1. BWLG, 2. a journal

[anna livia]

Dear all,

I'm sorry if what I have to say has aready been said.  I have two babies
and am juggling three part-time jobs so I sometimes miss posts.

1. GALA and BWLG

On Cake

I don't see why we can't have our cake  *and* eat it too.  Can't GALA
benefit from BWLG's records, expertise and experience, both in organizing a
conference and in starting a journal, while at the same time BWLG continues
to exist, in "sleep" mode for a while perhaps?  Is the problem envisaged
mostly about who gets to take the name "BWLG" and use it on forthcoming
volumes? Is this a problem? I can't see any other critical spatio-temporal
clashes.


On Grad Student Involvement at High Levels

 The question Alice raised of the degree of grad student involvement we
want seems to me to depend on who is around and willing to work. The big
difference between grad students and faculty is that grads can't retain
their status forever, whereas faculty, probably, can. Both groups are
intensely busy with other demands on their time, both may be highly
involved in the issues and write flawless prose or ghastly scholars with
their heads stuck in a tub of Swarfega*. The problem of depending on grad
student energy and leadership is that the group loses continuity and
cohesion as each cohort of grad students leaves, this can be overcome by
the presence of faculty, good records and a non-localised base i.e. when
students leave their home campus to get jobs elsewhere, they can still be
involved.


2. A Journal

I want to throw in a request that *if* the envisaged journal is in English,
it also include abstracts for articles on language and gender in and from
other languages and that if non-English speakers don't send in their
articles off their own bat the editors--or other assigned persons--go out
looking for them in foreign language journals and websites etc. I work on
French and there is a wealth of material on language and gender in that
language which is virtually unknown to English monolinguals.


Swarfega*
it's green, it's gooey and you use it to clean your hands after you've
changed your bike chain.
##############################################################################
Anna Livia
livia at Cal.berkeley.edu