2025 JETAA Chicago officer elections are on the horizon!

It is election time! Elections are Monday, March 3rd, so come take part and have your voice heard as we kick off the 2025-2026 term!

Interested in stepping up to help guide our local community? Or just wanting to participate in the democratic process? Check out all of the details for the 2025 JETAA Chicago Officer Elections below.

For those interested, here is a quick timeline for the next month:

• Complete this form to indicate your interest in running by Wednesday, February 19.

• Submit your platform by Wednesday, February 26 (you will receive the submission link once you have completed the previous form).

• Platforms for all candidates will be shared with the community on Saturday, March 1.

• Sign up for the March 4 meeting to receive your electronic ballot.

• Attend the open board meeting on Monday, March 3. Alumni will have the opportunity to ask questions of the candidates then.

• Polls will be open from 12PM to 7PM CST on Monday, March 3, and results will be announced shortly after!

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Prior to submitting your interest, please take a moment to review the Community Norms and Agreements. All officers are expected to embody these guidelines as leaders and work to cultivate a community built on equitable practices and respectful behavior that fosters belonging at all times.

All members of JETAA Chicago and its sub-chapters are eligible to vote in the elections, and as always, all positions are open and any member of our community may run. For details on each, please see the descriptions here. And please, feel free to reach out to current board members as well. We can be reached at info@jetaachicago.com and all of our emails are on the JETAA Chicago website, if you have any questions.

Full details for participating in the elections will be shared later this month. We hope to see you soon!

JETAA Wisconsin Subchapter Meeting

Join JETAA WI at our next subchapter meeting on Saturday, February 8, 2025. Join us at 5:30pm, in-person, for our meeting over dinner at Golden Mast Inn, a supper club in Okauchee, WI. Spring and summer events discussion is on the agenda. Please RSVP by Thursday 2/6.

RSVP here!

Venue:

Weissgerber's Golden Mast Inn

W349 N5293 Lacys Ln

Okauchee, WI 53069

Reimagining “Women” in 1970s–1980s Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Shōjo | Manga Artists and Fans

Below, please see the information for a Northwestern University event that was shared with us. More details can be found on the event page.

When: Thursday, February 27, 2025

12:30 PM - 1:45 PM CT

Where: Harris Hall, 101, 1881 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208

In the early 1970s, Japan saw the emergence of three dynamic and overlapping communities of women and adolescent girls who challenged Japanese gender and sexual norms: the women’s liberation (ūman ribu) movement, the lesbian community, and a sphere comprised of artists and fans of queer shōjo manga (girls’ comics). In this talk, James Welker introduces his new monograph, Transfiguring Women in Late Twentieth-Century Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Girls' Comics Artists and Fans, which examines these communities and their cultural import. As he shows, individually and collectively, they found the normative understanding of the category “women” untenable and worked to redefine and expand its meaning by transfiguring ideas, images, and practices selectively appropriated from the “West.” They did so, however, while remaining firmly fixed on the local. Welker argues that their transfiguration of Western culture into something locally meaningful had tangible effects far beyond these communities.