RWSA 2018 Conference
Welcome from the Rural Women's Studies Association
Join the Rural Women's Studies Association (RWSA) for its 13th triennial conference. The theme, "Surviving and Thriving: Gender, Justice, Power, and Place Making," emphasizes the role of gender in rural community formation and survival. Presenters will explore the ways that gendered identity (as women, men, or bi- and trans-) and raced identity (within separatist communities, segregated neighborhoods, or integrated spaces) affected personal power, individual choice, and community development historically and today. These subjects inform us about rural activism, business development, cultural expression, self-governance, and collective experiences locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
The RWSA is an international association founded in 1997 to promote and advance farm and rural women's/gender studies in a historical perspective by encouraging research, promoting scholarship, and establishing and maintaining links with organizations that share these goals. RWSA welcomes academic scholars, public historians and archivists, graduate students, and representatives of rural organizations and communities as conference participants and members.
Local Arrangements: Chair: Katherine Jellison, RWSA co-chair, Ohio University; Rachel Terman, Ohio University; Kathryn Engle, University of Kentucky; Margaret Thomas-Evans, Indiana University East
Program committee: Co-chairs: Cherisse R. Jones-Branch, Arkansas State University and Debra A. Reid, The Henry Ford, with Mary A. Larson, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University; Margaret Weber, Iowa State University; Susi Acord, Athens County Rural Action; Amy L. McKinney, Northwest College; Rebecca Montgomery, Texas State University; Catharine Wilson, RWSA co-chair, University of Guelph, ex-officio member.
Registration and Local Arrangements
Registration:
Full Conference Fee: $100 includes the Thursday evening meal and program at The Ridges as well as access to all sessions, plenaries and conference events as well as morning and afternoon snacks and evening receptions.
One-Day Registration Fee: $35 includes sessions and conference events and snacks for that day. Registrants (and guests) attending Thursday only may purchase the meal at The Ridges separately.
All participants, including speakers, must register. Registration will occur electronically through the RWSA-Ohio University webpage. Registrants can choose to renew their RWSA membership when they register. RWSA Membership Dues: $30 annually; $10 annually for retirees, fixed income, and students; Three-year payment option: $90 or $30 covers membership between triennial conferences.
RWSA Donations
Jensen-Neth Fund, which provides support for future conferences.
Memorials in honor of individuals most welcome.
For planned giving details, please contact Jenny Barker-Devine, RWSA Treasurer.
Conference headquarters:
Living Learning Center, Ohio University (location for registration; concurrent and plenary sessions; morning and afternoon snacks; evening gatherings, book exhibits and silent auction). Meal plan meals will be served next door to the Living Learning Center in the Nelson Commons dining hall.
Accommodations:
Participants should book residence hall rooms through the conference registration system. Rooms at the Ohio University Inn should be booked directly by calling 1-866-593-6661 and requesting accommodation in the block of rooms reserved for the RWSA conference.
Available nights: Wednesday, 16 May through Sunday, 20 May 2018:
Residence Hall Suites (2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, fridge, microwave, Wi-Fi)
Double occupancy--$24 per person per night + $15 one-time linen fee
Single occupancy--$42 per person per night + $15 one-time linen fee
Ohio University Inn and Conference Center (full-service hotel, restaurant, bar, pool)
Conference rate--$139.95 per room (single or double occupancy)
Meals:
Residence hall dining at Nelson Commons for conference participants (all you can eat):
$8.00 per breakfast $10.00 per lunch $13.00 per dinner
Participants who don't purchase a residence hall dining plan may purchase meals at the Baker Student Center food court (deli food, pizza, grilled sandwiches, soup and salad bar, yogurt bar, 'home cooking' cafeteria, taco and burrito bar, etc.) or at local restaurants.
Transportation and parking:
Columbus International Airport (CMH), aka Port Columbus Airport, Columbus, Ohio
Getting to Ohio University from Port Columbus Airport: Go-Bus ($20 RT)
Getting around Athens: Public Transit (regular fare--$1; over-65/disabled fare--$.50)
Parking:
Full-conference parking permit ($20)
One-day commuter permit ($15)
Schedule at-a-Glance
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
2:00 to 6:30 pm: Optional Afternoon Tour of coal-mining and tile-making communities ($45)
6:00 pm Dinner (based on the meal option you select)
7:30 pm Welcome Reception, Living Learning Center (LLC) atrium
Thursday, 17 May 2018
Before 8:00 am Breakfast (based on the meal option you select)
7:30 am - Registration Desk Opens: Living Learning Center (LLC), Ohio University
NOTE: all conference sessions are held in the LLC unless otherwise noted.
8:00 to 8:15 - Welcome
8:15 to 9:45 am - CONCURRENT SESSION I
I-1: Black Feminism in the Rural South
I-2: "New Woman": Rural Women, Work and Culture beyond the Farm
I-3: Rural Women and Rural Wealth
9:45 to 10:15 am - Break with snacks in LLC atrium
10:15 to 11:45 am - CONCURRENT SESSION II
II-1: Farm Women and Crisis, 1970s and 1980s
II-2: Split Visions: Readings by Three West Virginia Women Writers
II-3: Geo-Spatial Analysis and Women Farmers
Noon to 1:00 pm Lunch (based on the meal option you select)
1:00 to 2:30 pm - PLENARY ROUNDTABLE: Grandmothers and Granddaughters of RWSA
1:00 pm - Silent Auction Begins
2:45 to 3:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION III
III-1: Rural Women as Others 'Saw' Them
III-2: Informal Discussion of Research in Progress
III-3: Rural Action, Inc
3:45 to 8:30 pm Museums at The Ridges
Van transportation provided, but The Ridges is a 20-minute walk from LLC.
Friday, 18 May 2018
7:30 am - Registration Opens: Living Learning Center (LLC), Ohio University
Before 8:30 am Breakfast (based on the meal option you select)
8:30 to 10:00 am - CONCURRENT SESSION IV
IV-1: Rural Women's Activism through Oppression
IV-2: Panel Discussion: Researching Rural Women--Sources, Libraries, Scholarship, and Material Culture
IV-3: Rural Femininity on Display
10:00 to 10:30 am - Break with snacks in LLC atrium
10:30 to Noon - CONCURRENT SESSION V
V-1: Rural Feminism
V-2: Films Depicting Rural Women: Historic Footage
V-3: Women and Rural Business Strategies
Noon to 1:00 pm - Lunch on your own
Schedule at-a-Glance
Friday, 18 May 2018 (continued)
1:00 to 2:00 pm - PLENARY: Chief Glenna Wallace, Eastern Shawnee Nation
2:15 to 3:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION VI
VI-1: Rural Women and Organizational Activism within and beyond Borders
VI-2: Road Trips, Religion, and Rituals: Gendered Practices and Performances of Pentecostals, Amish and Agribusiness
VI-3: "Sowing the Seeds of Love": Promoting Transgender Inclusivity and Visibility in Policies and Training Programs in the Heartland
3:45 to 4:15 pm - Break with snacks in LLC atrium
4:15 to 5:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION VII
VII-1: Stories
VII-2: Panel Discussion: Culture, Indigenous Women and Indigenous Developments in South African Communities
VII-3: Panel Discussion: Appalachian Feminisms and Rurality--Place, Place Making, and Praxis
6:00 pm - Dinner on your own
7:30 pm - Women's History Walking Tour, Ohio University campus
Saturday, 19 May 2018
7:30 to 8:30 am - Breakfast and RWSA Business Meeting
8:45 to 10:15 am - Athens Farmers Market (van transportation provided)
10:30 to Noon - CONCURRENT SESSION VIII
VIII-1: Women, Land, and the State: Perspectives from Scandinavian History
VIII-2: Rural Women and Their Work
VIII-3: Roundtable: Creating Dawn Jewell, Appalachian Woman and Narrator of Trampoline
Noon to 1:00 pm - Lunch on your own
1:00 to 2:00 pm - PLENARY: Nikki Taylor, Driven toward Madness
2:00 pm - Silent Auction ends
2:15 to 3:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION IX
IX-1: Discussion Forum: Sharing Strategies for Creative Approaches to Community Development and Place Making
IX-2: Rural Women and Their Places
IX-3: Panel Discussion: Rethinking and Remaking Place as Resistance
3:45 to 4:15 pm - Break with snacks in LLC atrium
4:15 to 5:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION X
X-1: Rural Women Educators
X-2: Rural Health Care
X-3: Roundtable Discussion: Organizing Rural Women in Today's Political Climate
6:00 pm - Dinner on your own
8:00 pm - Evening Program: Women of Appalachia Spoken Word and Music Artists
Sunday, 20 May 2018
Brunch (based on the meal option you select)
10:00 am to 2:00 pm - Tour of Wayne National Forest and Zaleski State Forest ($40)
(Pre-registration and extra fee required; van transportation and Sunday brunch included)
RWSA 13th Triennial Conference Program
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
2:00 to 6:30 pm - Optional Tour of Rural Communities that will include opportunities to talk with residents about challenges they face and steps they take to sustain their towns(pre-registration and fee required; van transportation provided): Tour includes tile-making town of Haydenville (tour and discussion of unique architecture) and the coal-mining towns of New Straitsville (history museum, Robinson's Cave, and Monday Creek Restoration Project) and Shawnee (mining monument, opera house, and dinner provided by local women).
6:00 pm Dinner (options: Residence Hall meal plan or restaurants in Athens, Ohio)
7:30 pm Welcome reception in Living Learning Center (LLC) atrium
Thursday, 17 May 2018
Before 8:00 am Breakfast (residence hall meal plan, student center food court, or local restaurant)
7:30 am Registration Desk Opens - Living Learning Center (LLC), Ohio University
NOTE: all conference sessions are held in the Living Learning Center (LLC) unless otherwise explained.
8:00 to 8:15 am Welcome
8:15 to 9:45 am - CONCURRENT SESSIONS I
I-1. Black Feminism in the Rural South
A Forgotten Black Nation: Gender and Place Making in the Rural American South, 1945-1960
Beatrice J. Adams, Rutgers University
Writing in Black and White: The Box Project, Rural Black Women and New Narratives of the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi, 1962--1968
Pamela Walker, Rutgers University
Black Power in Nacogdoches, Texas: The Activism of Helena Abdullah (formerly known as Helena Patton)
Jasmin C. Howard, Michigan State University
Dark Daughters of the South: The Proper Care and Feeding of Warrior Women
Carmen Lanos Williams , Arkansas State University
Chair: Valerie Grim, Indiana University
Thursday, 17 May 2018
8:15 to 9:45 am CONCURRENT SESSIONS I (continued)
I-2. "New Woman": Rural Women, Work and Culture beyond the Farm
"Dear People": The Letters and Poetry of Harriette Cushman--The U.S. Extension Service's First Poultry Specialist
Amy L. McKinney, Northwest College
Rural Spectacle in Three Comedies, 1890-1920 (Sis Hopkins, Old Homestead, & Blue Jeans)
Natasha Lueras, Indiana University-Bloomington
Refugee from the Plantation South: Marie Wilson's Flight from Privilege to Notoriety
Jeannie Whayne, University of Arkansas
Chair: Mary A. Larson, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University
I-3. Rural Women and Rural Wealth
Rural Women: Tools in Agricultural Production but Servants in Profit Sharing
Rufus A. Oluwafemi, University of Abuja, Nigeria
Mariam El-Yakub, Oxfam, Bauchi, Nigeria
Killing in the Name: Family, Food, and Power in the American Midwest
Sara Egge, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky
Discussion of Rural Wealth Creation: Concepts, Strategies, and Measures [PDF] (USDA Economic Research Report 131, released March 2012) Attendees will discuss report contents, the ways that gender affects the report's conclusions, and the role of rural women in rural wealth generation.
Facilitator: Debra A. Reid, The Henry Ford
9:45 to 10:15 am Break with snacks in LLC atrium
10:15 to 11:45 am CONCURRENT SESSION II
II-1. Farm Women and Crisis, 1970s and 1980s
An Eye View of the Furrow during the Farm Crisis
Debra A. Reid, The Henry Ford
Resourceful Nation Builders: Women, Co-operative Farming and Development Projects in Socialist Villages in 1970s Lindi, Tanzania
Husseina Dinani, University of Toronto-Scarborough
Farm Women in Crisis Times: Rethinking Women's Roles in the Iowa of the 1980s
Pam Riney-Kehrberg,Iowa State University and President, Midwestern History Assoc.
Chair: Steven Reschly, Truman State University
Thursday, 17 May 2018
10:15 to 11:45 am CONCURRENT SESSION II (continued)
II-2. Split Visions: Readings by Three West Virginia Women Writers
A Native West Virginian, Life-Long Resident, and Fiction Writer
Natalie Sypolt, Pierpont Community & Technical College
A Ballet-Dancer, Non-Fiction Writer and North Dakota Transplant to West Virginia
Renee Nicholson, Programs for Multi- and Interdisciplinary Studies at West Virginia University
A Poet, Translator, Lyricist, and Photographer
Randi Ward, award-winning translator and founder of the Parkersburg Poetry Series
Facilitator: Tracey Hanshew, Washington State University'Tri-Cities
II-3 Geo-Spatial Analysis and Women Farmers
Geographic Analysis of Women Farm Operators in the United States
Elisabeth Garner, Pennsylvania State University
Topsy, Polly, & the Tin Lizzie, 1880-1930: Women on the Move & Claiming Space in the County
Pamela J. Snow Sweetser, University of Maine-Orono and educator, historian, fiber craftswoman, and wool grower
Chair: Rebecca Montgomery, Texas State University
Noon to 1:00 pm Lunch (options: meal plan through Ohio University, student union food court, or restaurants in Athens, Ohio)
1:00 to 2:30 pm - Plenary Roundtable
Grandmothers and Granddaughters of the RWSA: What Generation Gap?
For thirty years, the Rural Women's Studies Association has introduced historians to vibrant and important questions about the experiences of rural women across the globe. Scholars in this field have challenged assumptions about the theory and history of gender, race, environment, politics, family, economics, and community. They have encouraged historians to confront their urban/ metro-normative gaze when confronting contradictions and continuities in rural spaces. These scholars have also offered exciting possibilities for area studies, interdisciplinary studies, and scholars of sexuality and queer theory. The "Granddaughters" seek to respond to the "Grandmothers" of RWSA, a generation of scholars whose pivotal work has provided the foundation for future scholarship. Each will note how the "Grandmothers" influenced their understandings of topics about rural women and offer commentary about the future of scholarship in the field.
Granddaughters:
Margaret Weber, Iowa State University
Kathryn Engle, University of Kentucky
Emily Prifogle, Princeton University
Sara Egge, Centre College
Facilitator, Jenny Barker-Devine, Illinois College
Thursday, 17 May 2018
1:00 pm - Silent auction begins
2:45 to 3:45 pm CONCURRENT SESSION III
III-1 Rural Women as Others 'Saw' Them
"Go to the Lands of Darkness": The Migration of Single Women on the Illinois Frontier, 1820-1850
Jenny Barker-Devine, Illinois College
Searching for Bell: Finding A Woman in a Man's Diary
Daniel Samson, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario
Chair: Catharine Wilson, University of Guelph, Ontario
III-2 Informal Discussion of Research in Progress
Come share your research topics and learn from your peers about angles to explore and available sources.
Facilitator: Amy L. McKinney, Northwest College
III-3 Rural Action, Inc.
Local Non-Profit Organization Dedicated to Revitalizing Appalachian Ohio
Rural Action (RA) was founded in 1992 as an organization focused on using the strategies of Asset Based Community Development to address the endemic issues of poverty and lack of opportunity in Appalachian Ohio. Rural Action utilizes a triple bottom line strategy in its programming - "Good for the Economy, The Community and the Environment". One key partner of RA is Women Grow Ohio (WGO), a network of Women in Agriculture started by long time RA member Annie Warmke of Blue Rock Station in Muskingum County. Women Grow Ohio organizes women to women trainings and networks focused on the concept of the woman as the farmer, not the helpmate. They are a volunteer based group whose goals are Networking, Peer to Peer Education, Promotion and Sustainability. Their mission is to demonstrate the important work of Ohio women in feeding their families and others in our great state. RA staff and members of Women Grow Ohio will discuss their efforts to support women in agriculture.
Tom Redfern and Caroline Keyes, Rural Action
Annie Warmke, Women Grow Ohio
The Ridges (3:45 to 8:30 pm)
3:45 pm - Depart LLC for The Ridges
Van transportation provided, but The Ridges is a 20-minute walk from LLC.
Thursday, 17 May 2018
The Ridges (continued)
4:00 to 5:30 pm
Kennedy Museum of Art, located in the 1874 facility of the historic Athens Asylum
Sally Delgado, Curator of Education; Lisa Quinn, Education Program Coordinator; Lori Spencer, Administrative Associate
Wine Reception in Front Hall
Behind-the-scenes tour of the vast collection of Navajo women's weavings (Southwest Native American Collection) in storage and on display. Student guides will welcome attendees in two galleries: Museum Studies exhibition gallery and East Galleries. Guests can also view a special exhibition on the Sesquicentennial of the Asylum, founded in 1868, in partnership with the Southeast Ohio History Center
5:30 pm - Depart Kennedy Museum of Art for the Dairy Barn Arts Center
5:45 to 8:30 pm - Dinner and Evening Program
The Dairy Barn Arts Center (housed in the former dairy barn of the historic Athens Asylum)
Contemporary Art Quilts on exhibit.
Dinner catered by Restaurant Salaam, Hilarie Burhans, proprietor. She will share the perspective of a business-woman and musician in rural Appalachia.
Evening program: Sue Massek of the Reel World String Band (Kentucky's feminist hillbilly band) and her performance, "Appalachian Women, A Herstory of Oppression and Resistance."
Friday, 18 May 2018
7:30 am - Registration opens : Living Learning Center (LLC), Ohio University
Before 8:30 am Breakfast (based on the meal option you select)
8:30 to 10:00 am - CONCURRENT SESSION IV
IV-1 Rural Women's Activism through Oppression
Rural Women's Activism: The Powerful Impact of the Resolutions and Campaigns of the National Federation of Women's Institutes of England, Wales, and the Islands
Margaret Thomas-Evans, Indiana University East
Farm Institutes and Rural Women: The Case of Rural New York State, 1900-1940s
Mary Ellen Zuckerman, State University of New York- Brockport
Reformers in the Backwater: The Housekeepers Club of Coconut Grove, 1891-1957
Maureen S. Thompson, Florida International University
Chair: Cherisse R. Jones-Branch, Arkansas State University
Friday, 18 May 2018
8:30 to 10:00 am - CONCURRENT SESSION IV (continued)
IV-2 Panel Discussion: Researching Rural Women--Sources, Libraries, Scholarship, and Material Culture
Three experts will share their knowledge of primary and secondary sources. This addresses RWSA's goal to "promote and advance farm and rural women's/gender studies in a historical perspective by encouraging research, [and] promoting scholarship."
Tips and Tricks to Finding Records in Archives and Special Collections
Anne L. Moore, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Identifying a 3-D Object in a 2-D Source
Debra A. Reid, The Henry Ford
Using Library Finding Aids (library catalogs, databases, citation analysis, and text mining) to Find Primary and Secondary Sources Related to Rural Women
Sara Morris, University of Kansas
Audience Discussion Facilitator: Sara Morris, University of Kansas
IV-3 Rural Femininity on Display
Ontario Dairy Princesses and the Cultural Identity of Women in Dairy Farming
in the Postwar Period
Jodey Nurse-Gupta, University of Waterloo; University of Guelph
"Country Girls Are Whisky in a Teacup": Crafting Rural Femininities and Building Online Community in the Contemporary U.S. Fashion Marketplace
Holly M. Kent, University of Illinois-Springfield
Conservative Commemoration and Progressive Protest in the Culture Wars (1975-1995)
Cynthia Culver Prescott, University of North Dakota
Chair: Catharine Wilson, University of Guelph, Ontario
10:00 to 10:30 am - Break: Snacks in LLC atrium
Friday, 18 May 2018
10:30 to Noon - CONCURRENT SESSION V
V-1 Rural Feminism
Plotting Resistance: Rural Suffrage, the Petition and Empire in Manitoba
Roland Sawatzky, Curator of History, The Manitoba Museum, Winnipeg
Negotiating Political Difference and Feminism in Rural North Dakota
Ashlee Moser, Brandeis University
The Rural Roots of Feminism in Higher Education
Kelly C. Sartorius, University of Kansas, Lawrence
Heritage Feminism: Exploring New Approaches to Heritage Studies in Nigeria
Elochukwu Nwankwo, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Chair: Amy L. McKinney, Northwest College
V-2 Films Depicting Rural Women: Historic Footage
This session will include viewing of excerpts from two historic U.S. Department of Agriculture productions - The Happier Way (1920) and Power on the Land (1940) -- and selections from Ford Motor Company advertising. The session will conclude with a discussion of resources to consult for historic film footage of rural women.
Facilitator: Debra A. Reid, The Henry Ford
V-3 Women and Rural Business Strategies
Impact of Safety Net Program on Women Headed Household: Climate Change Adaptation vs Poverty Reduction Strategies in Northern Ethiopia
Abadi Teklehaimanot, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia
Consequences of the History of Gender Inequity for Rural Family Business Succession Planning
Diane McKenzie, University of Lethbridge, Alberta
Impact of Microcredit on Tunisian Women Empowerment: Evidence in Priority Regions
Lamia Mokaddem, University of Tunis El Manar
Henda Kharoub, University of Tunis El Manar (in absentia)
Chair: Margaret Thomas-Evans, Indiana University East
Noon to 1:00 Lunch on your Own
1:00 to 2:00 pm - Plenary: Chief Glenna Wallace, Eastern Shawnee Nation
Glenna Wallace is an educator and the first woman to be elected Chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the U.S. government forced the Shawnee to leave their Ohio Valley home for reservations in Oklahoma and Kansas. In speaking about the relationship between the Shawnee and Ohio, Chief Glenna notes: "We are still here in a certain way. We are here in our hearts."
Friday, 18 May 2018
2:15 to 3:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION VI
VI-1 - Rural Women and Organizational Activism within and beyond Borders
Presenting Production and Performing Plenty: Auxiliary Advocacy as a Gendered Performance Discourse after World War II
Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, Johns Hopkins University
Gendering the Global Political Order: American Farm Women and Transnational Rural Women's Organizations, 1939-1960
Nancy Berlage, Texas State University, San Marcos
Feminist Popular Education for Social Change in Kenya: Preserving Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Catherine Cutcher, Ohio University
Multi-Dimensional Stakeholders' Partnership: The Gender Transformative (GTM) Model in SDG Implementation
Olubunmi Ashimolowo, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria, and Gender Development Initiative
Chair: Cherisse R. Jones-Branch, Arkansas State University
VI-2 Road Trips, Religion, and Rituals: Gendered Practices and Performances of Pentecostals, Amish, and Agribusiness
Road Trips and Religion: Gender and Ritual in Pentecostal Camp Meetings, 1940-1960
Linda Ambrose, Laurentian University
Preparing the Celebrations and Ceremonies: Amish Women's Religious and Family Rituals in the 1930s
Katherine Jellison, Ohio University
All Cooped Up: Gender and Agribusiness in Postwar America
Margaret Weber, Iowa State University
Chair: Beth E. Graybill, Millersville University
VI-3 "Sowing the Seeds of Love": Promoting Transgender Inclusivity and Visibility in Policies and Training Programs in the Heartland
An LGBTQ archive at the Civil Rights Heritage Center in South Bend, Indiana: A TREES, Inc. Resource
Jamie Wagman, Saint Mary's College, South Bend, Indiana
TREES, Inc.: Transgender Education for Small Town and Rural America
Meghan Buell, Founder of TREES (Transgender Resource, Education and Enrichment Services)
Developing an Educational Presentation for TREES about Violence Prevention and Support Services
Jordan Lolmaugh, St. Mary's College
Reviewing and Revising USDA Employment Policies and Procedures to Ensure Inclusivity and Provide Best Practices for TREES, Inc., Training of Federal and State Agricultural Employees
Alex Shambery, St. Mary's College
Chair: Mary A. Larson, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University
Friday, 18 May 2018
3:45 to 4:15 pm - Break: Snacks in LLC atrium
4:15 to 5:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION VII
VII-1 Stories
Looking Forward, Looking Back: Evolving Personal Views of the Dust Bowl
Mary A. Larson, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University
Does Oral History Affect the Life Satisfaction of Older African American Women?
Patricia A. Wilkerson, Arkansas State University
Ten Ladies of the Deep South: Stories of Triumph by the Community of African American Women of Sheeplo, Mississippi
Joseph Cates, Sullivan Museum & History Center, Norwich University
Old Indigent Women in Contemporary Nigerian Mythic Consciousness: Nollywood's Witchery and Implications for Rural Women
Stephen Temitope David, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Victim Blaming: Deconstructing Rape Culture in Rural Communities of Southwest Nigeria
Phebean A. Adekunle, Oregon State University
Chair: Tracey Hanshew, Washington State University TriCities
VII-2 Panel Discussion: Culture, Indigenous Women and Indigenous Development in South African Communities
Presenters will identify and contextualize key issues, concerns and trends affecting the livelihood of women in rural locations and larger communities in South Africa, with an emphasis on the ways that uneducated women contribute to the community positively as entrepreneurs and as preservers of cultural heritage. Presenters will address: 1) How do cultural practices, beliefs and values shape livelihood; 2) Empowerment and women-inherited livelihood; 3) Women's livelihood in colonial and post-colonial era
Panelists:
Nokwanda Yoliswa Nzuza, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Adetola Elizabeth Oyewo, Brainstorm Travel Consult, PTY, Durban, and University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Gbadebo Gbemisola, Independent Researcher and Brainstorm Travel Consult, PTY, Durban, South Africa
Chair and Facilitator: Samuel Uwem Umoh, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Friday, 18 May 2018
4:15 to 5:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION VII (continued)
VII-3 Panel Discussion: Appalachian Feminisms & Rurality--Place, Place Making, and Praxis
This panel builds on previous sessions at Appalachian Studies Association (ASA) conferences exploring the concept of "Appalachian Feminism(s)." Presenters will examine gender and place through place-based theorizing, organizing, and activism in Appalachia. Our respective experiences and scholarship consider material, performative, and symbolic aspects of Appalachian Feminism(s). We represent an intergenerational mix of academic, community, and activist perspectives who have benefitted from Sally Maggard's foundational articles on Appalachian gender and women's studies and analyses of Appalachian women's resistance.
Panelists:
Sally Maggard, West Virginia University
Tammy Clemons, University of Kentucky
Zada Komara, University of Kentucky
Jordan Laney, Virginia Tech
Convener: Kathryn Engle, University of Kentucky
6:00 pm - Dinner on your own
7:30 pm - Women's History Walking Tour, Ohio University campus (LLC atrium)
Tour features outdoor artwork by Athens native Maya Lin (of Vietnam Wall fame) and Emeritus Professor of Art David Hostetler (internationally famous for depiction of the female form) as well as sites commemorating speeches at Ohio University and in Athens by Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Mead, and Marian Anderson.
Saturday, 19 May 2018
7:30 to 8:30 am - Breakfast & RWSA Business Meeting, Residence Hall Dining, Nelson Commons.
8:45 to 10:15 am - Athens Farmers Market (van transportation provided)
10:30 to Noon - CONCURRENT SESSION VIII
VIII-1 Women, Land, and the State: Perspectives from Scandinavian History
Inheriting Daughters, Undivided Farms, and Common Fields in Upper Dalarna, Sweden, 1730-1930
Grey Osterud, Independent Historian, USA
Harvest Failure, Farm Indebtedness and Foreclosure, Gendered and Generational Dissent, and Emigration from Torstuna, Sweden, to Bishops Hill, Illinois, in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Irene A. Flygare, Stiftelsen Upplandsmuseet, Uppsala, Sweden
Marja Erikson, Uppsala University, Sweden
Women's Homesteading and Land Purchase on Indian Reservations on the Northern Great Plains, 1887-1934
Karen V. Hansen and Samantha Leonard, Brandeis University
Agrarian Women and the Construction of the Two-Breadwinner Welfare State in Interwar Sweden
Lena Sommestad, Governor, Province of Halland, Sweden
Chair: Debra A. Reid, The Henry Ford
Saturday, 19 May 2018
10:30 to Noon - CONCURRENT SESSION VIII (continued)
VIII-2 Rural Women and Their Work
Yoruba Heritage, Identity and Emblem in the Adire (indigo-dyed) Textile Industry in Nigeria: Case of Women Entrepreneurs in Kemta Market, Abeokuta
Adetola Elizabeth Oyewo, Brainstorm Travel Consult, PTY, Durban, and University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Gbadebo Gbemisola, Independent Researcher and Brainstorm Travel Consult, PTY, Durban, South Africa
Indigenous Communities, Livelihood and Annang Women of Nigeria: Livelihood based in the Raffia Hookeri and Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis)
Samuel Uwem Umoh and Nokwanda Yoliswa Nzuza University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Questioning the Gendered Nature of Women's Work: A study of North Eastern Region of India
Bornali Borah, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (in absentia)
Chair: Margaret Thomas-Evans, Indiana University East
VIII-3 Roundtable: Creating Dawn Jewell, Appalachian Woman and Narrator of Trampoline
Robert Gipe, author of Trampoline: An Illustrated Novel, and students in the Appalachian Program at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKCTC) will discuss their collaborative writing projects, including the students' influence on Trampoline: An Illustrated Novel that features Appalachian woman Dawn Jewell. Robert Gipe also is a producer of the Higher Ground community performances in Harlan County, Kentucky, and the session will also address the collaboration of Robert and SKCTC students on a play in progress about Appalachian women.
Chair & Facilitator: Rachel Terman, Ohio University
Noon to 1:00 - Lunch on your Own
1:00 to 2:00 pm - PLENARY Nikki Taylor, Driven toward Madness (Ohio University Press, 2016)
Introduction by Terri L. Snyder, California State University - Fullerton
Nikki Taylor is Professor of History and Department Chair at Howard University. Professor Taylor's third book, Driven Toward Madness: The Fugitive Slave Margaret Garner and Tragedy on the Ohio (Ohio University Press, 2016), is a biography of Margaret Garner, an enslaved wife and mother who in 1856 escaped from slavery in northern Kentucky with her entire family. Garner's reaction to her family's recapture served as the inspiration for Toni Morrison's classic novel Beloved.
2:00 pm - Silent auction ends
Saturday, 19 May 2018
2:15 to 3:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION IX
IX-1 Discussion Forum: Sharing Strategies for Creative Approaches to Community Development & Place Making
How do we turn buildings, roads and geographic features into vibrant places that nurture and support human collectivities? How do we build community through engaging with others and with our unique environments? This discussion forum provides a space for conference attendees to share their personal and local approaches to place-making. Forum hosts are especially interested in hearing from participants about context-specific strategies for:
Developing and implementing community improvement or preservation projects
Sustaining community engagement over time
Making the work inclusive of different kinds of people
After mapping the opportunities and challenges we have in common, we will facilitate a discussion of next steps in place-based community revitalization that attends particularly to the things that make life beautiful.
Discussion Forum Participants:
Barbara Bradbury, Hurricane Run Farm, a host WWOOF farm (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) in southern Ohio; Shawnee State University
Katherine Borland, Center for Folklore Studies, The Ohio State University
Jody Newton McAllister, Friends of Scioto Brush Creek, Inc.
Jenny Richards, Naturalist, Shawnee State Park
Dawn Richards, Southern Ohio Medical Center
Coordinator and Facilitator: Cassie Patterson, Center for Folklore Studies and the Folkore Archives, The Ohio State University
IX-2 Rural Women and Their Places
Race, Place, and the Biographical Turn: Priscilla Baltimore and Brooklyn, Illinois
Sharon E. Wood, University of Nebraska at Omaha
USCT Women and Community in the Post-Civil War Era
Kelly Jones, Austin Peay State University
Until the Lord Come Get Me, It Burn Down, or the Next Storm Blow it Away": Principles of Place Preservation in Deep East Texas' African American Vernacular Landscapes
Andrea Roberts, Texas A &M University
Women at the Center and on the Edges of Ontario's Reciprocal Work Bees, 1860-1920
Catharine Wilson, University of Guelph
Chair, Terri L. Snyder, California State University - Fullerton
Saturday, 19 May 2018
2:15 to 3:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION IX (continued)
IX-3 Panel Discussion: Rethinking and Remaking Place as Resistance
This facilitated, participatory session will address rural women's experiences of cultural and institutional hegemony. We seek to demystify the operation of hegemony, to know it when we observe or experience it, and to develop and implement strategies of resistance. We will highlight current efforts to decolonize rural spaces by reclaiming/remaking/revaluing local culture, prioritizing the commons, and safe-guarding the common good. We situate efforts in an evolving ecofeminism that connects, both ideologically and structurally, the renewed and virulent patriarchal assault on women and the environment.
Panelists:
Angie Carter, Michigan Technological University
Betty Wells, Iowa State University
Rashmi Attri, AMU Aligarh, India. Recorded video presentation of 'Ecofeminism in Mamang Dai's Writings' (in absentia)
Chair: Jenny Barker-Devine, Illinois College
3:45 to 4:15 pm Break: Snacks in LLC atrium
4:15 to 5:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION X
X-1 Rural Women Educators
Anna M. P. Strong: A Rural Arkansas Educational Activist, 1884-1966
Cherisse R. Jones-Branch, Arkansas State University
The Wyoming Years of Schoolmarm, Superintendent, and Homesteader Edith K.O. Clark
Ginny Kilander, University of Wyoming
Margery Burns is Tilting at Windmills: Rural Schools in a Modern America
Emily Prifogle, Princeton University
Chair: Amy L. McKinney, Northwest College
X-2 Rural Health Care
"Everything that Could be Done for Negroes Was Done": Juliette Derricotte, Nina Johnson, and the Violence of Jim Crow Medicine
Yulonda Eadie Sano, Alcorn State University
"If you go to her home you know where she is coming from": An Oral History of the Rural Birth Control Movement in Maine, 1967 to 1983
Mazie Hough, University of Maine-Orono (in absentia)
Discussion of evidence documenting reproductive experiences, i.e., Women's Reproductive History Alliance (http://www.womensreproductivehistoryalliance.org), co-directed by Jennifer Hill, Montana State University.
Discussion of two news reports on maternal health care in rural America. See Dana Fine Maron, Maternal Health Care is Disappearing in Rural America, Scientific American (15 Feb 2017) and Jilian Mincer, -- More Hospital Closings in Rural add Risk for Pregnant Women, Reuters (18 July 2017).
Audience Discussion Facilitator: Debra A. Reid, The Henry Ford
Saturday, 19 May 2018
4:15 to 5:45 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION X (continued)
X-3 Roundtable Discussion: Organizing Rural Women in Today's Political Climate
Rural women have long engaged in politics. Women in northwestern Missouri invited Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to speak for women's suffrage. More recently, Black women in the South worked with little recognition to mobilize rural residents in the push for civil rights. Barbara Pini, Berit Brandth, and Jo Little's Feminism and Ruralities (2015) and Jenny Barker-Devine's On Behalf of the Family Farm (2013) examine the push made by other rural women, with a focus on the way they organized and what they fought for. Recently, renewed political urgency has led many women from behind their computer screens and away from the relative safety and anonymity of Facebook activism to real-world contentious, and loud public activism.
Panelists:
Rural Women and Politicized Social Movements
Jamie Campbell, Tulane University
Mobilizing Democrats in Missouri and Texas: The challenges of Liberal Organizing in Rural, Conservative America
Elyssa B. Ford, Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville; and
Kelly McMichael, American Public University
Chair and Facilitator: Elyssa B. Ford, Northwest Missouri State University
6:00 pm DINNER on your own
8:00 pm Evening Program: Women of Appalachia Spoken Word and Music Artists
Warm-up: Invitation to RWSA 2021: Catharine Wilson, chair of the 2021 RWSA conference, will give a10-minute presentation depicting the host site, University of Guelph, Ontario
Main Attraction: Women of Appalachia Project:
Kari Gunter-Seymour (Ohio) Poetry
Tonja Matney Reynolds (Ohio) Story
Becky Code (Ohio) Story
Lisa M. Pursley (West Virginia) Poetry
Rose M. Smith (Ohio) Poetry
Renee Stewart (Ohio) Song
Sunday, 20 May 2018
Brunch (based on purchased meal options)
10:00 am to 2:00 pm (this includes Sunday brunch)
Tour of Wayne National Forest and Zaleski State Forest (pre-registration and extra fee required, van transportation provided). Tour includes a visit to Wayne National Forest's Shawnee Fire Tower, Tinker's Cave, and Payne African American Cemetery Interpretive Site; then on to Zaleski State Forest and the Hope Iron Furnace, Lake Hope Nature Center, and the Lake Hope Lodge for Sunday brunch.
v.5/3/18