MALCS Archive

(MALCS) Women Active in Letters and Social Change

Faculty Women of Color Conf, April 3-5 at Urbana-Champaign

The inaugural Faculty Women of Color in the Academy (FWCA) Conference, April 3-5, 2013, will be hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This year’s conference will focus on Issues of Politics and Scholarship, featuring prominent keynotes and panelists.

The conference will feature keynotes by Professor bell hooks; Vice President and Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise; President María Hernández Ferrier; and Professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall. In addition, moderated panels featuring Vice President and Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise, President Nancy “Rusty” Barceló, and President Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet, along with women faculty of color panelists from national institutions of higher education. Other speakers include Frances Aparicio, Mari Castaneda, Isabel Molina-Guzman.

Conference topics include Research on Women of Color in the Academy; Women of Color and Promotions: Strategies for Success; Interdisciplinary Medicine and Health; and the Economics of Being a Faculty Woman of Color: Being Prepared and Planning Ahead. The conference will launch with poster sessions and featured presentations, as well as an evening Welcome Reception. All three conference days will include social events, such as networking receptions, an Exhibitors Hall, and musical performances.

Agenda and conference website is here

 

 

New Gerber baby Mary Jane Montoya

Mary Jane Montoya, new Gerber babyGerber Foods announced that the winnerof their “Gerber generation” Search is an eight-month-old Latina,  Mary Jane Montoya of Fresno, California.

Mary Jane was chosen from over 308,000 entries and will receive a $50k cash prize as well as appearances in Gerber advertising. Her mom Sara Montoya said “Like parents everywhere, we think our baby is cute, but to have this honor is something we’ll cherish for forever. To us, winning $50,000 is like winning a million dollars!”

Some links for post-election reflections

the Obamas

Women, Latinos: Record numbers in Congress

From CBS News:

By many measures, 2012 saw the most diverse electorate in history turn out to the polls. 2013, as a result, will see the most diverse U.S. Congress in history assume office.

Latino-Americans and women played a decisive role in yesterday’s election, voting by wide margins to reelect President Obama (55 percent and 71 percent, respectively, according to exit polls.) And when the 113th Congress assumes office in January, both groups will be represented in record numbers on Capitol Hill, leaving them poised to play an equally decisive role in shaping the agenda of the years ahead.

America is changing. And from the demographics of the national electorate to the makeup of Congress, the evidence is everywhere. The new Congress will include 20 female senators, up from 17 female senators today, and a staggering tenfold increase from the two female senators who held office 20 years ago. New female faces on Capitol Hill come January will include Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, who will also be the first openly gay member of the Senate, Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono, the first Asian-American woman to serve in the Senate, and Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran and triple amputee who ousted a bete-noire of liberals, Joe Walsh from Illinois’ 8th Congressional district….

And the record number of women in Congress is no accident – at a press conference the day after the election, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who helmed the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, explained, “We recruited and nominated the most Democratic women ever…I believe that is a great thing for our country.”

article continues here

Article continues at CBS News

A Black Academic Woman’s Self-Care Manifesto

Submitted by Rebeca Burciaga

By Erica Lorraine Williams for The Feminist Wire

In response to Toni Cade Bambara’s classic question in TheSalt Eaters, I am absolutely sure that I want to be well. In fact, I am determined to be well. I have been haunted by the legacies of premature death of black women academics since before I chose to enter into the academy. What does wellness look like for black women in the academy, and what are some strategies that we can utilize to achieve it? As an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Spelman College entering my fourth year on the tenure-track, I have learned some tips and strategies for balance and wellness that I only wish I had known in college and graduate school….

For me, self-care quite simply means setting boundaries on how and when I work. I refuse to run myself into the ground by working around the clock with no time for rest and relaxation. The academy tends to privilege a lack of sleep, workaholic tendencies, and scholarly productivity at the expense of everything else. I refuse to sacrifice my nights and (whole) weekends for work. Evenings are reserved for exercise, family time, home-cooked meals, and general “down time,” and I will not be made to feel guilty about that.

I want to be a prolific scholar, to open students’ minds, and to make an impact on my institution and my community. However, I can’t – and I won’t – do this at the expense of my health and well-being. I am haunted by stories of women of color who worked so hard to earn tenure that once they got it they were too burnt out – suffering from fatigue and chronic illness – to enjoy it. I refuse to fall into this trap of self-destruction. Just as people often say that being a parent is a full-time job, self-care is also a full-time job! Sometimes my days feel so long because I am running from one thing to the next, even if some of those things I’m running to include Afro-Cuban dance class at 7:30pm after a long day of office hours, writing, and a 3-hour honors seminar.

It is one thing to say that self-care is important, however, how does one actually fit it into a busy schedule?

 

Article continues at The Feminist Wire

CFP: Malcs Summer Institute 2013, ¡Aquí Estamos!

Aquí Estamos!/We Are Here!: Movements, Migrations, Pilgrimage and Belonging

The 2013 MALCS Summer Institute Program Committee invites submissions for its annual Summer Institute to be held this year at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. This is only the third time in its 30-year history that MALCS has been located in the U.S. Midwest. We take seriously the location where we find ourselves—the geographical, historical, contemporary, intellectual, cultural and political place where we are—for the 2013 Summer Institute. [Read more…] about CFP: Malcs Summer Institute 2013, ¡Aquí Estamos!