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{{Short description|Feminist academic journal}}
{{Infobox journal
| title = Signs
| cover = [[File:SIGNScover.jpg|border]]
| editor = [[Suzanna Danuta Walters]]
| discipline = [[Women's studies]], [[Feminist theory]], [[Queer theory]], [[Gender studies]]
| publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]]
| country = United States
| frequency = Quarterly
| abbreviation = Signs
| bluebook = Signs
| history = 1975-present
| impact = 1.078
| impact-year = 2017
| website = http://signsjournal.org/
| link1 = http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/signs/current
| link1-name = Online access
| link2 = http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/loi/signs
| link2-name = Online archive
| JSTOR = 00979740
| ISSN = 0097-9740
| eISSN = 1545-6943
| LCCN = 75649469
| OCLC = 223703061
}}
'''''Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society''''' is a [[peer review|peer-reviewed]] [[feminist]] [[academic journal]]. 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]]. ''Signs'' publishes essays examining the lives of women, men, and [[Non-Binary|non-binary]] people around the globe from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as theoretical and critical articles addressing processes of [[gender]]ing, [[sexualization]], and [[racialization]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hawkesworth|first=M|year=2011|title=Signs 2005–2015: Reflections on the Nature and Global Reach of Interdisciplinary Feminist Knowledge Production|journal=Signs|volume=36|issue=3|pages=511–519|doi=10.1086/657513|jstor=10.1086/657513|s2cid=147689143}}</ref>

== History and significance ==
The founding of ''Signs'' in 1975 was part of the early development of the field of [[women's studies]], born of the [[women's liberation movement]] 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"<ref name=":1" /> in the U.S. and around the globe, and (2) "to be [[Interdisciplinarity|interdisciplinary]]".<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Stimpson|first1=Catharine R.|last2=Burstyn|first2=Joan N.|last3=Stanton|first3=Domna C.|last4=Whisler|first4=Sandra M.|date=1975-10-01|title=Editorial|journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|volume=1|issue=1|pages=v–viii|doi=10.1086/493202|s2cid=225086977|issn=0097-9740}}</ref> 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."<ref name=":1" /> The meaning behind the name ''Signs'' is that signs "represent"<ref name=":1" /> and "point":<ref name=":1" /> the original editors wanted the journal to "represent the originality and rigor"<ref name=":1" /> of women's studies and to "point"<ref name=":1" /> to new directions for feminist scholarship.

Former editor-in-chief Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres said in an article in the ''[[Yale Journal of Criticism]]'' that ''Signs'', from its inception, was meant to be "something different, even insurgent... an agent for change,"<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Joeres|first=Ruth-Ellen B.|date=1997-10-01|title=The Paradox of a Feminist Academic Journal|journal=The Yale Journal of Criticism|volume=10|issue=2|pages=439–443|doi=10.1353/yale.1997.0021|s2cid=144763134|issn=1080-6636}}</ref> because it emerged from the "grassroots" feminist movement. Joeres explored the "paradox"<ref name=":2" /> of how a journal can be both an "agent for change"<ref name=":2" /> and regarded as "respectable in the academy",<ref name=":2" /> 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"<ref name=":2" /> 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"<ref name=":4" /> for ''Signs'': (1) for the field of women's studies to "substantively reckon"<ref name=":4" /> with [[Gender studies|gender and sexuality studies]] and [[queer studies]]; (2) to focus on "racial and ethnic difference";<ref name=":4" /> (3) to re-emphasize "inter- or transdisciplinarity";<ref name=":4" /> (4) to not lose sight of "the big questions about gender and sexuality"<ref name=":4" /> by getting too narrow in scope; and (5) to expand the journal's "digital presence".<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|url=http://signsjournal.org/inaugural-editorial-thinking-and-doing-feminism/|title=Inaugural Editorial: Thinking and Doing Feminism|date=2014-12-08|work=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|access-date=2017-08-22|language=en-US}}</ref>

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''.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QcJgAQAAQBAJ&q=The+Geopolitics+of+the+Cold+War+and+Narratives+of+Inclusion%3A+Excavating+a+Feminist+Archive|title=The Geopolitics of the Cold War and Narratives of Inclusion: Excavating a Feminist Archive|last=Coogan-Gehr|first=K.|date=2011-11-03|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780230370555|language=en}}</ref> Coogan-Gehr uses ''Signs'' as a case study to complicate what she calls the "stock narrative of feminist field formation".<ref name=":3" /> She argues that dominant histories of the development of [[academic feminism]], 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."<ref name=":3" /> In the book, she calls ''Signs'' a "premier academic feminist journal".<ref name=":3" />

== 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,"<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://signsjournal.org/short-takes/|title=Short Takes|date=2015-06-12|work=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en-US}}</ref> alongside a response by the author. Featured books include [[Roxane Gay|Roxane Gay's]] ''[[Bad Feminist]]'', [[Rebecca Traister|Rebecca Traister's]] ''All the Single Ladies'', and [[Andi Zeisler|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."<ref name=":0" /> Issues addressed include "identity politics", "trigger warnings", "celebrity feminism", and "affirmative consent".<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://signsjournal.org/currents-affirmative-consent/|title=Currents: Affirmative Consent|date=2015-11-02|work=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en-US}}</ref>

''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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://signsjournal.org/ask-a-feminist/|title=Ask a Feminist|date=2016-05-17|work=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en-US}}</ref> Recent features include "[[Angela P. Harris]] on Gender and Gun Violence" and "[[Cathy J. Cohen]] on [[Black Lives Matter]], Feminism, and Contemporary Activism".<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://signsjournal.org/ask-a-feminist/|title=Ask a Feminist|date=2016-05-17|work=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|access-date=2017-08-31|language=en-US}}</ref>

== 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]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://signsjournal.org/anna-hajkova-wins-2013-catharine-stimpson-prize-for-feminist-scholarship/|title=Anna Hájková Wins 2013 Catharine Stimpson Prize for Feminist Scholarship|date=2012-08-24|work=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|access-date=2017-08-23|language=en-US}}</ref> Winners receive a $1,000 honorarium and have their papers published in ''Signs'''.'''''<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://signsjournal.org/for-authors/calls-for-papers/#stimpson|title=Calls for Papers|date=2012-08-21|work=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en-US}}</ref>

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]]), founding editor-in-chief, 1975-1980
* Barbara C. Gelpi ([[Stanford University]]), 1980-1985
* [[Jean Fox O'Barr]] ([[Duke University]]), 1985-1990
* Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres and Barbara Laslett ([[University of Minnesota]]), 1990-1995
* Carolyn Allen and Judith A. Howard ([[University of Washington]]), 1995-2000
* [[Sandra Harding]] and Kathryn Norberg ([[University of California, Los Angeles]]), 2000-2005
* [[Mary Hawkesworth]] ([[Rutgers University]]), 2005-2015
* [[Suzanna Danuta Walters]] ([[Northeastern University]]), 2015–present

== Notable contributors to ''Signs'' ==
*[[Lila Abu-Lughod]]
*[[Sara Ahmed]]
*[[Raewyn Connell]]
*[[Kimberlé Crenshaw]]
*[[Audre Lorde]]
*[[Catharine MacKinnon]]
*[[Chandra Talpade Mohanty]]
* [[Adrienne Rich]]
*[[Joan Wallach Scott]]
*[[Elaine Showalter]]
*[[Rajeswari Sunder Rajan]]
* [[Patricia J. Williams]]
* [[Iris Marion Young]]

== Abstracting and indexing ==
The journal is abstracted and indexed in:
{{Columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Academic Search Premier]]
* [[Arts and Humanities Citation Index]]
* [[ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts]]
* [[Contemporary Women's Issues]]
* [[MLA Bibliography]]
* [[PsycINFO]]
* [[Sociological Abstracts]]
* [[VioLit]]
* [[Women's Studies International]]
}}
According to the ''[[Journal Citation Reports]]'', the journal has a 2017 [[impact factor]] of 1.078, ranking it 16th out of 42 journals in the category "Women's Studies".<ref name=WoS>{{cite book |year=2018 |chapter=Journals Ranked by Impact: Women's Studies |title=2017 Journal Citation Reports |publisher=[[Thomson Reuters]] |edition=Social Sciences |series=[[Web of Science]]|title-link=Journal Citation Reports }} [https://web.archive.org/web/20170225062420/https://ieg.ua.es/en/documentos/investigacion/apoyo-a-la-investigacion/categoria-womens-studies-jcr-en-2015.pdf Pdf.]</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Cultural studies]]
* [[Feminist theory]]
* [[Queer theory]]
* [[Gender studies]]
* [[Women's studies]]
* [[List of women's studies journals]]
* [[Feminist Studies|''Feminist Studies'' (journal)]]
* ''[[Feminist Review]]''
* [[Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies|''Frontiers'']] (journal)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Official website|http://signsjournal.org/}}
* [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/signs ''Signs'' page on the University of Chicago Press website]
*[https://twitter.com/SignsJournal ''Signs'' Twitter]
*[https://www.facebook.com/SignsJournal/ ''Signs'' Facebook]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Signs (journal)}}
[[Category:Feminism and society]]
[[Category:University of Chicago Press academic journals]]
[[Category:Academic journals established in 1975]]
[[Category:English-language journals]]
[[Category:Quarterly journals]]
[[Category:Women's studies journals]]
[[Category:Women's mass media]]
[[Category:Gender studies journals]]
[[Category:LGBT-related journals]]

Signs (journal) - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article