MAI Feminism & Visual Culture Issue 3 (Spring 2019)

This is the 3rd Issue of MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture -- an open access, academic/creative practice journal founded in 2017 by Anna Misiak (SoFT, Falmouth University) and Anna Backman Rogers (Gothenburg University). This issue was co-edited by 4 editors. It contains 30 peer-reviewed articles. All content can be viewed online at: https://maifeminism.com/issues/issue-3-spring-2019/ Here is the editors' note: Dearest MAI readers, The first half of 2019 for the feminist community has been one marked by irreparable loss. With this special issue of the journal, which centres on notions of women’s authorship, we honour the work, spirit and passion of three extraordinary visionaries of feminist cinema: Barbara Hammer, Carolee Schneemann, and Agnès Varda. We also mark the untimely passing of Dr Katharina Lindner who was, and remains, such a vital and integral part of our feminist scholarly community. With their passing, the light has grown dimmer but their work, their activism, their tenacity in the face of difficulty must, and will, remain our example. This issue of MAI is dedicated, with immense love, gratitude and respect, to all of them. Many of the articles and interviews in this dossier are the result of an ongoing collaboration between feminist scholars – a project that was initiated with the double volume monograph edited by Dr Boel Ulfsdotter and Dr Anna Backman Rogers on female authorship and documentary practices (both Edinburgh University Press, 2018). At the Visible Evidence conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2017, many of us finally had the chance to meet in person and form further collaborations for this special issue of MAI. We are so very excited to see this collaboration reach another stage of fruition. The impetus for addressing authorship from a feminist perspective comes from a long-standing desire to reclaim auteur theory from its patriarchal roots and to examine resolutely what happens when women, from a variety of backgrounds, take up a camera and express their agency. We hope that there will be much to inspire our readers in this volume. We are so grateful to the women who have shared their perspectives and experiences with us in making this issue of MAI. Finally, as always, we want to mark the outstanding contribution of our Creative Response editorial team lead by Dr Amy McCauley. Creative Response has become a cardinal feature of MAI’s interrogation of visual culture from a feminist perspective and, once again, Amy has delivered gifts to our door. Please now dig into MAI 3, Dear Readers! In solidarity, Anna Backman Rogers, Anna Misiak, Boel Ulfsdotter & Amy McCauley