Dear SSAWW community,
I’m honored to have been elected to lead this organization for the next three years, and I’m excited to let you know of the work that has been going on behind the scenes during the first months of this year.
Officers Mollie Barnes (VP of organizational matters), Charline Jao (VP of communication), Stephanie Palmer (VP of membership and finances), Nazera Wright (VP of programming) and I have had several meetings to define and refine our vision for the organization. We owe thanks to the outgoing co-president, Jordan Von Cannon, and officers Patrick Allen, Kristin Allukian, and Ellen Gruber Garvey for assisting us with the transition and sharing all of the information we need to know to work effectively in our roles.
The Advisory Board has been appointed, and you can see the members on SSAWW’s website. A huge thanks to all of those who agreed to serve the organization by providing guidance and counsel.
Included on the board are long-standing, stalwart SSAWW members as well a new cohort of eminent scholars in fields that are underrepresented at our conferences. I am especially grateful to the latter group for trusting that this organization is sincere in our desire to create a more inclusive community and to promote belonging among all scholars who work on cultural productions of nineteenth-century women and women-identified people in the Americas.
Along the same lines, this is a wonderful moment to join SSAWW if you’re not already a member and to invite friends, colleagues and graduate students to join the organization as we move forward with new leadership and a refreshed vision. We also ask you to renew your membership yearly, since sustained membership (rather than conference years only) builds our financial stability and allows the organization to move forward more confidently with new initiatives. Donations are also gratefully accepted at any time; indeed, you may set up regularly recurring contributions, if you wish.
You’ll notice some updates to the SSAWW website. We will continue sharing information on the News section of our website and are also planning to be more active on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. If you are on those platforms, please give us a follow to see event information, news, and other kinds of updates!
We hope you will share your news with us to post to social media. Publications, grants and fellowships, awards, promotions, keynotes or other speaking engagements – we want to celebrate and amplify your achievements! Use this Google form to share your news.
Look for announcements soon about summer and fall online programs sponsored by SSAWW. We are excited to create a regularly occurring slate of events to support our membership’s needs and maintain our scholarly community in off-conference years.
Our minds are already turning to the triennial conference in 2028; if you have innovative ideas that we might consider, please direct them to sssaww.vporganizationalmatters@gmail.com.
We also ask you to check if SSAWW listserv emails coming from UHD-SSAWW-L@LISTSERV.UHD.EDU are going to your spam folder. If they are, please create a rule in Outlook to make sure they show up in your inbox.
Thank you for reading to the end of this long update! The officers and I treasure your participation in SSAWW and look forward to three stimulating and collaborative years serving you and the organization.
Sincerely,
Theresa