Our Ethic of Leadership
The National Women's Studies Association holds elections every year in the summer season for open positions - both within the Governing Council (GC) and for leadership positions in our Constituency Groups. Members can learn more about Governing Council positions by exploring our Bylaws. This process is managed by the Vice President of the Association and facilitated by the National Office.
This process is a critical aspect of NWSA's governance and we encourage all members to take advantage of the opportunity to vote for nominated candidates. To ensure an ethic of integrity and accountability, NWSA works with a third-party vendor (Intelliscan) to process our elections ballots. We also to offer as much support as possible so that our candidates can participate confidently in this process; if you’d like to connect with our current GC members or our Interim Executive Director to discuss these roles, please reach out to the National Office.
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The Process
The Elections season typically runs through an 8-9 week period which includes the following:
- A call for nominations; nominees must hold active membership with the Association
- We welcome self-nominations and that of you peers/colleagues/co-conspirators!
- Candidates accept/decline their nominations.
- Candidates submit their support materials.
- Ballots open for voting; active members are eligible to vote.
The Association will hold two Election processes - a Governing Board Elections cycle (beginning in May 2024) to fill open positions in executive leadership and an Elections cycle for leaders of Constituency Groups (beginning in July 2024).
Sample Support Materials
Responses should not exceed 150 words per prompt.
- Describe the candidate’s involvement with NWSA.
- Describe any skills or experiences that have prepared the candidate for this position, directly conversing with the relevant description above to the extent possible.
- Describe how the candidate’s work has been congruent with NWSA’s commitments to “illuminating the ways in which women’s studies are vital to education,” especially by “promoting synergistic relationships between scholarship, teaching and civic engagement in understandings of culture and society.”
- Describe how the candidate’s work has been congruent with NWSA’s commitments to amplifying “feminist scholarship that is comparative, global, intersectional, and interdisciplinary.”
- Describe anything else about the candidate that would be of interest to voting members.
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