Feminist Cyberscapes

Kristine Blair and Pamela Takayoshi (Editors)

In traditional mythology, the Medusa has elicited reactions of fear and hatred. Yet as Helene Cixous notes, "You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her. And she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing." Her placement on the cover of Feminist Cyberscapes is thus a fitting one, challenging computers and composition specialists to confront the complexities and intersections of feminisms, technology, power, and voice.
In addition to 13 essays exploring the varying virtual, physical, cultural, and institutional contexts influencing the nature of electronic space for women, Feminist Cyberscapes contains individual interviews with Gail Hawisher, Cynthia Selfe, Helen Schwartz, a joint interview with Mary Lay and Elizabeth Tebeaux, and a MOO dialogue among the contributors. This collection helps to historicize not only the development of computers and composition as a field but also the impact of technology on the professional lives of women teachers and scholars.
Why read Feminist Cyberscapes?. . . For those of us who are women using writing technologies, these chapters enrich our possibilities for agency by weaving a more complex tapestry of being/becoming woman and offering more than the few models popular media identifies. For us feminists, these writers are offering the serious engagement with technology that Carol Stabile argues is needed for feminist theory to confront the dominant technological society.

"For those of us who are writing teachers, these chapters testify to the sensitivity needed as a teacher of digital writing. These are all important reasons to confront this volume. But there is a more compelling reason for those of us who teach writing (with/in) technologies: the technology elite paint all of us into the same stereotypes that the media uses for women."
Patricia Sullivan
Professor of English and Director of Rhetoric and Composition
Purdue University

Kristine Blair is Assistant Professor of English at Bowling Green State University, where she teaches computer-mediated writing courses and graduate level courses in rhetorical theory, composition pedagogy, and electronic discourse. Her most recent work on technology appears in the journal Computers and Composition and in the book Situating Portfolios: Four Perspectives (1997; with Pamela Takayoshi). Her current research includes multimedia literacy and the application of cultural studies pedagogy to the electronic writing classroom.
Pamela Takayoshi is Assistant Professor of English and Director of Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction at the University of Louisville, where she teaches courses in rhetoric and women's studies. Her work on technology has appeared in the journals Computers and Composition and Teaching English in the Two-Year College, as well as the book Computers and Composition and in the book Situating Portfolios: Four Perspectives (1997). Her scholarly interests revolve around the intersections between feminisms, cultural studies, writing theories, pedagogy, and technology. She is currently involved in several research projects aimed at understanding the ways girls negotiate their relationships with technologies such as e-mail and the World Wide Web.

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Kristine Blair and Pamela Takayoshi (Editors)
In traditional mythology, the Medusa has elicited reactions of fear and hatred. Yet as Helene Cixous notes, "You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her. And she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she's laughing." Her placement on the cover of Feminist Cyberscapes is thus a fitting one, challenging computers and composition specialists to confront the complexities and intersections of feminisms, technology, power, and voice. In addition to 13 essays exploring the varying virtual, physical, cultural, and institutional contexts influencing the nature of electronic space for women, Feminist Cyberscapes contains individual interviews with Gail Hawisher, Cynthia Selfe, Helen Schwartz, a joint interview with Mary Lay and Elizabeth Tebeaux, and a MOO dialogue among the contributors. This collection helps to historicize not only the development of computers and composition as a field but also the impact of technology on the professional lives of women teachers and scholars. Why read Feminist Cyberscapes?. . . For those of us who are women using writing technologies, these chapters enrich our possibilities for agency by weaving a more complex tapestry of being/becoming woman and offering more than the few models popular media identifies. For us feminists, these writers are offering the serious engagement with technology that Carol Stabile argues is needed for feminist theory to confront the dominant technological society.
	"For those of us who are writing teachers, these chapters testify to the sensitivity needed as a teacher of digital writing. These are all important reasons to confront this volume. But there is a more compelling reason for those of us who teach writing (with/in) technologies: the technology elite paint all of us into the same stereotypes that the media uses for women." Patricia Sullivan Professor of English and Director of Rhetoric and Composition Purdue University
Kristine Blair is Assistant Professor of English at Bowling Green State University, where she teaches computer-mediated writing courses and graduate level courses in rhetorical theory, composition pedagogy, and electronic discourse. Her most recent work on technology appears in the journal Computers and Composition and in the book Situating Portfolios: Four Perspectives (1997; with Pamela Takayoshi). Her current research includes multimedia literacy and the application of cultural studies pedagogy to the electronic writing classroom. Pamela Takayoshi is Assistant Professor of English and Director of Computer-Assisted Writing Instruction at the University of Louisville, where she teaches courses in rhetoric and women's studies. Her work on technology has appeared in the journals Computers and Composition and Teaching English in the Two-Year College, as well as the book Computers and Composition and in the book Situating Portfolios: Four Perspectives (1997). Her scholarly interests revolve around the intersections between feminisms, cultural studies, writing theories, pedagogy, and technology. She is currently involved in several research projects aimed at understanding the ways girls negotiate their relationships with technologies such as e-mail and the World Wide Web.