CAA News Today
Karen J. Leader
posted Dec 03, 2021
Statement
In preparation for a workshop proposal for CAA 2020, my collaborative partner Dr. Amy Hamlin and I learned that CAA possesses little useful demographic data relevant to 21st century issues of concern to its membership. While conference programming is increasingly impressively intersectional, with much attention to bias, decolonization, accessibility, precarity and the crisis in humanities and higher education, it is difficult to know if the membership is being served. As a participant observer of the most recent Strategic Plan draft process, I was pleased to see that the Advocacy section included this line: “Collect and publish CAA membership data as an advocacy tool.” In the final plan, the line had been removed. My particular mission as Board Member would be to bring it back, and implement it.
As a long-time participant in CAA advocacy issues (I literally wrote the history, see CV), I have watched with pride when response to an issue of interest to membership has been swift and decisive. I have studied with dismay opportunities missed, and the subsequent fall-out. With affirmation that I possess the criteria enumerated in the Handbook, I would use my experience and deep knowledge of CAA’s history to buttress this organization’s ability to deliver the mission and vision articulated in its plan and statement.