Editor’s Welcome………………………………………………………………………….Patty Sotirin

Articles

• Enacting and Disrupting the Single-Sex Mandate of the YWCA: A Poststructural Feminist Analysis of Separatism as an Organizing Strategy……………………………..Lynn Harter, Erika Kirby & Anne Gerbensky-Kerber
• Caregiving and Female Embodiment: Scrutinizing (Professional) Female Bodies in Media, Academe, and the Neighborhood Bar….Suzy D’Enbeau & Patrice M. Buzzanell
• Poking Fun at Midwifery on Prime-time Television: The Rhetorical Implications of Burlesque Frames in Humorous Shows………………………  ………..Kimberly N. Kline
• (Re)presenting Gender: Exploring Text-Image Incongruities in Anne Taintor’s Artwork……………………………………………………………………..Stephanie L. Young

Salon

• Introducing the Salon……………………………………………………………..Patty Sotirin
• Operationalizing Feminism: Two Challenges for Feminist Research…………………………………………………………………………Elizabeth Bell
• The Can-Do Discourse and Young Women’s Anticipations of Future……………………………………………………………………………..Julia T. Wood
• Feminist Scholarship in the New Decade: Three Challenges to Steer Us through TurbulentTimes………………………………………………………….Angharad N. Valdivia
• Looking Deeply into Our Past and Future: Can Quan Yin Help Us?……………………………………………………………………………Cheris Kramarae

Women & Language Call for Submissions — January 2011 Issue

Topic: Gendered Perspectives on Humanitarian Aid and Social Justice

Special Issue Co-Editors: Shawny Anderson, St. Mary College, and Cynthia Weber, Michigan Technological University

Over the past decade, our world has been experiencing a steady progression of global humanitarian crises, including (but not limited to) the tsunamis in South Asia, earthquakes in China and more recently in Haiti and Tibet, genocide in Northern Africa, and hurricanes in the Atlantic Gulf. The effects of these natural and human-inflicted disasters have been monumental and have precipitated ongoing global humanitarian aid responses, both governmental and private in scope. However, in addition to raising complex questions on how best to address the challenges involved in providing immediate relief, these disasters have also made visible the underlying conditions of oppression and inequity that the people affected by these crises often experience on a daily basis. Acknowledging the structures and relations that have historically informed such conditions might provide an opportunity to reimagine the possibilities for gendered responses that would serve to support not only immediate, but lasting change.

In response, in this issue we welcome manuscripts that critically address the possibilities of gendered perspectives on humanitarian aid and social justice. Questions to consider might include: Is there a feminist politics to humanitarian aid? How should we navigate issues of race, class, and economic inequality while serving both immediate and long-term needs? What are the challenges and issues of maintaining current and future levels of humanitarian aid from a feminist perspective? What critiques and revisions to current policy might feminist and gender theory offer? Looking forward, we might also consider such questions as: Where do we go from here? What have we learned from the successes and failures of recent responses? And how do we, as a global community, prepare for the ongoing challenge of addressing what has become a “normal” state of crisis?

Abstracts (1200 words) should be submitted to Cynthia Weber at clweberb@mtu.edu by September 1, 2010.

Women & Language is an interdisciplinary journal that welcomes a wide range of research and writing forms contributing to the study of communication, language, and gender.

The 33rd Annual Meeting of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language and Gender will be hosted by University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, from October 14-17, 2010.

The theme for the 2010 conference is The Good Life. Our conference theme engages one of the oldest questions in philosophy: What is the best life for a human being? At this year’s conference, we hope to provide a forum for discussion about how one finds and maintains the good life both within and outside of the academy. We invite submissions that explore the intersections of language, gender, and conceptions of the good life, particularly in the context of contemporary concerns about economic recession, work-life issues and stress arising from time scarcity, the rise of consumer culture (including the commodification of health and wellness), environmentalism, and the shift toward a “greener” society. Presentations that make use of critical, cultural, and other theoretical perspectives in order to question normative assumptions about what constitutes a good life are also encouraged.

Click here for complete details about the conference, including registration and lodging.