Susan Chandler, a professor of social work at the University of Nevada at Reno and Jill B. Jones, an associate professor emerita at the university, received the 2012 National Book Award from the Oral History Association at the organization’s annual conference in Cleveland. The two women scholars were honored for their book Casino Women: Courage in Unexpected Places (ILR Press, 2011).
The book was the culmination of a 10-year research project of interviews with women who worked in Nevada’s casinos from the 1950s to the present day. Among the women interviewed with casino executives, bartenders, laundry workers, cooks, hotel maids, table dealers, and cocktail waitresses.