E-Meeting of IGALA Exec. and AC

[Susan Ehrlich]

Dear IGALA members,

An electronic meeting of the IGALA Executive Committee and Advisory
Council is currently in progress.  I have pasted the agenda for this
meeting below.  If you have comments regarding any of the agenda
items, please send them to me, Susan Ehrlich (sehrlich at yorku.ca),
and I will ensure that they are considered by the members of the
Executive Committee.  Please do not send your responses to the
entire list.  Thanks, Susan Ehrlich, Secretary, IGALA




Agenda:  E-Meeting of IGALA Executive Committee and Advisory
Council, beginning October 5, 2004

1.  Composition of Committees

The in-coming Executive Committee is:

Sara Mills (President) S.L.Mills at Shu.ac.uk
Jane Sunderland (VP and President Elect)
j.sunderland at lancaster.ac.uk
Susan Ehrlich (Secretary) sehrlich at yorku.ca
Penny Eckert (Treasurer)eckert at csli.stanford.edu (continuing)

The incoming Advisory Council is:

Janet Holmes Janet.Holmes at vuw.ac.nz
Rudi Gaudio Rudolf.Gaudio at purchase.edu
Joan Pujolar Cos jpujolar at uoc.edu
Claire Maree maree at tsuda.ac.jp
Jie Yang jie.yang at utoronto.ca
Maria Stubbe maria.stubbe at vuw.ac.nz (continuing)

a.  According to the IGALA Bylaws, 'there shall be an Advisory Council
consisting of 6 Elected Members (undesignated seats) and 6
Appointed Members (designated seats). The Elected Members shall
be elected by a majority of the voting Association Membership. The
Appointed Members shall represent the following areas: Student
Representative, Representative for Research on Language and
Sexuality, Representative for Researchers in Non-Academic
Positions, Representative for Research on Minority Languages,
Representative for Feminist Research, Representative for
Researchers in Non-English -Dominant Countries.'  From what I have
been able to determine, there are currently three Appointed members
to the Advisory Council:

Jose Santaemiliano Jose.santaemilia at uv.es (Representative for
Researchers in Non-English-Dominant Countries)
Susanne Unger ungersusanne at yahoo.com (Student Representative)
Fatima Sadiqi estry at menara.ma (Representative for Feminist
Research)
Thus, we must appoint three more members to the Advisory Council:
(1) Representative for Research on Language and Sexuality (2)
Representative for Researchers in Non-Academic Positions and (3)
Representative for Research on Minority Languages.
Action:  Executive Committee and Advisory Council

b. According to the IGALA Bylaws, 'there shall be an Executive
Committee consisting of the officers and up to two members
representing the Advisory Council.'  Thus, the Advisory Council must
determine who will be their two members on the Executive
Committee.
Action: Advisory Committee


2.  IGALA Webpage:  There is currently  no manager of the IGALA
Webpage.  Proposal (SE):  That we ask for volunteers from the IGALA
list  and if more than one person volunteers, we vote.

3.  Job Descriptions:  There is currently  little in the IGALA Bylaws
concerning   job descriptions for members of the Executive.   Proposal
(JS):  That, after discussion with previous IGALA Executive Members,
we write job descriptions for the various positions.  These should be
broad and descriptive rather than restrictive and prescriptive.

4. IGALA journal:
Language and Gender Journal
Bonnie McElhinny and Sara Mills

To sum up the responses to the rejection of the journal by Cambridge:

Virtually all of the responses we received were positive--not
surprising, since those folks may be most passionate, and also
because we were responding to Cambridge's negative evaluation.
The only point on which they split was whether an e-journal was
desirable or no, with most opting for print, but a few strong advocates
for electronic journals as the wave of the future.

Therefore we have two options:
1. revise the proposal to fit the Routledge journal proposal form  or to
submit it to another publisher ( which David Graddol mentioned).
2. Publish as an e-journal with Cambridge

It was suggested that any journal strengthens a field. But a field that
can only find a publishing forum with a weak publisher will be
perceived as a weak field.  It's one reason why the focus on
Cambridge was important, and why  Routledge would be a good
option. Publishing in an e-forum will, at this stage, send a similar
message.  Things may change rapidly in the next few years, and
some might argue we should be instrumental in changing it, but
e-journals still have virtually no weight in  Canada or the US at key
points, (--annual reviews, tenure reviews, promotion reviews, RAE
panels) and although it is slightly better in the UK, they are still not
viewed as of the same standing as print journals

Some of the respondents seemed to assume that the field was under
attack from outsiders.  But the reviewers' responses from Cambridge
were more likely thoughtful comments, from insiders.   The field is
truly split--some key people who have been very active in the field and
important in its development are opposed or at best ambivalent. We
have to acknowledge that there is a strong set of concerns from a
strong group of scholars.   One concern is that the pool of reviewers
for such proposals is small.  The proposal has now been turned
down 3 times:  E. Arnold, Sage, Cambridge.

Thus the decision needs to be whether we revise the proposal and
resubmit to another publisher or whether we publish as an e-journal
with CUP.

5.   Publication of Conference Proceedings from Cornell IGALA
Conference:   Proposal (SM):  That we publish a selection of papers
from the conference  in an e-journal that Sara Mills has connections
to.  (See website: www.shu.ac.uk/WPW)

6. IGALA Conference 2006:

Proposed Conference in Fez, Morocco 2006

There was a proposal at the recent IGALA conference that  in order for
IGALA to be more international rather than just US/UK based, the next
conference should be in Fez, in Morocco and should be organised by
Fatima Sadiqi.
There are a number of things which need to be considered and which
Fatima has already been researching.  We, as a committee, need to
think about ways in which we can help Fatima in the organisation of
the conference and also set up guidelines for how to run conferences
which can be handed on to the next organiser so that we don't have to
reinvent the wheel.  (Jane Sunderland has much useful information
about organising conferences which she has already handed on to
Fatima; we should also ask Sally to do the same re IGALA3)   Action:
Jane Sunderland

1. Funding sources:
Fatima has been checking out the sources of funding; she has
approached University of Fes Women's Centre; the African women's
development fund, the European Commission, the European Institute
in Florence, and so far has not had any offers of financial help from
these sources.  However, Jane Sunderland has suggested that it is
not necessary to have a massive float for the conference.  What needs
to be done is to have a conference fund account set up through the
University of Fez so that participants can pay for the conference, by
cheque, international banker's order, Visa ?  The registration fees, in
particular for academic staff/faculty from economically prosperous
countries, need to be set high enough to cover expenses such as
hiring the conference venue (unless Fatima can get this for free),
photocopying the abstract booklets, and perhaps paying a speaker’s
expenses. Alternatively, Fatima might check out if the British Council
will pay for a speaker's flight and accommodation.
     Action: Fatima Sadiqi

2. Accommodation for participants
The British Council, the American Embassy, the Italian embassy have
offered to help with accommodation, by putting up people from the
countries they represent. The Global women fund can help to fund the
travel costs of some participants from the Arab/Islamic world. The
Ministry of Culture will help with accommodating Moroccans from
other cities. Academic staff/faculty from economically prosperous
countries will expect to pay hotel rates (though most will probably not
expect or even want luxury accommodation. What people usually want
is to stay as near to where the Conference is held as possible).
Action: Fatima Sadiqi

3. Rooms for the conference
The University of Fez will help by providing rooms for the conference.
We need to think about how many participants are expected and how
many parallel sessions/plenaries. Logically, the more parallel
sessions, the more registration fees. Abstracts should nevertheless
be reviewed, and accepted selectively.  We also need to think about
the provision of OHPs etc. Speakers may need to be prepared not to
use Powerpoint, if this would be an extra expense. Jane Sunderland
can give Fatima info. about this       Action: Jane Sunderland

4. Formal Events
There needs to be a formal welcome/dinner and events throughout
the conference. There may be help from local organisations with
funding dinners for participants. This is often the case.

5. Plenary speakers
We all need to think about who it would be good to have as plenary
speakers and whether we want a theme for the conference. It would
be good if the location in Morocco was made the most of, in perhaps a
focus on perspectives on language issues in Arabic ?  Certainly one
Plenary speaker from Morocco, and another from another African
country (regardless of where she is currently based), would be
appropriate. Suggestions to Fatima
    Action:  Committee Members



7. Continuing to internationalize IGALA :

Partly because its roots lie in the Berkeley Women and Language
Group, partly because two IGALA Conferences have been in the USA
(at the Universities of Stanford and Cornell), IGALA still seems very
much like a USA-centred organisation. Perhaps IGALA members
would like this to continue to be the case, and there is obviously a
debate to be had here.

However, if IGALA members would like IGALA to be a genuinely
international organisation, then there are obviously steps we could
and should take to achieve this. These might include:

<sum> ascertaining the distribution of IGALA members across the globe

<sum> making links with national branches of AILA (including on their and
our websites)

<sum> encouraging national ‘IGALA branches’, whose members might
meet, perhaps socially, at national conferences which many of them
might attend anyway

<sum> increasing our sponsorship of students and academics from
economically-disadvantaged countries at IGALA Conferences

<sum> aiming to run the biennial conference in different continents

<sum> making ‘Internationalising IGALA’ a regular workshop (?) at IGALA
conferences

<sum> current IGALA members while on international academic visits
promoting IGALA, and talking about gender and language study in
general

8.   AOB

9.   Date of Next Meeting