February 2002
Dear Members of EMW:
The study of Early Modern Women is continuing to flourish, largely through the work of EMW members. We are particularly grateful to Carole Levin, who has just completed a most successful year as EMW president. She has made many contributions to EMW since she was a member of the Organizing Committee in 1994, and the organization has prospered under her leadership.
The annual meetings of EMW were held in conjunction with SCSC in Denver on October 25-28. Valerie Traub gave the plenary address on “Women’s Eroticism in the Renaissance: A Report on the State of our Knowledge,” followed by a convivial reception organized by our secretary Mary Ellen Lamb. EMW also sponsored four panels. At the open business meeting the scholarly awards for work completed in 2000 were presented. (See lists of sponsored sessions and awards.) Congratulations to all the award recipients and thank you to Jane Couchman and her excellent Awards Committee.
Next year’s annual meeting will be held in conjunction with the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in San Antonio on Oct 24-27. Proposals for sessions or papers should be sent to the appropriate SCSC people by 15 March. Full conference details and the call for papers may be found at http://www.sixteenthcentury.org. Lena Cowen Orlin will be giving our plenary address on “Women’s Spaces.”
The Executive Committee discussed practical matters of finance and administration. We are most grateful to Susanne Woods for stepping in for one year when Rebecca More was forced to resign as treasurer for health reasons. We are forever in her debt. We decided that EMW has grown to the point that can no longer rely on a volunteer treasurer for record keeping. We are therefore in the midst of an important transition as the record keeping and financial transactions of the treasurer’s office move to the Center for Baroque and Renaissance Studies at the University of Maryland, thanks to Karen Nelson.
Sheila ffolliott, who brought EMW into the electronic age by designing and maintaining the current website, has recently expressed a desire to step down as webmaster. Karen Nelson has arranged the website to be transferred to the Center for Renaissance and Baroque Studies. EMW information may still be found at http://chnm.gmu.edu/emw; once the new site is in place, a link will be provided from that address.
As the Executive Committee had agreed several years ago, the VicePresident/President Elect is affirmed by acclamation. (All committee positions are contested elections.) It is a delight to welcome Naomi Miller as our new Vice President. If you would like EMW sponsorship of a conference session, please contact Naomi at njmiller@u.arizona.edu.
This letter comes with numerous enclosures: a ballot for 2002 officers and committee members; a report on sessions at the Sixteenth Century Studies conference, our home conference; an announcement of EMW sponsored sessions upcoming this spring; a list of award winners; and a form to renew your membership for 2002.
The Executive Council decided to raise dues in order to maintain the organization and to fund new initiatives, including offering graduate students scholarships to support travel to the Attending to Women conference in 2003. (This is the first raise in dues since EMW was founded in 1994.) While the grants themselves will be modest ($200), the honor that goes with them will often translate into support from home institutions. The new dues structure will be as follows:
- Sustaining membership $50
- Regular membership $25
- Graduate student/retired/independent scholar membership $15
Please send your 2002 dues to Prof. Susanne Woods, Treasurer EMW, Wheaton College, Norton, MA 02766.
Jane Couchman, chair of the Awards Committee, proposed revisions to procedures for nominations. The EMW Executive Committee accepted the following three proposals: moving the deadline; revising categories; and including books published overseas in 2000 but not available in North America with the 2001 group.
The awards will be drawn from publications in the year 2001 and will be based on nominations from authors, publishers, and others working in the field. The deadline for nominations is March 15, 2002. Awards will be presented under the following categories: book award, essay award, edition award, collaborative projects award, arts and multimedia award, and graduate student conference paper award. Please note this last, new category of awards and consider nominating conference papers by graduate students.
The members of the committee would be grateful to receive three copies of any book, article, paper or edition nominated, but they are also willing to consider any suggestions without these materials. To be eligible for the next round of awards, each publication should have appeared in print, and the conference paper should have been presented, in the calendar year 2001. Please send copies of nominated works to Abby Zanger, Chair. SSEMW Awards Committee, 35 Sherman St., Cambridge, MA 02138. You may also contact her at Zanger@fas.harvard.edu.
The Executive Committee continues to work on new initiatives, including an exciting proposal by Jane Donawerth to start an annual journal. We are working closely with Jane on logistical matters and finances to decide how a journal might best be handled.
For updates on EMW business, calls for papers, and other announcements, please do use the listserve and website. To subscribe to the listserve, send an email message to listserv@umdd.umd.edu that includes only the following: Subscribe emw-1 your name (your first and last name only). When your subscription is confirmed, you will receive instructions on how to post to the list. We hope that you will continue to post the successes of our members, so that we can celebrate together.
If you have ideas for additional ways that EMW might continue to foster scholarship on early modern women, please contact me at hannay@siena.edu. I look forward to seeing many of you in San Antonio this fall.
With all best wishes,
Margaret Hannay EMW President, 2002