A Note from Marian Meyers - Chair

The ICA annual conference is almost upon us, and I am very excited about the program FSD vice chair Vicki Mayer has put together for us. Vicki has done a tremendous job, and I am confident it will be one of the best we have ever had (please see her article for some of the highlights). I look forward to more of her creativity and vision when she assumes the position of chair of the division after the San Francisco conference. At that point, I will become immediate past chair, and Diana Rios will take over as vice chair. As I contemplate the future of FSD, I know the division will thrive under the leadership of Vicki and Diana.

And so, as I contemplate the end of my tenure as FSD chair, I want to express my thanks and gratitude to all those who helped make my two years as chair – as well as my two years as vice chair prior to that – so truly memorable and gratifying. I could not have done it without the help of so many of you. With this article, my last as chair, I would like to express my appreciation to all of you – because I could not have done my job nor would the Feminist Scholarship Division exist without you. So, first and foremost, the FSD membership deserves my deepest appreciation. It has been such a pleasure to get to know and work with so many of you!

In addition, so many of you deserve singling out for special mention. Cynthia Carter was a tremendous help in guiding me through my first few years as vice chair and then providing on-going support and feedback in my years as chair – in addition to heading the awards committee. When Karen Riggs had to step down as vice chair in the midst of organizing the 2007 conference in Dresden – which also happened to be FSD’s 20th anniversary -- I put out an urgent call for help, and I received a tremendous response. As a result, the Dresden conference and anniversary celebration were a smashing success – thanks to the collaborative efforts of a number of division members – including – but certainly not limited to -- the efforts of Yoo Jae Song, who not only came to the conference from Korea with boxes of T-shirts commemorating the division’s 20th birthday, but also set up shop selling them. It was an honor to sell them alongside her. During my years as chair, Claire Wardle, FSD’s newsletter editor, and Rosa Mikeal Martey completely revamped the division newsletter, Feminist Con/Text, to make it interactive and more responsive and informative to membership. Rosa, our webmistress extraordinaire, also revised FSD’s website. Both the website and the newsletter have set new standards and have been pointed to as models within ICA.

FSD members also supported me in urging ICA to establish a new journal that would welcome critical, primarily qualitative research of the type conducted by feminist communication scholars (and other critical scholars). The result is that Communication, Culture & Critique, to be edited by FSD member Karen Ross, will be launched in spring 2008. Carolyn Byerly was particularly helpful in this process, appearing with me before ICA’s publications board at the New York City meeting in 2005, and providing support and encouragement in so many other ways on so many other issues over the many years I have known her. Of course, the names mentioned here can’t begin to include the many wonderful FSD members who have contributed in innumerable ways to the division’s successes – from serving as translator and arranging for a wonderful meal for FSD members at a traditional German restaurant in Dresden (that would be graduate student Martina Myers) to serving as the division’s student liaison (Rebecca Hains) to filling the role of FSD secretary/historian (Bernadette Barker-Plummer) to volunteering to take minutes and write them up (Karen Ross) to… You get the idea. If I have been successful at all as vice chair or chair, it is only because I have had an army of women behind me. And for that I am extremely grateful.