Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Reich, the 2023 SWS Feminist Mentoring Award Winner!

The SWS Feminist Mentoring Award was established in 1990 to honor SWS Members who are outstanding feminist mentors. While the word “mentoring” is commonly used to describe a faculty-student relationship, this award has shown the breadth of ways that feminists do mentoring. In establishing the award, SWS recognized that feminist mentoring is an important and concrete way to encourage feminist scholarship.

This year’s Feminist Mentoring Award Subcommittee included Saida Grundy (Subcommittee Chair,) Rebecca P., Heather Laube, and LaToya Council. The Subcommittee decided that Dr. Jennifer Reich will be the recipient of the SWS 2023 Feminist Mentoring Award.

Dr. Jennifer Reich is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the University Honors and Leadership Program. She earned her BA from the University of California Santa Barbara and her doctorate from the University of California Davis, and she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health policy at the University of California San Francisco. Her research examines how individuals and families weigh information and strategize their interactions with the state and service providers in the context of public policy, particularly as they relate to healthcare and welfare. She is author of two award-winning books, Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System and Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines, and is editor of the books, Reproduction and Society and the State of Families. Her work has been featured in media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and Newsweek, and on the Netflix show, Bill Nye Saves the World. She teaches classes on healthcare, family, and reproductive politics.

Here are some highlights from Jennifer Reich’s nomination materials that were submitted by Emily Mann, with support from Tristan Bridges, Laura Carpenter, Patrick Grzanka, Jessica Harrison, Penny Harvey, Anthony Hatch, Joanna Kempner, Ophra Leyser-Whalen, Krystale Littlejohn, Meika Loe, Zakiya Luna, Norah MacKendrick, Anna Muraco, Ranita Ray, LaTonya Trotter, and Jonathan Wynn.

Laura Carpenter noted, “Jennifer Reich’s mentoring comes with no hidden agendas or strings attached; she does not mentor to self-aggrandize or advance her own career. She mentors others because she believes she can—and indeed she does—help others reach the places where they can positively affect the world through their teaching and research.” 

Anna Muraco detailed in her nomination letter, “At conferences, “Jennifer” takes time to meet with students and faculty members who have solicited her advice on scholarship and job searches; she then connects them with other scholars who are part of her network.”

LaTonya Trotter noted: “Speaking as a Black scholar, I know that getting us into the pipeline is one thing; getting us through it is a different matter altogether. With both encouragement and practical support, Jennifer has helped get me through it. When I was an Assistant Professor, she was not only encouraging of my research agenda, she provided incisive feedback on my book manuscript. As I went up for tenure, Jennifer gave me practical advice to help me navigate the hidden curriculum of that process. And, when she heard that my institution did not give me tenure, she stepped forward, without my asking, to support the job search that resulted in my current, tenured position. Although we have never shared the same institution, Jennifer has shown up, again and again, to help me make a place for myself in the academy.”

We hope you will join us in congratulating Jennifer and that you will make plans to join us for the 2023 Summer Meeting SWS Awards Reception that will take place on August 20, 2023, in Philadelphia, PA starting at 6:00 pm at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.

SWS Meeting Registration Form is now open: https://sws.memberclicks.net/2023summerreg! SWS Summer Meeting attendees must register for the SWS Meeting and must also be registered for the ASA 2023 Annual Meeting.

Kickstarter Campaign for Queer Haven Books, Baker A. Rogers’ bookstore

Queer Haven Books is an independent, queer bookstore in Columbia, South Carolina, opened by Baker A. Rogers. Baker is a past SWS-South President and presently serves as an elected member of the SWS Nominations Committee.

The Kickstarter fundraiser campaign to support Queer Haven Books will run from May 8-June 8. Kickstarter campaigns help make ideas into reality. It’s where creators share new visions for creative work with the communities that come together to fund them.

To participate in the Kickstarter campaign, please visit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/queerhavenbooks/queer-haven-books

For more information on Queer Haven Books, please visit: https://queerhavenbooks.com

Queer Haven Books Kickstarter Flyer

 

New book by Kelsy Burke is out this week! The Pornography Wars: The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Obscene Obsession

The Pornography Wars: The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Obscene Obsession by Kelsy Burke, SWS member, is out this week! Kelsy purposely wrote it to be accessible to a general audience to deepen our understanding of sexuality, politics, and culture in America and I think it would be a great addition to undergrad classrooms. You can find a teaching guide here.

Here are some of the early reviews:

  • “Burke has the gift of being supremely unruffled about even the most incendiary of subjects . . . The anti-porn and porn-positive camps she’s been chronicling actually care about the same things, she concludes: ‘human rights, sexual consent, and living a fulfilling life.’ Everyone wants to achieve ‘a real and authentic sexuality’ and break away from the ‘fake sex that surrounds us.’” ―Laura Kipnis, The Atlantic
  • “Compelling… No other book has covered American battles over porn quite so extensively… Burke establishes herself as a reliable guide with firsthand knowledge of the allure emanating from countervailing social forces. … I learned a great deal from The Pornography Wars and recommend it to experts and beginners alike.” ―Whitney Strub, Los Angeles Review of Books​
  • “A mature, thoughtful book about a complex and divisive topic. No matter their personal opinions, readers will likely find observations here to inform their thoughts about pornography’s creation and consumption.” ―Library Journal, Starred Review
  • “Compassionate and well-balanced … refreshingly unbiased … an astute and forthright presentation of a hotly contested issue.” ―Publishers Weekly
  • “A great overview… informative… And it has a fresh angle: rather than portray porn performers, producers, and pro-sex feminists as polar opposites of the people crusading against pornography, Burke suggests ‘this dividing line of anti- or pro-porn is a false dichotomy.’” ―Reason

Interested in ordering a copy or would like more information, visit: https://geni.us/pornographywars

Feminist Intersections Podcast- New Episode!

Message from Erin Baker, Media Relations Committee Chair:

I am thrilled to announce that we have finally published episode 2 of Feminist Intersections featuring Minha Kahn. You can find it here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1931436/12600776.

Creating and publishing a podcast is quite a journey. I am a bit of a perfectionist, especially when it comes to representing people and an organization that I care so much about in such a public space. After attempting to edit these episodes alone and realizing that I just don’t have the skills or the time, I decided to see what could be done about getting these interviews professionally edited.

We still have a few interviews to edit and publish, but I now have found a work rhythm with our audio engineer. Moving forward, we should have a new episode published every month!

And these interviews are so worth the wait! In the future you can look forward to hearing from the following amazing SWS members (in alphabetical order, not order of publication):

  • Tanya Cook
  • Manisha Desai
  • Gina Longo
  • Heba Sigurdardottir

Stay tuned for the announcement of May’s episode and please keep your eyes peeled for a call for more interviews in the next few months.

A quick shout-out to my co-host Whitney Hunt for everything she has done to help me through this process. I couldn’t have done this without her!


Minha Khan is a Sociologist of Education with a particular interest in educational access and opportunity. Her research has previously explored how schooling in a child’s non-native language can make learning inaccessible, how household and gender norms complicate accessing higher education for female students and the role of education in breaking the inheritance of despair in low-income families. Since graduating from Stanford University in 2021, Minha has been working as a Research and Design Consultant at Noora Health, USA, and The Citizens Foundation, Pakistan. She is also an incoming postgraduate student in Oxford University’s Social Policy and Intervention Department. In her free time, Minha enjoys drinking tea, having conversations, and trying to figure out how the world works.

To view Minha’s most recent work and to connect, please visit her LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/minha-khan-32a129a6/

USF Health International’s Global Health Conversation Series: Dr. Villalón and Dr. Padilla – April 18

USF Health International’s Global Health Conversation Series

The next session will be held on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EDT. The topic of Dr. Roberta Villalón’s (Past-President) and Dr. Beatriz Padilla’s (Co-Chair for Committee on Discrimination) presentation is “Transnational Migration and Health Access”. 

Click the following link to register https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nf6tBZ4QT1GTJ1h9YIiqkg

 

Apply for the Social Actions Initiative Awards, April 1, 2023 Deadline

SWS is pleased to recognize many forms of outstanding feminist work. SWS presents these awards at the Awards Reception during the Summer Meeting, held each August. This year, the Awards Reception will take place on August 20 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.

Social Actions Initiative Awards

In 2016, SWS Council approved the Social Action Committee’s (SAC) proposal to support more direct social action of SWS members. The Social Actions Initiative Awards is SAC’s efforts to directly support and encourage the social activism of SWS members. Awards are given out twice per year on a competitive basis until funds are fully dispersed. The social actions represented by this initiative are central to advancing the mission of SWS.

For more information on the Social Actions Initiative Awards, please visit: https://socwomen.org/social-actions-initiative-awards/.

Please note that you do need to be an SWS member to apply for this award. The link to apply is: https://sws.memberclicks.net/awardsapril2023. If you are not a current SWS member, please Join or Renew your SWS Membership Today: sws.memberclicks.net

If you have any questions, please contact Natasha Santana, nsantana@socwomen.org.