Deadline for submissions: March 31, 2017
Full name / name of organization: Whitney Womack Smith
Contact email: womackwa@miamioh.edu
Representing Rural Women

We invite you to submit an abstract for a proposed collection of critical essays focused on historical and contemporary representations of rural women in North America.

We are interested in interdisciplinary topics and theoretical approaches that help provide new understandings of the lives and experiences of rural women. We are seeking contributors from American studies, women’s and gender studies, ethnic studies, English, popular culture studies, film and media studies, history, sociology, anthropology, political science, and other relevant disciplines. Contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

-Rural women and poverty
-Rural women in Trump America
-Representations of rural women in literature, film, and television
-Collective organizing among rural women
-Rural women’s social organizations
-Race, racism, and immigration among rural women
-Poverty and food insecurity among rural women
-Rural women and their relationship to the environment
-Rural women and health
-Government policies and programs that impact rural women
-Rural women in social media
The anthology will be organized into thematic sections around these topics or others that emerge from submissions. Feel free to contact the co-editors with questions about the project and share the announcement widely with colleagues.

Please submit a 300-word abstract, or manuscript of previously unpublished work, plus a 150-word biographical sketch to the co-editors of the volume: Margaret Thomas Evans, Chair, Department of English, Indiana University East (margevan@iue.edu); H. Louise Davis, Department of Interdisciplinary and Communication Studies, Miami University (davishl3@miamioh.edu); and Whitney Womack Smith, Chair, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Writing, Miami University (womackwa@miamioh.edu).

The deadline for receipt of abstracts is 31 March 2017. We anticipate that complete chapters of 4000-6000 words will be due 30 November 2017.