SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN HISTORIANS

Happy Y2K! This will be a busy year for the SAWH. We will be meeting in Richmond for the Fifth Southern Conference on Women’s History in June as well as at the Southern in Louisville in November and will be moving our institutional home to Converse College in July. Many thanks to 1999 president Drew Gilpin Faust, second vice-president Jacqueline Rouse, past president Catherine Clinton, secretary (this is only her official title; “saint” or “miracle worker” would be more appropriate) Michele Gillespie, treasurer Kent Leslie, and executive council members Stephanie Shaw, Jane Turner Censer, Sally McMillan, Val Littlefield, and Lauranett Lee for all their advice and assistance. Special thanks also should go to Stephanie Cole who served not only as chair of the membership committee but also as chair of the SAWH book sale. Stephanie has lots of ideas for Katherine Johnson from the University Archives and Records Center at the University of Louisville who has graciously offered to coordinate the book sale for 2000. And finally, congratulations to newly elected officers and council members Sandra Treadway, Victoria Bynum, and Jennifer Gross. It was great to see so many new and old (experienced?) faces at the members’ meeting in Fort Worth and to have the chance to discuss the organization’s future directions with you. For those who are interested in serving on SAWH committees, there are still a few vacancies available – let me or one of the other members of the executive council know your preference(s) as soon as possible.

As a result of SAWH discussions at the 1998 SHA meeting in Birmingham, the 1999 SHA program included two special sessions: a workshop for graduate students and new Ph.D.s on “Interviewing and Job Strategies” and a workshop for all conference participants on “Sexual Harassment in the Historical Profession.” Both workshops were enthusiastically received and will hopefully become a regular feature at the SHA. Member concerns led to the creation of four ad hoc committees at the November 1999 meeting of the executive council. An ad hoc committee on mentoring was established to create a prize that would recognize contributions in teaching and/or mentoring. The committee will discuss the nature and funding of such an award and report back to the council at its November 2000 meeting. Questions about the editorial policies, publication dates, and volume sales of various SAWH publications led to the formation of an ad hoc committee on publications. Also on the topic of publications, Catherine Clinton informed the executive council about the desire of the editor of Iris, a southern women’s studies journal currently edited at the University of Virginia, for a closer relationship with the SAWH. Although it thought that such a liaison might be a good way to expand SAWH publications, the executive council felt it would be helpful to establish a separate ad hoc committee to examine the financial and personnel requirements of a possible SAWH journal before any commitments were made. Both of these publication committees will report to the executive council in November. And, as promised by the SAWH officers when the executive council introduced elections five years ago, a fourth ad hoc committee will review election policies to determine whether elections or nominations are the best means to choose organizational officers and council members. The SAWH executive board and committees will continue to look for ways to meet the various needs of the membership; feel free to e-mail or phone any of us with your suggestions.

The SAWH by-laws list four goals of the organization: 1) to advance the status of women in the historical profession in the South; 2) to provide communication among women historians regarding issues of professional concern; 3) to stimulate interest in the study of southern history and women’s history; and 4) to publicize and promote issues of concern to the SAWH membership. At the members’ meeting in Fort Worth, Judith Gentry wondered if the organization shouldn’t focus more on ways to advance the status of women in the historical profession. She noted that our committees touch individually on various concerns of women in the profession, but that no one committee deals solely with the advancement of women’s status. As a result of this and later e-mail conversations with Judith, I have asked her to chair an ad-hoc committee on advancing the status of women in the profession. This committee will work with standing committees to ascertain existing efforts on behalf of women in the profession, will contact members to determine their concerns, and will suggest additional measures the organization might take to advance the status of women in the profession.

With so many issues of interest to SAWH members on the table at the moment, we should have lots to talk about at the Fifth Southern Conference on Women’s History that will convene in Richmond on June 15. Hosted by the University of Richmond and the Library of Virginia, the conference will be held on the campus of the University of Richmond. Conference coordinator, Sandra Treadway, and Program Committee Chair, Cynthia Kierner, have put together an exciting program. In addition to the paper panels, plenary sessions, and workshops, there will be exhibits on various aspects of Virginia history, two receptions, and numerous opportunities to visit local museums and historic sites. Mark your calendars now!

Looking forward to the Southern in Louisville in 2000, I am pleased to announce that Nancy Hewitt, Professor of History at Rutgers University, will give the annual address. Her talk is tentatively entitled "Seneca Falls, Suffrage, and the South: Remapping the Landscape of Women's Rights in America, 1848-1965." Nancy is a superb scholar and stimulating speaker (and a long-time SAWH member) and will be a great addition to our program. Clearly, 2000 promises to be an exciting year!

Amy Thompson McCandless

College of Charleston

Mccandlessa@cofc.edu

http://www.cofc.edu/~mccandla/amym.htm

Congratulations to newly elected Second Vice-President Sandra Treadway; Executive Council Member Victoria Bynum; and Graduate Student Representative

Jennifer Gross.

The SAWH wishes to thank all members who took the time to vote in this year’s election, and for returning their

ballots promptly!

1999 ELECTION

Results

1999 SAWH Elections

Nominations Sought

The Executive Council voted to move up the election calendar at its November meeting. Accordingly, the Nominating Committee will soon be preparing a slate of candidates for the upcoming SAWH elections and is soliciting nominations for second vice-president and an executive council member now. Please let this committee know who should be considered for leadership roles in this organization. Send nominations by March 1^st, 2000 to Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust, Chair of the Nominating Committee. Enclosed in this issue is a card you can use for sending in your nominations.

2000 SAWH Officers and

Executive Council


*President:*	Amy Thompson McCandless University of Charleston

*First Vice-President:*	Jacqueline Rouse Georgia State University

*Second Vice-President:*	Sandra Treadway Library of Virginia

*President Ex-Officio:*	Drew Gilpin Faust University of Pennsylvania

*Secretary:*	Michele Gillespie Wake Forest University

*Treasurer:*	Kent Anderson Leslie Oglethorpe University

*Executive Council:*	Jane Turner Censer (2000) George Mason University

*Executive Council:*	Sally G. McMillen (2001) Davidson College

*Executive Council:*	Victoria Bynum (2002) Southwest Texas State University

*Executive Council* *(Grad Student Rep.):*	Lauranett Lee (2000) Old Dominion University

	Jennifer Gross (2001) University of Georgia

*Future Secretary:*	Melissa Walker Converse College

Call for 2000

Publication Prize Submissions

he SAWH invites all interested persons to submit publications for the 2000 Spruill, Rose, and Taylor Publication Prizes.

The Julia Cherry Spruill Prize of $750 is awarded for the best published book in southern women’s history. The Willie Lee Rose Prize of $750 is awarded for the best book in southern history authored by a woman (or women). For both of these prizes, anthologies, edited works, and all other types of historical publications are eligible.

The period of eligibility for both the Spruill and Rose prizes is for works with a copyright date of 1999. Four (4) copies of each entry must be mailed to the following address no later than April 1, 2000, and all entries must be clearly marked “Spruill” or “Rose” Prize Entry. Please mail submissions to: Michele Gillespie, Wake Forest University, Department of History, PO Box 7806, Winston-Salem, NC 27109.

The $100 A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize is awarded for the best article on a topic in southern women’s history published in either a journal or an anthology during the calendar year 1999. Please send nominations or submit three (3) copies of the article no later than June 1, 2000 to Marjorie Spruill Wheeler, History Department, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5047.

Congratulations to the 1999 Publication Prize Winners

The SAWH Newsletter is published three times a year by:

The Southern Association for Women Historians

Managing Editor: Michele Gillespie Assistant Editor: Linda Dunlap Web Site: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~sawh

Phone: (336) 758-4270 Phone: (336) 758-4270

Fax: (336) 758-6130 Fax: (336) 758-6130

Wake Forest University dunlaplb@wfu.edu

PO Box 7806

Winston-Salem, NC 27109

gillesmk@wfu.edu

Membership for 2000 is $18.00 per year for regular members and $5.00 per year for graduate students, retirees, and independent scholars. A lifetime membership is available for $200.00, payable in quarterly installments. The SAWH especially welcomes as members women and men who are interested in southern history and/or women’s history, as well as all women historians in any field who live in the South.

If you would like to become a member, just fill out the enclosed membership form and mail it in with your check made payable to SAWH.

Fifth Southern Conference on Women's History

Preparations for the Fifth Southern Conference on Women's History to be held in Richmond, Virginia, June 15 - 17, 2000, are well underway. The response to the call for proposals and papers sent out last winter was overwhelming, and the Program Committee faced a Herculean job during the past several months as they reviewed all the submissions and then met during the Southern Historical Association's annual meeting in Fort Worth in November to make the final selections. Program Committee chair, Cindy Kierner, (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) along with committee members Jessica Kross, Tom Buckley, Deborah O'Neal, Lynda Crist, Wanda Hendricks, Elna Green, Sarah Wilkerson-Freeman, and Phyllis Smith, are to be commended for putting together an exciting program offering the best of new research on the widest possible variety of topics, time periods, and geographic locations. Among the many sessions that will feature the work of graduate students and seasoned scholars alike are:

· "Prostitution and the Construction of Race, Class, and Gender: Case Studies from Hamburg, Germany, and Louisville, Kentucky"

· "Poems, Pianofortes and Pews: Issues in Teaching and Education in the Antebellum South"

· "Purple Mountains' Majesty, Amber Waves of Grain: New Perspectives on Rural Women and Landscape"

· "Gender, Justice, and Affirmative Action: A Roundtable Discussion"

· "Inspiring African American Women in the Nineteenth Century: Maggie Lena Walker and Rosa Dixon Bowser"

· "Traveling Women: Explorations in Nineteenth-Century Gender and Gentility"

· "Gender, Race and the Politics of Morality in Mid-Twentieth Century Southern Schools" -- to name only a few.

The Local Arrangements Committee, ably chaired by Frances Pollard (Virginia Historical Society) has also been busy finalizing the social and logistical components of the program to ensure that conference attendees make the most of their stay in Richmond. Among the special events planned are an opening reception Thursday afternoon at the University of Richmond, a mid-conference reception in the atrium lobby of the Library of Virginia on Friday afternoon, and a closing dinner at the Virginia Historical Society (with an opportunity to view the Society's major new exhibition "The Story of Virginia").

Printed programs containing registration information (including information on on-campus and off-campus housing, meals, transportation, driving directions, and the like) will be mailed to all SAWH members as well as others who have asked to be placed on the conference mailing list in early MARCH 2000. This spring, a copy of the program with registration information will also be placed on the SAWH web site (www.h-net.msu.edu/~sawh/). In the meantime, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Excitement is building in Richmond, and both the University of Richmond and the Library of Virginia are eager to welcome the SAWH to town. See you in June!

Sandy Treadway, Conference Coordinator

Library of Virginia streadwa@vsla.edu

(804) 692-3599

Please Donate Your Books

he Fifth SAWH Book Sale at the annual meeting in Louisville next November promises to be a huge success. Of course, the main ingredient in this recipe for success is a generous amount of BOOKS!

Your donation of extra books or new “hot off the press” editions will help this organization reduce the expenses of the annual meeting. If you have any books you would like to donate, please send them to:

Katherine Burger Johnson, University Archives & Records Center, Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292

Call for Papers

Place and people, landscape and legends, race and region: the South looms large in both the national imaginary and political economy. Where are women (which women?) in the tales and stories about the South, in the commentary and the critique? This issue of IRIS: A Journal About Women invites scholarship, essays, art, fiction, poetry, and other creative work that explores gender identities and women’s lives in the many Souths, old and new, from a wide range of perspectives. We are looking for submissions that explore regional as well as personal identity and particularly would like ones that address race, class, sexuality, and social movements. We want to consider new voices of Southern women writers, their connections to previous generations, and their commitments to social justice.

Deadline for Submissions: February 15, 2000

Guidelines: Submissions should be typed and should include a self-addressed, stamped envelope to better facilitate our response. If you want to explore an idea with us, please e-mail us at iris@virginia.edu; accepted pieces then need to be e-mailed to facilitate editing. Poetry should be specifically addressed to the attention of Poetry Editor. Submissions may be sent to: IRIS, Women’s Center, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 800588, Charlottesville, VA, 22902; (804) 924-4500 or iris@virginia.edu.

Women in Southern Culture Series

Margaret Ripley Wolfe, Senior Research Professor in History, East Tennessee State University, is the General Editor of the newly launched Women in Southern Culture series published by the University Press of Kentucky. Creeker: A Woman’s Journey, the inaugural volume in the series, by Linda Scott DeRosier, Professor of Psychology, Rocky Mountain College, appeared in September 1999. Wolfe and the Kentucky Press are receptive to project proposals or completed manuscripts. For more information about the series, contact Margaret Ripley Wolfe at wolfem@etsu.edu or write to her at East Tennessee State University, Department of History, Box 70672, Johnson City, TN 37614-0672. For information about Creeker: A Woman’s Journey or to place an order, contact Leila Salisbury at (606) 257-8761.

QUERY

Is anyone interested in working on a Florida History Project at the Academy of African American Culture in Sarasota, Florida? If so, please contact Ms. Ruby Woodson, PO Box 20631, Sarasota, FL 34276.

The SAWH

Welcomes New Members

Megan E. Boccardi, Louisiana State University

Starr Morrow Camper, Cleveland Community College

Catherine A. Cardno, Johns Hopkins University

Karen V. Carson, Arizona State University

Uche Egemonye, Emory University

Carol Emberton, Northwestern University

Linda Frazier, Texas Christian University

Amy M. Froide, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Kathryn Gray-White, University of Georgia

Samantha Holtkamp, University of California at Los Angeles

Tricia Hoskins, Eastern Kentucky University

Mary Ann Janecka, University of Houston

Reinette F. Jones, University of Kentucky

Mary L. Kelley, Texas Christian University

Ellen D. Lee, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Daniel Pfeifer, Wake Forest University

Angie K. Pitts, Louisiana State University

Amber Leigh Proffitt, University of Tennessee

Kimberly Sambol-Tosco, University of Kansas

Elizabeth P. Stanfield, Georgia State University

Susan R. Stein, Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia

Kelly D. Trenchard, Kent State University

Kathleen R. Zebley, UNC at Pembroke

Modern Russian History Position

The History Department of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, invites applications for a tenure-track appointment as Assistant Professor in 19th and 20th-Century Russian History, effective August 2000. Ph.D. required. Sub-fields open. Teaching load is normally two-two, with responsibilities for the Western or World Civilization surveys and appropriate upper division and graduate level courses. Send letter of application, CV, graduate transcripts, 3 letters of reference, and writing samples to Dr. John Bohstedt, Chair, Department of History, 915 Volunteer Blvd., 6^th floor Dunford Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996-4065.

Patricia Ali (Morris College) is completing work on the Instructor’s Manual for the ninth edition of Wallbank, et al., Civilization Past and Present.

Carolyn Terry Bashaw (Le Moyne College) recently published Stalwart Women: A Historical Analysis of Deans of Women in the South (Teachers College Press, 1999).

Virginia Bernhard (University of St. Thomas) has published Slaves and Slaveholders in Bermuda, 1616-1782 (University of Missouri Press, 1999).

Patricia Brady (Historic New Orleans Collection) contributed a foreword to Literary New Orleans (Hill St. Press, 1999) and published “New Orleans in the 1850s” in Queen of the South: New Orleans, 1853-1862, The Journal of Thomas K. Wharton (The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1999). She also edited “Carnival of Liberty: Lafayette in Louisiana”, Louisiana History and delivered the Presidential Address for the Louisiana Historical Association. She recently presented the Society of the Cincinnati Lecture at Washington and Lee University entitled “Keeping the Flame Alight: Washington, the Custises, and Lafayette.”

Kathryn Holland Braund (Independent Scholar) published an edited and annotated version of Bernard Romans’ A Concise Natural History of Eaast and West Florida (1775), (University of Alabama Press, 1999). She is currently editing James Adair’s History of the American Indians for reissue.

Elaine G. Breslaw (University of Tennessee) is under contract with New York University Press to prepare a reader on Witchcraft in the the Atlantic World to be published in 2000.

Thomas E. Buckley, S.J. (Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley) has edited “If You Love That Lady Don’t Marry Her”: The Courtship Letters of Sally McDowelll and John Miller, 1854-1856 (University of Missouri Press, 2000).

Antoinette Emch-Deriaz (University of Florida) presented two papers at the International Congress on the the Enlightenment in Dublin in July 1999. They were entitled “De l’importance de toucherle pouls” and “Is Madame du Chatelet’s a fair presentation of Newton’s Principa.” She was also named Anderson Scholar Faculty for the acad