Lucas and Lawston in Atlanta: NWSA Conference About to Begin

The two of us just arrived in Atlanta today to catch the beginning of the 2011 National Women’s Studies Association Conference.  Tonight at 7 PM we will hear renowned scholar/activist Ruthie Gilmore give the keynote talk for the conference.  Anyone interested in prisons should read her book, Golden Gulag, which deals with incarceration in California.  A must read, this book importantly examines who benefits–and who loses–from prison expansion.

We are honored to be members of the National Women’s Studies Association and owe a great debt to them for their support of our work.  NWSA gave us the opportunity to guest edit a special issue of what was then called the NWSA Journal–now known as Feminist Formations–on the topic of the policing, prosecution, and incarceration of women.  When we put out the call for contributions for that special issue, we received far more worthy submissions than we could fit in a single journal issue, and those remaining articles, drawings, essays, poems, and stories became Razor Wire Women.  Thank you, NWSA, for starting our journey with this book project!

If you are in Atlanta this weekend, we’d love to see you!  We’ll be in the conference’s book exhibition signing copies of RWW on Friday at 4 PM, and on Saturday at 8 PM in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel,  Ashley will perform her one-woman play, Doin’ Time: Through the Visiting Glass.  Jodie will join Ashley for the post-show discussion and a book signing afterwards.