''Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society'' is a peer-reviewed feminist

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...

. It was established in 1975 by Jean W. Sacks, Head of the Journals Division, with Catharine R. Stimpson as its first editor in Chief, and is published quarterly by the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

. ''Signs'' publishes essays examining the lives of women, men, and

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

people around the globe from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as theoretical and critical articles addressing processes of

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

ing,

sexualization Sexualization (or sexualisation) is to make something sexual in character or quality or to become aware of sexuality, especially in relation to men and women. Sexualization is linked to sexual objectification. According to the American Psycholog ...

, and

racialization In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is a political process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization or ethnicization often arises out of th ...

History and significance

The founding of ''Signs'' in 1975 was part of the early development of the field of

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...

, born of the

women's liberation movement The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...

of the late 1960s and 1970s. The journal had two founding purposes, as stated in the inaugural editorial: (1) "to publish the new scholarship about women" in the U.S. and around the globe, and (2) "to be interdisciplinary". The goal was for readers of the journal to "grasp a sense of the totality of women's lives and the realities of which they have been a part." The meaning behind the name ''Signs'' is that signs "represent" and "point": the original editors wanted the journal to "represent the originality and rigor" of women's studies and to "point" to new directions for feminist scholarship. Former editor-in-chief Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres said in an article in the ''

Yale Journal of Criticism The ''Yale Journal of Criticism'' was an academic journal published by the Johns Hopkins University Press which covered all humanities disciplines. It was named best new journal by the Conference of Editors of Learned Journals in 1989 and ceased ...

'' that ''Signs'', from its inception, was meant to be "something different, even insurgent... an agent for change," because it emerged from the "grassroots" feminist movement. Joeres explored the "paradox" of how a journal can be both an "agent for change" and regarded as "respectable in the academy", and concluded with the hope that ''Signs'' could retain its activist roots and transform the academy. In the effort to avoid the tendency of the academy to "codify" and limit scholarship, ''Signs'' rotates institutional homes roughly every five years. It is currently based at Northeastern University, with Suzanna Danuta Walters, Director of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Professor of Sociology, serving as editor-in-chief. In her inaugural editorial, Walters laid out five "core concerns" for ''Signs'': (1) for the field of women's studies to "substantively reckon" with

gender and sexuality studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

and queer studies; (2) to focus on "racial and ethnic difference"; (3) to re-emphasize "inter- or transdisciplinarity"; (4) to not lose sight of "the big questions about gender and sexuality" by getting too narrow in scope; and (5) to expand the journal's "digital presence". The history of ''Signs'' is explored extensively in Kelly Coogan-Gehr's 2011 book ''The Geopolitics of the Cold War and Narratives of Inclusion: Excavating a Feminist Archive''. Coogan-Gehr uses ''Signs'' as a case study to complicate what she calls the "stock narrative of feminist field formation". She argues that dominant histories of the development of

academic feminism Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...

, in focusing solely on the women's movement and other radical movements of the 1960s, fail to take into account the role of "changes the Cold War produced in higher education." In the book, she calls ''Signs'' a "premier academic feminist journal".

Feminist Public Intellectuals Project (FPIP)

In 2015, ''Signs'' launched the Feminist Public Intellectuals Project, which seeks to engage feminist theorizing with pressing political and social problems via three open-access, online-first initiatives: Short Takes: Provocations on Public Feminism, Currents: Feminist Key Concepts and Controversies, and Ask a Feminist. Given the fragmentation of feminist activism and the persistent negative freighting of the term "feminist", the Feminist Public Intellectuals Project seeks to reimagine what role a journal can play in provoking activism. ''Short Takes'' features commentaries by feminist activists and public intellectuals on recent books that "have shaped popular conversations about feminist issues," alongside a response by the author. Featured books include Roxane Gay's ''

Bad Feminist ''Bad Feminist: Essays'' is a 2014 collection of essays by cultural critic, novelist and professor Roxane Gay. ''Bad Feminist'' explores being a feminist while loving things that could seem at odds with feminist ideology. Gay's essays engage pop ...

'', Rebecca Traister's ''All the Single Ladies'', and Andi Zeisler's ''We Were Feminists Once.'' ''Currents'' publishes essays that put forth "a nuanced and edgy take on a key issue circulating in the feminist definitional landscape." Issues addressed include "identity politics", "trigger warnings", "celebrity feminism", and "affirmative consent". ''Ask a Feminist'' is an interview series that seeks to create "conversation between and among feminist scholars, media activists, and community leaders," to bridge the divide between scholarship and activism. Recent features include " Angela P. Harris on Gender and Gun Violence" and "

Cathy J. Cohen Cathy J. Cohen (born 1962) is an American political scientist, author, feminist, and social activist, whose work has focused on the African-American experience in politics from a perspective which is underlined by intersectionality. She is curren ...

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

, Feminism, and Contemporary Activism".

Catharine R. Stimpson Prize

''Signs'' awards the Catharine R. Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship, named for the founding editor-in-chief of ''Signs,'' biennially to the best paper from an international competition of "emerging" feminist scholars (meaning "fewer than seven years since receipt of the terminal degree"). The submissions are judged by an international jury of prominent feminist academics. Winners of the award include Czech historian

Anna Hájková Anna Hájková (born 1978) is a Czech-British historian who is currently a faculty member at the University of Warwick. She specializes in the study of everyday life during the Holocaust and sexuality and the Holocaust. According to Hájková, "M ...

. Winners receive a $1,000 honorarium and have their papers published in ''Signs.'' The 2017 co-winners of the Stimpson Prize were Cameron Awkward-Rich, for his essay "Trans, Feminism: ''Or'', Reading like a Depressed Transsexual", and Meghan Healy-Clancy, for her essay "The Family Politics of the Federation of South African Women: A History of Public Motherhood in Women's Antiracist Activism".

Editors-in-chief, emeritae and current

* Catharine R. Stimpson (

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

), founding editor-in-chief, 1975-1980 * Barbara C. Gelpi (

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

), 1980-1985 *

Jean Fox O'Barr Jean Fox O'Barr (born 1942) is an American feminist teacher, scholar, and administrator whose pioneering work helped establish women’s studies as a program of academic study and support for women in higher education. Biography O'Barr received he ...

( Duke University), 1985-1990 * Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres and Barbara Laslett (

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

), 1990-1995 * Carolyn Allen and Judith A. Howard (

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

), 1995-2000 *

Sandra Harding Sandra G. Harding (born 1935) is an American philosopher of feminist and postcolonial theory, epistemology, research methodology, and philosophy of science. She directed the UCLA Center for the Study of Women from 1996 to 2000, and co-edited ...

and Kathryn Norberg (

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

), 2000-2005 *

Mary Hawkesworth Mary Hawkesworth (born June 26, 1952) is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She is a political scientist trained in feminist theory and has conducted extensive research i ...

(

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

), 2005-2015 * Suzanna Danuta Walters ( Northeastern University), 2015–present

Notable contributors to ''Signs''

Lila Abu-Lughod Lila Abu-Lughod (born 1952) is a Palestinian-American anthropologist. She is the Joseph L. Buttenweiser Professor of Social Science in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York City. She specializes in ethnographic res ...

Sara Ahmed Sara Ahmed (30 August 1969) is a British-Australian writer and scholar whose area of study includes the intersection of feminist theory, lesbian feminism, queer theory, affect theory, critical race theory and postcolonialism. Her seminal work ...

Raewyn Connell Raewyn Connell (born 3 January 1944), usually cited as R. W. Connell, is an Australian sociologist. She gained prominence as an intellectual of the Australian New Left. She was appointed University Professor at the University of Sydney in 2004 ...

Kimberlé Crenshaw Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (born May 5, 1959) is an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory. She is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School, where she specializes in race and gender iss ...

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," wh ...

Catharine MacKinnon Catharine Alice MacKinnon (born October 7, 1946) is an American radical feminist legal scholar, activist, and author. She is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she has been tenured since 1990, ...

Chandra Talpade Mohanty Chandra Talpade Mohanty (born 1955) is a Distinguished Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Sociology, and the Cultural Foundations of Education and Dean's Professor of the Humanities at Syracuse University. Mohanty, a postcolonial and tr ...

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...

Joan Wallach Scott Joan Wallach Scott (born December 18, 1941) is an American historian of France with contributions in gender history. She is a professor emerita in the School of Social Science in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Scott i ...

Elaine Showalter Elaine Showalter (born January 21, 1941) is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She influenced feminist literary criticism in the United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocr ...

Rajeswari Sunder Rajan Rajeswari Sunder Rajan (born 1950) is an Indian feminist scholar, a professor in English, and author of several books on issues related to feminism and gender. Her research interest has covered many subjects such as of the pre and post colonial per ...

* Patricia J. Williams * Iris Marion Young

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in: According to the ''

Journal Citation Reports ''Journal Citation Reports'' (''JCR'') is an annual publicationby Clarivate Analytics (previously the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters). It has been integrated with the Web of Science and is accessed from the Web of Science-Core Collec ...

'', the journal has a 2017

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as ...

of 1.078, ranking it 16th out of 42 journals in the category "Women's Studies".Pdf.
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References

External links

*
''Signs'' page on the University of Chicago Press website''Signs'' Twitter''Signs'' Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Signs (journal) Feminism and society University of Chicago Press academic journals Publications established in 1975 English-language journals Quarterly journals Women's studies journals Women's mass media Gender studies journals LGBT-related journals