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Louisiana Historical Association Call for Papers
The Louisiana Historical Association invites proposals for its 55th Annual Meeting to be held in Alexandria, March 21-23, 2013. The meeting will be headquartered at the Best Western Inn and Suites. We invite sessions on any aspect of Louisiana History, but we strongly encourage proposals in the emerging field of business and industrial history of Louisiana, broadly defined. Topics might range from the colonial fur trade, to 19th- and early 20th-century agriculture, lumber mills, and mining, to 20th- and 21st-century oil & gas, gambling, and film & television. We also solicit proposals on Louisiana and borderlands studies as a secondary field of emphasis, in honor of Alexandria’s reputation as the “crossroads of Louisiana.” The program committee is open to submissions that take a novel approach to session design as well as traditional scholarly panels. We also encourage the participation of graduate students and public historians. We prefer to receive proposals for complete sessions but will consider individual paper proposals as well. Proposals should be submitted in a single Microsoft Word document and include: • A cover sheet with the session title as well as the names, affiliations and email address of all participants including the chair and commentator • A summary of the focus and intent of the session as a whole not to exceed 250 words • An abstract for each paper or presentation not to exceed 250 words • A vita for each participant not to exceed 500 words • All materials should be emailed to the program committee at LHAprog@latech.edu. Please include the name, affiliation and email address of the proposal organizer in the body of your message. Queries may be sent to the program chair, Dr. V. Elaine Thompson, at the same email address. The submission deadline is Sept. 1, 2012.

Southern Labor Studies Call for Papers
The Southern Labor Studies Association is soliciting panels for its March 7-9, 2013 conference in New Orleans, LA. The conference theme, the “Many Souths,” invites a broad range of panels on southern working-class history, while at the same time it asks participants to examine how we have conceptualized the region: as rural and/or urban; as a single region, or as multiple sub-regions, e.g. the Mountain South, Deep South, etc.; as part of the Caribbean, Gulf Coast, and/or Atlantic World; and as a region defined by particular sets of race, class, and gender relations. New Orleans is an ideal place to do this, as it is often set apart as somehow “exceptional” or outside the South in popular culture and historical accounts. For some, it is a city distinct from the rest of the South, even as for others, it is very much part of the South’s economic and racial framework. Others see New Orleans as a Caribbean capital. In fact, New Orleans, like much of the South, is often “exemplary” of larger historical trends related to migration, de-industrialization, the rise of the service economy, the importance of tourism, race relations, violence, and working-class struggles. To this end, we welcome full panels on a broad range of southern labor themes, including panels related to slavery and unfree labor, prisons and labor, oil, fishing, and the Gulf Coast, work and disaster capitalism, tourism and the service economy, music and cultural workers, sex workers, the Global South, African American labor history, Latino and migrant workers, gender and labor activism, and migration throughout the South. Please submit panels by September 14, 2012. Panel submissions must include a brief synopsis of the panel (250 words), abstracts for each paper (250 words), 2-pg CV of each participant, contact information of each participant, and contact information for panel organizer. Please submit panels to both Jana Lipman and Steve Striffler at jlipman@tulane.edu and sstriffl@uno.edu

AHS Panel and Reception at OAH
Members and friends of the Agricultural History Society are invited to join us for two events at the OAH in MIlwaukee on Thursday, April 19. First, the Society is hosting a roundtable called "Country Music, Country People: A Roundtable Discussion on Music and Rural Life in America," which will be from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (See local program for room location.) That afternoon the AHS will be hosting an informal reception for members and others interested in agricultural and rural history. We'll meet at the hotel bar in the Hilton City Center at 5:00 p.m. If you have any questions, please contact executive secretary Jim Giesen (JGiesen@history.msstate.edu).

Center for the History of Microbiology/ASM Archives Travel Grant
The Center for the History of Microbiology/ASM Archives (CHOMA) Collections, located at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), include 9,000 volumes on microbiology and related topics; photographs of scientists and microbes; topical files on various aspects of microbiology; biographical materials; instructional materials, including slides and motion pictures; records of the Society from its founding in 1899 to the present, including journals and proceedings of meetings; and several collections of personal papers. For additional information on the collection, go to http://www.asm.org/index.php/membership/about-archives.html CHOMA announces two Travel Awards of $1500 each for research at the ASM Archives in the area of the history of microbiology. Awardees will provide a report on their research and may be invited to present their research at the ASM Annual Meeting and/or prepare an article for Microbe, an ASM magazine. All research supported by the award must take place before May 31, 2013, and any article prepared for Microbe as a result of the research must be completed by December 1, 2013. Applicants should provide a CV (any length), a detailed description of the proposed project (three pages maximum), and a tentative list of archive materials to be used. Applicants should also arrange to have two letters of recommendation sent by e-mail. All applications and letters of recommendation are due by May 15, 2012 to: jkarr@asmusa.org Awards will be announced by mid-June 2012.

SHA Prize Announcement
The Jack Temple Kirby Award was established in 2010 by the Southern Historical Association to commemorate the scholarship and SHA service of Jack Kirby, who was its current president when he died in August 2009. In keeping with Professor Kirby's scholarly contributions to southern history, the Kirby Prize will be awarded to authors of journal articles in either southern agricultural or environmental history over a two-year period. The first recipient, announced at the SHA’s annual meeting in Baltimore, is James Giesen of Mississippi State University, for his article, “’The Truth about the Boll Weevil’: The Nature of Planter Power in the Mississippi Delta,” published in Environmental History (October 2009). The SHA has created an ad hoc committee to raise the funds to endow the Kirby Prize, which will be co-chaired by James C. Cobb, University of Georgia, and Barbara J. Fields, Columbia University. Anyone interested in making a donation to this fund in memory of Jack Kirby can send a check to the SHA office, 111 LeConte Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. 30602, and designate it for this purpose. Kirby’s family will be notified of all donors to the fund.

Mid-America Conference Call for Papers
The Thirty-Fourth Annual Mid-America Conference on History will be held September 20-22, 2012 in Springfield, Missouri. Paper and session proposals on all fields and phases of history, including overview sessions and graduate student papers, will be considered. Proposals should include a paragraph about the content of each paper. The deadline for proposals is May 15, 2012. Contact Worth Robert Miller, Department of History, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO 65897 or BobMiller@MissouriState.edu. For more information go to http://history.missouristate.edu/.

Conference Announcement: Home Economics: Classroom, Corporate, and Cultural Interpretations Revisited
The conference explores the origins of the field, its cultural context and changes throughout the 20th century, and its re- emergence as a field prepared to address the crises facing today's families. Scholars from history, women's studies, and family and consumer sciences will address gender and racial issues, academic programs, career paths, and how the core concepts in the history of home economics provide imperatives for the future. New scholarship presented at this multi-disciplinary conference will explore the cultural influences that shaped the field of study and the profession. Through the lens of historians, family and consumer sciences, and women’s studies scholars past challenges and future imperatives related to family and personal well-being will be addressed. Sessions on conducting historical research are included. WHEN: February 27-28, 2012 WHERE: The University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel 1197 South Lumpkin Street Athens, Georgia 30602 COST: Registration on/before 1/25/12 - $105 Registration after 1/25/12 - $125 Student Registration - $45 Register here: www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/home-economics

Southern FARE Call for Papers
The fifth annual Southern Forum on Agricultural, Rural, and Environmental History is pleased to announce a call for papers for the April 13-14 meeting in Jackson, Mississippi, hosted by Millsaps College. The Forum’s goal is to provide a welcoming and collegial environment for graduate students, junior faculty, and established scholars to present new material that pushes the boundaries of agricultural, rural, and environmental history. The organizers intend for this event to be a place for scholars to try out innovative ideas in an informal, supportive, and constructive setting. Work on all geographic locations and time periods is welcome. Dr. Stephen Brain, Assistant Professor of History at Mississippi State University and author of Song of the Forest: Russian Forestry and Stalinist Environmentalism, 1905-1953 (Pittsburgh, 2011), will deliver this year’s keynote address. Faculty and graduate students are invited to submit session, roundtable, or single-paper paper proposals on any topic dealing with rural, agricultural, or environmental history. Please submit a 100-word paper proposal, or a 250-work session/roundtable proposal, and brief biographical sketch electronically to Drew Swanson at swansda@millsaps.edu by February 29, 2012.

AHS Call for Awards Nominations
The Agricultural History Society will be taking nominations for each of its six awards through December 31, 2011. To nominate a book, article, or dissertation with a 2011 publication date, please follow the directions below. If you have a question, please email executive secretary Jim Giesen (JGiesen@history.msstate.edu). Theodore Saloutos Memorial Award for the best book on agricultural history published in 2011. To nominate a book, please send five copies to the Society office (address below) with a letter of nomination. (You may email the nomination letter to Jim Giesen.) Henry A. Wallace Award for the best book on any aspect (broadly interpreted) of agricultural history outside the United States, published in 2011. To nominate a book, please send five copies to the Society office (address below) with a letter of nomination. (You may email the nomination letter to Jim Giesen.) Wayne D. Rasmussen Award for the best article on agricultural history (broadly defined) not published in Agricultural History. To nominate an article, please e-mail a .pdf copy to Jim Giesen with a letter of nomination. If you must send a hard copy, please send one to Jim Giesen at the Society office (address below). Gilbert C. Fite Dissertation Award for the best dissertation on agricultural history defended in 2011. To nominate a dissertation, please e-mail a .pdf copy to Jim Giesen with a letter of nomination. If you must send a hard copy, please send four copies to Jim Giesen at the Society office (address below). Everett E. Edwards Award for the best article submitted to Agricultural History by a graduate student during 2011. All articles submitted to the journal by graduate students are considered by the committee. Vernon Carstensen Memorial Award for the best article published in Agricultural History in 2011. All articles published in Volume 85 will be considered by the committee. For information on past winners, please see: http://www.aghistorysociety.org/society/awards/ Jim Giesen Agricultural History Society MSU History Department PO Box H / Allen Hall 231 Mississippi State, MS 39762 Join or renew your membership online at: http://www.aghistorysociety.org/join/

Call for Papers: Life Sciences, Agriculture, and the Environment
We solicit proposals for a volume of essays that will explore the relationship between the life sciences, agriculture, and the environment from 1750 to the end of the 20th century. Of special interest is the reciprocal interaction between biological sciences and agriculture, including how agricultural problems inform the theory and practice of biology, and how biological research affects the development of scientific agriculture and agricultural practices. Biological sciences are broadly conceived to include experimental and field sciences, natural history, and biogeography. Agriculture is also broadly conceived to include any domestic or industrial uses of animals and plants. Environment here refers to interest in such problems as climate, soil type and topography as they affect distribution of species. Continuities between 19th and 20th century research will be explored, as well as the development of new disciplines (such as genetics) that emerge in agricultural contexts. We especially seek essays that explore these questions in different national contexts, in order to develop a comparative perspective on the relationship between life sciences and agriculture. Proposals of 250 words should be sent to Profs. Denise Phillips aphill@utk.edu and Sharon Kingsland Sharon@jhu.edu by March 1, 2012. For selected papers, drafts of essays (25 pages) will be due by January 15, 2013. A workshop will be held either in spring or early summer of 2013 for discussion of papers among the contributors, but participation in the workshop is not mandatory for inclusion in the volume. The workshop will be held at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, and all travel and accommodation expenses of participants will be fully covered. In addition we offer an honorarium of $500 for accepted papers. Final drafts will be due on August 1, 2013.

Reception at the Southern Historical Meeting
The AHS, along with the Filson Historical Society, invites our members and friends who are attending the Southern Historical Association meeting in Baltimore to join us for a reception Friday, October 28, from 4:30 to 6:30 in the Hall of Fame Lounge, Lobby Level, of the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel.

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