Title: New Writings in Women's Studies: Selected Essays from the First Women's Studies Network (U.K.) Association Essay Contest
Abstract: Introduction The aim of this special issue of Journal of International Women's Studies (JIWS) is showcase winning and shortlisted entries for 1st Annual Essay Competition, run by Women's Studies Network (UK) Association (WSN) in 2002. The WSN aims promote women's studies, feminist research and teaching both nationally and internationally, and publication of essays in JIWS constitutes a valuable opportunity, through its international readership, develop new and productive points of connection between those working in this field. The remit of competition was deliberately inclusive, inviting undergraduates and postgraduates submit previously unpublished work carries on Women's Studies traditions of innovation, interdisciplinarity and feminist challenges mainstream academic conventions. Entries were invited from feminist scholars of any academic discipline, as well as from those working within journalism, feminist activism or conducting independent feminist research. The aim of competition was to encourage and celebrate a new generation of feminist scholars, and as we hope this special edition illustrates, winning and shortlisted entries offer substantial assurance those who are witnessing institutional decline of Women's Studies in UK that feminist scholarship is alive and well, and as exciting and diverse as ever. We also hope that this special issue will counter more generally view that younger women are no longer identifying politically as feminists, conversely showing, if anything, a sustained feminism amongst young scholars. The standard of competition entries was very high, and we are very grateful external readers and members of WSN executive committee who contributed difficult task of selecting winners. Our congratulations go Angela King, who won undergraduate competition, and Esperanza Miyake, who won in postgraduate category. In light of status of these essays as shortlisted and winning competition entries, we decided that, with exception of standardising of texts in terms of format, essays would be published as they were submitted, and authors were not invited make any substantive changes, as might be case, for example, in usual process of article submission a journal. The reason for this is that all of essays included here were highly graded pieces of writing from undergraduate and postgraduate courses, either as extracts of longer papers, or submitted in their original form. As such, they represent genuine examples of high quality of work being conducted under broad rubric of women's studies / feminist scholarship, and therefore, they are not only valuable examples current students of what it is possible achieve, but they also serve as a timely reminder those who may choose question legitimacy of Women's Studies as a legitimate field of scholarship. In first part of this introduction, we introduce briefly six shortlisted and winning essays. Both introductions essays, and essays themselves, are organised alphabetically by authors' surnames in order avoid a hierarchical ordering of competition categories. In second section, we have attempted draw out some of common themes which we identified as emerging from essays. The Essays The first essay is by Caroline Baker. The paper is an abridgement of her undergraduate Literature Studies dissertation and is entitled An Exploration of Quaker Women's Writing Between 1650 and 1700. For Baker, these women can be thought of as being among first feminists, arguing in letter accompanying her entry that a focus on their collective voice illustrates the importance of herstory as well as history. Her analysis of writings offers a valuable and intriguing insight not only into extraordinary lives of these women, but also into dynamic reframing and negotiation of gender categories which is implicit in both their work and their writing. …
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
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