AN ON-LINE DICTIONARY OF FEMINIST KEYWORDS, ON OUR TERMS: A FEMINIST LEXICON, A RESOURCE FOR ACADEMICS, STUDENTS, AND MORE GENERAL READERS. THIS IS THE FIRST INTERNET PUBLICATION OF DETAILED CRITICAL AND CROSS-DISCIPLINARY DEFINITIONS OF TERMS RELATED TO FEMINIST THEORY AND FEMINIST THOUGHT, AVAILABLE FOR ACCESS FREE ON THIS WEBSITE.

This on-line dictionary or glossary of feminist keywords, On Our Terms: A Feminist Lexicon, is a unique publication. It will be linked subsequently to other sites and search programmes, and be a major national and international resource for women's and gender studies as well as for more general reference. It will supplement in its content and orientation aspects of the American bias of the net sources in general, and the British bias of comparable book-form dictionaries/ glossaries; its production in Australia and incorporation of Australian material and perspectives alongside international ones will also produce a somewhat different perspective. We are just beginning work on the Lexicon, and the site will remain under construction for some time.

On Our Terms: A Feminist Lexicon will include hyperlinked cross referencing to its other entries, as well as bibliographical and biographical references and information. While its production will be Australian-based and it will include substantial representation of Australian feminist thinkers, it will have an international sweep and context that, moreover, will not be confined to the Anglo-American arena that has been dominant in publishing in the field. In being made available free on the net, it goes beyond any comparable projects which are all contained within the covers of books, to be bought and sold.

On Our Terms will not be owned by a publisher and sold as a book: it will be provided free on the net - following the distinguished example of the University of Michigan that recently announced that it would make available its course outlines available on the web to anybody in the world who wished to consult it, rather than emulating the practice of those Universities who, with the advent of the internet, seek to market and sell the knowledge of their academic staff. On Our Terms, the intellectual property of the researchers at the Centre for Research on Women, Gender, Culture and Social Change, will be offered freely to everybody who wishes to access it.

On Our Terms: A Feminist Lexicon as a web publication is a dramatic innovation. No web dictionary or glossary along these lines exists; all significant publications in this area have been in print form: from Kramarae and Treichler's Feminist Dictionary in 1985 to Andermahr, Lovell and Wolkowitz's A Glossary of Feminist Theory in 2000, and a range of more narrowly focussed publications such as Wright's 1992 Feminism and Psychoanalysis: A Critical Dictionary or Elizabeth Kowalski-Wallace's 1997 Encyclopedia of Feminist Literary Theory.

The various conceptualisations of the key terms that feminist discourses deal with and in, operate at particular historical times as well as in particular places. Feminist theory, along with other radical oppositional theories consciously frames its definitional practices in juxtaposition to dominant understandings (from the highly theorised to the `commonsense'). On Our Terms will codify some of the ways in which this has happened in the past and is happening in the present. Simple definitions are not what is sought but, rather, a complicated engagement with the processes of meaning-making - presented with as much clarity and simplicity as possible. Basically, On Our Terms will be a critical commentary on what key terms mean in and for feminism. The Lexicon's entries will draw upon, and also go beyond all earlier work; acknowledging and making reference to the various perspectives within feminist worldviews in interplay with each other.

How have we approached compiling the entries?
How do dictionary entries relate to each other and to objects in the world? What is the status of cultural knowledge in our understanding of the meaning of a word? What is the relation of word usage to conditions for speaking? How is it possible to represent anything in language...? (Andermahr et al., Introduction 7)

These questions are being engaged with in the preparation of the entries, through the application of feminist theoretical knowledges.

In terms of practical issues of the organisation of the material, consistent conventions and a standard arrangement will be followed for the individual entries in the Lexicon. The order of the keywords will be alphabetical, with any cross-referenced work capitalised. Approximately one hundred terms will be selected as the initial target. Newspaper and other popular sources will have references supplied in the text; citations will give author's name and page number, and a Bibliography will be attached.

Contact details will be sent to web sites, especially those sites that follow the trend to use the net for advanced networking, so that links can be established and the site with its Lexicon become recognised and widely known about.