H-Iowa decommissioned; H-Midwest announced

Greetings.

On July 1, 2015, H-Net Council voted to decommission H-Iowa and several other networks dedicated to the study of the history and culture of Midwestern US states, due to lack of activity. Council also approved a plan to create a new network, H-Midwest, dedicated to Midwestern Studies. Subscribers to H-Iowa will be automatically merged into H-Midwest when it is created.

Midwestern Studies is a relatively new and growing field with much infrastructure still to be built. H-Midwest is an exciting opportunity for H-Net and scholars of Midwestern Studies to help build this significant new resource. The full range of H-Net capabilities will allow H-Midwest to provide a central gathering place for resources, publications, and communication among scholars of Midwestern history, literature, folklore, foodways, geographies, economics, sociology, material culture, political science, and other disciplines in the dynamic field. 

We are assembling a multi-disciplinary team of editors and contributors to produce a range of online open access publications. These will include periodic roundtable discussions around issues in Midwestern Studies, such as "Why Midwestern Studies?" and "Midwestern Gender."  H-Midwest will also host a peer-reviewed, open-access journal for Midwestern Studies. Building from what already exists on H-Net's Midwestern state networks, H-Midwest will be a clearinghouse for information and resources, including teaching resource centers, news from the many historical societies and archives in the region, and academic announcements. H-Midwest will embrace the diversity of the Midwest region itself, remembering "the heartland" is not all farms, not all white people, not all frozen, and not all "nice." 

If you are interested in building the field of Midwestern Studies at H-Midwest as an editor, contributor, peer reviewer, or book reviewer, please contact Patrick Cox, H-Net Vice-President for Networks, at vp-net@mail.h-net.msu.edu. H-Midwest will maintain separate streams of information, so an Iowan expertise would be just as valued as more general Midwestern expertise.