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Members of the CCCC Committee on the Status of Women

Joyce Rain Anderson is an Assistant Professor of English at Bridgewater State College  She received her Ph.D in Composition and Rhetoric from the University of New Hampshire in 2005.  Her research and teaching interests include: first-year composition, personal and public writing, English Language Learners, Cultural Rhetorics, Indigenous and Survivance Rhetorics, American Indian Boarding Schools, (Re)presentations of Indigenous Peoples, and Vernacular Literacies. Currently, she is working on a co-edited edition on teaching Indigenous rhetorics. In 1996, she was a recipient of the Scholars for the Dream. She is co-founder of the American Indian Caucus and has served on the Resolutions Committee, Scholars for the Dream Section Committee and the Tribal College Fellowship Committee.

Kristin Bivens is an Assistant Professor of English at Harold Washington College in Chicago (on leave, AY 2011-2012).  She is currently a PhD student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University; and an editorial assistant for Technical Communication Quarterly.  Kristin’s research interests include: contrapower harassment at two-year institutions, post-Katrina New Orleans (and Gulf Coast), medical rhetoric, feminist rhetorics, health literacy, and communicative practices in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).  She has served as a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession since 2007.

Kirsti Cole is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Composition, and Literature at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Graduating with her PhD in 2008, Kirsti is currently working on two edited collections, and a textbook in rhetoric and culture.  She is also in process of writing a comprehensive study of the Feminist Workshop from 1991 to 2011. She is the co-author of “Feminist Social Projects: Building Bridges between Communities and Universities,” which appeared in College English in 2007, as well as “(Post)Modern Psychoanalysis: A Re-vis(ion)ing of Poe,” (2008). She has also co-edited a collection for thirdspace, an online feminist journal. Her research area focuses on the rhetoric of women’s activism and as a part of her service as Co-Chair of the Feminist Workshop for the Cs in 2008 and 2010. She was one of the Keynote speakers for the 2011 Workshop.  She has served as a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession for the Cs since 2006.

Violet A. Dutcher is professor of rhetoric and composition, chair in the Language & Literature department, and Writing Program Director at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  She received her Ph.D. from Kent State University. Her research interest is in women’s community literacy. She has served as a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession for the Cs since 2007.
 
Morgan Gresham earned her Ph.D from the University of Louisville.  She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, where she is currently serving as chair of the Department of Verbal and Visual Arts..  Her research interests include digital composition, feminist pedagogy, and composition theory and practice. She has served as a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession for the Cs since 2006.

Holly Hassel is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County and chair of the University of Wisconsin Colleges Women’s Studies Program. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2002. She regularly teaches first-year writing courses and introduction to women’s studies, and her research interests in the scholarship of teaching and learning emerge directly from her classroom experiences working at an open-enrollment, two-year college. Her current SoTL research projects are focused on the transition of underprepared students to the expectations of college writing, as well as on assessment of student writing in the placement process. Her scholarly work has appeared in Feminist Teacher, the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and LearningPedagogy, and College English, among others. Her co-authored article (with Joanne Giordano), “Transfer Institutions, Transfer of Knowledge: The Development of Rhetorical Adaptability and Underprepared Writers” received the Mark Reynolds Teaching English in the Two Year College Best Article Award in 2010. Holly has served on the Two-Year College Association Committee on Dual Credit/Concurrent Enrollment and joined the Status of Women Committee in 2011.

Rhea Estelle Lathan is an Assistant Professor at Florida State University. She holds a Ph.D in English and MA in Afro American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; a BA in Africology and English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Lathan’s research includes the literate and rhetorical history of women of African descent, the development of literacy, and the delivery systems for the teaching of writing; community based critical intellectualism of African American Women, identity politics and social historical activism as well as critical race theory in rhetoric and composition. Lathan teaches courses ranging from social historical perspectives on rhetoric and composition to more specialized African American Literacies, rhetoric, composition research methodologies and theories, literate practices within African American social movements, including Afrafeminist and literacy history.

Jolivette Mecenas is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Writing Program at the University of La Verne in La Verne (Los Angeles Co.), CA. She earned her PhD in 2009 from the University of Hawai‘i. In her contribution to the anthology, Representations: Doing Asian American Rhetoric, Jolivette wrote about the cultural rhetorics of Asian American pop culture and media. Recently, she interviewed Jeffery Paul Chan for an anthology on activism in the NCTE, Listening to Our Elders, Writing and Working for Change (eds. Blackmon, Kirklighter, and Parks, 2011). Her teaching and research interests include citizenship genres, civic-political discourse, feminist and queer publics, writing pedagogy, and writing program administration. Jolivette joined the Committee on the Status of Women in 2010, and she is also a member of the CCCC Asian/Asian American Caucus.

Dora Ramirez-Dhoore is an Associate professor of Ethnic American Literature at Boise State University. She earned her Ph.D from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, M.A. from New Mexico State University, and is a former Scholars for the Dream award recipient. She has served on the Executive Committee and is currently a member of the Latino/a Caucus. Dora’s research engages issues of production and consumption of texts tied to global and transnational perspectives of audience. Her work examines ideas of nation-building and the internalization of socio-political global affects, including their effects on health, illness, and the body. Recent publications include: “The Rhetoric of Aztlán: HB2281, MEChA, and Liberatory Education” in Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Community Literacy, and Service-Learning (ed. Steve Parks); “Let the Gummy Bears Speak: Articulating Identity in Sandra Cisneros’s ‘Never Marry a Mexican’” in Sandra Cisneros’ Woman Hollering Creek (ed. Cecilia S. Donohue); “Dissecting Environmental Racism: Redirecting the Toxic in Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s Desert Blood and Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus” in The Natural World in Latin American Literatures: Ecocritical Essays on Twentieth Century Writings (ed. Adrian Kane); and other essays.

Luisa Rodríguez Connal, Ph. D. is currently operating as an independent scholar and active member of the National Council of Teachers of English. Professional Activities: Member of CCCC Diversity Committee, Executive Committee, Latino/a Caucus, Progressive Special Interest Groups and Caucuses Committee, Service Learning Committee. Conference presentations at CCCC, MLA, Shifting Discourses in the Twenty-First Century. Texas A&M University. CSU Conference: Designing Change for Women and Minority, Emerging Careers for Women Conference, Pima Community College.  Publications: Chapters in Crossing Borderlands: Composition and Postcolonial Studies, Advanced Composition: Principles and Practices, 2001, Teaching Tools Theorized: From Practice to Theory and Back Again, and Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement, Vol. 1. Articles in Who’s Who in Contemporary Women Writers, 1999, in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition, 1996, and in Making Connections. 4, 1 (Fall 1999). Bibliographic work for CCC Bibliography of Composition and Rhetoric, 1992 and 1996.  I wrote a Master of Arts thesis on nonsexist language in 1988-89. Currently, my work includes an autobiographical piece which I will ultimately connect to many of the theories I used in prior work. While many know of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, I found one of her fore-mothers a Spanish nun from just before the Spanish Inquisition. I also study Puerto Rican female writers. I hope to contrast the works of current Puerto  Rican female writers with my own experiences. Position Statement: Women’s work in academia, specifically in the area of English which encompasses many new divisions such as English Studies, multicultural rhetorics and the like. It is important to explore our contributions to our profession and I look forward to working with others on the Status of Women in the Profession Committee.

Eileen Schell is an Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and Chair and Director of the Writing Program at Syracuse University.   Schell is the author of Gypsy Academics and Mother-teachers:  Gender, Contingent Labor,and Writing Instruction (Heinemann, 1997), Moving a Mountain: Transforming  the Role of Contingent Faculty in Composition Studies and Higher Education  (NCTE, 2001),  Rural Literacies with Kim Donehower and Charlotte Hogg (SIUP, 2007), Rhetorica in Motion: Feminist Rhetorical Methods and Methodologies co-edited with K.J. Rawson (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2010), and Reclaiming the Rural  co-edited with Kim Donehower and Charlotte Hogg (SIUP, 2012).  Eileen is currently Chair of CCCC Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession; she formerly co-chaired the Committee on Contingent, Adjunct, Part-time Faculty Issues as well as serving as a member of the Executive Committee of CCCC.

Hyoejin Yoon is Associate Professor of English at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Her publications include “Affecting the Transformative Intellectual: Questioning ‘Noble’ Sentiments in Critical Pedagogy and Composition” in JAC, winner of the 2005 Elizabeth A. Flynn award for best feminist essay in rhetoric and composition, and a chapter “Learning Asian American Affect” in Representations: Doing Asian American Rhetoric, edited by LuMing Mao and Morris Young. Hyoejin has recently been involved in higher education administration and institutional assessment. She has been a member of the CCCC Committee on the Status of Women since 2010.

History of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession

Records archived at the National Council of Teachers of English indicate that the origins of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession dates back to 1978. The early group of 139 members called themselves the “4Cs ? Exchange.” Their stated purpose was “sharing…. listening….thinking….responding….laughing ….planning” and they convened at the women’s luncheon in Kansas City. The minutes of this meeting indicate that the group had first convened the year earlier in 1977 in Philadelphia. Additionally, the group published a newsletter with the intent of acknowledging the impact of all the feminist energy and commitment within the group, to channel some of the humanistic power swirling “over luke-warm soup, limp lettuce and greasy chicken,” and to assert a founding momma’s right to defer to the energy and vision of the young.

The group asked the CCCC officers to authorize a “4C’s Women’s Committee with members not to be designated 4Cs chair. Items of business included circulation of letters explaining why 4C’s would not assemble in convention cities located in states that had failed to ratify the ERA; passing a resolution on Sexism in Language,” creating a liaison between the committee and the 4Cs officers, and editing the newsletter.

Additionally, the group sponsored sessions at the annual meeting that concerned issues of interest to women. They questioned the masculinist format of reading papers/lecturing in panel presentations; made efforts that supported, highlighted and disseminated feminist work in the discipline; and coordinated a hospitality/discussion hour with wine and cheese.

Evidence suggests that the group continued to work informally and openly until records indicate in 1989 that it was officially listed as a standing committee under its current name. By this time the Committee’s work included offering a half-day Women’s Open House for the purpose of informal networking and “R and R” for CCCC women; submitting a proposal for a half-day preconvention workshop, “Demarginalizing Women’s Ways of Writing”; and sponsoring a SIG session to elicit proposals for Committee work from CCCC women and to form CCCC panels; have a women’s table in the exhibitor’s hall; send a copy of the “Guidelines for Nonsexist Use of Language in NCTE Publications” along with a cover letter to members of the Association of Departments of English. Minutes indicate that the Committee, even then, was seeking ways to determine the need for daycare at CCCC conventions.

A gap in history exists in that which has been recorded in the archives until 1994. Then Chair of the then officially named Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, Elizabeth Flynn requested an investigation of the feasibility of conducting a study of the status of women in CCCC and sponsored two sessions at the 1995 CCCC that were coordinated by the committee. The sessions focused on issues such as discrimination, harassment, and diversity.

Throughout the second half of the 1990s, the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession worked in three primary areas: 1) support scholarly and feminist work in composition/rhetoric by sponsoring proposed sessions for the CCCC convention, which included a proposal to institute an Outstanding Article on women’s Issues in Composition Award; provide SIG and other fora for women to discuss the material conditions of their professional lives; and provide moral support and leadership to the preconvention Feminist Workshop.

Chairs on the record include

Karen Hollis 1987-1990

Elizabeth Flynn 1994-1996

Joy Ritchie 1997-2000

Heather Bruce 2001-2006

Eileen Schell 2007- present

Committee on Position Statements (March 2012)

Committee Members

Sheryl Fontaine, Chair
Damian Baca
Shirley Wilson Logan
Jay Wootten

Committee Charge

This committee is charged with carrying out the recommendations of the CCCC Task Force on Position Statements in 2008, namely that

  1. The first page of position statements should be categorized into four groups: professional issues, assessment and digital writing, language issues, and ethical issues.
  2. To establish consistency, all the statements should reflect standardized titles and be framed by an introduction that sets the historical context, including the exigence. Included in the statement category should be a template for future statements. 
  3. Once position statements have been reformatted, announcements of this accomplishment should appear in both College Composition and Communication and College English.
  4. To ensure the currency of each statement, we should establish an annual process of review and revision (a few statements each year) handled by one of the original writers, others with related expertise, and/or EC members. Complements to this revision cycle should include a standard format for future statements and a guide for reviews and revisions of existing statements.
  5. In particular, you requested that the bibliography for the 2003 “CCCC Guidelines for the Ethical Conduct of Research in Composition Studies” be updated and that the 2000 “Guidelines for the Ethical Treatment of Students and Student Writing in Composition Studies” be dropped.

We anticipate the first three recommendations be carried out by March 2010.  Also if the committee wished to carry forward with recommendation 5, we would appreciate a proposal to that effect with rationale be prepared to be considered by the March 2010 meeting of the CCCC Executive Committee.  In the ensuing years, the Committee will carry out the work of recommendation 4 in collaboration with “original writers, others with related expertise, and/or EC members” to be invited by the Committee.  This committee is charged for three years through March 2012.

Contact information for Lisa Meloncon

Name: Lisa Meloncon
Title: Associate Professor of Technical and Professional Writing Institution:University of Cincinnati Location: Cincinnati, OH
Phone: 513-556-3034
Email: lisa.meloncon@uc.edu
Skype: lisameloncon
Website: www.tek-ritr.com
Twitter: @lmeloncon

  

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