ORWAC Stands in Support of Action Against Anti-Blackness

The leadership of the Organization for Research on Women and Communication (ORWAC) stands with protestors both in the United States and across the world who are taking action against the structures of anti-Black oppression, police brutality, and state-sanctioned violence that murdered George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. In doing so, we commit to take action as an organization as well, laboring to examine our own complicity in anti-Black racism, planning anti-racist organizational transformations, and immediately putting them into action. During these times, standing through solidarity is performed through action, rather than just words. As a feminist organization, we recognize the role that white women have played and continue to play in constructing and maintaining white supremacy, and the concomitant responsibility we have as a feminist organization to root out such structures in our own discourse and operations. We also recognize that struggles against anti-Blackness intersect with other forms of racism, heteropatriarchy, settler colonialism and coloniality, and ableism. As an organization, we continue to take action to make ORWAC a space where scholars of color, international scholars, disabled, and LGBTQIA and nonbinary scholars are centered by revising our organizational policies, bylaws, website, social media, grant requirements, award procedures and any other gatekeeping structures. We are also working to ensure that Women's Studies in Communication, our organization's journal, is an inclusive space that is attentive to the intersectional complexities of the struggles against anti-Black racism. Today, we solidify our commitment to making ORWAC a more socially just organization. We hope that our organization is also a space where you, our members, feel comfortable raising awareness when our trajectories move or are perceived in a manner that does not reflect our commitments, so we are able to change directions. #BlackLivesMatter 

Signed, 

Leslie J. Harris, Immediate Past President
Diane Marie Keeling, President
Jenna N. Hanchey, Vice President
Tiffany Lewis, Membership Officer
Alyssa A. Samek, Treasurer
Claire Sisco King, Editor, Women’s Studies in Communication
Sarah J. Jackson, Conversation and Commentary Editor, Women’s Studies in Communication
Marian Levina, Book and Media Review Editor, Women’s Studies in Communication
Danielle C. Biss, Graduate Student Representative
Sarah C. Dweik, Graduate Student Representative
Kristen D. Herring, Graduate Student Representative 

Welcome

The Organization for Research on Women and Communication (ORWAC) promotes dialogue, discussion, research, and scholarship concerned with women, feminism, gender, oppression, and social change. ORWAC seeks to advance understandings of the intersections of gender and race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, sexuality, and class, including transgender politics, masculinity, dis/ability, labor, transnationalism, postcolonialism, and critical race theory.

ORWAC is a Western States Communication Association (WSCA) affiliate, sponsors programs at the WSCA convention, and publishes a journal: Women’s Studies in Communication.

Announcements

• Congratulations to our 2020 Research Development Grant recipients: 

  • Shardé M. Davis for "Talking with my Sistahs: Testing the Role of Stress during HIV-Related Discussions among Black Women and HIV Risk and Prevention Outcomes”
  • Ashley Cassandra Joi Daniels for "Unlocking the Power of the Sister Vote: Examining the Motivations of Black Women Supporting Black Women Candidates”
  • Lisa Roth for "Rhetorical Analysis of 1980s Lesbian Public Discourse: Reconstituting Lesbian Identity, Activism, and Community during the Rise of the New Right”
  • Margarida Costa da Silva Catela Teixeira for "Survivors’ Perspectives on Anti-Trafficking Communication and Social Change”

• Due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, our publisher has paused the printing of Women's Studies in Communication. When printing resumes, members will receive their delayed print issues. In the meantime, your online access to the journal content should not be affected.  

• Thank you to everyone who participated in our conference: Citizenship at the Intersections: 100 Years Since the 19th Amendment. Our program included keynote presentations by Isaac West, Karma Chavez, and Ersula Ore, and responses from Catherine Palczewksi, Annie Hill, Belinda Stillion Southard, E. Cram, Shirley Wilson Logan, and Lisa Flores. Joan Faber McAlister led a workshop on publishing scholarship. Other conference presenters included: Jessica Enoch, Carly S. Woods, Zornitsa Keremidchieva, Ashley Hall, Isra Ali, Inbal Leibovits, Stephanie (Sam) Martin, and Linda Horwitz. Deleasa Randall-Griffiths performed Carrie Chapman Catt and led a discussion on her performance, and Janet Fitch provided a preview of her documentary, The Most Dangerous Women.

• Congratulations to Jenna Hanchey for winning the 2020 Feminist Scholar award for her article "Doctors Without Burdens: The Neocolonial Ambivalence of White Masculinity in International Medical Aid"

• Congratulations to Shuzhen Huang and Daniel Brouwer for winning the 2019 Feminist Scholar award for their article "Negotiating Performances of 'Real' Marriage in Chinese Queer Xinghun"

• Find us online! ORWAC now has three channels of social media:

  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ORWAC

  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orwac_

  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/orwac_   

• Help support the Feminist Language and Communication Collection at the University of Oregon. This Collection is devoted to collecting and preserving the papers of scholars, writers, activists, and organizations whose work was foundational in challenging communication practices and theory in the early years of the second wave of the feminist movement in the United States. Among those whose papers are included are: Paula Gunn Allen, Suzette Haden Elgin, Ursula Le Guin, Sally Miller Gearhart, Nancy Henley, Marcia Houston, Cheris Kramarae, Casey Miller and Kate Swift, Anita Taylor, and the Lucy Stone League. Funds donated will be used to process archival materials such as syllabi, conference papers, versions of book and article manuscripts, texts or notes for lectures and speeches, letters and emails, awards, and videos and audio tapes relevant to gender and communication. Women’s and feminist histories are easily erased and forgotten. This Collection is designed to ensure that the history of feminism in the communication discipline is preserved. ORWAC will match up to $10,000 in funds donated over the next two years, so your contribution to the Collection goes twice as far. Checks should be made to: “UO Foundation-Special Collections Restricted Fund”; in the memo line, please write “Feminist Language and Communication Collection—ORWAC Donation.” Checks should be sent to: Keri Aronson, UO Libraries, Director of Development, 1299 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1299.   

The Organization for Research on Women and Communication is against hate, including bigotry, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and any form of violence. We support the rights of all human beings, regardless of race, gender, ability, citizenship, religion, gender identity/expression, or sexuality to be included, treated fairly, and prosper.