Liberal Arts In Print - Spring 2024
Private Censorship
By JP Messina, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Oxford University Press)
Private Censorship situates recent concerns about private censorship in their broader historical context and accessibly employs insights from philosophy, legal theory, and social science to assess the phenomenon of censorship by nonstate parties while highlighting the philosophical issues at stake in a highly politicized topic. JP Messina foregrounds the importance of rights to property, association, and free expression for thinking well about 21st-century censorship concerns.
24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News
By Kathryn Cramer Brownell, Associate Professor of History (Princeton University Press)
In this timely and provocative book, Kathryn Cramer Brownell argues that cable television itself is not to blame for today’s rampant polarization and scandal politics—the intentional restructuring of television as a political institution is. 24/7 Politics reveals how cable TV created new possibilities for antiestablishment voices and opened a pathway to political prominence for seemingly unlikely figures like Donald Trump by playing to narrow audiences and cultivating division instead of common ground.
The Two Faces of Democracy: Decentering Agonism and Deliberation
By Mary F. Scudder, Associate Professor of Political Science (Oxford Academic)
The democratic imagination is facing significant challenges. This book develops an understanding of the moral core of democracy. In doing so, Mary F. Scudder illuminates how these two faces of democratic life, the deliberative and agonistic, each plays a significant, but constrained, role in a more expansive understanding of what our democratic commitments require of us.
Conceiving Christian America: Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics
By Risa Cromer, Assistant Professor of Anthropology (New York University Press)
Conceiving Christian America is the first book on embryo adoption tracing how this powerful social movement draws on white saviorist tropes in their aims to reconceive personhood, with drastic consequences for reproductive rights and justice. Based on six years of ethnographic research with embryo adoption staff and participants, Risa Cromer uncovers how embryo adoption advances ambitious political goals for expanding the influence of conservative Christian values and power. Recipient of a 2023 Engage Award.
Ain't I An Anthropologist: Zora Neale Hurston Beyond the Literary Icon
By Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall, Associate Professor of English (University of Illinois Press)
Iconic as a novelist and popular cultural figure, Zora Neale Hurston remains underappreciated as an anthropologist. Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall considers the polar receptions to two of Hurston’s areas of achievement by examining the critical response to her work across both fields. Drawing on a wide range of readings, Freeman Marshall explores Hurston’s popular appeal as iconography, her elevation into the literary canon, and her place within constructions of Black feminist literary traditions.
The Politics of German Idealism: Law and Social Change at the Turn of the 19th Century
By Christopher Yeomans, Professor and Head of Philosophy (Oxford University Press)
The Politics of German Idealism reconstructs the political philosophies of Kant, Fichte, and Hegel against the background of their social-historical context. Christopher Yeomans' guiding thought is to understand German Idealist political philosophy as a set of policy options and institutional designs aimed at a broadly but distinctively German set of social problems. Recipient of a 2022 Engage Award.
Fighting Invisibility: Asian Americans in the Midwest
By Monica Mong Trieu, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies (Rutgers University Press)
In Fighting Invisibility, Monica Mong Trieu argues that we must consider the role of physical and symbolic space to fully understand the nuances of Asian American racialization. Drawing from in-depth interviews, census data, and cultural productions from Asian Americans throughout the Midwest, this interdisciplinary research examines how post-1950s Midwest Asian Americans navigate identity and belonging, racism, educational settings, resources within co-ethnic communities, and pan-ethnic cultural community.
Fairy Tales of Appalachia
Edited by Stacy Sivinski, Assistant Teaching Professor of Cornerstone (University of Tennessee Press)
Tales of Appalachian women have historically demonstrated their resilience, wit, and adaptability. These tales, carefully and thoughtfully transcribed by Stacy Sivinski, have been passed down through Appalachia’s oral histories over decades and even centuries. This selection was mainly extracted from the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University and special collections at Berea College. Drawing on the work of other regional archivists and folklorists, Sivinski grapples with issues of gender balance in Appalachian storytelling.
Rules of the Road: The Automobile and the Transformation of American Criminal Justice
By Spencer Headworth, Associate Professor of Sociology (Stanford University Press)
Rules of the Road tracks the history of the car alongside the history of crime and criminal justice in the United States, demonstrating how the quick and numerous developments in criminal law corresponded to the steadily rising prominence, and now established supremacy, of the automobile. Spencer Headworth brings together research from sociology, psychology, criminology, political science, legal studies, and histories of technology and law in illustrating legal responses to changing technological and social circumstances.
Logos and Alogon: Thinkable and the Unthinkable in Mathematics, from the Pythagoreans to the Moderns
By Arkady Plotnitsky, Distinguished Professor of English, Philosophy and Literature (Springer Link)
Logos and Alogon provides a new approach to the philosophy of mathematics, rethinking the conceptual structure and presenting a new perspective on key figures of modern mathematics, such as Galois, Riemann, Noether, and Grothendieck.
The Quantum-Like Revolution: A Festschrift for Andrei Khrennikov
By Arkady Plotnitsky, Distinguished Professor of English, Philosophy and Literature (Springer Link)
The Quantum-Like Revolution shows how concepts of quantum mechanics are finding application in a broad range of academic fields and provides a stimulating source of ideas for scholars from many disciplines.
Are We Making a Difference? Global and Local Efforts to Assess Peacebuilding Effectiveness
Co-edited by Stacey L. Connaughton, Professor of Communication (Rowman & Littlefield)
As the world experiences heightened levels of violent conflict and polarization, understanding what peacebuilding efforts are "effective" becomes all the more pressing. This volume brings together a diverse, global group of practitioners, researchers, and peacebuilders to grapple with urgent questions and challenges related to defining and assessing peacebuilding effectiveness. Stacey Connaughton aims to catalyze conversation and action among peacebuilding practitioners, academics, donors, and those directly affected by peacebuilding efforts about how we define and measure effectiveness.
The Cambridge Companion to American Poetry and Politics since 1900
Edited by Daniel Morris, Professor of English (Cambridge University Press)
The Cambridge Companion to American Poetry and Politics since 1900 helps students, teachers, and general readers make sense of the scope and complexity of the relationships between poetry and politics. Here, Morris explores how American poets have addressed political phenomena since the turn of the 20th century. Offering detailed case studies, this book discusses the relationships between poetry and social views found in works by authors such as Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Muriel Rukeyser.
Truthmaking
By Jamin Asay, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Cambridge University Press)
Truthmaking is the metaphysical exploration of the idea that what is true depends upon what exists. Truthmaker theorists argue about what the truthmaking relation involves, which truths require truthmakers, and what those truthmakers are. This book covers the dominant views on these core issues in truthmaking, and explores some key metaphysical topics and debates that are usefully approached by employing the tools of truthmaker theory.
Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900
By R. Douglas Hurt, Professor of History (University of Nebraska Press)
In this broad and authoritative survey of midwestern agriculture from the War of 1812 to the turn of the 20th century, R. Douglas Hurt contends that this region proved to be the country's garden spot and the nation's heart of agricultural production. Focusing on the history of midwestern agriculture during wartime, utopian isolation, and colonization as well as political unrest, Hurt contextualizes myriad facets of the region’s past to show how agricultural life developed for midwestern farmers—and to reflect on what that meant for the region and nation.
The Routledge Companion to Literature and the Global South
Edited by Alfred J. López, Professor and Head of the Department of English (Routledge)
The Routledge Companion to Literature and the Global South offers a comprehensive overview of the field at a key moment in its development—a snapshot of where Global South literary studies stands in its second decade. Alfred López's collection is a resource for anyone studying and researching Global South studies and literature, as well as those interested in world literature, contemporary literature, postcolonialism, decolonizing the curriculum, critical race studies, gender studies, and politics.
Technical Communication Today, 7th edition
By Richard Johnson-Sheehan, Professor of English (Pearson)
Technical Communication Today reflects the influence of computers on the development, design, and delivery of technical documents and presentations. The textbook focuses on skills that will help students write clearly, speak persuasively, and create functional, attractive texts. Richard Johnson-Sheehan's 7th Edition offers revised chapters, new exercises and projects, and new case studies featuring the experiences of entrepreneurs in today's scientific and technical workplaces.
Social Theory Re-Wired: New Connection to Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
Edited by Daniel Winchester, Associate Professor of Sociology (Routledge)
This third edition of Social Theory Re-Wired includes significant revisions to this leading text and its unique web learning interactive programs, including vital political and social updates and "system updates" to each section offering an expanded set of contemporary theory readings that focus on the impacts of information/digital technologies on each of the text's major themes.
Alexander von Humboldt: Perceiving the World
Co-edited by Beate I. Allert, Professor of Comparative Literature and German (Purdue University Press)
Alexander von Humboldt: Perceiving the World provides an interdisciplinary exploration into Humboldt's approach to seeing and describing the many subjects he pursued. Though remembered primarily as an environmental thinker, Humboldt's interests were vast and documented not just in his published works, but also in his extensive correspondence with scientists, artists, poets, and philosophers internationally. This collection draws heavily on the English translations of Humboldt’s work housed in the Purdue University Archives, which were collected by John Purdue.
The Middle English Book: Scribes and Readers, 1370- 1500
By Michael Johnston, Associate Professor of English (Oxford University Press)
The Middle English Book draws on a large corpus of manuscripts to make new and original arguments about the circulation of literature in late medieval England, and sheds new light on the circulation of The Prick of Conscience, the poetry of John Lydgate, and William Langland's Piers Plowman. Michael Johnston argues that literary production was a decentered affair, one that took place within these numerous, modest, yet complex, bureaucracies, and that, because of this, manuscripts were local products, produced within the cultural and economic milieu of their users.
Poets and Scribes in Late Medieval England: Essays on Manuscripts and Meaning in Honor of Susanna Fein
Co-edited by Michael Johnston, Associate Professor of English (Medieval Institute Publications)
Susanna Fein's long and distinguished scholarly career has helped to redefine how we understand the role of scribes and manuscripts from late medieval England. Drawing on his extensive research on Medieval literature, and his time as a National Humanities Center fellow, Johnston's work compiles unique perspectives on Fein's scholarly legacy. A wide range of scholars have been influenced by Fein's work, many of whom present original research in this volume.
Milton Across Borders and Media
Co-edited by Angelica Duran, Professor of English (Oxford University Press)
Milton Across Borders and Media is a collaboration that demonstrates the breadth of John Milton's international reception across diverse media from the 17th century through today. This volume, co-edited by Angela Duran, presents new essays on the adaptation of Milton's works into various languages and media around the world, and offers case studies of Milton's presence in a diverse range of media that includes painting, stained glass, film, opera, hip-hop, and Braille.
Power and Politics in the Media: The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research, Volume 9
Edited by Robert X. Browning, Professor of Political Science and Communication and Director of C-SPAN Archives (Purdue University Press)
This volume features articles from multiple disciplines that use the C-SPAN Video Library to explore recent controversies in American politics. Topics covered included Supreme Court nominations, Supreme Court oral arguments, rhetoric on disasters and COVID-19, and the effect of clothing on the approval of women in power. What unites these topics is the unique use of the video record of C-SPAN to explore the intersections of politics, power, rhetoric, and the media in the contemporary United States.
Contemporary Colonialities in Mexico and Beyond
Co-edited by Cara Kinnally, Associate Professor of Spanish (University of Toronto Press)
Contemporary Colonialities in Mexico and Beyond explores the changing dynamic of coloniality by focusing on how modern cultural products connect to the foundational structures of colonialism. The book examines how these structures have perpetuated discourses of racial, ethnic, gender, and social exclusion rooted in Mexico’s history. Ultimately, Cara Kinnally's work presents a handbook for readers looking to learn more about coloniality as a pervasive part of global interactions today.
Restoring the Human Context to Literary and Performance Studies
Co-written by Jen William, Professor and Head of the School of Languages and Cultures, and Howard Mancing, Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Portuguese (Springer Link)
Restoring the Human Context to Literary and Performance Studies provides a comprehensive overview of the scientific principles underlying cognitive-literary studies and lays out an alternative approach to the current theoretical paradigm for literary study while giving concrete examples of how Contextualism has been applied productively to literary analyses so far
Trading Power: West Germany's Rise to Global Influence, 1963-1975
By William G. Gray, Associate Professor of History (Cambridge University Press)
Trading Power traces the successes and failures of a generation of German political leaders as the Bonn Republic emerged as a substantial force in European, Atlantic, and world affairs. William Gray tells the story of the diplomatic, political, and economic development of German power within the European community, the Atlantic alliance, and the international system.
The Rocket Lab: Maurice Zucrow, Purdue University, and America's Race to Space
By Michael G. Smith, Professor of History (Purdue University Press)
The Rocket Lab: Maurice Zucrow, Purdue University, and America’s Race to Space focuses on the golden era of space exploration between 1946 and 1966, specifically the life and times of Purdue's Dr. Maurice J. Zucrow, a pioneering teacher and researcher in aerospace engineering. To read more about the Zucrow, the Rocket Lab, and Michael Smith's exploration of Purdue's rocketeering history, visit the CLA News Page.
Reina, madre y estadista. Mariana de Austria y el gobierno de España
By Silvia Z. Mitchell, Associate Professor of History, translated by García Ureta and Morán García (Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica; originally published in English by Penn State University Press, 2019)
In Reina, madre y estadista. Mariana de Austria y el gobierno de España, Queen Regent Mariana of Austria emerges as a towering figure at court and on the international stage, while her key collaborators—the secretaries, ministers, and diplomats who have previously been ignored or undervalued—take their rightful place in history. Now translated into Spanish.
Exploring Human Behavior Through Isotope Analysis
Co-edited by Melanie Beasley, Assistant Professor of Anthropology (Springer Link)
Exploring Human Behavior Through Isotope Analysis discusses the application of stable isotope systems and ratios in reconstructing past human behavior and includes case studies from the Americas and Oceania. This volume, co-edited by Melanie Beasley, compiles a series of chapters written by experts of isotopic analysis in order to highlight the utility of various isotope systems in the reconstruction of past human behaviors
Chicken Bone Beach
By Ronald J. Stephens, Professor of African American Studies (Arcadia Publishing)
During the Jim Crow era, a group of Atlantic City hotel owners and politicians agreed to designate Missouri Avenue Beach, later nicknamed Chicken Bone Beach, as sandy space where thousands of African American vacationers could enjoy the pleasures of family, friends, and summer fun annually. Drawing on his extensive research on African American resort communities like Idlewild, and his role as an advisory board member of the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation, Ron Stephens' work contributes to the legacy of this pivotal chapter in American history. While the city remains an American cultural landscape, Chicken Bone Beach is a nearly forgotten landmark in the annals of outdoor leisure and recreation history.
Robert Franklin Williams Speaks: A Documentary History
Edited by Ronald J. Stephens, Professor of African American Studies (Anthem Press)
Robert Franklin Williams Speaks represents the only full-length volume that includes key documents and writings by and about Williams as a civil and human rights champion, revolutionary nationalist, pragmatist, and internationalist in 20th- century world history. A former journalist and propaganda specialist, Williams was a key figure in political development and transnational collaborations with Cuba and China, which he used to challenge domestic policies in the United States.
Plural Entanglements: Philippine Studies
Co-edited by Dada Docot, Assistant Professor of Anthropology (Ateneo de Manila University Press)
Plural Entanglements emphasizes the diverse foundations of scholarship and accentuates the need for scholars to look beyond Manila, figuratively and quite literally. This collection, co-edited Dada Docot, includes contributions that foreground the margins, look into the historical and contemporary participation of the Philippines in the global economy, critically assess theoretical canons on Philippine culture and history, and address urgent themes such as natural and human-made disasters and social justice.
Experiential Theatres: Praxis-Based Approaches to Training 21st Century Theatre Artists
Co-edited by Will Lewis, Assistant Professor of Theatre (Routledge)
Experiential Theatres delivers key insights into the processes of developing experiential performance projects and the pedagogies behind training theatre artists of the 21st century. This book provides readers with tools for experiential theatre-making that address these shifts in contemporary performance and audience expectations. Through case studies, interviews, and classroom applications, Will Lewis offers a synthesis of theory, practical application, and practitioner guidance to develop a praxis-based model for university theatre educators.
Presentations That Matter, 7th Edition
Co-written by Melanie Morgan, Professor of Communication, and Jennifer Hall, Senior Lecturer in Communication (Van-Griner)
Presentations That Matter takes a unique approach to the foundational communication course. It is a student-centered textbook that focuses on presentational speaking while using STEM and business examples to contextualize the content. Melanie Morgan and Jennifer Hall's text also brings an academic perspective to this practical subject, and covers relevant theoretical frameworks that explain communication concepts and principles, such as media richness theory and the narrative paradigm