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The role of library and information sciences (LIS) in, for, and about Arctic and Northern studies is underexplored. This book examines the intersection of LIS and Arctic/Northern scholarship, research, and study by considering the Arctic and North as a global information-knowledge society; demonstrates practical and applied ways that librarians, archivists, curators, and other information scholars and professionals can participate and have participated in real activities within Arctic and Northern environments; explains how LIS – as a discipline focused on data, information, and knowledge – has a significant role to play in Arctic and Northern endeavours; and emphasises the inter-/multi- disciplinary nature of what are Arctic studies and Northern studies and the placement of LIS into that structure. Even though LIS has historically been overlooked in Northern and Arctic matters, this book suggests that LIS is in a remarkable position to add value to future Arctic/Northern studies. Thisbook is of interest to scientists, researchers, scholars, educators, professionals, and students globally working in Northern and Arctic contexts and/or with Northern and Arctic pursuits in mind.

Cajun Women and Mardi Gras is the first book to explore the importance of women's contributions to the country Cajun Mardi Gras tradition, or Mardi Gras “run.” Most Mardi Gras runs--masked begging processions through the countryside, led by unmasked capitaines--have customarily excluded women. Male organizers explain that this rule protects not only the tradition's integrity but also women themselves from the event's rowdy, often drunken, play. Throughout the past twentieth century, and especially in the past fifty years, women in some prairie communities have insisted on taking more active and public roles in the festivities. Carolyn E. Ware traces the history of women's participation as it has expanded from supportive roles as cooks and costume makers to increasingly public performances as Mardi Gras clowns and (in at least one community) capitaines. Drawing on more than a decade of fieldwork interviews and observation in Mardi Gras communities, Ware focuses on the festive actions in Tee Mamou and Basile to reveal how women are reshaping the celebration as creative artists and innovative performers.

Histories of gay and lesbian urban life typically focus on major metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York, opportunity-filled destinations for LGBTQ migrants from across the country. Yet there are many other queer communities in economically depressed cities with majority Black and Hispanic populations that receive far less attention. Though just a few miles from New York, Newark is one of these cities, and its queer histories have been neglected—until now. Queer Newark charts a history in which working-class people of color are the central actors and in which violence, poverty, and homophobia could never suppress joy, resistance, love, and desire. Drawing from rare archives that range from oral histories to vice squad reports, this collection's authors uncover the sites and people of Newark's queer past in bars, discos, ballrooms, and churches. Exploring the intersections of class, race, gender, and sexuality, they offer fresh perspectives on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, community relations with police, Latinx immigration, and gentrification, while considering how to best tell the rich and complex stories of queer urban life. Queer Newark reveals a new side of New Jersey's largest city while rewriting the history of LGBTQ life in America.