Note from the Editor

Claire Wardle
FSD Femininst Con/Text Editor

Welcome to the new look of the FSD newsletter! After the business meeting in New York last year, production editor Rosa Mikeal Martey and I decided we wanted to try a more interactive newsletter format, taking advantage of the easy-to-use technologies available in website design.

As a result, we are testing this new blog format, which we hope will be a big success. It is our hope that rather than the newsletter remaining a rather static bi-annual publication, this blog will be a place where FSD members can post items throughout the year, including interesting articles (both scholarly and journalistic) that they think would be of particular relevance to others, calls for papers, book reviews, job postings etc.

We will still formally ‘publish’ columns and think pieces in the Fall and Spring, but with this new format, we hope the newsletter will include up-to-date information throughout the year. Additionally, the ‘blog’ interface we are using will mean members can comment and respond to postings, thereby encouraging more dialogue amongst FSD members. In this newsletter, Rosa has posted a short piece about the technicalities of the new website and how you can get involved by posting your information, ideas and comments.This newsletter is full of interesting and thought-provoking pieces. Robin Means-Coleman has written a wonderful piece entitled ‘Were it not for students, I would love to teach!’, that tackles issues about gender and race that many of us struggle with. Most usefully, it offers suggestions for making your own teaching experiences more rewarding and satisfying.

In the Chair’s column, Marian Meyers outlines all the latest news from the Division, and it's full to the brim. Marian has also written a piece highlighting all that we can expect from the Dresden conference in June. It sounds like it will be another action-packed conference for Division members.

We also have reports by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen on the Mapping Project about gendered experiences in academia, by Cynthia Carter on the four FSD nominations for ICA awards, and by Carolyn Byerly on the International Symposium on Women and News in Dresden.

We also have a book review by Ann Taylor of Feminist Communication Theory: Selections in Context and a call for papers for the Commentary & Criticism section of Feminist Media Studies.

Enjoy the issue, and we look forward to your feedback.