Jack suggested that it's easiest to pick an acronym and then make up words that fit each letter. Regardless, we decided to stay away from female or women terms altogether, and instead decided that words like gender, feminist, solidarity, literature, and group fit more closely with what we want this group to accomplish.
Here are some of the names:
Feminist solidarity group (FSG)
FIG (Feminist Interest Group)
GILD (Gender in Literature Departments)
SAF (I can't remember what these letters stood for either, but I wrote it down)
May 8, 2006: First meeting of the Feminist Solidarity Mentor Committee
August 2006: The Mentor Committee, now divorced from the FSG (?) but still aligned with it, matches up its first group of mentees/mentors in a confusing but ultimately successful process. (For a sample description of our program see attached forms)
September 8, 2006: Fall Planning meeting of the Planning Committee
Planned several events for the fall and for the spring
September 15, 2006: Created a new category on the blog that serves to gather tips from current graduate students for those entering the program. Topics include: Tuition/finances/funding, Insurance/health/fitness, Registration/requirements/advising, Austin area.
September 22, 2006: Fall potluck
Creation of an FSG listserv
Activities: Overview of Fall 2006 activities, Spring 2006 activities, Brainstorming ideas for 2006-2007 school year, Discussion about using the various resources, communities, and groups that are already established on campus (such as Gender and Sexuality center, New Works Program, Center for Women and Gender Studies), Discussion of possible future activities, Other upcoming events, Meeting ended with announcements of various sign-up sheets.
September 29, 2006: LGBTQ 101 with Safe Space
For all those who are interested, the session included different activities that allowed us as participants to think about the different conceptions and stereotypes that we have about the LGBTQ community. We also got the chance to learn about different LGBTQ terms that we might not have known before, as well as how to be better allies to our LGBTQ students.
October 20, 2006: “Feminism in the Classroom”
Some of the questions we considered during this panel: Managing different audiences in the classroom: How do we build alliances in the classroom without closing doors?, The Female Body in the Classroom: How do female instructors balance authority and openness toward students?, Politics in the Classroom: When and how do we "come out" with our views?, Feminism in the Graduate Classroom: Who brings up feminist questions?
November 10, 2006: “Family Matters Panel”
Description: Several women in our graduate program are either pregnant or have recently had children, and questions about the feasibility or practicability of having children while in academia have been raised amongst ourselves and our colleagues. While children and pregnancy are currently the focus of discussion, we would like to extend it to include family matters more broadly: how to make time for your partner (and kids) while completing a dissertation, negotiating stress at work and home, etc. Other more concrete topics include practical matters such as finding childcare, negotiating with administration, whether or not to take time off from school, and dealing with the physical/emotional changes associated with having children. The panel will include both faculty and graduate students, as well as the results from a questionnaire filled out by faculty who have children.
January 21, 2007: Spring Planning Meeting
March 2, 2007: “Feminist Solidarity Group Panel” at the American Literatures Group Spring Symposium
Abstract: The Feminist Solidarity Group is a relatively new unofficial group in the English Department. Within the context of a symposium that examines our work, this group allows discussion about the kinds of writing and thinking we do outside of the classroom as well as the concerns that we find unaddressed in typical discussions about academia. We would like to hold a roundtable presentation at the Academics in Action conference to talk about the processes we’ve gone through to create a practical support structure for feminists and non-traditional academics among the graduate student community, and to brainstorm future projects our group could take on.
Our panel would have three speakers talk briefly about some of our projects. Layne Craig would discuss the idea of “Feminist Solidarity” and talk about the motivations and the practicalities of forming the group. Erin Hurt would discuss our creation and on-going improvement of a Mentor Program within the department. And Lydia Wilmeth would discuss our very successful Family Matters Panel and the university-wide changes we hope will come out of that event. We hope that these topics will generate questions and comments from all panel participants about the future of the Feminist Solidarity Group, its role in the department, and what else can or should be done to build community among graduate students.
July 2007: Mentor Committee sends out mentee questionnaire along with new graduate student orientation materials
August 2007: Mentor Committee planning meeting
At this meeting, we made several changes to the structure of the program, in an effort to include more of the incoming graduate students. We were also able to match up the students with their mentor prior to orientation.
September 4, 2007: Planning meeting
September 28, 2007: Fall Potluck
October 19, 2007: “Authority in the Classroom”
Graduate student instructors talking about their experiences with and goals for controlling (or not) the classroom environment. The issues we discussed included negotiating authority through our skills, transparency as a tool, student-led classes, classroom contracts, and strategies for handling confrontations.
February 1, 2007: Spring Planning Meeting, Spring Potluck
February 15, 2007: FSG Coffee meeting
This was a new concept that we tried, with mixed results. We initially envisioned this as one in series of informal get-togethers, in which we could meet up with each other to check in on projects and catch up socially. Meeting more regularly but more informally might also, we hoped, draw students who weren’t able to make the planning meetings or the potlucks.
Febraury 29, 2008: Feminism in the Academy Workshop
Description: We would like to start a department-wide conversation within the department about the state of feminism in the academy. Briefly, we're envisioning a workshop involving members of the English and Comp. Lit graduate student communities that will address a series of questions. Primarily, we're interested in thinking about the state of feminism in the academy and the profession? What are the new and on-going challenges we face? Among the issues we might consider are: What are the multiple forms of feminism within the department? Do they interact? How may self-identified feminists act as mentors? How can women inside the academy work with women outside of it? Where are academic men in feminist work? Has feminism become The F- Word to our students? What may feminists do to reclaim feminism within the academy? How does rank influence the manifestation (or lack thereof) of a feminist identity? Through this conversation we hope to make various forms of feminism more present within our own department.
March 28, 2008: “Public Spaces in Academia” @ ALG Symposium
Abstract: Our panel will raise issues of shared public spaces, both virtual (listservs) and physical (student lounges). Should these spaces be moderated? Who should be authorized users? Who should maintain them? What counts as abuse of these public spaces? Are academic public spaces qualitatively different from those in the business world or other professional spheres? Panelists are: Jim Brown and Erin Hurt, who study public spaces in their research within the Rhetoric and English departments, and Stephanie Odom-Robertson, who has moderated discussions within the English department over these issues in the past year.
April 7, 2008: Upcoming panel on improving orientation
Description: The Feminist Solidarity Group, in conjunction with the EGG Steering Committee, is interested in hearing from 1st or 2nd year grad students, or anyone with poignant memories, about how orientation procedures could be improved for incoming grad students this fall and in the future. Help dispel the fog! If you've ever had an idea about what you wish people told you or did in those first couple of weeks before classes started, bring those nuggets of wisdom to the table.
I thought this might also help fill in the long stretch of silence from last year until now, when posting to our blog kind of fell by the wayside.
January 2006: Layne and Erin meet at the Green Muse to discuss their ideas for a feminist graduate students’ group
March 2006: Creating of the Feminist Solidarity Blog @ Feministsolidarityblog. blogspot.com
March 4: First meeting of the group.
Excerpt from our notes: At the meeting, we discussed various names (listed below), putting together a mission statement (once the blog is up), signed up for committees, talked about whether or not the mentoring should be department-wide (and if so, how to implement that), and that a form for mentees to fill out would be forthcoming.
Possible names -- we all really liked the idea of the acronyms, but got stuck as to what words we wanted. Jack suggested that it's easiest to pick an acronym and then make up words that fit each letter. Regardless, we decided to stay away from female or women terms altogether, and instead decided that words like gender, feminist, solidarity, literature, and group fit more closely with what we want this group to accomplish.
Here are some of the names:
Feminist solidarity group (FSG)
FIG (Feminist Interest Group)
GILD (Gender in Literature Departments)
SAF (I can't remember what these letters stood for either, but I wrote it down)
May 8, 2006: First meeting of the Feminist Solidarity Mentor Committee
August 2006: The Mentor Committee, now divorced from the FSG (?) but still aligned with it, matches up its first group of mentees/mentors in a confusing but ultimately successful process. (For a sample description of our program see attached forms)
September 8, 2006: Fall Planning meeting of the Planning Committee
Planned several events for the fall and for the spring
September 15, 2006: Created a new category on the blog that serves to gather tips from current graduate students for those entering the program. Topics include: Tuition/finances/funding, Insurance/health/fitness, Registration/requirements/advising, Austin area.
September 22, 2006: Fall potluck
Creation of an FSG listserv
Activities: Overview of Fall 2006 activities, Spring 2006 activities, Brainstorming ideas for 2006-2007 school year, Discussion about using the various resources, communities, and groups that are already established on campus (such as Gender and Sexuality center, New Works Program, Center for Women and Gender Studies), Discussion of possible future activities, Other upcoming events, Meeting ended with announcements of various sign-up sheets.
September 29, 2006: LGBTQ 101 with Safe Space
For all those who are interested, the session included different activities that allowed us as participants to think about the different conceptions and stereotypes that we have about the LGBTQ community. We also got the chance to learn about different LGBTQ terms that we might not have known before, as well as how to be better allies to our LGBTQ students.
October 20, 2006: “Feminism in the Classroom”
Some of the questions we considered during this panel: Managing different audiences in the classroom: How do we build alliances in the classroom without closing doors?, The Female Body in the Classroom: How do female instructors balance authority and openness toward students?, Politics in the Classroom: When and how do we "come out" with our views?, Feminism in the Graduate Classroom: Who brings up feminist questions?
November 10, 2006: “Family Matters Panel”
Description: Several women in our graduate program are either pregnant or have recently had children, and questions about the feasibility or practicability of having children while in academia have been raised amongst ourselves and our colleagues. While children and pregnancy are currently the focus of discussion, we would like to extend it to include family matters more broadly: how to make time for your partner (and kids) while completing a dissertation, negotiating stress at work and home, etc. Other more concrete topics include practical matters such as finding childcare, negotiating with administration, whether or not to take time off from school, and dealing with the physical/emotional changes associated with having children. The panel will include both faculty and graduate students, as well as the results from a questionnaire filled out by faculty who have children.
January 21, 2007: Spring Planning Meeting
March 2, 2007: “Feminist Solidarity Group Panel” at the American Literatures Group Spring Symposium
Abstract: The Feminist Solidarity Group is a relatively new unofficial group in the English Department. Within the context of a symposium that examines our work, this group allows discussion about the kinds of writing and thinking we do outside of the classroom as well as the concerns that we find unaddressed in typical discussions about academia. We would like to hold a roundtable presentation at the Academics in Action conference to talk about the processes we’ve gone through to create a practical support structure for feminists and non-traditional academics among the graduate student community, and to brainstorm future projects our group could take on.
Our panel would have three speakers talk briefly about some of our projects. Layne Craig would discuss the idea of “Feminist Solidarity” and talk about the motivations and the practicalities of forming the group. Erin Hurt would discuss our creation and on-going improvement of a Mentor Program within the department. And Lydia Wilmeth would discuss our very successful Family Matters Panel and the university-wide changes we hope will come out of that event. We hope that these topics will generate questions and comments from all panel participants about the future of the Feminist Solidarity Group, its role in the department, and what else can or should be done to build community among graduate students.
July 2007: Mentor Committee sends out mentee questionnaire along with new graduate student orientation materials
August 2007: Mentor Committee planning meeting
At this meeting, we made several changes to the structure of the program, in an effort to include more of the incoming graduate students. We were also able to match up the students with their mentor prior to orientation.
September 4, 2007: Planning meeting
September 28, 2007: Fall Potluck
October 19, 2007: “Authority in the Classroom”
Graduate student instructors talking about their experiences with and goals for controlling (or not) the classroom environment. The issues we discussed included negotiating authority through our skills, transparency as a tool, student-led classes, classroom contracts, and strategies for handling confrontations.
February 1, 2007: Spring Planning Meeting, Spring Potluck
February 15, 2007: FSG Coffee meeting
This was a new concept that we tried, with mixed results. We initially envisioned this as one in series of informal get-togethers, in which we could meet up with each other to check in on projects and catch up socially. Meeting more regularly but more informally might also, we hoped, draw students who weren’t able to make the planning meetings or the potlucks.
Febraury 29, 2008: Feminism in the Academy Workshop
Description: We would like to start a department-wide conversation within the department about the state of feminism in the academy. Briefly, we're envisioning a workshop involving members of the English and Comp. Lit graduate student communities that will address a series of questions. Primarily, we're interested in thinking about the state of feminism in the academy and the profession? What are the new and on-going challenges we face? Among the issues we might consider are: What are the multiple forms of feminism within the department? Do they interact? How may self-identified feminists act as mentors? How can women inside the academy work with women outside of it? Where are academic men in feminist work? Has feminism become The F- Word to our students? What may feminists do to reclaim feminism within the academy? How does rank influence the manifestation (or lack thereof) of a feminist identity? Through this conversation we hope to make various forms of feminism more present within our own department.
March 28, 2008: “Public Spaces in Academia” @ ALG Symposium
Abstract: Our panel will raise issues of shared public spaces, both virtual (listservs) and physical (student lounges). Should these spaces be moderated? Who should be authorized users? Who should maintain them? What counts as abuse of these public spaces? Are academic public spaces qualitatively different from those in the business world or other professional spheres? Panelists are: Jim Brown and Erin Hurt, who study public spaces in their research within the Rhetoric and English departments, and Stephanie Odom-Robertson, who has moderated discussions within the English department over these issues in the past year.
April 7, 2008: Upcoming panel on improving orientation
Description: The Feminist Solidarity Group, in conjunction with the EGG Steering Committee, is interested in hearing from 1st or 2nd year grad students, or anyone with poignant memories, about how orientation procedures could be improved for incoming grad students this fall and in the future. Help dispel the fog! If you've ever had an idea about what you wish people told you or did in those first couple of weeks before classes started, bring those nuggets of wisdom to the table.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Notes from Fall 2008 semester planning meeting
We had an awesome turnout for this planning meeting!!
Instead of the 4-5 people that we normally see turn up, this most recent planning meeting saw close to fifteen or so people turn out.
We started with introductions, and went around the room.
We spent the rest of the time brainstorming lots of ideas to do throughout the semester. In terms of scheduling events, Layne made the point that in the past, we have concentrated on spacing out the events. We all agreed that this semester, rather than limiting events in order to avoid overloading people, we would simply let events take place when it was most convenient for the panel organizer and its participants.
The ideas the group generated are listed below, with their tentative contact people:
We had an awesome turnout for this planning meeting!!
Instead of the 4-5 people that we normally see turn up, this most recent planning meeting saw close to fifteen or so people turn out.
We started with introductions, and went around the room.
We spent the rest of the time brainstorming lots of ideas to do throughout the semester. In terms of scheduling events, Layne made the point that in the past, we have concentrated on spacing out the events. We all agreed that this semester, rather than limiting events in order to avoid overloading people, we would simply let events take place when it was most convenient for the panel organizer and its participants.
The ideas the group generated are listed below, with their tentative contact people:
- Financial planning workshop (Connie Steel)
- Potential workshop by Heather from Women Against Violence/RAD (Connie Steel)
- Turning the FSG into a Facebook page, and linking the existing blog to the Facebook page (Erin, with help from Cate and Foley)
- Having a potluck!! Scheduled for the 12th!
- Organizing your sh*t workshop (Erin)
- Modeling one method per workshop
- Talk to Peg Syverson
- Pedagogy panel: Being a TA? Teaching "gendered lit."? Teaching gender in a 316 where there isn't much women's literature... (Patty?)
- Collecting the syllabi from professors that teach 316K and putting together something that shows how many women's texts are taught in each course; incorporating this into the above pedagogy panel, or into a new one (Patty)
- Workshop: Feminism and the administration (Layne)
- Lisa Moore and the study
- Megan Little
- Tim
- Workshop: Gender and the Job Market (Jessica, Hala, and Pearl)
- How the hiring process is gendered
- Tips and strategies for women on the job market, specifically in job interviews/job talks
- How to navigate all of the situations (what are the situations?)
- The job talk itself/the colloquia process
- People to potentially invite: Olga, Liz (Cullingford?), Matt Richardson, Julia Lee
- Connie:
- $ group
- WAV stuff
- RAD training
- Erin:
- Organizational panel (Travis re: Zotero, talk to Sean, Peg, etc.)
- Add people to the listserv
- Layne
- GLBTQ ally training workshop (for the spring?)
- GLBTQ awareness workshop
- Patty:
- Collecting syllabi
- Putting together panel re: TAs and gender
- Lydia:
- Parenthood panel
- Jessica:
- Heading up the panel on faculty/job talk
- Pearl
- Job talk and gender panel
- Hala
- Job talk and gender panel
- Send out email regarding potluck
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)