Greetings! As president of the ASU Faculty Women’s Association for 2009-10, I want to welcome you to our new web page. I also want to tell you a about our plans for the academic year and, especially, encourage all women faculty to join the FWA. Dues are the primary source of support for the events and workshops that ASU faculty women have come to expect from the organization. This year, those will include, “Success in the Early Years” (for assistant professors), “Successful Promotion,” “Tenure & Promotion Panel Discussion” (featuring former members of the P&T committee), “Family and the Academic Career,” “Negotiations: Women Don’t Ask, But They Should,” and “Success in the Sciences.”

But membership also has its privileges. Starting 2009-10, the FWA website will showcase the many achievements of FWA members (who wish to be included) in two new sections: “FWA Member Profiles,” which highlight members’ teaching and research interests; and “FWA Member Achievements,” which details the recent awards, grants, leadership roles, and publications of FWA members.  A special search engine will allow members to network electronically and initiate collaborations around shared scholarly interests. Other member benefits this year relate to special FWA events:

·         The 2010 Leadership Summit: Bringing it Home (Feb. 17).  Building upon the very successful  2009 leadership summit, Madame President, which featured nine  women of color from around the U.S. who are or have been presidents of learned societies, this year’s summit will feature ASU’s own academic leaders, whose service to their professions, publications, mentoring, and teaching achievements make them leaders in their fields. The 2010 summit will delve even more deeply into  the  importance and possibilities for leadership that women exert through their research and scholarly activities, professional dedication, and teaching skills rather than through the more conventional advancement up the administrative ladder. Scores of ASU women qualify to inspire their peers with amazing credentials and accomplishments that have inspired others in their fields and made a difference in the way that knowledge is created and shared with students. But for this year’s summit (which might become an annual event), a representative sample will offer their stories, advice, warnings, and encouragement.   FWA members will enjoy special events related to the summit.

 

·         Future Directions for FWA. For the first time ever at ASU, the FWA Advisory Board and I will undertake the task of locating and defining the services and support that are already available to ASU faculty women. We will also make recommendations about better ways to communicate what exists by way of service and support, about needs that are not currently being met, as well as about possible benefits that might accrue from consolidating certain activities to better serve our female faculty. To that end, we will be bringing a consultant or two who might make suggestions of ways to organize and target efforts that now come from an array of sources. Stay tuned for more information on events related to consultant visits and discussions of future directions.   FWA members will have a special voice in determining the future of the FWA as well as other organizations and services dedicated to improving academic women’s lives at ASU.

 

Please join the Board and me in shaping FWA to better serve you. Become a member. Add your voice. Help make your own experience at ASU what you want it to be.

 

Best wishes,

Sally Kitch, FWA President

Director, Institute for Humanities Research

Professor, Women & Gender Studies