PSA Women’s Caucus – 2nd Biannual Meeting

7:45-8:45 AM, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008 at the Omni Hotel, Pittsburgh - GOBAMA!

1. Introductions/Attendance: Holly Andersen, Mieke Boon, Katherine Brading, Evelyn Brister, Julia Bursten, Nancy Cartwright, Sharyn Clough, Sharon Crasnow, Lindley Darden, Deepanwita Dasgupta, Inmaculada de Melo-Martin, Isabelle Drouet, Melinda Fagan, Carla Fehr, Doreen Fraser, Lisa Gannett, Nancy Hall, Susan Hawthorne, Moira Howes, Kristen Intemann, Janet Kourany, Elisabeth Lloyd, Tania Lombrozo, Roberta Millstein, Kathleen Okruhlik, Monika Piotrowska, Kathryn Plaisance, Angela Potochnik, Maria Rentetzi, Kristina Rolin, Laura Ruetsche, Stephanie Ruphy, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Miriam Solomon, Janet Stemwedel, Catherine Stinson, Nancy Tuana, Dana Tulodziecki, Andrea Woody, Alison Wylie, Audrey Yap.

2. Minutes – Sharyn Clough, Secretary, read minutes from last meeting. Demographic note: 32 members were in attendance at the inaugural meeting, not including three guest members of the HSS Women’s Caucus. This time, we were 41.

3.CFP for next meeting of the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) – Meike Boon invited contributions for the next meeting (June 2009) which will be in Minneapolis, MN. The deadline is Feb. 1, 2009. More details are available on their website.

4. Prize for best essay/book in feminist philosophy of science - Miriam Solomon, outgoing Sr. Co-Chair, offered to organise the prize, which will be awarded biennially at the same time as the other PSA prizes, typically before the Presidential Address. She will send around info via our list-serve as well as the general PSA listserv re: prize committee membership, raising funds,etc.

5.Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy – Co-editor Alison Wylie and Book Review Editor Sharyn Clough form Hypatia’s new editorial team (which also includes Co-editor Lori Gruen). They discussed the new publishing contract with Wiley Blackwell, prospects for an on-line Hypatia community, plans for celebrating the 25th anniversary of the journal (2009-2010), and new Special Issues in the works. They strongly encouraged PSA Women’s Caucus members to submit manuscripts to the journal. (See attached flyer for more information.)

6. PSA 2010 Program: On-going discussion of strategy and goals – picking up where we left off at the inaugural meeting, discussion focused on reports from PSA Program Committee members about the process for getting special sessions on the program, and efforts to increase the number of women on the program (this time around, the percentage of women who had papers accepted was roughly equal to the percentage of women who submitted, so let’s get more women submitting papers!). Most of the conversation suggested that having the PSA Women’s Caucus sponsor a special session was not the best way to proceed next time around; instead, actively encouraging members to submit symposia and workshop proposals through the usual channels of submission would better help accomplish our goals. Using the PSA Women’s Caucus list-serve, perhaps in concert with a bulletin board on the PSA Women’s Caucus website, is a good way for members to suggest ideas to each other for symposia and workshops that would involve more women and focus on topics of interest to PSA Women’s Caucus members. Heather Douglas organised a successful symposium in this way for PSA 2008. List-serve and web-page coordinator Roberta Millstein will look into setting up a discussion board. There was also discussion of a variety of recommendations that the Women’s Caucus might make to the next PSA program chair that would also be aimed at increasing the participation of women in PSA. These included: reinstituting the rule that individuals cannot appear on the PSA program more than once, having a general open call to all PSA members for those wishing to serve as chairs of sessions, continued representation of women philosophers and philosophers competent in feminist philosophy of science on the PSA Program Committee. Kristen Intemann will be responsible for drafting these and soliciting feedback from Caucus members before sending them to PSA Secretary/Treasurer Gary Hardcastle.

7. Nomination/Election of new Sr. Co-Chair to replace Miriam Solomon: Elisabeth Lloyd nominated Kathleen Okruhlik, who was then elected.

8. Next meeting: Montreal, Canada, Nov. 2010.Minutes by Sharyn Clough ()