2009 Coordinators' Meeting - Minutes
Summary of the 2009 CWSA/ACEF Annual Coordinators’
Pre-Conference Meeting
(Saturday May 23rd, 10:00 – 4:30)
and
the Special Lunch Time Session Women’s Studies in
Hard Economic Times: Realities and Strategies
(Sunday May 24th, 12:15 – 1:30)
The Pre-Conference day opened with a brief presentation from Lise Martin telling us about the upcoming Women’s World Conference to be held in Ottawa-Gatineau July 3-7, 2011 and entitled Inclusions, Exclusions, and Seclusions: Living in a Globalized World. It is to be a trilingual conference (English, French, & Spanish) and expects to draw over 2000 delegates from around the world to discuss issues related to evolving gender roles and identities, and to the effects of global hierarchies on social identifications like power, privilege, citizenship and nation. This will be a conference anticipating the convergence of academia and activism and promises to explore some of the most pressing issues of our time. We were encouraged to “save the date,” share the information with others (through handouts that were distributed at the meeting and by talking), and to visit womensworld.ca for updates about the conference.
This was followed by the 23 participants who were involved in the session briefly introducing themselves and telling a little bit about their roles in the CWSA/ACEF, roles at their home institutions, and a little about experiences with the current financial climate. The overwhelming theme that emerged from these brief introductions was the level of exhaustion shared by many of our colleagues in their roles as coordinators/chairs/directors.
The first session – Hard Times: Women’s Studies and the Current Financial Climate – asked small working groups to discuss if/how the current financial climate has affected their own women’s/gender studies programmes and to develop five tangible strategies that could be used to address threats to their own as well as other women’s studies programmes in Canada. Three questions were posed. The first asked, What can we as individuals, faculties, and departments do to support our own women’s/gender studies programmes?; the second, How can we as individuals, faculties and department support other programmes across Canada?; and the third What can CWSA/ACEF do to maintain identity and integrity of women’s/gender studies programmes across Canada?
In the latter part of the session, small groups came back together to share the ideas and strategies they discussed in their small groups. Lots of ideas were generated about how to support programmes and enhance the profile of women’s/gender studies within our own institutions:
In terms of supporting programmes at other institutions, the groups acknowledged the difficulty because of the diversity of women’s/gender studies programmes across Canada. The single idea that emerged in response to this question was that individual faculty maintain both disciplinary and women’s studies ties and networks. A lot of discussion revolved around what CWSA/ACEF can do to maintain identity and integrity of women’s/gender studies programmes.
We then broke for a delightful lunch (where lively discussion continued). A special thank-you to Virginia Caputo for providing the space for this discussion and the lovely lunch!
The second session was focused on Placing Women’s Studies in the Academy. Participants worked in small groups and were asked to generate ideas about their “ideal” women’s studies programme, strategies to achieve the “ideal” within their own institutions; and strategies to work collaboratively to help other institutions achieve its goals. When we came back together the following ideas were shared:
At this point in the day, the discussion returned to the need for CWSA/ACEF to be more strategic in assisting women’s/gender studies programmes across Canada. Points that were made included
We spent the last hour of the pre-conference session pulling together specific ideas to inform the open lunch hour session scheduled for the following day (Women’s Studies in Hard Economic Times: Realities and Strategies). Annalee Lepp and Ann Braithwaite (thank you both!) summarized this discussion to be used as a brief opening presentation for that session and also to be used as the background informing a press release. We had agreed in our discussion to:
The meeting the following day was well attended (39 participants) with representation from universities across Canada. Following introductions of Ann, Annalee and Lynda by Si Transken, and a brief overview of the purpose of the session, Ann and Annalee presented the information we had discussed in the pre-conference session. Participants were then asked to share their ideas about what might be effective initiatives and strategies that we can use to respond to possible and real threats to women’s/ gender studies programmes across Canada. Suggestions from the floor included:
In closing, I would like to thank everyone on the CWSA/ACEF executive, members of the conference organizing committee, and all of the other people who were instrumental in the success of this year’s conference. I would especially like to thank all of the participants of the pre-conference session for their commitment and for the lively discussions that ensued throughout the day, as well as to all of you who attended the special lunch time session to share your thoughts and ideas. I look forward to next year’s pre-conference workshop as an opportunity to explore new topics and to follow-up on the suggestions that emerged from this year’s discussion.
Lynda Ross
Member at Large, CWSA/ACEF Executive
Associate Professor, Women’s Studies
Chair, Centre for Work and Community Studies
Athabasca University
Email: lyndar@athabascau.ca
Pre-Conference Meeting
(Saturday May 23rd, 10:00 – 4:30)
and
the Special Lunch Time Session Women’s Studies in
Hard Economic Times: Realities and Strategies
(Sunday May 24th, 12:15 – 1:30)
The Pre-Conference day opened with a brief presentation from Lise Martin telling us about the upcoming Women’s World Conference to be held in Ottawa-Gatineau July 3-7, 2011 and entitled Inclusions, Exclusions, and Seclusions: Living in a Globalized World. It is to be a trilingual conference (English, French, & Spanish) and expects to draw over 2000 delegates from around the world to discuss issues related to evolving gender roles and identities, and to the effects of global hierarchies on social identifications like power, privilege, citizenship and nation. This will be a conference anticipating the convergence of academia and activism and promises to explore some of the most pressing issues of our time. We were encouraged to “save the date,” share the information with others (through handouts that were distributed at the meeting and by talking), and to visit womensworld.ca for updates about the conference.
This was followed by the 23 participants who were involved in the session briefly introducing themselves and telling a little bit about their roles in the CWSA/ACEF, roles at their home institutions, and a little about experiences with the current financial climate. The overwhelming theme that emerged from these brief introductions was the level of exhaustion shared by many of our colleagues in their roles as coordinators/chairs/directors.
The first session – Hard Times: Women’s Studies and the Current Financial Climate – asked small working groups to discuss if/how the current financial climate has affected their own women’s/gender studies programmes and to develop five tangible strategies that could be used to address threats to their own as well as other women’s studies programmes in Canada. Three questions were posed. The first asked, What can we as individuals, faculties, and departments do to support our own women’s/gender studies programmes?; the second, How can we as individuals, faculties and department support other programmes across Canada?; and the third What can CWSA/ACEF do to maintain identity and integrity of women’s/gender studies programmes across Canada?
In the latter part of the session, small groups came back together to share the ideas and strategies they discussed in their small groups. Lots of ideas were generated about how to support programmes and enhance the profile of women’s/gender studies within our own institutions:
- Increase the visibility of our faculty by teaching across disciplines;
- Offer inter-disciplinary “mega” women’s studies course(s) developed to explore a wide theme that can be approached from multiple feminist perspectives, that will be of interest to a large number of students, that can involve a large number of diverse feminist faculty (inside and outside of women’s studies) who will co-develop and co-teach. Example themes included genocide, sexuality. Faculty who participate in these “mega” courses can bank hours for future course release;
- Increase enrollments. “Mega” courses was discussed as one way of increasing enrollments by drawing students from disciplines outside of women’s studies. Marketing was another. Specific marketing strategies included reaching out to students and letting them know we want them in our women’s studies programmes. Examples of reaching out included sending out “real” (i.e., not email!) letters to top students to acknowledge their progress; sending out “did you know” letters to students to inform them about what a degree in women’s/gender studies will mean in terms of their future study plans and employment opportunities; analyze the impact of advertising for internal use and to share with other women’s studies departments; draw on the stories students tell us about their experiences in women’s studies classes and programmes;
- Naming our women’s studies courses in ways that will attract students. Reviewing courses and course syllabi to be more innovative, to pique student interest, and to make courses more relevant to our students;
- Emphasize the important role of activism in our courses; find ways to link the theoretical with the practical, not just as “capstone” courses at the end of the programme, but in courses throughout the degree programme; activism and practical application components in our courses encourage students to enroll in further women’s studies courses;
- Find ways to better use available technology in our programmes and courses (e.g., facebook to link events within and between departments and for advertising)
- Claim our “space” within the academy; highlight the contributions women’s studies faculty make within their own departments and across the university; hire students to do equity work within the institution and outreach work and publicize these contributions within the academy; ensure women’s studies faculty representation on official boards within the institution.
In terms of supporting programmes at other institutions, the groups acknowledged the difficulty because of the diversity of women’s/gender studies programmes across Canada. The single idea that emerged in response to this question was that individual faculty maintain both disciplinary and women’s studies ties and networks. A lot of discussion revolved around what CWSA/ACEF can do to maintain identity and integrity of women’s/gender studies programmes.
- Useful to have co-sponsored sessions at the Congress to increase visibility and to help individual faculty maintain disciplinary links; CWSA/ACEF should let Congress know the dates, in relation to other associations, of where we want our sessions to be situated in next year’s conference.
- In response to the recent closure of the women’s studies programme at the University of Guelph, CWSA/ACEF was asked about the possibility of an immediate press release. In the longer term participants noted how a press conference focused on sending out the message that women’s studies is a dynamic “place” and that students and faculty involved in women’s studies programmes make a real difference in our communities
- Participants also saw CWSA/ACEF’s role as one of “protecting” our programmes through censure; checking and evaluating equity records; defining and publicly sharing what we all agree is a “good” women’s gender studies programme and a “good” institution; and
- Participants also saw the potential for CWSA/ACEF to initiate research agendas that would help women’s studies departments to keep track of our graduates (one suggestion was the CWSA/ACEF could hire someone to build a data base to help keep track of women’s studies graduating student activity across Canada; to incorporate data from individual institutional exit surveys).
We then broke for a delightful lunch (where lively discussion continued). A special thank-you to Virginia Caputo for providing the space for this discussion and the lovely lunch!
The second session was focused on Placing Women’s Studies in the Academy. Participants worked in small groups and were asked to generate ideas about their “ideal” women’s studies programme, strategies to achieve the “ideal” within their own institutions; and strategies to work collaboratively to help other institutions achieve its goals. When we came back together the following ideas were shared:
- There was no real “ideal” defined by any of the groups. For some institutions it means having one full-time faculty member! For others it would mean having a wonderfully supportive university; having no cross-appointments (except when women’s studies decided they wanted cross appointments); being recognized for our service and activism in addition to our research and teaching.
- Naming women’s studies programmes remains a concern. Some of the questions that arose from the “naming” issue were: What is “woman”? What politics do or should guide naming decisions? What is the relationship between women’s studies and other programmes (e.g., cultural studies, interdisciplinary studies, gender studies). What binds “us” together? There was a suggestion that we need to more clearly articulate who “we” are and what “we” do. Participants asked if CWSA/ACEF could use part of next year’s pre-conference session to create a mission statement. It was suggested that individuals each bring with them statements/ideas that we could then use in the session to discuss and inform a women’s studies “mission statement.”
- As with the discussion earlier in the day, creating a women’s studies “identity” was highlighted as an important issue, both for faculty and for students. How do we do this? For the faculty, our courses could be core requirements in other programmes which would acknowledge the rich contribution women’s studies courses can make to other disciplines (e.g., policing); help students in our programmes to know what it means to be a women’s studies student (e.g., bookmarks summarizing “what is women’s studies”).
- Use speakers’ series to invite other women’s studies faculty to give public talks at our universities or use the series for internal faculty to share their own work.
- The increase in women’s studies graduate programmes at larger institutions means that graduate students could be invited to share their experiences with students at smaller institutions that do not have graduate programmes; smaller institutions could reciprocate by promoting graduate programmes at the larger institutions.
- In relation to graduate programmes some concern was expressed about not duplicating programmes across Canada.
At this point in the day, the discussion returned to the need for CWSA/ACEF to be more strategic in assisting women’s/gender studies programmes across Canada. Points that were made included
- Universities are in crisis and women’s studies programmes are vulnerable to cutbacks;
- There have already been “attacks” on a number of different universities and specific programmes;
- A discussion followed about what can CWSA/ACEF do right now and in the future to protect our women’s/gender studies programmes. Suggestions included developing status reports about the increase of women’s studies programmes and students across Canada; news release, censure “bad” behaviour of institutions; “blacklist” institutions that are hostile to women’s/gender studies; focus on our vibrant programmes, and the value of these programmes to students.
- At this year’s congress, suggestions were made to talk to CAUT and the Congress media liaison and/or issue a press release; invite the Status of Women representative to our AGM.
We spent the last hour of the pre-conference session pulling together specific ideas to inform the open lunch hour session scheduled for the following day (Women’s Studies in Hard Economic Times: Realities and Strategies). Annalee Lepp and Ann Braithwaite (thank you both!) summarized this discussion to be used as a brief opening presentation for that session and also to be used as the background informing a press release. We had agreed in our discussion to:
- Stress the positive growth of women’s/gender studies programmes across Canada (enrollments and graduate programmes)
- Highlight our achievements in women’s studies
- Include other interdisciplinary programmes under threat as a consequence of the current fiscal climate
- Summarize the closure and threats experienced by women’s studies programmes (with a specific focus on University of Guelph)
- Highlight the role women’s studies plays in meeting strategic goals of universities (e.g., diversity, multiculturalism, globalization, transnationalism)
- Highlight the proactive role of CWSA/ACEF in responding to threats to women’s/gender studies programmes (e.g., as a national association representing women’s studies; as a point of contact for women’s studies faculty; identifying allies; lobbying other national organizations like CFHSS, CUFA, CAUT).
The meeting the following day was well attended (39 participants) with representation from universities across Canada. Following introductions of Ann, Annalee and Lynda by Si Transken, and a brief overview of the purpose of the session, Ann and Annalee presented the information we had discussed in the pre-conference session. Participants were then asked to share their ideas about what might be effective initiatives and strategies that we can use to respond to possible and real threats to women’s/ gender studies programmes across Canada. Suggestions from the floor included:
- Fax and email jams as an active strategy to get the attention of administrations when programmes are under threat
- Proactive strategies including developing a well articulated thoughtful academic piece to highlight the intellectual and political relevance of women’s studies degrees. This piece might also include a review of the works and careers of prominent women’s studies graduates. And tracking the accomplishment of women’s studies alumni could also inform this strategy;
- “Op ed” pieces when/where appropriate. Again thoughtful academic pieces to be available for press opportunities;
- Urge other related associations to support women’s/gender studies nationally (e.g., Canadian Committee on Women’s History);
- Within our own institutions, increase our own visibility and that of our women’s/gender studies department (e.g., actively making interdisciplinary links; soliciting support from other departments; teaching across disciplines)
- Alumni boycotts of women’s/gender studies “unfriendly” institutions; discouraging students to pursue graduate work at those institutions;
- Within our own institutions, make appointments with Dean’s, VPAs, Presidents to discuss strategic academic plans and their relationship to our programmes. Highlight the multi/inter/diversity aspects of a women’s/gender studies education.
- Highlight the contributions that women’s/gender studies faculty make towards research initiatives; focus on the research skills that are acquired by women’s/gender studies majors and graduate students; promote the research aspect of women’s/gender studies degrees; apply for SSHRC funding as women’s studies researchers.
- Compile data about CRC’s in women’s/genders studies; compile data about successful SSHRC grant applications from women’s/gender studies faculty; disseminate this information
- Support one another in the early stages of our careers.
In closing, I would like to thank everyone on the CWSA/ACEF executive, members of the conference organizing committee, and all of the other people who were instrumental in the success of this year’s conference. I would especially like to thank all of the participants of the pre-conference session for their commitment and for the lively discussions that ensued throughout the day, as well as to all of you who attended the special lunch time session to share your thoughts and ideas. I look forward to next year’s pre-conference workshop as an opportunity to explore new topics and to follow-up on the suggestions that emerged from this year’s discussion.
Lynda Ross
Member at Large, CWSA/ACEF Executive
Associate Professor, Women’s Studies
Chair, Centre for Work and Community Studies
Athabasca University
Email: lyndar@athabascau.ca