WCC Co-Chairs Report, 2019
Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz and Lisl Walsh
Much of the beginning of the year was taken up with activism. Following on racist incidents at the SCS, the WCC co-chairs wrote to the SCS President Helen Boatwright, Barbara Gold (VP for Professional Matters), and Helen Cullyer. The letter is appended here.[i] We also took action of our own and wrote to members, asking them to use Diotima to support new syllabi dealing with multiple issues of marginalization in antiquity. We committed to using our on-line resources to support those who wish to change their teaching.[ii]
The WCC chairs played an active part in the campaign to pressure CAMWS on its decision to hold the 2023 meeting at Brigham Young University. That campaign ended when CAMWS agreed not to hold any sessions on the campus because of its rules prohibiting any “homosexual behavior” and imposing a gendered dress code, among other problems. It was quite a struggle, and a pretty minimal response, but at least people will be safer at that meeting. Although we discussed the CAMWS meeting in 2020 in Alabama, in the wake of the recent decision on abortion there, no action was agreed upon.
We worked together with the Classics and Social Justice Committee and the SCS to arrange the bystander training that is now an integral part of the SCS meetings in 2020.
We continued our work with COGSIP on the harassment survey that was circulated this year. Working with the standing committees seems a good way to affect the larger organization. The SCS have now implemented bystander training, and have an ombudsperson for the meeting.
We held one interim virtual meeting in October . We agreed at that time to take on issues of fees for the meeting (in process[iii]) and to make recommendations to the SCS about the interview process (also in process).
RESOURCES
The WCC is now the host of a new resource, the Online Companion to the Worlds of Roman Women (feminaeromanae.org), which will also be reachable through a link from the WCC homepage (wccaucus/resources).
The Chairs shared two issues with the Steering Committee as a whole. 1) What jobs to post on the list? We agreed that we would only post bona fide jobs, not potential ones. In terms of contingent or potentially exploitative positions, we agreed that the administrator of the email list would use good judgment about posting and consult with the Executive Committee when in doubt. 2) Should we exclude the syllabi of suspected harassers from Diotima? Our resolution was to archive the one example. Serena Witzke is in the process of revising that site currently.
REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
We continued to work with CAAS (breakfast meeting) and CAMWS (a panel and opening reception).
This is the report from Lillian Doherty on CAAS:
A small number of CAAS members attended the WCC breakfast at the CAAS annual meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland on Oct. 11. The main topic of conversation was the issue, raised by the WCC Steering Committee, of whether job interviews should be held at the annual meeting of the SCS. Opinions were somewhat divided, and we all recognized the reasons for the Steering Committee’s position, but the older members were very reluctant to abandon the possibility of face to face interviews, which are most conveniently scheduled for a time when large numbers of us are gathered together. While some candidates do less well in face to face interviews, we could all recall instances where candidates rose in our estimation as a result of the face to face interview. We came up with a possible compromise: that hiring committees be encouraged to offer alternatives to the annual meeting for those unable to attend, either in the form of Skype-style interviews or (preliminary) on-campus interviews for candidates who live close enough to travel to the campus. The latter should be as close to the SCS interviews as possible, to keep things equitable. It was acknowledged that some universities might not permit these disparities in interview style.
For 2020, we are again sponsoring a panel (E PLURIBUS UNUM: The challenge and opportunities of “diversity” for Classics and for CAMWS) that CAMWS suggested.
MENTORING
The new expanded mentoring program seems to be going well — at least we have not heard any complaints. Deb Kamen and Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz have paired up most of those who have asked for a mentor. The next cycle will be handled by Dominic Machado (for Mountaintop) and Anise Strong. We will need volunteers to replace Nancy (from CSJ) and Deb from LCC at the end of 2020.
NOTES
Dear President Boatwright, VP Barbara Gold, and Executive Director Helen Cullyer:
We write as co-chairs of the Women’s Classical Caucus to express our support for those who have been historically and currently marginalized in our profession. The racist events at the recent SCS meeting brought us face to face with the reality of what we often say we know: the field is still predominantly white. Moreover the hotels where we hold them are exclusive spaces, meant for people of a certain type.
The WCC sees its role as twofold: to clean up our own house, and to pressure/help the SCS to change. Some suggestions:
1. As WCC has been saying for at least three years now (2016), the organization should have a designated safety officer, or ombudsperson. It seems best that this person should be a professional with training and not someone who might be in a position of power over an individual seeking to lodge a complaint. This is necessary and must be in place by the next annual meeting.
2. We furthermore support the suggestions of those people of color in the field who have already urged.
i. Programming around systemic racism from the leadership, not only from the “interest groups.”
ii. Structural changes to programming.
The SCS has changed a great deal since the founding of WCC in 1972. The program has been opened up in many ways, but not so much in terms of racial diversity of presenters. We recommend a sustained effort to improve on past efforts with a working group appointed to recommend specific changes to programming procedures.
iii. Structural changes to governance.
Open nominations are a step, but not enough; the leadership remains predominantly white and male. Other organizations and societies have done better. We need a working group empowered to do the research on their strategies and come up with better solutions that would work for SCS. There are volunteers ready to help in WCC.
The WCC is committed to making meaningful change and its members are willing to work with the SCS to that end. We must do what can be done to act in accordance with what we say we believe. We quote here from the WCC statement:
The Women’s Classical Caucus supports dialogue, collaboration and the free exchange of ideas among scholars from all parts of the world. For this reason, we condemn and reject discriminatory language, laws and actions directed against groups of people based on race, religion, national origin, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, age or disability. We welcome all as members of our organization and we stand in solidarity with our colleagues and students against the assault on the values we share, such as liberty, equity and justice, which has become increasingly acceptable since the most recent US election.
To our colleagues who have found themselves attacked for their scholarship and public outreach, who have received derogatory or discriminating remarks, hate speech, death or rape threats, or who have had their private information exposed because they exercised their freedom of speech in the practice of the profession, we offer our support and any assistance we can provide. We similarly offer our support and assistance to those students and colleagues who have been affected by the recent executive order restricting immigrants and refugees. The WCC unequivocally opposes these un-American and potentially unconstitutional measures and activities, and we stand ready to work together with those who seek to protest them.
Sincerely yours,
Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz and Lisl Walsh, WCC co-chairs
[ii] In the wake of recent calls for changes to the profession, we invite people to submit syllabi and resources for those interested in teaching women, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and disability in antiquity, as well as in classical receptions, to the new Diotima. The new Diotima is here: https://diotimawcc.wordpress.com/about/, and material can be sent to diotima.wcc@gmail.com.
Diotima (http://www.stoa.org/diotima/) and the WCC (http://wccaucus.org/) have long been resources for teaching about women; we wish to continue to serve as a repository for more inclusive courses and intersectional pedagogies.
We will be linking with Classics and Social Justice (classicsandsocialjustice@wordpress.com), MRECC https://www.facebook.com/groups/mrecc/), and Resources for Teaching Race and Ethnicity on Rebecca Futo Kennedy’s blog (https://rfkclassics.blogspot.com/p/teaching-race-and-ethnicity.html) for breadth and efficiency. By pooling our resources, we can better educate ourselves and improve as teachers.
Letter to SCS Leadership
The Women’s Classical Caucus has been considering issues surrounding equity, in particular with regard to fees for attending the annual meeting. The meeting is especially important to some of our most vulnerable members, and it is equally important that the SCS have those people in attendance. Our current definition of “contingent” and fee structure make that difficult. Asking those members who are not in a tenured, tenure-track, or professor of the practice position to pay the same fees as those who earn many times their salary is not equitable.
We have compared our fees to other organizations and see one area where we can improve. We recommend that the definition of “contingent faculty” be based on level of employment (e.g. under or unemployed rather than based on the access to healthcare and retirement benefits) and that contingent faculty be offered a fee comparable to that of students.
