Women and Language call for papers for a special issue

Women and Language call for papers for a special issue: Achieving interdisciplinary scholarship in communication, language and gender

Our call begins with the assumption that interdisciplinarity is critical to the study of communication, language and gender. A multiplicity of perspectives, theoretical traditions, methodological commitments, and political histories enrich our study. Journals like Women & Language and Gender and Language attest to the fertile intersections and conversations possible when scholars from multiple disciplines come together to address gender topics and issues.

And yet, is our work truly interdisciplinary? Too often, it seems that interdisciplinary intentions are enacted as multi-disciplinarity How might the conceptual developments in feminist scholarship contribute to or refashion our understandings of interdisciplinarity? How have feminist practices and politics reframed or resisted the conventions of academic work that hinder or even penalize interdisciplinarity? How can fertile sites of interdisciplinary engagement be nurtured in our programs, universities, and conferences? How might we understand interdisciplinarity and distinguish this goal from multidisciplinarity, cross-disciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity? What does it mean to create work that is, in its essence, interdisciplinary: what does that label require of us; how does it challenge, extend, threaten, revivify, shatter, bend, or recompose our research questions and methods? Is interdisciplinarity truly a goal across our studies and if so, why? How might it be achieved? Or, should this goal be abandoned, or replaced?

We invite scholars from diverse disciplines, experiences, and backgrounds to contribute to a special issue devoted to interdisciplinarity in order to consider such questions. We seek a wide range of responses: from research reports to theoretical speculation to personal experience; framed as poetry, poetic prose, or narrative; and in critical, analytical, argument or scientific forms. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the questions we have raised above and the following:

Conceptualizing interdisciplinarity

Moving from multidisciplinarity to interdisciplinarity

Connecting disciplines and perspectives

Deconstructing interdisciplinary scholarship

Implementing interdisciplinarity

Recounting personal accounts, narratives, or case studies of interdisciplinary work

Modeling or representations of interdisciplinary scholarship

Those interested in submitting items for review are encouraged to discuss their ideas in advance with the editors at vbergval@mtu.edu or pjsotiri@mtu.edu.

Submissions should be prepared according to prescriptions of the publications manuals of the Modern Language Association (MLA) or the American Psychological Association (APA). Articles should be no more than 5,000 words; shorter pieces are welcomed.

To submit, mail three copies of materials to: Victoria Bergvall and Patricia Sotirin, editors, Interdisciplinary Issue Women and Language, Department of Humanities, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931-1295.

Deadline for submissions is November 15, 2007. The special issue is scheduled for Fall 2008 (Vol XXXI #2).

Position Announcement

Position Announcement - Director, Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS)
and Associate or Full Professor
Search #7133

Position: Director for the Center for the Study of Women in Society and tenured associate or full professor. Three-year renewable appointment as CSWS Director beginning as early as September 2008. The Director’s academic appointment will be .5 FTE in CSWS and .5 FTE in an appropriate department, program, and/or college.

See (http://csws.uoregon.edu/home/intro.shtml) for full description of CSWS, a multidisciplinary research center that generates, supports, and disseminates research on women and gender. As CSWS Director, the successful applicant will administer Center activities in these three areas and pursue an active research agenda. The CSWS Director works closely with an interdisciplinary Executive Committee and 3-5 Center staff. CSWS is supported by an endowment and by funds generated through grants and fundraising and has an annual operating budget of about $600,000.

To date, a list of potential academic tenure-home units includes anthropology; art history; arts and administration; counseling psychology; English, ethnic studies; geography; Germanic languages and literatures; history; journalism and communication; law; planning, public policy, and management; political science, psychology; sociology; women’s and gender studies.

Qualifications: Ph.D. or appropriate terminal degree for your discipline (such as J.D., Ed.D.); evidence of excellence in research and teaching on women and gender; familiarity with the breadth of feminist scholarship and theory; demonstrable appreciation of interdisciplinary scholarship, of interconnections among gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexual identity, and of the internationalization of gender research. Significant administrative experience, and/or record of securing support for academic research or programs inside or outside academia preferred.

Applicants should include a letter describing relevant research, teaching, administrative, and funding experience as well as future plans in these areas; curriculum vitae; copies of significant publications; evidence of teaching excellence; names of three people who could provide letters of reference.

Send materials to: CSWS Director Search, 340 Hendricks Hall, University of Oregon 97403-1201.

Review of materials will begin September 24, 2007. Search will remain open until a successful candidate is chosen. Candidates who promote and enhance diversity are strongly desired.