Dear Colleagues,
I come away from my first six months as Chair
gratified at the tremendous success of the Second International Women in French
Conference held in April at Scripps College.
Scripps, the distinctive women’s college among the five Claremont
colleges, provided the perfect setting for a conference celebrating women’s
writing in French and featuring cutting edge scholarship on that writing. At Scripps, each graduating class leaves its mark in the form of a mural in a courtyard rose garden. The inscription on the mural of the class of
1973 perhaps best sums up the affinities between the institution that hosted
our gathering and our own organization “De
l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace.”
The conference opened with an electric
presentation by the Haitian dance troop from nearby Occidental College,
directed by Elizabeth Chin. After this exhilarating performance, WIF’s own
Barbara Klaw gave the most adventurous among us the opportunity to learn
firsthand about North African dance in a presentation and workshop.
Marie-Denise Shelton of Claremont-McKenna College, our plenary speaker on
Friday, continued our commemoration of the bicentennial of Haitian independence
with “Écriture de l’histoire,” a
moving presentation of the ways in which Haitian women writers inscribe the
experience of slavery in their texts.
We were also privileged to have Marie-Claire Blais, considered by many
to be Québec’s premier woman writer, read from her recent works at the
conference’s closing banquet. Both were
powerful speakers. The entire conference
was marked by a vibrant exchange of ideas and the collegiality that is the
hallmark of our association. Kudos go to local hosts Thierry Boucquey and Nathalie Rachlin for
their seamless organization of conference events and the hospitality we
enjoyed. It was a pleasure to work with
Cathy Yandell and the tireless--and surely not retired--Annabelle Rea, chair of
the program committee, as well as past chair Catherine Montfort over the last
two years. The WIF gratefully
acknowledges the generous support offered by the deans at Scripps, Occidental,
and Bates Colleges and by the Délégation
du Québec à Los Angeles. Catherine
Montfort’s astute management also made it possible to offer for the first time
limited financial assistance to participants with clearly established
need: graduate students, part-time
faculty members, and scholars traveling from abroad.
Above all, I want to thank all of the conference participants who made
this event so special, including those who gave papers, organized sessions, or
agreed to chair sessions. I came away exhausted but exhilarated. I am now
counting on Cathy Yandell’s enthusiasm, critical acumen, and enormous good
sense as we edit a volume of selected essays that reflect the breadth and
quality of the conference. Plans are also underway for the Third International
WIF Conference, tentatively scheduled for 2006.
As a number of conference participants remarked, an important feature of
WIF is the open communication its members share, regardless of rank or length
of experience in the field. In that
spirit, the Executive Committee is proposing
a change in the association’s by-laws to include a graduate student
representative, elected by the membership at large, to serve on the WIF
executive board. This is a change originally suggested by Catherine Montfort
during her term as chair, and is now presented for your consideration on the enclosed ballot. The purpose is to provide fuller, even more
inclusive representation on the committee.
WIF also needs your vote in the elections for
representatives for the following regions: Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes,
Central and Rocky Mountain. Your
elected representatives serve on the Executive Committee that plans the
organization’s future activities and decides on important organizational
issues. Please let your voice be heard.
Finally, we ask you to express your choice among
the proposed sessions for the 2005 MLA to be held in Washington, DC. Although it seems early, the MLA needs this
information by January 4, 2005 in order to send calls for papers in a timely
fashion. Please vote on these three
items by sending in the ballot or e-mailing to Lucy Schwartz:
This Newsletter
includes one bibliography by Martine
Guyot-Bender: “Romancières aujourd’hui: 1990-2004.” “Les Femmes et la lecture,”
by Elisabeth-Christine Muelsch, and a bibliography on women who write for
children, produced by a collaborative group organized by Christine Lac, are
scheduled for spring 2005. WIF
Vice-Chair Juliette Rogers has accepted several other proposals for future
issues; if you are interested in proposing a topic (see last page), please
contact her.
Thanks to Colette Trout and Audrey Sartiaux for
organizing the sessions for this year’s MLA convention in Philadelphia. Colette’s session, Une nouvelle écriture féminine? features papers by Elizabeth Hall, Gill Rye, Michelle Chilcoat, and Cheryl Morgan. Participants in Audrey’s session, Le corps dans tous ses états:
représentations littéraires de la honte, include Anne Simone, Christine
Détrez, Eliane Dalmolin, and a respondent, Anne-Marie
Obajtek-Kirkwood As you can see
from the announcement in the Newsletter,
they promise to be exceptional.
The results of your votes will be announced at
our annual Business Meeting, to be held from 5-7 PM on December 28 at the
Caribou Café, 1126 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, within walking distance of
convention hotels. Venez nombreux et nombreuses ! It
would be wonderful to see as many of us as possible.
My thanks go to all the nominees, session
organizers, and volunteers that allow WIF to continue as such a vital
organization. Without your involvement,
we could never attain what we have.
Mary