In the years after the fall of communist governments in Central, Eastern, and South- eastern Europe (CESEE), a flood of memoir literature began to fill bookstores around the region. The turn to autobiography and personal narrative inspired the theme section in this volume of "Aspasia" women's auto-biographical writing and correspondence. Articles in this section examine women's autobiographical writing in the second half of the nineteenth century and women's written memories of epochal moments in the Soviet past: the Holodomor (or Great Famine) that convulsed Ukraine in the aftermath of forced collectivization, and the experience of women soldiers during World War II.

Also in this volume, we present the continuation of a fascinating forum on women's and gender history in CESEE, "Clio on the Margins," edited by Krassimira Daskalova (the first five essays appeared in Aspasia volume 6]). The eight essays in this section provide a comprehensive look at the state of the field of women's and gender history in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.

The volume concludes with two more general articles, two book review essays, twenty book reviews, and a conference report.

Dr. Milbrew Davis wrote the first history of St. Philip's Church, San Antonio, Texas, 1895-1985. He researched extensively St. Philip's Church documents and documents in the archives of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. He knew personally a number of the first members and clergy of the church and had the opportunity to interview them. Dr. Davis affinity to this church is derived from his membership in St. Philip's Church for over 50 years; having served in several capacities as a lay minister and officer, and later as the rector for 20 years. Dr. Davis has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, Master of Social Work degree, Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees. He organized and directed a Social Service Department that encompassed five hospitals; organized and directed a Foster Grandparent Program in San Antonio, Texas, a War on Poverty Program and the first of its kind in the United States. Dr. Davis resides in San Antonio, Texas. He is married to Shirley Davis and they are parents of a son, two daughters and two granddaughters.

"Sites Unseen" examines the complex intertwining of race and architecture in nineteenth and early-twentieth century American culture, the period not only in which American architecture came of age professionally in the U.S. but also in which ideas about architecture became a prominent part of broader conversations about American culture, history, politics, and&#8212although we have not yet understood this clearly&#8212race relations. This rich and copiously illustrated interdisciplinary study explores the ways that American writing between roughly 1850 and 1930 concerned itself, often intensely, with the racial implications of architectural space primarily, but not exclusively, through domestic architecture.

In addition to identifying an archive of provocative primary materials, "Sites Unseen" draws significantly on important recent scholarship in multiple fields ranging from literature, history, and material culture to architecture, cultural geography, and urban planning. Together the chapters interrogate a variety of expressive American vernacular forms, including the dialect tale, the novel of empire, letters, and pulp stories, along with the plantation cabin, the West Indian cottage, the Latin American plaza, and the "Oriental" parlor. These are some of the overlooked plots and structures that can and should inform a more comprehensive consideration of the literary and cultural meanings of American architecture. Making sense of the relations between architecture, race, and American writing of the long nineteenth century&#8212in their regional, national, and hemispheric contexts&#8212"Sites Unseen" provides a clearer view not only of this catalytic era but also more broadly of what architectural historian Dell Upton has aptly termed the social experience of the built environment.