Content Note: Sexual violence, gender-based discrimination
Making Joyce Studies Safe for All
Roundtable and open forum organized by the James Joyce Society
September 15, 2023
Roundtablists: Katherine Ebury, Zoë Henry, Casey Lawrence, and Sam Slote
Moderator: Celia Marshik (also Joyce Society ombudsperson)
Jonathan Goldman: Welcome
Hello everyone. I am Jonathan Goldman, president of the James Joyce Society, and I welcome you on behalf of my fellow officers Cathryn Piwinski, Lizzie Belnap, Glen Johnston, and Celia Marshik. Normally at this moment, I would be saying a few words about the history of the James Joyce Society, but in the interest of time I am going to pass over that – except to point out that the JJS has inclusivity in its bones, having been founded by a woman and mostly women-run throughout its early years.
I am going to offer some very brief, welcoming remarks, and then I will be getting out of the way to listen and to do tech support. This is the first time that we have held an event specifically designed to address the international Joyce studies community, or as much of it as we could gather together as possible. Because we are a local organization, questions have arisen about what role or responsibility it is of ours to create this kind of forum – to which my answer is quite simply that it is the role and responsibility of everybody in the international Joyce community to address the problems of sexual harassment and assault that plague Joyce scholarship.
One last note from me, before I step aside – and I know some of the other participants will say something about this as well – we are here today to discuss the problem of sexual harassment and other forms of harassment in the international Joyce community. We are not here to discuss whether these problems exist in the international Joyce community.
I pass you on to Joyce Society vice president Cathryn Piwinski.
Cathryn Piwinski: Introduction
Jonathan Goldman and I first began planning this roundtable after reading Dr. Laura Gibbs’s post online, in which she announces that she, having just completed her PhD, will be leaving Joyce studies. In the post, she points to abuses of power in the community and in particular incidents of sexual harassment against emerging and female or gender non-conforming scholars that have gone unaddressed for years. Dr. Gibbs’s is only the most recent of public statements made about the sexual abuse occurring in Joyce studies and we at the Joyce Society are hosting this solution-oriented event to begin to address these instances.
I would first like to explain what we mean when we say the phrase “Joyce Studies.” Joyce Studies is an international discipline, composed primarily of professional scholars, but also including many non-academics, artists, and unaffiliated scholars, and actualizes in organized events such as the International Joyce Symposium, the North American Conferences, the annual Rome conference, the Dublin Summer School, the Zurich workshop, and the Trieste School. It is at or around these events where incidents of sexual harassment tend to take place — although these are of course not the only forums in which they occur. There are pockets of Joyce reader communities all around the world, many of which might have little to no contact with the International James Joyce Foundation and the events I have listed. It may be that some of you attending today have not experienced, witnessed, or heard about these abuses of power in Joyce Studies. We ask today that, if you are just now hearing about this problem, that you come here to learn, and to actively think with others about how we can reform Joyce Studies and the community of readers that extends beyond it. We are not here to discuss whether there is a problem — because there is, certainly, a problem — but to instead consider actionable steps towards addressing this problem.
Each roundtablist was chosen in part because they represent members of Joyce studies at different stages of their career and are from different geographic locations, with varying participation in any of the above events. Celia Marshik is our moderator due to her peripheral relationship to Joyce studies and her capacity as the Joyce Society ombudsperson.
Go to:
Editorial Page
Introduction by Jonathan Goldman and Cathryn Piwinksi
Personal Statements by Katherine Ebury, Casey Lawrence, and Sam Slote
Roundtable Transcript
Anonymous Open Discussion Transcript
Afterword by Margot Gayle Backus
Sources
Feature Image Credit: Library of Congress/Getty Images
The Modernist Review 