Women in German
Annual Conference
Business Meeting,
Saturday, October 25, 2008
The meeting began
at 1P.M.
2. PresidentÕs
announcements and report by Julie Klassen
Julie thanked conference organizers (Denise and Michelle Stott James)
for a well-run conference, and thanked SC members and WiG
officers (Waltraud Maierhofer, Helga Thorson, Beverly and Kyle) for their
service. She highlighted items that WiG has been busy with over the last
year:
¥ Writing letters of protest against cuts to German programs nationwide
(USC, Cal. State Humboldt, U Florida);
¥ Awarding of the Zantop award: Julie
announced the winner of this yearÕs award, Julia Feldhaus
(Rutgers).
¥ Future of Zantop award: a donation of
$25,000 by an anonymous donor has been offered for an endowment; the condition
is that it has to be matched. The donor wishes that the amount of the prize be
increased; WiG estimates it will be up to $3,000 per
year. WiG
hopes to award first and second prizes each year, with a Feb. 1 deadline and a
March 1 announcement date.
¥ Jeanette Clausen will act as the Zantop
campaign director; she currently has pledges in the amount of $11,000. In the
first phase: she contacted Senior WiGs for donations;
in the second round, between October and December, she will contact others who
have personal or professional ties to Suanne Zantop;
in the third round, beginning in Jan 2009, a report will be published on WiGÕs web site listing all pledges, and all Wiggies will be invited to make pledges.
(It was pointed out that, in order to be successful with people with
deep pockets, it helps if all Wiggies contribute.)
¥ Search committees: a new Yearbook editor has been selected: Patricia
Simpson will replace Maggie McCarthy.
Thanks to search committee: Nora Alter and Friederike
Eigler.
¥ A new conference site and organizers have
been selected (see report below).
¥ Winner of the Vice President election is Barbara Kosta,
who will be stepping down from the steering committee
At the end of her report, Julie Klassen
inducted Nora Alter as WiGÕs new President with the
usual pomp and circumstance.
3. Introduction of current Steering Committee members & Election of
new Steering Committee
member:
¥ The vote for a 2-year term was held first
(replacement for Barbara Kosta)
¥ Jill Smith asked the candidates to present themselves to the
membership in 1-minute stump speech. She asked them to include institution,
rank, their history and vision for WiG.
Nominees: Denise
Della Rossa
Lisa
Hock
Sonja
Klocke
Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger
Faye
Stewart
Monika
Fischer
In the first round,
no-one had an absolute majority; a run-off election
was held between Denise Della Rossa and Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger; the 2nd round
winner was Denise Della Rossa.
In the second SC
election, members were asked to cast their votes for 2 candidates, each for
3-year terms.
Nominees:
Denise Della
Rossa (elected in last election)
Lisa
Hock
Sonja
Klocke
Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger
Faye
Stewart
Chantelle Warner
Election results:
Lisa Hock and Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger were
elected to 3-year terms.
4. Newsletter Report (Rachel Freudenburg)
Rachel called for summaries of each paper or poster presented at the conference to be submitted to Michelle or Rachel by Nov. 1st
¥ Rachel brought greetings from Maria Stehle, who could not attend this yearÕs conference.
¥ Developments: the fall newsletter has been replaced with mailing of marketing materials (poster, flyer, letter to department chairs); she asked for feedback and photos from members and volunteers to take flyers and posters to other conferences.
¥ Book reviews are published in the spring issue and on the web site, with a link to H-German; she called for volunteer book reviewers (last year 4 were published; there will be more this year) She clarified the process: members who have published a book should contact the book review editors, send a copy of the book to take to the conference, where the editors will attempt to find reviewers. Laurie Taylor is the editor of the book review section of the newsletter.
¥ Julie gratefully acknowledged Rachel and MariaÕs hard work.
5. Presentation of New Conference Location (Liz Mittman)
Liz presented Brook Lodge, MI, located on I-94, the former country estate of Dr. Upjohn; owned by MSU;
¥ Dates: Oct. 20-23rd 2009
¥ Kalamazoo is the nearest airport (AZO); Detroit is approx. 2 hours away; there is train service to K-ZOO
¥ Lodging is $79 per night for rooms with one queen bed. There are not enough beds on site to accommodate all conference attendees. A budget alternative is located nearby: Gull Lake Inn, where rooms with two queens are $79.
¥ Amenities do not include pool, but do include great food and services
¥ Denise Della Rossa will continue helping with registration through Notre Dame UniversityÕs server.
¥ Jennifer Redman (Kalamazoo College) will act as program coordinator.
6. Selection of
Special Guest for 2010; nominators present candidates
a.
Ulrike Ottinger
(Nora Alter) 38 votes
b.
Katrin Ršggla (Margarete
Lamb-Faffelberger) 18 votes
7. TreasurerÕs
Report: Waltraud Maierhofer
distributed a written report. She explained that expenses have gone up
somewhat, mainly because of Yearbook expenses. She also announced a slight
membership rate increase of $5 at each pay level. Waltraud
also asked that Wiggies remember to donate to the
memorial fund.
8. Panel selection
for Panels at WiG 2009 (Oct 22-25, Michigan)
Jill asked panel
proposers to present their ideas in 1 minute or less.
a. Thursday night panel
Whiteness, Feminism & WiG (Beverly Weber & Sara Lennox) 26 votes
Collaborative Research (Heike
Henderson, Gabi Kathofer, Chantelle
Warner) 30 votes
b. Pre-20th-Century Panel
ÒDie bšse Frau:Ó Walking the Tightrope between
the right to Punish & Domestic Violence (Maya Gerig)
6 votes
ÒEntmythisierung:Ó
Women Writing out the Masculine & Writing in the Feminine (Karina Marie
Ash, Waltraud Maierhofer)
25 votes
German-Speaking Women Write the New World: America(s) in Literature
(Michelle James and Ute Bettray) 20 votes
c. Professional Praxis Panel
Queering the Gaze: Film &
Feminism in the Classroom (Faye Stewart & Corinna
Kahnke) 26 votes
Binge Learning or a Balanced Diet? The Art of Transmitting Knowledge
(Elizabeth Bridges & Sonja Klocke) 24
d. Open Sessions (x2)
ÒDie bšse Frau:Ó Walking the Tightrope between
the right to Punish & Domestic Violence (Maya Gerig)
3
ÒBad MothersÓ (Allie Hill
& Helga Kraft) 11
Gender, Class and Racial Representations in 21st-Century
German TV Shows (Maria Stehle) 12
Memoir & Memory (Helga
Thorson, Caroline Schaumann) 17
20th Anniversary of
the Fall of the Wall (Katharina Gerstenberger
& Beret Norman) 36
German Identity in Film since 1989 (Karen Achberger
& Rick McCormick) 10
German-Speaking Women Write the New World: America(s) in Literature
(Michelle James and Ute Bettray) 13
Whiteness, Feminism and WiG 7
e. Poster Session Organizers
Kyle Frackman explained that one person was
needed to co-organize the session with Kyle; Michelle Stott James volunteered.
f. Guest-related panel (author Dragica Rajcic)
Women in Transit: Exiles,
Emigrants, Expatriates, and Global Nomads (Mareike Herrmann, Cary Einberger)
g. E-Panel selection
Queering the Gaze (Professional Praxis; Faye Stewart, Corinna Kahnke)
7. Yearbook Report
(Katharina Gerstenberger)
¥ Katharina thanked
Margaret McCarthy for her service as co-editor.
¥ She reported about the status of the new Yearbook and announced it
would be in membersÕ hands by Jan./February 2009
¥ Patty Simpson was welcomed as the new editor.
¥ Katharina encouraged the members to get their libraries to update/get
subscriptions, and to solicit promotional materials from University of Nebraska
Press for distribution at conferences.
8. Panel selection
for MLA 2009 (Dec. 27-30, 2009, Philadelphia)
a. Performing the Real:
Explorations into Constructions of ÒRealityÓ in Cultural & Visual Texts (Nora
Alter & Patricia Simpson) 34 votes
b. Gender, Class and Racial Representations in 21st-century
German TV Shows (Maria Stehle) 15 votes
c. German-speaking Women Write
the New World (Denis Della Rossa, Ute Bettray) 39
9. Panel selection
for GSA 2009 (Oct 8-11, 2009, Washington, D.C.)
a. German Identity since 1989 in Film (Karen Achberger
& Rick McCormick) 12 - 22
b. Objects of Desire before
1900 (Decorative Arts) (Patricia Simpson & Mary Helen Dupree) 12 - 28
c. Resurrecting Adolf: HitlerÕs Afterlives from ÒKitlersÓ to Cyber-Nazis
(Elizabeth Bridges & Kris Vander-Lugt) 11
d. Bad Mothers 10
e. German TV Shows 8
10. Panel selection for AATG 2009 (Nov 20-22, San Diego, CA)
a. Issue of TA Mentoring (working title)
(Monika Fischer) 19
b.
Binge Learning or a Balanced Diet? The Art of Transmitting Knowledge (Susanne
Even & Sonja Klocke) 26
11. Website Report (Beverly Weber & Kyle Frackman)
¥ The new website design was presented; Beverly announced that there are
two different lists, Wig-L and the membership list, with different names; she
urged members to contact Helga if they want to reach the actual membership of WiG;
¥ The editors are developing a new listserv
through H-Net, named H-WiG
¥ WiG is looking for a new web editor since
Beverly will be stepping down. The editors will work with Steering Committee to
recruit a qualified person.
¥ Kyle presented the new design, which features no frames, more photos, links at the top, menu on right with important links (also
to membership). Kyle encouraged Wiggies to e-mail him high-resolution images from the
conference, as well as images of their book covers.
12. Closing Remarks (Jill Smith)
¥ Jill thanked the conference organizers again.
¥ Julie thanked Jill and Amy Young for their three years of service on
the steering committee.
¥ Michelle and Denise conclude with announcements regarding shuttles and
free time.
The meeting adjourned at 1:10 P.M.