Special issue to showcase the winning and shortlisted entries for the first Annual Essay Competition run by the Women's Studies Network Association (WSN) in 2002. The WSN wants to promote women's studies, feminist research and teaching both nationally and internationally. In this special issue on New Writings in Women's Studies the following articles: 'An Exploration of Quaker Women's Writing Between 1650 and 1700' by Caroline Baker : 'In spite of challenges by 'black' and 'third world' women, do mainstream feminist theories still reflect the concerns of white women?' by Sherry Chopra : 'The Prisoner of Gender: Foucault and the Disciplining of the Female Body' by Angela King : 'An Illimitable Field: A Practice-based Investigation into the Writing Process' by Julie Mellor and 'My, is that Cyborg a little bit Queer?' by Esperanza Miyake.
The essays that feature here are the winning and short-listed entries for the 2005 FWSA annual essay competition–a competition designed specifically to encourage and give voice to a new generation of academics whose work is anchored in feminist theory and practice. The winning essay is Corinne Fowler's examination of gender and journalistic praxis in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. With the following articles: Journalists in Feminist Clothing: Men and Women Reporting Afghan Women during Operation Enduring Freedom, 2001 by Corinne Fowler : The Missing Rhetoric of Gender in Responses to Abu Ghraib by Alexandra Murphy : As You Wear: Cross-dressing and Identity Politics in Jackie Kay's Trumpet by Alice Walker : The Lady in the Looking-Glass: Reflections on the Self in Virginia Woolf by Stephen Howard : Cyberqueers in Taiwan: Locating Histories of the Margins by Terri He : and Feminism and the Politics of Representation: Towards a Critical and Ethical Encounter with 'Others' by Amy Hinterberger.