Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
Review Es Say: No Day at the Beach: Women "Making It" in Academia
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Brueggemann, Brenda Jo Gramer, Rachel |
| Copyright Year | 2017 |
| Abstract | Women's Ways of Making It in Rhetoric and Composition. Michelle Ballif, Diane Davis, and Roxanne Mountford. New York: Routledge, 2008. 352 pp. ISBN: 978-0-80584444-3.Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia. Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez, and Angela P. Harris. Logan: Utah State UP, 2012. 512 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8742-1922-7.Rewriting Success in Rhetoric and Composition Careers. Amy M. Goodburn, Donna LeCourt, Carrie Leverenz. Anderson, S.C.: Parlor Press, 2013. 240 pp. ISBN: 978-1-6023-5292-6.The closet, it matters. The admitted "inspiration" for the first of these three "making it" collections (Women's Ways of Making It in Rhetoric and Composition [WWMIRC] 2008) begins, anecdotally, with deep admiration of another senior female faculty member's "impeccable" wardrobe and style (alongside her other impeccable features). The coeditors of WWMIRC (Ballif, Davis, and Mountford) predicate their work in bringing together this 2008 volume on "the desire to spy on the closets-or the personal and professional choices-of the successful women in our field, in order to see how they 'made it'" (viii). This closet study (and perhaps even closet envy) circulates-sometimes literally but always figuratively-throughout each of these three collections.In starting with/in the closet, we couldn't, then, help but think of our own literal and figurative closets. Here is Brenda's story.Although I was told often in the "developing" years of my academic career that I dressed well-"with such clean lines," said one sign language interpreter who often worked with me, and "with cool colors and accents," according to a student in an evaluation-I always felt that my literal (and figurative) closet was somewhere in the late August near-wild state of a once-great backyard garden: Lots of great things growing but also now a bit sprung out of control as well. And this great growth bordering on being just a bit weedy and wild applied not just to my clothes closet, but to my to-do list and "projects in progress" as well. I tried to throw it all together as best I could. Some days, no doubt, were better than others.Rachel has a similar story.Returning to graduate school after acts of downsizing (both marital and spatial), I learned that one closet can serve many purposes: coat, clothes, linen, and utility. With an extra wardrobe cabinet, I can squeeze in my collection of Ann Taylor slacks and scarves for every season, but the doors don't close. For me, the "impeccable closet" is not an option-and I've been relieved to find mentors who live in the mess. One of my transformative grad school moments (as I narrate it now) was opening one of my mentor's kitchen cabinets to find an assorted jumble of boxes and jars-and crumbs. Like my closet, my professional persona seems to expand and shift, not containable behind a neat, sleek facade, and I feel most confident and competent when learning from, with, and alongside women for whom things are not kept in the "perfect" place-because there is no such thing. I no longer want to be "the" successful female academic with an impeccable closet; I want to be "a" generous feminist educator with crumbs in her cupboards.One thing is very clear coming out of these closets: how we (women) in the academy present ourselves-and relate to each other-really matters. In an effort to organize the closet(s) of this review essay, we intend to first critically summarize each of the three collections; then we will narratively synthesize our own experiences with four prominent themes across these collections: knowing, balance, mentoring, and change. In our four-part woven analysis, we see (and tell) tales from women about what has been lurking in the academy's closet and what still needs to change.Triangulating the Art and Acts of "Making It"The first of these three books, chronologically, Women's Ways of Making It in Rhetoric and Composition (2008) [WWMIRC] situates itself squarely (and roundly) in the already feminized field of rhetoric and composition. … |
| Starting Page | 297 |
| Ending Page | 297 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 79 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CE/0793-jan2017/CE0793Reviewpword.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
