F-A-A-D Feminists Against Academic Discrimination

Feminists Against Academic Discrimination (F.A.A.D.) helps women faculty, especially those associated with women's studies programs and departments, who are subjected to different types of academic discrimination, including but not limited to discrimination on the basis of sex/gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, disability, or sexual orientation.

Let us celebrate F.A.A.D.'s THIRTY YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
Please join us at our table in the Book Exhibit area of the 2011 NWSA Conference in the Sheraton Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia, Nov 11-13.

Please support F.A.A.D. Provide assistance to women faculty who experience academic discrimination by making a tax deductible donation . To make a donation, please e-send an mail to sharon@teichmangallery.com. In sisterhood, THANK YOU!

The 26th Anniversary F.A.A.D. Fund Raising Dinner took place June 28, 2007
in St. Charles, Illinois,the site of the NWSA Conference. Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky, UNESCO Chair of Mathematics and Economics and Prof. of Statistics at Columbia University-New York (standing) was the guest speaker and recipient of the "SPEAKING OUT FOR JUSTICE" Award for her struggle to help women faculty gain equity at her institution.

F.A.A.D. is sponsoring a session at the PAD pre-conference Nov 10 as well as two sessions and a business meeting at the 2011 NWSA Conference Nov 11-13 at the Sheraton Hotel, Atlanta. Please visit our table in the Book Exhibit area.

Program Administration and Development (PAD) Pre-Conference - Thur, Nov 10 - 10:25am - 11:40am Building/Room: Level1, room Atlanta 3

"And It Continues... Dealing with Tenure and Promotion Challenges in Women and Gender Studies"

MODERATOR: Ann Burnett (North Dakota State University)
PRESENTERS:
Sharon Leder (Feminists Against Academic Discrimination)
Betty J. Harris (University of Oklahoma, Norman)
Ann Burnett (North Dakota State University)

ABOUT THIS SESSION:Women and Gender Studies directors often face challenges when coming up for tenure and promotion: their "home" department requires research and teaching independent of women's studies; committee members are either blatantly biased against women's studies or demonstrate implicit bias; standards become fluid. This panel, comprised of members of Feminists Against Academic Discrimination, will discuss their experiences and provide their expert advice.

Rationale: Women and Gender Studies directors are often tenure-track assistant professors who seek promotion and tenure, or they may be associate professors seeking promotion to full professor. In some cases, the process is one fraught with anxiety and fear due to discrimination against such professors/directors. The purpose of the panel is to provide directors who may yet experience difficulties and those who are currently fighting discrimination to hear stories from directors who have experienced these challenges and to get advice for how to best proceed. Each of the panelists from Feminists Against Academic Discrimination (FAAD) will provide examples of challenges they have faced, cases with which they have worked (with the assurance of confidentiality), and will listen to and recommend possible actions to those who need assistance.

PANEL: "Responding to the Politics of Crisis: Thirty Years Fighting Intersecting Discriminations" - Fri, Nov 11 - 10:50am - 12:05pm Building/Room: Level 1, room Georgia 9

MODERATOR: Ines Shaw
PAPERS & PRESENTERS:
* "The Right Place at the Right Time: Help in a Difficult Time" by Ann Burnett (North Dakota State University
* Feminists Against Academic Discrimination: The First 30 Years and Now HB 87 by Sharon Leder (Feminists Against Academic Discrimination)
* "Fighting Academic Discrimination, the Law, and Human Rights" by Crystal Renee Chambers (East Carolina University)

ABOUT THIS SESSION: Since Women's Studies' inception, too few organizations have devoted themselves to uncovering intersecting biases of sex, gender, race and class operating in the hiring, evaluation, promotion and non-renewal of feminist faculty. This panel recognizes the work done since 1981 to reveal how feminists are scape-goated and denied academic freedom when pernicious, masculinist imperatives drive discriminatory educational policies. Case studies of particular campuses demonstrate how restructurings of the university to accommodate corporate capital and globalization of the economy (Marilee Reimer, ed. "Inside Corporate U: Women in the Academy Speak Out"; Hester Eisentsein "Feminism Seduced") divide women faculty into feminists and "sexual decoys" so that feminist agendas to transform the academy are derailed (Zillah Eisentstein "The Audacity of Races and Genders"). Panelists demonstrate how an advocacy organization fights intersecting discriminations to prevent firings of feminist faculty through networking and legal channels (sponsored by Feminists Against Academic Discrimination).

PANEL: "Barriers to Internationalizing Women's Studies: Faculty Recruitment and Retention, and Curricular Transformation" - Sat, Nov 12 - 12:55pm - 2:10pm Building/Room: Level 1, Georgia 3

MODERATOR: Ann Burnett
PAPERS & PRESENTERS:
* "Finding the Other a Home" by Pramila Venkateswaran (Nassau Community College)
* "International Faculty & Women's Studies: Challenges to Retention" by Ines Shaw (SUNY/Nassau Community College)
* "Gender Inequities" by Betty J. Harris (University of Oklahoma, Norman)

ABOUT THIS SESSION: Women's Studies has served a transformational function in various disciplines, with new and dynamic conceptualizations of relationships between theory and practice. Yet, much more needs to be done. We must use our intellectual resources to address issues that affect curriculum and faculty. The papers in this panel will consider changes to curricular transnationalization, as Chandra Mohanty and Jacqui Alexander advocate; challenges to international faculty (Demirezen; Andrade) that affect their retention; and gender inequities at the domestic and global levels (Sekhon; Beoku-Betts; Doumato and Posusney). Panelists will explore how community colleges with diverse demographics might shift academic structures to allow for such a transformative curriculum; how perceptions and realities of international faculty working side by side with faculty nationals might affect their retention; how collaboration with scholars and NGOs in the developing world might expose our classroom students to global studies. Afterwards, panelists will suggest ways to break barriers down. (FAAD-sponsored).

BUSINESS MEETING - Sunday, November 13 from 8:00 to 9:15 a.m., Level 1, room Georgia 01. This meeting is open to all. It offers an opportunity to participants to talk about their situation or case, ask questions, get answers.

Please visit this site again for future announcements!

"As academic feminists, we are getting too caught up in competition for academic success to pay attention to the basic rights of women on our campuses. Each of us, no matter how successful we have become professionally, must always reach back to help other women advance as far as we have."

- Annis Pratt