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PSA Committee Report
Committee on the Status of Women
4/2/2015
1:45-3:15 pm
Meeting Notes
Present:
Appointed Committee Members: Amanda Admire (UC Riverside), Melanie Arthur (Oregon
Institute of Technology), Zeynep Kilic (University of Alaska Anchorage), Faye Wachs (Cal Poly
Pomona), Brenda Wilhelm (Colorado Mesa).
Other Members and Guests: Zakiya Luna (UC Santa Barbara),
Absent:
Judith Hennessy (Central Washington), Katrina Kimport (UCSF), Cynthia Siemsen (CSU Chico)
Chair/Facilitator:
Zeynep Kilic
SUBJECT
Notes
By:
Zeynep Kilic
REPORT / ACTION
Call to Order
Meeting called to order by (Zeynep) at (1:52 pm).
Chair’s Report
Reporting on committee sponsored sessions this year: all three sessions sponsored by the
committee (organized by Zeynep, Amanda and Faye) had 20-26 people in attendance. Amanda’s
panel had a missing panelist but otherwise everybody showed up as planned.
Committee Member
Reports
(Reports by
committee members
on their work in the
preceding year such
as planning
committee sponsored
sessions.)
Unfinished Business
(Any unfinished or
postponed business
from last year’s
meeting.)
New Business
(New items such as
electing a committee
chair, planning
committee sponsored
sessions and other
-
1. Committee is interested in seeing some data on membership ahead of the conference,
such as sub-disciplinary gender division, participation etc. to assess if revisions are
necessary. A more critical engagement with needs at the conference as well as the larger
disciplinary discourses was discussed. Two things were mentioned: If we knew about the
need for things like childcare during the conference we can ensure participation better. If
we know more about sub-disciplinary membership, perhaps we can propose better
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SUBJECT
REPORT / ACTION
committee activities.)
sessions to suit the needs, or if there are specific workshop or topical needs expressed
through a survey before the conference. Is the membership more interested in research
sessions or sessions focusing on experience and interactive work? Secondly, we discussed
the possibility of distributing position papers on larger issues. However we are not clear
on PSA’s position on committees taking leadership in this fashion. As of now, we are not
aware of committee working on anything beyond the scope of the conference.
2. We have three outgoing members this year (Kilic, Kimport, Siemsen) and two new
members starting this year (Arthur and Hennessy). Wilhelm, Wachs and Admire are
continuing members. We had three nominations for membership: Zakiya Luna (in
attendance, nominated by Katrina Kimport), Nelta Edwards (University of Alaska
Anchorage, department chair and union organizational vice president, nominated by
Zeynep Kilic) and Krystale Littlejohn (Occidental) (nominated by Katrina Kimport via email
after the meeting). Also noted was the absence of men. We should recruit men to the
committee as well.
3. Elected chair for 2016 meetings: Faye Wachs
4. Next PSA- sponsored sessions: there were many suggestions to pursue for next year.
Sessions on institutional issues (such as overrepresentation in service but
underrepresentation in leadership, how to deal with the administration, mentoring junior
faculty) were considered. Since membership includes a lot of students, it was suggested
to organize a professionalization workshop for students. Can we utilize social media to
reach out to students? Can we create a mentoring repository where people can send in
issues, questions they are struggling with and we can arrange mentorship to respond
(perhaps ahead of conference to gauge interest). Brenda is interested in proposing a
session on stepfamilies, Amanda is interested in organizing a session on gender and
violence, Melanie is interested in a session on work-life balance and Faye will likely
propose a research session on sports, gender and justice. Zakiya suggested collaboration
with SWS (Shelley Erikson) for next year’s conference since our concerns overlap. For
2016, we discussed drawing on local scholars, activists and artists to devise sessions in
Oakland. Rape on college campuses is another possible topic to include. Zeynep
suggested that the committee members watch Honor Diaries on Netflix. One of the
producers (Raheel Raza, president of the Council of Muslims Facing Tomorrow, Canada) is
available for travel (she does not ask for money) and wants to take the documentary to
every platform she can. If you find it relevant for the conference (honor killings and
genital mutilation of women), I can get you in touch with Raheel. Maybe a film session
could be an interesting approach than our usual panel format. Lastly, since we will be in
the tech industry landscape, we should consider a gender in the technology field session.
Announcements
1. Reviewed new terms of service. Amy explained how this will work.
2. The committee has at least 6 members, ideally two members rotate on every year as well as
two rotating off. We have 3 rotating off this year so we are down to 5 members. Three new
members were nominated. Note that we can have as many additional non-appointed members
as needed.
Members after the 2015 conference
Brenda Wilhelm (2014-2016) Colorado Mesa (Central)
Faye Wachs (2014-2016) Cal Poly Pomona (Southern)- chair
Amanda Admire (2014-2016)UC, Riverside (Southern, Student)
Judith Hennessy (2015-2017) Central Washington (northern)
Melanie Arthur (2015-2017) Oregon Institute of Technology (northern?)
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SUBJECT
REPORT / ACTION
3. Feedback on organizational issues: other than asking committee-specific questions to the
membership, we did not have further suggestions regarding organizing the conference.
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned by (Zeynep) at (3 pm).
Please remember to send the minutes to committee members for review/approval before submitting them to the PSA
secretary.
Date of Approval:
Appointed Committee Member’s Contact Information
Name
Zakiya Luna
Institutional Affiliation
University of California, Santa Barbara
Email
zluna@soc.ucsb.edu
Nelta Edwards
University of Alaska Anchorage
nmedwards@uaa.alaska.edu
Krystale Littlejohn
Occidental