The World According to Women: Signs 30th anniversary exhibit

["Suzanne Wu" <sw@press.uchicago.edu>]

With apologies for cross-posting.

For Immediate Release: March 30, 2006
Contact: Suzanne Wu / 773-834-0386 / swu@press.uchicago.edu

The World According to Women: Signs 30th anniversary

The University of Chicago Press is delighted to commend Signs: 
The Journal of Women in Culture and Society on its 30th 
anniversary. To mark three decades of transformative feminist 
scholarship, the Rutgers University Libraries have launched an 
archival exhibit exploring the complex interactions between the 
growth and development of a premier academic journal, the 
creation of an interdisciplinary field of feminist scholarship, 
and landmark achievements by women during the course of thirty 
years of transnational feminist activism.

Curated by Kayo Denda, the women's and gender studies librarian 
at Rutgers, and Fernanda Perrone, the special collections 
librarian overseeing the Signs archive, which is also located at 
Rutgers University, "Launching a Journal, Building an 
Interdisciplinary Field: The Legacies of Signs" will be on 
display in the Mabel Smith Douglass Room of the Mabel Smith 
Douglass Library from April 1 to June 30, 2006.

On April 6, to launch the exhibit, eight of the ten scholars who 
have edited Signs since its creation by the University of Chicago 
Press will participate in a panel discussion of the editorial 
decisions that shaped the journal and the field of women's 
studies (4-6 p.m.).  Founding Editor Catharine Stimpson, who 
launched the journal in 1975 at Barnard College, will be joined 
on the panel by her successors, including Barbara Charlesworth 
Gelpi, Stanford University (1980-1985);  Jean O'Barr, Duke 
University (1985-1990); Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres and Barbara 
Laslett, University of Minnesota (1990-1995); Carolyn Allen, 
University of Washington (1995-2000); Kathryn Norberg, UCLA 
(2000-2005); and Mary Hawkesworth, Rutgers University, who is the 
current editor of the journal.

Both the panel and the archival exhibit explore the role of Signs 
in transforming the known world.  By placing women's lives, 
experiences, and perspectives at the center of analysis, feminist 
scholarship published in the journal corrects distorted, biased, 
and erroneous accounts of history, society, politics, economics, 
science, philosophy, literature, and the arts. "Launching a 
Journal, Building an Interdisciplinary Field" also examines the 
innovative theories and concepts developed by feminist scholars 
to enrich contemporary understandings of the world.

For further information, contact Kayo Denda (732.932.9407, ext 
23) or Mary Hawkesworth (732.932.9577 or 215.931.0178).

--

The leading international journal in women's studies, Signs publishes
articles from a wide range of disciplines in a variety of voices. The focus
of essays ranges from cross-disciplinary theorizing and methodologies to
specific disciplinary issues, framed to enter conversations of interest
across disciplines.

The University of Chicago Press was established in 1891, making 
it one of the oldest continuously operating university presses in 
the United States. The Journals Division currently publishes 43 
leading journals and 5 annuals in the fields of social sciences, 
humanities, biological and medical sciences, and the physical 
sciences.

--
Suzanne Wu
Journals Division
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago, IL 60637
voice: 773-834-0386
fax: 773-702-0172
swu@press.uchicago.edu
www.journals.uchicago.edu