With 2022 now upon us, we are excited to announce new leadership on the Steering Committee. We are thrilled to welcome Martha Ndakalako as our new co-convenor. She joins, lead co-convenor, Harmony O'Rourke at the helm of the Women's Caucus this year. Martha is Assistant Professor of English and African Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College. Her fields of interest are African Anglophone literature, as well as transnational black and African feminisms.She is currently working on her first book project, which considers how marginal and unconventional Namibian literatures by and about women envision decoloniality for Namibian identities.She is also participating in a project with the journal Feminist Africa on Africa’s 21stCentury Feminist Social Movements and Struggles. Recently, she co-edited and contributed a chapter to the volume,African Women and their Networks of Support: Intervening Connections (2020). Martha has enjoyed being a part of the Women’s Caucus community for several years and served as the Graduate Student Representative since 2019. Before that, she participated in a WC-sponsored panel in 2017, as well as proposed and chaired a WC-sponsored panel in 2018. As Graduate Student Representative, she served on the Newsletter Committee in 2020, and for the past two years she served on the Speaker Committee.Given this experience and commitment to the WC, we are incredibly excited about Martha’s plans to lead our efforts in expanding membership through outreach to graduate students, the African Literature Association, and other organizations promoting women in academia.
We wish to acknowledge three new members on our Steering Committee—Patience Akpan Obong, Lynda Day, and Deborah LaFond—who have joined our existing team: Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite, Suad Musa, and Emily Jenan Riley. And last but never least, the Steering Committee continues to benefit from the experience of last year’s lead co-convener, Anita Plummer, especially her dedication to maintaining the Women’s Caucus website.
The leadership of the caucus also includes membership secretary Beth-Ann Williams, and treasurer, Tshepo Masango Chéry. This talented leadership team is committed to a facilitative, collaborative style of leadership, which we firmly believe benefits the Caucus as a whole.
We look forward to seeing you at the ASA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
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