Ethnographic Inquiry of Feministing

1. 1 of 22 Community-Sponsored Literate Activity and Technofeminism: Ethnographic Inquiry of Feministing Kerri Hauman 22 February 2012

2. 2 of 22 Overview • Introduction to site of inquiry • Positioning my project: • Scholarly landscape/gaps (contributions) • Project goals • Key terms • Key themes and texts • Research project details • Research questions • Methods, methodologies • Limitations and difficulties • Chapter outlines

3. 3 of 22 editors Site of Inquiry : Feministing http://feministing.com contributors ++Screenshot of Feministing taken 16 February 2012

4. 4 of 22 Scholarly Landscape • social studies of science & technology positioning my project writing studies (techno) feminist theory

5. 5 of 22 Finding/Minding the Gaps positioning my project • Studies of the extracurriclum, particularly women’s literacy “When investigating how people engage in everyday literate activities beyond the classroom, scholars have primarily examined the workplace and the home” (Sheridan-Rabideau 3) “It is important to move away from generalizations about life in cyberspace and begin to analyze specific instances of computer-mediated communication” (Warnick 74) • Socially situated narrative- and interview-based studies of literacy acquisition (e.g., Brandt, Selfe and Hawisher) “[W]e really know very little about how and why people have acquired and developed, or failed to acquire and develop, the literacies of technology during the past 25 years or so. Nor do we know the historical, cultural, economic, political, or ideological factors that have affected, or been affected by, people’s acquisition and development of these technological literacies” (Selfe and Hawisher 2). • Technofeminist research within writing studies (e.g., Blair, Blair and Almjeld) “In an era in which women’s literacy experiences are as much online as offline, migrating these goals and the methods accompanying them into virtual spaces is a priority for technofeminist rhetoricians seeking to make online spaces hospitable to women’s social, professional, and political goals” (Blair, forthcoming, n.p.)

6. 6 of 22 Finding/Minding the Gaps positioning my project • Gaps between theory and practice • Myth of literacy Assumptions that literacy leads to upward mobility and that illiteracy is the cause of downward mobility (Brandt 212) • Typical cases/telling cases “We need new telling cases that disrupt this typical flattening, that lead to ne theories, new ways of thinking about research, and new strategies to address real-world problems” (Sheridan-Rabideau 9) reflection + action praxis

7. 7 of 22 Project Goals positioning my project • Answer the call for more contextualized studies of digital space/communities (Sheridan, Gurak, Warnick) • Add to scholarly conversations about • literate activity that makes up the extracurriculum of writing studies • how digital writing spaces affect/are affected by feminist activism • how to research literate activity responsibly in digital spaces • Creation of a research archive I can return to and continue work on feminist literate activity across time and technologies

8. 8 of 22 Key Terms positioning my project Extracurriculum – uncouples literacy from schooling and acknowledges that writing pedagogues take the form of more than classroom teachers (e.g., magazine articles with advice about how to write well) “the extracurriculum includes the present as well as the past; it extends beyond the academy to encompass the multiple contexts in which persons seek to improve their own writing; it includes more diversity in gender, race, and class among writers; and it avoids, as much as possible, a reenactment of professionalization in its narrative” (Gere 80) “In tracing the cultural dissociations of reading and writing as they emerged in these interviews, I join other voices who have lately called for a broadening of the scope by which we study literacy practices and the need to understand school-based writing in terms of larger cultural, historical, and economic currents” (Brandt Literacy 112) Literacy – use of a symbol system, typically writing, to interpret and interact with the world, and also “multiliteracy” (New London Group) Writing/Literate activity – “literate activity” replaces “writing” and “literacy” “‘Writing’ is too partial, too contextually thin, a unit of analysis” (Prior xi) “This shift [turning our research interests to the extracurriculum] indexes a definition of literacy, what I am calling ‘literate activities,’ that diminishes individual, decontextualized skills and foregrounds literacy as a social activity embedded in situated, cultural-historical contexts” (Sheridan 3)

9. 9 of 22 Key Terms positioning my project Technology– historically and socially situated definitions; limited conceptions of what technology is and who creates/uses it “writing (and especially alphabetic writing) is a technology” because it “[calls] for the use of tools and other equipment” (Ong 80-81) “writing is a technology and, in ancient Greece, the alphabet was the essence of that technology” (Enos 11) Feminism /Technofeminism – intersections of rhetoric and feminism similarities between the two fields: emphasis on process, linking of theory and practice, recognition and valuing of “local and applied knowledges,” and concern for “public values and the public good” (Ede, Glenn, and Lunsford 439) feminist perspectives + social studies of science & technology Technofeminism

10. 10 of 22 Rhetoric/Writing &Feminism writing studies • Technology studies positioning my project “Threads” that have significantly shaped feminist perspectives in rhetorical studies: • radical beginnings • efforts to include women as communicators and women’s topics in the discipline • critiques of the discipline from feminist perspectives • labeling and refining of feminist perspectives • reconceptualizations of constructs and theories in rhetorical studies from feminist perspectives” (Foss, Foss, and Griffin 14-15) (techno) feminist theory

11. 11 of 22 Rhetoric/Writing &Feminism positioning my project Redefinition: “By emphasizing where and how texts and their writers are located – their intersections with others and the places they diverge, how they occupy positions and move in the betweens – we can retain the spatial metaphors of ethos without limiting it to arenas of spoken discourse and without assuming that those gathering places are harmonious or conflict-free” (Reynolds 333, emphasis in original). “[W]e need a broader definition of rhetoric [b]ecause women were often denied rhetorical education in the men’s tradition, and because they did not have the rights to preach, to make political speeches, or to defend themselves in law courts, women’s rhetoric doesn’t fit the public speaking model. Many women theorists do not even treat argument or persuasion. But some do” (Donawerth xv). Broader definitions of rhetoric • conversational rhetoric (Donawerth) • Invitational rhetoric (Foss and Griffin) Goals • recognizing the boundaries, limits, and theoretical scope of all rhetorical theories • “A rhetorical theory’s worth is its capacity to render rhetorical practices understandable” (Blair qtd. in Donawerth xix)

12. 12 of 22 Rhetoric/Writing &Feminism positioning my project Essentialism and/or Constructivism: “It is difficult to separate the history of women’s rhetorics from the history of the struggle for women’s rights because the desire/demand for rights so often becomes the impetus for writing” (Ritchie and Ronald xxii) “The essentialist position leaves women trapped in a separate, idealistic, but ultimately powerless position as ‘other’; the constructivist position leaves women in an eternally fluid position of indeterminacy or in a position of negativity, constantly rejecting and deconstructing but also risking invisibility and the possibility for action and change” (Ritchie 85). Essentialism: “most commonly understood as a belief in the real, true essence of things, the invariable and fixed properties which define the ‘whatness’ of a given entity” (Fuss xi) Intersectionality: “Each of us in the world sits at the intersection of many categories.” “[O]ppressions cannot be dismantled separately because they mutually reinforce each other.” Grillo (30, 36)

13. 13 of 22 Computers & Writing positioning my project Essentialism/Constructivism Continuum: “Both [Takayoshi, Huot, and Huot & Haas, Tulley, and Blair’s articles] refer to teenage girls in ways that universalize them” (Skeen 211) “I would encourage a materialist approach, one that bridges the gap between constructivist approaches by questioning both the ways in which political, material, and social conditions impact women as a class of individuals and the extent to which inequities can and should be transformed through feminist action in classrooms and communities” (Blair “Response”131).

14. 14 of 22 Computers & Writing positioning my project Technology is not neutral, is not inherently feminist, is embedded in existing social structures “As with any technology, blogging is not neutral, but a part of a network of social, political, cultural, and material forces” (Jack 329) “all technologies are reproductive technologies “(Hocks 107) “although hypertext can highlight the interactivity of multiple positions, it cannot in itself create an awareness of those positions” (LeCourt and Barnes 69) Disrupting either/ors Women are not either victims or passive participants (Gerrard) Technology is not either oppressive or empowering (Selfe and Hawisher) Who speaks, who is silenced; embodiment “The perpetuation of this disembodied rhetoric of technology has…hindered discussions of the ways that technology has been designed and continues to function as a tool for the maintenance of exclusionary and oppressive cultural practices despite an individual or group’s liberatory aims” (Addison and Hilligoss 22)

15. 15 of 22 Research Questions research project details • What is the range of literate activity that occurs on Feministing? • What is the exigency for this literate activity? • Where does this literate activity seem self-sponsored, and where does it seem community-sponsored (underlying question, can the two be differentiated)? • What aspects of this community as well as society more broadly foster and delimit contributors’ literate activity? • How do various aspects of this community as well as society more broadly foster and delimit contributors’ literate activity? • How do my findings complement/complicate conversations about the extracurriculum? • How do my findings fit into feminist conversations about harnessing technology for political purposes? • How do my findings contribute to conversations about community building as a form of feminist action?

16. 16 of 22 Timeline research project details

17. 17 of 22 Methods & Methodologies research project details Method: “a technique for (or way of proceeding in) gathering evidence” (Harding 2) Ethnographically informed “using ethnographic tools such as interview, time-activity charts, document content analysis, and digital sound recording, allows for ‘the use of methods and techniques usually associated with fieldwork’” (qtd. in Sheridan “Digging”) • Survey • Interviews • Observation/Participation Situated, Complex Literacy Study(Sheridan-informed) “I call for new methods to analyze literacy. Since literacy is inherently situated, analyses should attend to local practices and to broader socioeconomic dynamics that both make texts meaningful and authorize particular individuals to be creators of texts” (Sheridan 4) • Reading about local practices (e.g., Feministing, current feminism and activism, digital communities) and broader socioeconomic dynamics (e.g., of literacy, of feminist activism, of digital communities)

18. 18 of 22 Methods & Methodologies research project details Methodology: “a theory and analysis of how research does or should proceed” (Harding 3) Feminist (1) Women’s experiences recognized as important resources for analysis; (2) research intended for women; (3) researcher places herself on same critical plane as subject matter (Harding) (1) feminist research aims to create social change; (2) feminist research strives to represent human diversity; (3) feminism is a perspective, not a research method; and (4) feminist research frequently includes the researcher as a person” (ShulamitRheinharzqtd. in Blair and Tulley 306). (1) reflexivity; (2) an action orientation; (3) attention to the affective components of research; (4)use of the situation-at-hand” (Powell and Takayoshi 414) • Collaborative • Reciprocal • Recursive • Sociohistoric situatedness • Feminist politics

19. 19 of 22 Methods & Methodologies research project details Methodology: “a theory and analysis of how research does or should proceed” (Harding 3) Technofeminist A technofeminist framework: (1) calls attention to how technology is embedded in social networks, technology and social order between sexes reciprocally shaped; (2) acknowledges women’s agency and feminist politics rather than assigning agency primarily/solely to technology “Thus, the questions for technofeminist researchers, including those working in rhetoric and composition, must address: • how and why women access technology in their daily lives • what larger material constraints impact that access • what methods best enable opportunities for women to make their lived experiences with technology more visible” (Blair, forthcoming, n.p)

20. 20 of 22 Methods & Methodologies research project details Method: “a technique for (or way of proceeding in) gathering evidence” (Harding 2) Narratives/Participants’ Voices “Because of the emphasis on diverse voices, a significant component of both feminist and technofeminist research is the role of narrative as a powerful method for women and girls to articulate their relationships to technology within academic and social spaces and ‘to render the complexities of individual and social experience’” (Blair, forthcoming, n.p.) “[E]nactment [of a dramatic portrayal of women’s own life stories of the diversity and contradictions in which they live] holds within it the potential for historical, critical analysis and, thus, for action. It allows women to understand that the multiplicitous realities of their existence exceed all descriptions of essence” (Ritchie 99)

21. 21 of 22 Difficulties & Limitations research project details • Critiques of ethnographic research (Lather, Powell and Takayoshi, Naples) • Concerns about authority, power • Concerns about stories, storytelling • Tensions inherent in feminist research • Difficulties of reciprocality, collaboration (Powell and Takayoshi) • “Gender” is not so simple – acknowledging women but also recognizing intersectionality and that “women” is not “woman” • Critiques of cyberfeminism as utopic • If Feministing declines to participate Triangulation // Self-reflexivity and flexibility // Collaboration with co-chairs

22. 22 of 22 Chapter Outlines research project details Chapter 1, Introduction:overview and framework for project, including impetus for the project, how it fits within the larger field, discussions of important terminology, lit review, and overview of main findings and forecast of the rest of the dissertation Chapter 2, Methods/methodology: discussion of methods and methodologies to ground project within the field and within larger discussions of digital research on literate activity within digital communities, including thick description of the research site as well as discussions of how the research site was chosen; how the participants were selected; data collection, interpretation, and analysis; and how and why I applied technofeminist methodologies Chapter 3, Findings, Part 1: necessary local and historical framing used to make sense of my findings, then specific themes or categories that emerged, and theorizing about what these findings mean for studies of extracurricular literacy and technofeminism Chapter 4, Findings, Part 2: additional local and historical framing, themes and categories that emerge from my data, and theorizing about these findings Chapter 5, Conclusions: synthesis of findings and discussion of their implications for and contributions to writing studies; also, discussion of next steps and further research