responses

[JANET BING]

In response to Sara's attempts to establish order (herd cats?),
restating the item being discussed makes sense.

In response to Alice's dream that GALA "have the sort of status that
the Linguistics Society of America (the LSA) has within the United
States. It would be a central clearing house, think-tank and business
office for language and gender research."  I like it (and hadn't seen
the previous posting).

Regarding the philosopy of GALA and in response to Debby's posting:

> 2.  On whether GALA should be a feminist organisation.  What exactly
> is riding on this?  Are we going to have political aims in our
> constitution, beyond the non-discrimination statement I take it any
> respectable academic organisation would wish to include in 1999
> (will article one be 'GALA will
O seek to overthrow patriarchy')?

"What exactly is riding on this?"  The examples Debby cites weren't
what I had in mind when I asked if this would be a feminist
organization, nor do I advocate signing a pledge to overthrow
patriarcy.   What I hoped would be explored under "philosophy" was
whether this would be a traditional academic organization or whether
some alternatives could be explored.

For example. if there is to be a journal, would it be limited to
academic style, or could there be more accessible papers that might
attract a wider audience?

If there are conferences, could there be alternatives to the 20 minute
paper and the 5 minute response, the traditional conference model
based on the traditional academic lecture.

If there is a governing board, could there be representation for a
student member or independent scholar and some way of subsidizing
them?



Janet Bing
Dept. of English
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529-0078
(757) 683-4030
FAX (757) 683-3241