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[Note H-Water plug at bottom--thank you IWHA! For links, visit http://www.iwha.ewu.edu and click "news" in top menu.] New Journal Breakthrough for IWHA One of the long-cherished objectives of the International Water History Association (IWHA) in its first 10 years was realized 6 August 2009 when Water History, the journal of the society, was officially launched at the World Conference on Environmental History (WCEH 2009) in Denmark. The publication, with its colourful cover photograph of the tide mill at l?île de Bréhat, attracted considerable attention with the more than 350 environmental historians attending the first global conference of environmental history associations that was organised by an informal grouping of national and regional environmental history societies in Europe and the United States of America. Planning of the journal started in early 2004, when IWHA treasurer Maurits Ertsen of Delft University of Technology and IWHA vice president Johann Tempelhoff of North-West University held the first talks in Groningen about the journal. In 2007, IWHA president Bob Varady of Arizona State University gave his support for the project and then received approval from the executive council. Next Ertsen started negotiating with specialists in academic publications at the Netherlands offices of Springer. Internally there was a lot of communication. Experts in the field of water history were asked for their opinions, and Springer conducted an independent marketing survey to determine if the journal could be sustainable. At the start of 2009, it was all systems go, and a number of water historians with fresh research results were asked to submit articles for peer-review purposes. For many members of the editorial board, it was a new experience to review articles or to communicate with experts who could act as peer reviewers. But with the help of the experts at Springer along with the latest journal editing and management software, it was possible to have the first edition of Water History ready for the launch at Copenhagen. A number of renowned experts including Martin Melosi (University of Houston), Petra van Dam (VU University Amsterdam), Tony Wilkinson (Durham University), and Verena Winiwarter (Klagenfirt University) were most supportive of the initiative and agreed to serve on the editorial advisory board of the journal. The editorial board consists of Ellen Arnold (Macalester College), Matthew Bender (College of New Jersey), Kate Berry (University of Nevada), Carol Fort (Flinders University), Mucha Musemwa (University of the Witwatersrand), Masayosi Nakawo (National Institute for the Humanities, Japan), David Pietz (University of Washington), and Jason Ur (Harvard University). The editors are Maurits Ertsen (TU Delft), Heather Hoag (University of San Franscisco) and Johann Tempelhoff (North-West University). What now remains to be done is for IWHA members to start submitting articles to fill the pages of upcoming editions of Water History. New IWHA Executive Council Members Elected At a meeting of the IWHA council, held in Copenhagen on 3 August 2009, three new members-at-large joined the council following the electronic election process under adjudication of council member-at-large Carol Fort. The new members-at-large are Rina Faletti, Petri Juuti and Thierry Ruf. The candidacy of Zheng Xiao Yun was unopposed as new vice president. Outgoing President Robert Varady extended a word of congratulations to the new members and thanked all candidates for participating in the election. The continuing executive council members are Johann Tempelhoff, President; Dorothy Zeisler-Vralsted, Secretary; Maurits Ertsen, Treasurer; and members-at-large Carol Fort, Alejandro Tortolero, and Heather Hoag. Special Thanks for Service Rendered by Outgoing Executive Council Members The IWHA executive council, at its meeting of August 2009, extended a special word of thanks to outgoing president, Bob Varady, and outgoing members-at-large, Graciela Schneier-Madanes and Tapio Katko, for the services they rendered between 2005 and 2009. Bob Varady, who succeeded Fekri Hassan in 2007, continued to strengthen the IWHA council. He also worked at establishing and maintaining existing ties of collaboration with a number of organisations working in the field of water and history. As of 2005, Tapio Katko was the anchor person on the council working on IWHA's Tampere Conference that was held in 2007, and Graciela Schneier-Medanes has been actively working on the World History of Water and Civilisation project of IWHA and UNESCO-IHP. Strengthening Ties with Other Institutions In an effort to strengthen ties in the international research environment, the IWHA council has actively participated in strengthening ties with a number of organisations, IWHA president Bob Varady reported at a members? meeting of the organisation held in Copenhagen on 6 August 2009. Firm relations with UNESCO-IHP were maintained. Earlier this year, Varady represented IWHA at the fifth World Water Conference in Turkey. During the occasion, the first of a multi-volume UNESCO-supported book series on the History of Water and Civilization was released. Members of IWHA have also actively participated, since 2007, in a UNESCO-IHE training programme on the History of World Water Management, presented in Delft. A number of council members were once again invited to participate in the initiative that is headed by former IWHA President Fekri Hassan and László G. Hayde of UNESCO-IHE. This training is intended for postgraduate students in engineering and the natural sciences to become familiar with aspects of the history and management of water. The IWHA has also linked up with a specialist grouping in the International Water Association working in the field of water and wastewater technologies in ancient civilisations. Varady called on members of the IWHA working in the field to respond to calls for conference papers and research initiatives aimed at collaboration with IWA in the field. IWHA treasurer Maurits Ertsen has also actively participated in securing ties with the American Environmental History Association, one of the first organisations of its kind in the world. Currently a lot of groundbreaking water history research is being conducted by members of this society. In 2008, IWHA's council gave its support for an initiative taken by a number of environmental history organisations in Europe and North America seeking greater ties of contact and collaboration with similar organisations in other parts of the world. The objective was to form an International Consortium of Environmental History Organisations. His planning culminated in the World Congress on Environmental History (WCEH 2009) held in Copenhagen in August this year. Prior to the congress, Johann Tempelhoff, as a representative of IWHA, participated in deliberations with delegates of other organisations, on the viability of an initiative of this nature, as well as a potential constitution for the consortium. 2010: a Year of Regional Conferences A number of regional conferences of IWHA will be held in the course of 2010 to strengthen regionally-focused ties between researchers in water history. This follows a decision taken by the executive council in 2008 to maintain conference momentum in the alternate years when the biennial IWHA global conference is not occuring. A symposium was held at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, on the water history of the Southwest United States in March 2008. It was organised by the Udall Center for Policy Studies and IWHA. In April, a Transdisciplinary conference on Water, Society, and the Environment was held in South Africa, also organised by IWHA in collaboration with North-West University. The flagship event for 2010 is a conference to be held at the Technical University of Delft (TUDelft) from 16 to 19 June. The conference is organised by IWHA and the Department of Water Resources at TUDelft. Abstracts should be submitted before 15 January 2010. For more information, visit the conference website or communicate directly with Maurits W. Ertsen (m.w.ertsen@tudelft.nl). A number of regional conferences are also being planned for Spanish-speaking South America. One conference will be held in Mexico and another in France. For more information, please communicate directly with council member-at-large Alejandro Tortolero (tortoleroalejandro@yahoo.com). Should IWHA members know of national or international history conferences held in their respective countries, they could ask to present panels dealing with water history, a these conferences. By bringing water historians together at these events, it would be possible to establish closer contacts between researchers in the field. IWHA letters inviting water historians to join the society are accessible on this website and can be distributed at conferences. IWHA Members Offered 50% Tuition Discount on UNESCO-IHE Short Course A course on the World History of Water Management will be held on September 14-18 in Delft, the Netherlands, and, through a partnership between UNESCO-IHE and IWHA, members will receive half off their tuition. Please see the Events column on the IWHA activities page for further details. IWHA Global Conference 2011 In an effort to promote transparency, the IWHA council, in September 2008, agreed on a strategy to solicit applications for hosting the 2011 global conference of the society. The plan is to actively work toward a strategy to determine the global conference sites in advance. Currently the options are open for the selection of sites for 2011 and 2013. IWHA members interested in participating can communicate with Johann Tempelhoff (johann.tempelhoff@nwu.ac.za) for more information on the application process or click here to download the procdures for submitting an IWHA conference site proposal. Invitation to Join H-Water Dear IWHA Members, Hello, my name is Justin Scott-Coe, and I'm a member of IWHA. I would like to invite all IWHA members to become subscribers to H-Water, the H-Net Network on the History of Water. H-Water is an e-mail listserv dedicated to providing a forum for discussions, announcements, and book reviews covering all topics related to the history of water. We have a current membership of 490 and an active group of 20 book reviewers. All postings and book reviews are permanently archived on the H-Net website. I invite you to visit our website to browse recent postings, search the H-Water archive for topics of interest, and click "Subscribe!" to join the list. If you are also interested in reviewing books for H-Water, please send me a statement of interest and a current c.v. outlining your qualifications and areas of focus in the field of water history. We are also always looking for qualified people to help manage the list and the book reviews system. I do hope you will join us at H-Water. Please let me know if you have any questions by emailing me at jscottcoe@mail.h-net.msu.edu. Yours, Justin Scott-Coe, H-Water -- To Post to H-Water: Send Message to H-Water@h-net.msu.edu. To Subscribe to H-Water: Send Message to LISTSERV@h-net.msu.edu with "sub h-water [firstname] [lastname], [affiliation]" in body. To Unsubscribe from H-Water: Send Message to LISTSERV@h-net.msu.edu with "signoff h-water" in body. Interested in becoming a Reviewer, Review Editor, or List Editor for H-Water? Send statement of interest to jscottcoe@mail.h-net.msu.edu.
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