On November 16, 2022, SWS Council voted to endorse the National Women’s Studies Association’s statement below:

NWSA Stands in Solidarity with Iranian Protestors
we fight because we must
we rise up because there is no other path to freedom
except straight through the road of resistance
built by the hands of our oppressors

https://mailchi.mp/nwsa/nwsa-stands-in-solidarity-with-iranian-protestors

The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) is more than just an academic association. We are activists. We are freedom fighters. We are feminists. We are scholars. We understand that there are times when we must speak up because our silence will never protect us, and if we are not careful, our silence will always appear to be a sign of silent approval. We have never chosen and will never choose to stand with our oppressors. We are on the side of justice. We are on the side of liberation. And we stand on the side of oppressed people fighting to be free.

We have been watching what has been happening in Iran since September 16, when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, was arrested in Tehran by the Morality Police for “improperly” wearing her hajib. Amini was placed in detention, where she was beaten into a coma and later died. Since then, protests of solidarity have erupted all over the world, from Istanbul to Los Angeles. These are the moments—while the Iranian rallying cry “Women, Life, Freedom” is being heard worldwide and Iranian women and girls are cutting their hair and burning their hijabs in protest—when we must speak out. We add our voices to the collective, and we strongly condemn the detention and death of Mahsa Amini. We support the women and people of Iran as they work to resist and overturn the ongoing effort by the Morality Police to suppress Iranian women’s right to freedom of expression and opinion. We support self-determination and stand by a woman’s right to choose whether or not they want to veil. We also condemn the violence committed by the Iranian government against peaceful protestors that have resulted in injury, detention of more than 1000 protesters, and the deaths of at least 41 people. Furthermore, we condemn the Iranian government’s intentional suppression of information by shutting down mobile internet access, which is the most severe internet restriction Iran has implemented since 2019.

Additionally, we are compelled to add that as we are watching what is happening in Iran, we are also aware of what is happening right here in America on college campuses, in community centers, and in public and private spaces as politicians across the country are taking draconian steps to control our reproductive rights. We demand that they remove their hands from our wombs and their laws from our bodies. Women are not second-class citizens; despite what oppressive governments would like us to believe, and we do not accept second-class treatment.

We are now at the moment when everyone is being called upon to do something. The world is watching and will remember where we stood, who we stood with, and when we chose to speak up and out. At the same time, we want to remind our members that this is the moment to support but not appropriate the actions of Iranian women and girls for clout or likes or follows. Our goal is to stand with or behind them and not try to move in front of them.

NWSA understands that it is not enough for us to have discussions amongst ourselves within the protective silos of the Academy. We must speak out into the wind with a loud collective voice and say that Solidarity with Iranian Women is a Feminist Issue. We must stand together and add our voice to the collective call for peace, for justice, and for freedom.

Bending toward Social Justice,

Karsonya Wise Whitehead, NWSA President (2021-2023)
Beverly Guy Sheftall, NWSA President (2008-2010)
The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)

******

We add here the link to the protest song that’s been galvanizing the unrest. The singer, Shervin Hajipour, was arrested several days ago. In the song, Shervin notes that people are protesting:

For my sister, your sister, our sisters
For embarrassed fathers with empty hands 
For the sigh over an ordinary life
For the child laborer and his dreams 
For this dictatorial economy
For this polluted air
For all those unstoppable tears
For missing the murdered kids 
For the smiling faces
For the students and their future 
For all the smart ones in prison
For the Afghan kids 
For all the meaningless slogans
For the feeling of peace
For the sunrise after the long dark nights 
For the girl who wished she was born a boy
…For Woman, Life, Freedom

******

For more information about what is happening in Iran (this is not an exhaustive list):

https://iranhumanrights.org/ 
https://www.en-hrana.org/

******

The open “Call for Transnational Feminist Solidarity With Iranian Protests” shared the following statements from both inside and outside of Iran:

A collective of Iranian feminists  
The Iranian Sociological Association
The Iranian Sociological Association
The International Sociological Association
Academics across the globe
The Association for Iranian Studies

SWS 2023 Winter Meeting

COVID-19, Airborne Communicable Disease, and Influenza Health and Safety Protocols

Posted on November 18, 2022

SWS is carefully monitoring recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others regarding the COVID-19, Airborne Communicable Disease and Influenza situation as we plan for the 2023 SWS Winter Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Meeting attendees will be required to follow all health and safety protocols mandated at the time of the meeting. We are dedicated to ensuring our attendees have a healthy and safe meeting experience. Based on current information, we are implementing the following protocols:

1. Vaccinations are a mandated requirement for participation in the 2023 SWS Winter Meeting. We are collecting proof of vaccination from our attendees in our 2023 Winter Meeting Registration form.
2. COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shots are highly recommended in accordance with CDC Guidelines. We recommend that you have at least one booster shot before attending the 2023 SWS Winter Meeting.
3. Exemption requests can be sent to barretkatuna@outlook.com to be reviewed. If approved, proof of a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours prior to arrival to New Orleans, LA will be required for non-vaccinated attendees.
4. International travelers must follow CDC Travel Guidelines.
5. Masks are not a requirement for participation in our programming and are optional. We ask that you respect participants’ decision to wear a mask or not wear a mask.
6. Hand sanitizing stations will be set up throughout the event spaces. And we ask that attendees follow thorough hand washing CDC recommendations.
7. Childcare services and lactation rooms will follow similar health and safety policies.
8. Meeting attendees are asked to sign a COVID-19 waiver that will be part of the 2023 SWS Winter Meeting Registration form.

We will all play a role in keeping our meeting as safe as possible, so we expect attendees to be responsible and caring, including when leaving the hotel. If adjustments must be made due to changes reported by the CDC, we will communicate them promptly.

Please share any questions with SWS Executive Officer, Barret Katuna, at swseo.barretkatuna@outlook.com.

These items will be on the 2023 Winter Meeting Registration form:

• I will take personal responsibility to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 through vaccination, if I am able to be vaccinated, and by ensuring that I am healthy and not presenting any symptoms for COVID-19, other airborne communicable disease or influenza such as the flu.

• I will show respect to the other attendees of the 2023 Winter Meeting by ensuring that I am not showing symptoms for any communicable disease or influenza, and I will respect the decision of attendees who may choose to or who may not choose to wear a facial mask and maintain physical distance.

Congratulations! The official terms of the officers below will begin during the SWS 2023 Winter Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana from January 12-15, 2023.

President-Elect – S. Crawley 

Vice President – Veronica Montes

Treasurer-Elect – Tracy Ore

Student Representative-Elect –  Pedrom Nasiri

  The above 4 individuals will join SWS Council.

Career Development Committee Co-Chair – Sharla Alegria

Committee on Discrimination Co-Chairs – Beatriz Padilla and Marisela Martinez-Cola (Marisela to serve one more year)

Sister to Sister Committee Co-Chair – LaToya Council

Social Action Committee Co-Chair – Evonnia Woods

Membership Committee Members: Trenton Haltom and Anne McGlynn-Wright

Nominations Committee Members – Sasha Drummond-Lewis and Amy Stone

Publications Committee Members: Marlese Durr and Laurel Westbrook

Once again, thank you all SWS Members who participated in the 2022 SWS Election and congratulations to our newly elected officers! Thank you to all who ran for office and to the Nominations Committee Members that included Mignon R. Moore (Chair), Tristan Bridges, Ranita Ray, Jaime Hartless, and Baker A. Rogers for all their work in putting together such a wonderful group of candidates for elected office.

The winner of the 2022 Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness (FSHI) Book Prize is LaTonya J. Trotter for her book More Than Medicine: Nurse Practitioners and the Problems They Solve for Patients, Health Care Organizations, and the State.

LaTonya J. Trotter is a sociologist whose work explores the relationship between changes in the organization of medical work and the reproduction of racial, economic, and gender inequality. Her first book, More Than Medicine: Nurse Practitioners and the Problems They Solve for Patients, Health Care Organizations, and the State (Cornell University Press 2020), questions the common view of the NP as physician stand-in, illustrating how NPs are creating new possibilities for what the medical encounter could be, while showing the depth of the crisis of care that we face. LaTonya J. Trotter is a current SWS Member, and Co-chair of the Academic Justice Committee.

For more information on the award, visit: https://www.britsoc.co.uk/groups/medical-sociology-groups/medical-sociology-medsoc-study-group/prizes/foundation-for-the-sociology-of-health-and-illness-book-prize/

For more information on the book, visit: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501748158/more-than-medicine/#bookTabs=0

Join the Social Action Committee for Generative Conversation about Activism & Supporting each other.

Zoom Link: https://BIT.LY?3AHZSN6
Meeting ID: 944 2424 7178
Passcode: 560413

Questions? Contact SAC Co-Chairs: Kris De Welde: deweldek@cofc.edu and Heather Hlavka: heather.hlavka@marquette.edu.

For more information on the Social Action Committee, visit: https://socwomen.org/about/social-action-committee/.

Call for Applications for Campus Visit by

2021 SWS Distinguished Feminist Lecturer

Dr. Mary Romero

Deadline to Apply: November 15, 2022

Committee Chair: Dr. Maria Cecilia Hwang (maria.hwang@mcgill.ca)

Selection Subcommittee Chair: Dr. Shobha Hamal Gurung (gurung@suu.edu)

Photo of Mary Romero

The 2021 SWS Feminist Lecturer Awardee, Dr. Mary Romero, Professor Emerita, Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University will make one campus visit during the 2023-2024 academic year. Dr. Romero served as the 110th President of the American Sociological Association. She is the 2022 recipient of the W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, 2017 recipient of the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award, 2015 Latina/o Sociology Section Founders Award, 2012 Julian Samora Distinguished Career Award, the Section on Race and Ethnic Minorities 2009 Founder’s Award, and the 2004 Study of Social Problems Lee Founders Award. She is the author of Introducing Intersectionality (Polity Press, 2018), The Maid’s Daughter: Inside and Outside the American Dream (NYU, 2011), Maid in the U.S.A. (NYU, 1992), co-editor of eight books, and numerous social science journals and law review articles. 

The campus visit is intended to celebrate and enhance feminist scholarship and social activism on college campuses. A key goal of the program is to provide a feminist voice on campuses where such a perspective is unusual and/or unwelcome. Applications from all types of institutions are welcome. Priority will be given to campuses that are isolated, rural, located away from major metropolitan areas, underfunded and without the resources needed to invite guest speakers, and/or are characterized by hostility to feminist scholarship.

The selection subcommittee will look especially favorably on campuses that are committed to gaining the widest possible audience for these visits. This may be demonstrated by evidence of

• collaboration with other departments and programs on campus
• multiple-campus cooperation
• community partnerships

SWS will fund a portion of the expenses for the campus visit, thus institutions should not let resource scarcity prevent them from applying. SWS will fund up to $750 toward domestic travel and a maximum of $1500 for international travel. The host campus is responsible for the costs associated with meals and lodging for the duration of the campus visit.

If you are interested in hosting a campus visit submit your application by November 15, 2022 to:

SWS Awards Committee Chair: Maria Cecilia Hwang: maria.hwang@mcgill.ca

Please put “SWS Distinguished Feminist Lecturer Campus Visit” in the email subject line.

The application should include the following information:

1. An explanation of your interest in hosting Dr. Romero and the merits of awarding a campus visit to your institution.
2. A description of the type of presentation you are interested in hosting.
3. The number of days you will ask the awardee to stay.
4. The target audience or audiences for Dr. Romero’s presentation.
5. A description of how local costs (lodging and meals) will be met.
6. Tentative dates for Dr. Romero’s visit.

Note: Due to public health concerns and travel challenges relating to COVID-19, we are committed to working with Dr. Romero and the campus visit host institution to identify suitable dates. SWS can extend the timeframe beyond the 2021-2022 academic year for this visit to occur if travel and programming are not possible within this timeframe.

Call for Applications for Campus Visit by
2021 Distinguished Feminist Activism Award Winner
Dr. Brittany Pearl Battle

Deadline to Apply: December 29, 2022
Deadline Extended

Committee Chair: Dr. Maria Cecilia Hwang (maria.hwang@mcgill.ca)
Selection Subcommittee Chair: Dr. Ghassan Moussawi (moussawi@illinois.edu)

Photo of Dr. Brittany Pearl Battle

The 2021 SWS Feminist Activism Award Winner, Dr. Brittany Pearl Battle, Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department and the African American Studies Program at Wake Forest University and Co-Founder of Triad Abolition Project, will make one campus visit during the 2023 academic year. Brittany’s research agenda includes social and family policy, courts, social justice, and carceral logics. At Wake Forest University, she teaches courses on social justice, courts & criminal procedure, and abolition and (re)imagining justice. Her community work regularly includes political education, direct action, healing and transformative justice work, and civic engagement. She is currently working on a book manuscript (under contract with NYU Press),“They’re Stealing My Opportunity to Be a Father:” The Child Support System and State Intervention in the Family, which examines the carceral logics of the state’s intervention in the family in this system. She is also working on a project examining the perspectives of abolitionist activists and organizers who were involved in the 2020 uprising, a project examining evictions in Forsyth County, North Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a project exploring the experiences of criminal legal system defendants and asylum seekers under various forms of state surveillance and community confinement. 

Read more about Dr. Battle’s research and activism here on her website: https://www.brittanypbattle.com/ and about Triad Abolition Project: https://www.triadabolitionproject.org.

Dr. Battle’s praxis of scholarship and activism has also been recognized with the 2022 Eastern Sociological Society’s Public Sociology Award and the 2020 Praxis Award from the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice. She is also a Fellow with the Institute for Research on Poverty’s Emerging Poverty Scholars Program and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow.

Applications from all types of institutions are welcome. Priority will be given to campuses with departments with a focus on feminist activism, social movements, sociological practice, and/or activist research, or those who are working towards building and centering these subfields. The selection subcommittee will look especially favorably on campuses that are committed to gaining the widest possible audience for these visits. This may be demonstrated by evidence of:

•     Collaboration with other departments and programs on campus
•     Multiple-campus cooperation
•     Community partnerships 

SWS will fund a portion of the expenses for the campus visit, thus institutions should not let resource scarcity prevent them from applying. SWS will fund up to $750 toward domestic travel and a maximum of $1500 toward international travel. The host campus is responsible for the costs associated with meals and lodging for the duration of the campus visit.

If you are interested in hosting a campus visit, please send your application by December 29, 2022 to: SWS Awards Committee Chair: Dr. Maria Cecilia Hwang maria.hwang@mcgill.ca

Please put “SWS Feminist Activist Campus Visit” in the email subject line.

The application should include the following information:

1. An explanation of your interest in hosting Dr. Battle and the merits of awarding a campus visit at your institution.
2. A description of the type of presentation you are interested in hosting
3. The number of days you will ask the awardee to stay.
4. The target audience or audiences for Dr. Battle’s presentation.
5. A description of how local costs (lodging and meals) will be met.
6. Tentative dates for Dr. Battle’s visit. Dr. Battle has a preference for April 2023.

Note: Due to public health concerns and travel challenges relating to COVID-19, we are committed to working with Dr. Battle and the campus visit host institution to identify suitable dates. SWS can extend the timeframe beyond the 2023 academic year for this visit to occur if travel and programming are not possible within this timeframe.

Message from SWS Council

In Response to SWS 2023 Winter Meeting Location

On June 16, 2022, SWS engaged in a contract with the Sheraton New Orleans in Louisiana for the 2023 Winter Meeting to take place from January 12-15, 2023.  Co-Presidents-Elect, Mary Osirim and Melanie Heath, were excited to announce New Orleans as the site for our 2023 Winter Meeting, as its rich history and culture will provide our members with the opportunity to explore the issues of racial inequalities, migrations, and sexualities in a city that exemplifies these complex dynamics. Please see the Spring 2022 issue of Network News and the Call for Submissions to learn more about the meeting theme.

As of June 28, 2022, with the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, abortion became illegal in the State of Louisiana. SWS Council realizes that having an SWS Meeting in a space where reproductive rights are non-existent contradicts our core feminist mission. As Council, we have discussed this issue in length and while this situation is dire, we still see this as an opportunity that is in line with our feminist mission to promote social justice by supporting scholar-activist communities seeking to dismantle intersecting systems of oppression. (Please refer to the SWS Call to Action for more information on the SWS response). Thus, we feel it is important to keep New Orleans as the site of our conference because it allows us to work with local organizations and activists to ensure that all feminist voices are being heard in protest of this draconian and egregious decision in the State of Louisiana. Because we recognize that it will be challenging to be in this space, we will be circulating guidance for members most impacted.   
California State Employees: Please stay tuned for general guidance on attending the conference in light of the recently revised (June 30, 2022) California State Travel Ban for state-sponsored travel.

SUBMIT TODAY, Deadline to Submit is September 25, 2022 at 11:59 pm EDT

https://sws.memberclicks.net/2023wmsubmission

Note that you must be a Current SWS Member to submit for the 2023 Winter Meeting

Also, please note that we are only accepting submissions for in-person participation.

We will have opportunities later in 2023 for virtual engagement independent of the 2023 Winter Meeting.

Program Committee Members: Ophra Leyser-Whalen (Chair,) Pallavi Banerjee, Paulina García-Del Moral, Alexis Grant-Panting, Fumilayo Showers, Amy StoneLocal Arrangements Committee Members: Andrea S. (Drea) Boyles (Chair,) Lisa Wade, D’Lane Compton, Annie McGlynn-Wright

Sheraton New Orleans
We have secured a rate of $179 per night (plus applicable state and local taxes).
Hotel Room Reservation System

Sexualities and Migrations in the Context of Global Justice

Thursday, January 12 – Sunday, January 15, 2023
New Orleans, LA

Hotel Room Reservation System

Theme and Call for Papers: The 2023 Winter Meeting will spotlight the theme of sexualities and migrations governed by global injustices. It will consider how movements between the Global South and North shape sexual identities in ways that do not necessarily depend on Western conceptions of the self but instead create a multiplicity of subjectivities. The intersections of migration, sexuality, and social justice in the context of globalizing processes necessitates challenging forms of knowledge and practices based on hierarchies of power that facilitate dominant Western discourses and neo-liberalism to assume universality. Likewise, nationality intersects with sexuality to create national norms that empower some political actors to marginalize migrant, racial, and sexual others. As SWS’s Call to Action articulates, the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the federal right to abortion also highlights the importance of bringing a reproductive justice framework to consider the collective dimension of reproductive matters. We must attend to forms of gender-based violence; sexual, racial, and ethnic hierarchies; immigration status; economic precarities; and religious norms in the criminalizing of abortion. Our theme pays particular attention to women and gender minorities of color from the Global South and the Global North.

Important questions to be addressed include: To what extent is sexual identity a push factor leading to migration from one’s home nation? How might sexual practices vary with migration? How has migration shaped sexualities and gender identities?  How can we understand the stigmas about sexual behavior for those coming to North America from nations with high rates of HIV/AIDS, such as Southern Africa and Haiti? How do we understand the development of the global sex industry and those engaged as voluntary sex workers as well as those who are trafficked? What do recent wars reveal about sexual assault and displacement of individuals? What are the issues of global reproductive justice that we are currently facing? To begin to answer these questions, a focus on intersectional identities is crucial. Those who experience minoritized statuses based on their race, ethnicity, sexuality, age, gender identity, social class, disability, and religion, as well as other identities, will experience migration differently than those from the mainstream/majority populations.

We are accepting proposals based on the theme of Sexualities and Migrations in the Context of Global Injustice:

-Individual Papers for Panel Consideration

-Panels

-Workshops

-Book Salons (preference of books published in 2021 and 2022)

-Roundtables

-Poster Sessions

-Open format:

• Photo essays
• Poetry, theatre, scripts
• Art
• Film/documentaries
• Media and Literary Criticisms
• Other

We welcome expressions of interest to serve as a Moderator as well.