HI I want to stay with Mr. Foucault and will pay for the sig. I'm puzzled and intrigued by yr comment about "broadening te church" and "including ...Butler" Is this an "in -joke"? Can it be explained or is it then no longer funny? I  owe dues for 0910, but will be able to pay july 1. Don't know when I need a new subscription but I figure now. 

 Martena Smokey Wilson



8000 greenly Oakland%2CCA 94605



----- Original Message -----

From: Linda Graham 

To: AERA SIG FOUCAULT AND ED-FORUM 

Sent: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:48:49 +0000 (UTC)

Subject: New AERA SIG rules



Dear Foucault List and SIG Members,



Firstly, my apologies if this goes to folks who have recently requested removal from the listserv.  We will action that as soon as we can but we also have busy schedules, so if you wish to be removed, please just send a request to delete your details from the Foucault list directly to Christine or I and this will help reduce traffic to the whole list.



However, it is very pleasing to see that the main volume of emails to the list are those requesting to remain on it!  Thank you to each of you for your interest and commitment.  



Overnight I received an email from AERA management and there are a few changes that I want to share with the list as these will affect the future of the SIG.  These relate to the administrative culling of small SIGs, the new process of review and lastly, the new AERA session allocation method:



1. Membership Minimums: As in past years, AERA will take the official membership count on June 30. SIGs with fewer than 45 members, the minimum number of members required for a SIG in good standing, will be notified that they have one year to increase their membership to that minimum. 



2. Review Panels: This is the time when you and your program committee are creating the review panels to rate the submissions for the 2010 Annual Meeting program. Smaller SIGs may wish to share panel members, or panels on specific topics with another SIG or division with similar interests. 



On the first topic, I urge those of you who do want to see the Foucault SIG remain as a space for critical theoretical work to make sure that your Foucault SIG membership is up to date.  This is easily done when you renew your AERA membership. It is not a matter of funding I can assure you as Christine and I have kept the membership rates lower than other SIGs.  It is a matter of keeping the SIG viable for, as you can see from the above AERA communication, those with less than 45 members will be forced to justify their existence.



As to the second, I have to admit I'm still confused and somewhat ambivalent about the review panel idea. In any case, it excludes graduate students from the review process (they can still review but their scores are not counted). Christine has objected about this process to AERA management, particularly because of its affect on small SIGs but ... to no avail.



3. My final point is an important one:  the SIGs presence at AERA has been seriously dwindling over the last few years because AERA have changed how they allocate sessions.  It is now allocated on number of proposals submitted - not number of SIG members, as it used to be.  



This has drastically affected us.  For example, in 2007 we received about 34 proposals and were allocated 19 slots (mainly individual paper sessions and we massaged this up to 21 by requesting longer sessions - not ideal but better than rejecting good papers).  In 2008 however, we only received 11 proposals and were granted 4 slots - all individual roundtables.  This also has implications for the presence of SIG members at the conference as one of our international presenters couldn't get funding to present at a roundtable and so didn't come (this is common in Australia also).  So basically in 2008 we had three people present in the Foucault SIG.



This can't continue.  Therefore I ask folks to remember the Foucault SIG when they renew their AERA membership and, if you are hatching something Foucauldianesque right now, do submit it to the SIG for Denver in 2010.



Christine and I will be getting back to you soon with some plans for a revitalisation of the SIG that will hopefully broaden the church to include those members now experimenting with Agamben, Deleuze, Butler and so on.  We raised this at the 2009 SIG Business Meeting - although one of the people most interested in the reasons for change happened to be a right-wing member of the press!  Her question was "So, why don't people like Foucault?"



We gleefully gave her a number of reasons, so she probably doesn't like us now but let me remind you, this SIG's reason for being is to act as a space for those who do.  (ie., Welcome Joseph Kurz, new program co-chair!)



I hope you all continue to submit your work and, if you do attend AERA next year, please come to the Business Meeting.



Regards,



Linda (2010 Foucault SIG Chair and Program Co-Chair)











Dr Linda J. Graham

Macquarie University Research Fellow

Children and Families Research Centre

Faculty of Human Sciences

Macquarie University  NSW  2109



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