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April 15, 2000 _ April 21, 2001 _ April 20, 2002 _ March 15, 2003

AAIS 2001 Annual Meetings
Minutes of the Women’s Studies Caucus Meeting
(April 21, 2001)

The participants picked up a box lunch, and the session opened at 12,15 in the Houston Hall/Platt of The Inn at Penn.

After approval of last year’s minutes, the President, Paola Malpezzi Price, confirmed that there would be a change in the order of the agenda items. She immediately introduced the Caucus’ guest and keynote speaker, Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, a novelist, journalist, and editor of the journal TutteStorie. The speaker’s address was entitled “Genealogie letterarie al femminile,” and was very well received by the audience. A question and answer period followed it.

The main item on the business agenda was a discussion of the procedures to be used in assigning the yearly award of the Women’s Studies Caucus. The majority of the people in attendance favored selecting the recipient among the untenured exclusively. Only one person abstained on that vote. As for the selection of the judges, the following motion was presented, seconded, and passed unanimously:

“That the panel of judges include tenured and untenured members of the AAIS Women’s Studies Caucus.”

We moved on to the planning of next year’s agenda. Since at this point the Caucus funds are rather depleted, we proposed to work with the AAIS Board and the organizers of next year’s meetings to select one of the speakers and to organize a regular session around her, under the sponsorship of the WS Caucus. Some proposals for possible topics emerged immediately: women’s storytelling, memoir-writing, etc. The President and the Secretary will evaluate the suggestions and submit them to the membership—by e-mail—as soon as feasible.

The Secretary, Angela M. Jeannet, circulated the list of the membership’s e-mail addresses to update and correct it. Any further additions and corrections will be gladly incorporated as the year goes by.

The issue of the teaching of Italian language, literature and culture, which had been proposed for discussion at the Caucus meeting, has become such a major one that we felt it should be discussed in the wider arena of the entire AAIS rather than in smaller groups such as the Caucuses. Therefore, we did not address it.

At the end of the session, after the agenda items had been considered, the people in attendance began making informal suggestions for future action. Some of the suggestions were: to approach the AAIS Board and ask them to earmark funds for the activities of the Caucuses, and to ask for contributions toward speaker expenses from the Italian American Foundation. At 2:00 p.m. the session was declared closed.