The 1998 annual meeting of the Association will be held in Seattle, Washington, January 8-11. The Program Committee welcomes proposals by all members of the Association (academic and nonacademic), by scholars in related disciplines, and by affiliated societies. The program for the annual meeting seeks to promote excellence in research and teaching and discussion of significant professional issues, rights, and responsibilities. The Program Committee seeks presentations that address the entire community of the historians and provide opportunities to examine the larger concerns of the profession. (See Program Committee Guidelines, page 18 of this issue of Perspectives.)

The AHA Annual Meeting offers a unique opportunity to take stock of the profession by generating conversations across the boundaries of sub fields, institutional locations, and disciplines. We particularly encourage comparative panels that look at the ways in which the profession is crossing disciplinary or traditional geographic boundaries and proposals that examine the interface between academic history and its communication to a broader public through museum exhibitions, historic sites, textbooks, and national history standards. We also entourage panels that take stock of the current status of particular subfields of history (such as labor history, political history, military history, or women's history), particularly if those panels have a comparative dimension. Effective comparative proposals should move beyond simple parallel presentations to explore the benefits of comparison itself. Panel organizers should recruit chairs and commentators willing to play an active role in framing and clarifying the comparative perspective.

The 1998 committee consists of Sara Evans, chair (Univ. of Minnesota); Ann Waltner, cochair (Univ. of Minnesota); Charles Ambler (Univ. of Texas at EI Paso); Lonnie Bunch (Smithsonian Inst.); Joan Cadden (Univ. of California at Davis); John Chasteen (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Paula Findlen (Stanford Univ.); Eric Rothschild (Scarsdale [N.Y.] High School); Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (Morgan State Univ.); John Voll (Georgetown Univ.); and Eric Weitz (St. Olaf Coll.).

There are two deadlines for submission: October 31, 1996, and February 15, 1997. The committee encourages the submission of entire panels or workshops, but it will consider, for the fall deadline only, single-paper submissions. We will continue to offer a "poster session," however. In this format, an individual is provided with space, a listing in the program, and a period of time, during which he or she is available, armed with a poster that includes appropriate graphic illustrations and an abstract of the presentation. Common in the sciences and some social sciences, this format allows individual scholars to discuss their work with interested colleagues. It is also suitable for computer demonstrations, CD-ROM projects, and videos. For help in preparing your proposal consult the following items in this issue of Perspectives: "Program Committee Guidelines," p. 18; "Preparing Your Proposal," p. 17; and the Proposal Cover Sheet and Checklist, p. 16. Proposers of panels or individual presentations must use the cover sheet and checklist from this issue of Perspectives.

All persons appearing in the program must be members of the AHA, the exception being foreign scholars and scholars from other disciplines. Only in exceptional circumstances will individuals be allowed to appear consecutively in the 1997 and 1998 programs. Kindly mail four copies of the complete proposal (including the cover sheet and a two-page vita for participants that indicates recent papers read or works published) to Sara Evans, Dept. of History, University of Minnesota, 267 19th Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN 55455.