Vote for EWS positions and changes to Constitution and By-laws (vote closes 9/26/22)

Dear EWS members,

Voting is now open for the positions of Secretary and Members-at-Large for the 2023-25 term and for approving or disapproving of two constitutional amendments, which were discussed at the MLA and ALA meetings. The first establishes how Edith Wharton Review editors will be chosen. The second establishes how Treasurers will be chosen and removes the position of co-Treasurer.

Society members, please use the link sent to your email to affirm or not affirm the nominated candidates for each position and to approve or disapprove the amendments. Voting closes 9/26/22. 

The voting link is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2DJFXSC

You can see the wording of the ballot questions below.

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Survey questions:

1. Should Arielle Zibrak be elected Secretary of the EWS? (Y/N)
   
   Arielle Zibrak is Associate Professor of English and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wyoming, where she also directs the English Honors Program. She is the editor of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence: New Centenary Essays (Bloomsbury, 2019) and the author of Avidly Reads: Guilty Pleasures (New York University Press, 2021). 
   
   Her writing on literature, gender, sexuality, and popular culture has been published in American Literature, American Literary History, Arizona Quarterly, The Baffler, Criticism, The Edith Wharton Review, ESQ, The Los Angeles Review of Books, LitHub, McSweeney’s, The Toast, and Women’s Studies. She has given numerous conference presentations on Wharton’s work and has been invited to speak on Wharton at The Mount and by the good folks at SUNY Brockport. She previously served as an Executive Board Member At-Large of the EWS.

2. Should Anna Girling and Stacy Holden be elected to the two open positions of EWS Board Members-at-Large? (Y/N)
   
   Anna Girling
   
   I recently completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh in the UK; my thesis was (broadly!) on Edith Wharton and European literary decadence. I have been a member of the Edith Wharton Society since the early days of my PhD, and the society has shaped my research, and intellectual life, in numerous ways. I was fortunate to win the Prize for a Beginning Scholar for an essay on alchemy in The Touchstone, and this went on to be published in the Edith Wharton Review – and I have also published in the EWR and the Times Literary Supplement about Wharton’s correspondence with her early British publisher, John Murray (which I found at the National Library of Scotland). I have been part of society panels at the ALA and the MLA, and attended the Wharton in Washington conference in 2016, and the online keynotes and discussions as part of the pandemic version of the Edith Wharton’s New York conference in 2020. My future research plans involve a project looking at Wharton’s Cold War publication history – which I have funding (including from the Edith Wharton Society) to travel to the US for later this year, and which I will be working on while an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of English Studies in London. I am aware that none of this research would be possible – let alone enjoyable – without the work, both academic and collegial, of present and past members of the Edith Wharton Society, and I am very keen to play my part in the life of the society.

Stacy Holden

My name is Stacy E. Holden, and I am self-nominating for Member-at-Large position.  I joined the Edith Wharton Society about five years ago.  I am an Associate Professor of History at Purdue University.  My research and teaching focus on the Middle East and North Africa as well as US engagement with the Arab world.  Studying Wharton’s literary work and life experiences have opened a window onto US policymaking in the early twentieth century.  I am currently completing research on a book project, “Edith Wharton’s Morocco: The Origins of American Intervention in the Arab World.” My work examines how Wharton used her influence as an author and an elite American to normalize the idea of Western imperialism in the Arab world.  A synopsis of my research was published in History Today, and I am now organizing a tour of “Edith Wharton’s Morocco.”  As Member-at-Large, I hope to continue to foster connections with historians interested in topics that can be illuminated in her archival papers (medical knowledge, preservation practices, book marketing are examples of such topics).  I hope to assist in organizing the next biennial meeting, and I would also like to organize a future meeting at the Tangier American Legation Museum, the former US consulate of Morocco.

3. Should the following amendment to the EWS By-laws be approved? (New amendment language is in bold.) (Y/N)
   
   Revisions to EWS Bylaws (EWR):
   
   5.6. The Editor of the Edith Wharton Review shall prepare the Review. The Editor may appoint an Associate Editor to assist with these functions and to sit in on Executive Board meetings when the Editor is not available. The editorial team consists of an editor and up to three associate editors.
   
    The editors shall be chosen as follows:
   
   1.     To select Associate Editors, the journal puts out an open call for an Associate Editor who will join the editors’ team. The new Associate Editor is selected by the current Editor and Associate Editors in consultation with the EWS Board.
   
   2.     A new Editor is selected from among all the Associate Editors in consultation with the EWS Board and the outgoing Editor. 
   
   3.     Should this fail in any way, the journal puts out an open call for an Editor and follows the selection and consultation criteria specified above.

4. Should the following revisions be adopted to the EWS Constitution and By-laws? (Y/N)
   
   1.     Remove all references to “Co-Treasurers” from the Constitution, replacing it with “The Treasurer” (3.1, 3.5, 5.1).
   
   2.     Add an explanation of the appointment processes for the Treasurer and Treasurer-Elect:
   
   5.5 The Treasurer is appointed by the President, in consultation with the Executive Board, for a two-year term. When possible, an incoming Treasurer will be appointed a year in advance and serve as Treasurer-Elect while learning the position from the Treasurer. The Treasurer shall keep financial records and maintain stewardship of the finances of the Society, including a tally of all accounts and expenditures, annual tax filings and incorporation paperwork, when appropriate. The Treasurer will present a report, in writing, at least once annually to the Executive Board on the financial status of the Society, including a written report on all income to and disbursements of the Society.  The Treasurer shall have signing privileges and access to the EWS financial accounts to enable the officers and conference directors to carry out the necessary business of the Society.
   
   5.7.  Each officer and member at large shall serve for a term of two years.
   
   7.1.  Officers and members of the Executive Board shall be elected by online or e-mail ballot, except for officers who are designated by another process outlined in the Constitution.  Paper ballots will be provided upon request for those with no Internet access.