May 2010 Archives

Pictured top from left to right:  Alesha Doan, Mako Fitts, Nicole Guidotti Hernández, Lori Baralt, Kathy Spillar (Ms. Executive Editor), Audrey Bilger, Irma McClaurin (Ms. Committee of Scholars), Elizabeth Kissling, Michel Cicero (Ms. Managing Editor), Amelia M.L. Montes. Pictured sitting row left to right: Pamela Redela, Marla Kohlman, Michele Kort (Ms. Senior Editor), Karina Eileraas, Jessica Stites (Ms. Asst. Managing Editor), María Ochoa.  

These are our Ms. Magazine Feminist Scholars who met in Los Angeles!  What an amazing group of women from universities and colleges across the country.  We spent this weekend together learning how to think differently about our research.  This is what I learned:

--As scholars, we need to have a more strategic approach toward accessing public readers

--Our goal is to advance public knowledge

--It's not about educating the public.  The public "is" smart.  It's about advancing knowledge vs. educating them

--Oftentimes our research, although important to scholarly audiences, is irrelevant to the general public

--Learning to write for both a scholarly audience and general public is the key 

--It is time to reclaim our positional power and reach everyone!  

And how do we do this? One of the key changes is--taking the step in actually contacting the expert/scholar to get the quote instead of searching archives for the journal article quotation --timeliness is the key in reaching readers via media outlets like Ms. Magazine, our blogs, the web, twitter. Our students are there already--we need to reach them!  And we will!  Thanks Ms. Magazine editors and to Irma McClaurin's work for this most wonderful opportunity in learning to connect with many more readers!  

Las Mujeres!  Mako Fitts, Amelia M.L. Montes, Nicole Guidotti Hernández (who just received tenure--Orale Nicole!)

Amelia M.L. Montes, Kathy Spillar (Ms. Executive Editor)

The first of May--thousands of people are walking the streets to protest Arizona's legislation which requires police officials to stop anyone who may "look" like an immigrant.  This legislation teaches hatred, fear, suspicion. Who "looks" like an immigrant?  What does this do except to oppress and discriminate.   

The United States Immigration Policy Center has years of research to prove that immigrants "are LESS likely to commit crimes or be behind bars than the native-born" (CLICK here for article).  

My familia, like thousands of other immigrants, came here to escape poverty, war, and today they also come to escape the violence caused by narcotrafficking.  They come here to work hard, to begin a new life.  In 2009, the CATO Institute conducted a study showing that there could be a $180 Billion dollar benefit to legalizing undocumented workers (CLICK here for article). The article emphasizes that "simply enhancing border enforcement and applying restrictive immigration laws would actually hurt the U.S. economically."  

I hope for a country without fear, suspicion, hatred.  I hope for a country who places generous and loving creativity first as the way toward sound legislation.  

May this legislation be reversed soon so that we may truly work toward a sound and productive solution.