Welcome to the IGALA Graduate Space page!
This space aims to provide information relevant to graduate student members, and prospective graduate student members of IGALA. It is a work in progress and we would welcome any comments or suggestions you may have about what you would like to see on this page, or indeed any other ways in which you feel IGALA could benefit you as graduate students.
Huge congratulations to Chloe Brotherton!
Chloe's essay 'You're Nasty, not a Nasty Woman': Resignification of nasty in an online feminist community of practice was the winner of this year's prize!
Very well done from the IGALA Board!
We held an online prize-giving ceremony via Zoom in August 2020 - pictured here are Chloe with Holly Cashman (President), Rachel Weissler (Grad Student Rep), and IGALA Board member Linda McLoughlin
The IGALA 10 conference held at the stunning location of the University of Botswana, Gaborone was my second conference as Graduate Student Representative and, as before, was a thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating experience. Again, it was great to see so many graduate students taking an active part by presenting some excellent, cutting-edge papers and participating in both the graduate student workshops and AGM. This brief report outlines some of the highlights of the conference and, in doing so, draws attention to the many benefits IGALA offers its graduate student community.
First, there were a number of impressive entries for the IGALA10 Graduate Student Best Paper Prize. Congratulations go to Shelley Dawson from Victoria, University of Wellington, whose paper ‘Bitch I’m back by popular demand’: Agency and structure in a study abroad setting came out on top. Shelley was awarded with a year’s free IGALA membership and the opportunity to work with the editors of Gender and Language towards publishing her paper in the journal.
Next, we had two very well attended graduate student workshops at the conference. Tommaso Milani (shown in the image above), in his capacity as one of the editors of Gender and Language, once again offered his expert insights into journal publishing and fielded a number of interesting questions from students about how to negotiate this tricky process. In addition, we had a panel discussion on academic jobs. Holly Cashman gave advice about North America, Sibonile Ellece shared her perspectives on getting a position in African universities, and, for the first time, I was able to contribute my experiences as a recent PhD graduate entering the job market in the Asian context. A lively discussion followed in which we learned much about the preparations needed to land an interview and succeed in getting an offer. Many thanks to all the presenters and discussants who made these workshops extremely informative and useful.
Finally, as I reach the end of my tenure as Graduate Student Rep., I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all members of the IGALA community for making these conferences a fantastic opportunity for graduate students. This is not only by forging connections and offering expert advice and encouragement, but also by being open and welcoming to its newest members. Needless to say, all of these opportunities are invaluable as we work towards establishing ourselves as the future generation of language, gender, and sexuality scholars.
See you at IGALA 11 in 2020!
Ben Rowlett
How does IGALA work with the graduate student community?
1) The Graduate Student Essay competition
This is a biannual competition held in conjunction with the IGALA international conference and is open to all graduate student members of IGALA.
2) Graduate Student Workshops
These are workshops held at each conference involving expert speakers on topics relevant to graduate students.
If you have any topics that you would like to see covered in future conferences, please do get in touch.
3) IGALA Blog
Graduate student members are encouraged to submit short articles to the IGALA blog, you can find more info about submission and the posts here.
Any ideas or comments you have about this page or any questions about graduate student issues or participation in IGALA should be addressed to the Graduate Student Representative, Rachel Elizabeth Weissler (racheliw@umich.edu)
On a final note, we hope that you will benefit greatly as a graduate student member of IGALA, and if you are not yet a member we strongly encourage you to consider joining. Information on how to join can be found on this website.
Graduate students attending IGALA10 in Gabarone, Botswana, June 2018
Testimonials from past and current graduate students associated with IGALA:
Report from the previous Graduate Student Rep: IGALA10
IGALA 2020 Best Student Essay Prize
“IGALA was an amazing conference. The topics were varied, the talks were interesting, and the amount of presentations on local communities and concerns was great. I learned just how intricately interwoven fender is in a variety of research areas. Diversity, in all the ways we define it, at the conference was evident and celebrated! Although I can't attend this year for health reasons, IGALA is most definitely a conference I will be sure to submit to and attend. If you are looking for an intimate conference with groundbreaking research, IGALA is the answer!”
Minnie Quartey Annan, IGALA 10 grad student attendee
“I joined IGALA in 2014 before attending the bi-annual conference in Vancouver, Canada. I made it there thanks to the IGALA post-graduate bursary, for which I am deeply grateful. Attending the conference and meeting other IGALA members was a very productive experience as I got to hear great scholars in the field of Language, Gender and Sexuality Studies talk about their latest work, but also other fellow graduate students whose work sometimes related to mine, resulting in new friendships which hopefully will move towards future collaborations and publications.”
Gilles Baro, PhD student, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
“I received a bursary in 2012 to attend the IGALA 7 conference in Brazil. It was my first time traveling to South America, and my first time registering to present a paper at an international Gender and Language conference. I was reluctant to attend at first, but after much persuasion by arguably the most well-read language, gender and sexuality expert in South Africa today, I submitted a paper proposal. It got accepted but I soon discovered that I had not enough funds to cover my registration. Luckily, the IGALA 7 conference organizers generously sponsored by registration and out of it I also was able to join the Association and receive a bi-annual copy of the Gender and Language journal. After all my experience, it is worth the while to be part of the IGALA experience.”
Quentin Williams, Lecturer, Linguistics Department, Research Fellow, Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (CMDR), University of the Western Cape, South Africa.