More on GALA and BWLG

[Suzanne Wertheim]

Hello. I'm sorry if my last e-mail seemed peremptory -- I wanted to keep
it short(ish) so as to be readable, but, as so often happens with e-mail,
it looks like I didn't make things clear enough.

I think that there is less of a gap between Alice (et al.'s) position and
my own than people realize. Let me try to be clearer and put forth what
the facts are, and what I think should be up for discussion on this list.

1. BWLG cannot, and thus will not, continue. Therefore, something needs
to be done with the BWLG resources, namely: a reasonably new computer,
custom-designed software, a mailing list, an inventory of BWLG volumes
(which generates a small amount of money), and records on/experience with
running a gender and language conference.

Now, it seemed to all BWLG people and the GALA list organizers that the
best thing for all these resources would be for them to go to the
fledgling GALA. This, for the most part, is what was meant by "merger." I
hadn't thought that anyone involved in forming GALA would have a problem
with this transfer of resources, but maybe there are some. If so, then
let's discuss on the list and vote.

2. BWLG cannot, on its own, run a conference in the spring of 2000. It
also seems that GALA will soon be running its own conference, probably
(but I suppose not necessarily) in the spring. The idea was that a
co-run Berkeley conference would be a one-time only event  -- I wasn't
suggesting "continu[ing] to hold a gender and language conference at
Berkeley," as Alice says in her e-mail, just having the one in 2000. The
idea is precisely to NOT limit future involvement in GALA conference
production to Berkeley graduate students, including the 2000 conference. I
know that participation of non-Berkeley graduate students would be
welcomed. (And let me note that I myself am hoping to be out of the
country doing fieldwork, and so won't take part in this conference at
all.)

So maybe what we should discuss is the practical nature of GALA's
soon-to-be conference. Should it be every spring? Every other spring? Should it
move from university to university? How much reliance should it have on
the labor of the host university? Anything else?

3. BWLG and transfer of "culture." I believe that this is precisely what
should be discussed on this list -- if there are things that people really
liked about BWLG and would like to see brought into GALA, then these
should be articulated and voted on. So too with things people didn't like.

Alice expresses concern that BWLG will attempt to foist its conference
review process/policies on GALA, and that there were some problems with
these processes/policies, and so they shouldn't be transferred. I
completely agree that there were difficulties with the BWLG process, some
of which I brought up myself in my e-mail. I believe that many of these
problems were due to a lack of resources and problems with the structure
of BWLG (e.g., not enough qualified people to read abstracts, too much
work on too few shoulders, guaranteed publication with abstract
acceptance). It is precisely these problems that I would like to see
eradicated with the formation of GALA. So I guess what we need to do on
this list is figure out how to avoid them.

-What will the role and purpose of the conference be?
-How will this tie in to the journal?
-Should there be a review board for the conference?
-If not, how should abstracts be judged?
-Will there be a review board for the journal?
-What will the overlap be, if any, for these two review boards, should
they both exist?
-How can the conference be set up equitably, such that the thankless work
and chances for recognition are fairly distributed?
-And, in that vein, what is the role of graduate students in all this?

I think that all these things need to be discussed and decided before we
vote on, as suggested and seconded, 1) the relationship between BWLG and
GALA, and 2) the nature of the 2000 conference.

I hope that this was a little bit clearer. As always, I look forward
to reading what people have to say...

-Suzanne

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Suzanne Wertheim
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Berkeley
wertheim at socrates.berkeley.edu
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