The editors are soliciting proposals for chapters about women's varied political, economic, and cultural activism in the mining communities of the world. The rigid gender codes of the mining industry have shaped the isolated ferrous and nonferrous mining communities that dot the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Yet mining scholarship has focused on capital developments, labor relations, changing technology, and global markets, ignoring the equally critical aspects of the social history and gender relations of the communities of people who support the industry. This project will probe how women in mining communities asserted their class and gender politics through auxiliaries or other formal and informal women's groups.

Proposals are encouraged that might pursue these or other questions about mining community life: Why did women form auxiliaries? What were their goals? How did these converge with or differ from men's goals? Were men supportive or resistant to women's militance? What roles did formal or informal women's groups play in the community, workplace, home? What were the aspirations of activist women? Did gender categories destabilize during times of crisis? Did perceived differences, such as ethnicity or place of origin, divide women in the community? At what times did men and women transcend differences and boundaries to advance the interests of all working people? To what extent did women's concerns regarding their communities address and encompass broader concerns of the nation/state?

The editors are particularly interested in submissions about Latin American, Asian, and African communities, as well as relevant submissions from scholars working on North American, European, and East European topics.

Submit essay proposals no later than August 1, 2000. Proposals should include a brief one-page description of the project and a one-page vita. Send to Dr. Jaclyn Gier Viskovatoff (email submissions accepted) at jaci001@attglobal.net or Dept. of History, Spotts World Culture Bld. 212J, U. of Pennsylvania at Slippery Rock,PA 16057 USA, Phone:1-724-738-2409; and, to Dr. Laurie Mercier, Washington State University Vancouver, 14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave, Vancouver, WA 98686 USA, fax 360-546-9036, Phone: 360-546-9646.

Selected authors will need to submit their final 20-25 page essays by February 1, 2001.