Faculty Books 2013

Editors: Neil A. Manson, associate professor of philosophy, and Robert W. Barnard The Continuum Companion to Metaphysics offers the definitive guide to a key area of contemporary philosophy. The book covers all the fundamental questions asked in metaphysics—areas that have continued to attract interest historically as well as topics that ...

The Ecopoetry Anthology

Edited by Ann Fisher-Wirth, professor of English and poet, and Laura-Gray Street Trinity University Press, 2012 Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street, assistant professor of English at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va., co-edited the critically acclaimed anthology, which was released in February and is considered the most extensive compilation of ecopoetry ...

WSJ Book Review: ‘A Short Bright Flash’

by Theresa H. Levitt, associate professor of history W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013 Their faint beams made lighthouses largely useless until the 1819 invention of a lens that vastly improved safety for sailors near shore. Book review By HENRY PETROSKI, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal To maintain infrastructure and ...

The Larder: Food Studies Methods from the American South

Edited by John T. Edge, Elizabeth Engelhardt, and Ted Ownby The University of Georgia Press A showcase of interdisciplinary methodologies in the study of food and culture REVIEWS “Edge, Engelhardt, Ownby, and their contributors touch on issues familiar in southern studies—especially the roles of race, class, and gender—and do so ...

Conversations With Natasha Trethewey

United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey (b. 1966) describes her mode as elegiac. Although the loss of her murdered mother informs each book, Trethewey's range of forms and subjects is wide. In compact sonnets, elegant villanelles, ballad stanzas, and free verse, she creates monuments to mixed-race children of colonial Mexico, ...

The Tilted World: A Novel

By Tom Franklin, associate professor of fiction writing, and Beth Ann Fennelly, associate professor of English and director of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing Set against the backdrop of the historic flooding of the Mississippi River, The Tilted World is an extraordinary tale of murder and moonshine, sandbagging and saboteurs, ...

The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

University of North Carolina Press, 2006-2013 Series Editor, Charles Reagan Wilson, Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Chair of History and professor of Southern Studies Beginning with Religion in 2006 and concluding with Folk Art and Race in May, this 24-volume update of the original Encyclopedia of Southern Culture reflects the newest ...

Localizing Islam in Europe: Turkish Islamic Communities in Germany and the Netherlands

Syracuse University Press “A rich and authoritative portrait of the lived reality of Muslims adapting to life in Europe.” —Peter Mandaville, author of Global Political Islam

Small Town South

George F. Thompson Publishing, 2012 By David Wharton, director of documentary studies and assistant professor of Southern Studies Winner of the 2013 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Photography, Wharton’s book is described as “a slow, winding, visual delight of detail and uniqueness, stitched together by the region’s undying ...

Reading for the Body

Reading for the Body: The Recalcitrant Materiality of Southern Fiction, 1893-1985 University of Georgia Press, 2012 By Jay Watson, Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies “A visceral and invigorating study that takes us on a fantastic voyage through southern bodies and narratives, providing superb and often startling readings of texts we thought we ...

Becoming the Gentleman: British Literature and the Invention of Modern Masculinity, 1660-1815

Palgrave, 2012 By Jason D. Solinger, assistant professor of English “A state-of-the-art reconsideration of the period and a valuable resource. Summing up: Highly recommended.” —Choice magazine

The Making of a Patriot: Benjamin Franklin at the Cockpit

Oxford University Press, 2012 By Shelia Skemp, Clare Leslie Marquette Professor of American History An insightful, lively narrative that goes beyond the traditional Franklin biography—and behind the common myths—to demonstrate how Franklin’s ultimate decision to support the colonists was by no means a foregone conclusion.

Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture

University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013 By Karen Raber, professor of English “Materialist scholarship has been fascinated by bodies in recent decades, yet has neglected to consider embodiment exactly where it seems likely to be especially helpful: in the ecocritical study of our connections with other animals. Karen Raber resolves that ...

A Short Bright Flash: Augustin Fresnel and the Birth of the Modern Lighthouse

W. W. Norton & Company, 2013 By Theresa Levitt, associate professor of history “Levitt interweaves the personal triumph of the French physicist…with his pathbreaking work on the nature of light in her fascinating recounting of how the coasts of the world were made safe for the world’s seafaring vessels through ...

Middlebrow Queer: Christopher Isherwood in America

University of Minnesota Press, 2013 By Jaime Harker, associate professor of English “Harker’s approach to Isherwood’s American work—his Cold War novels, as she calls them—is a welcome fresh perspective on a neglected topic.”—James J. Berg, editor of Isherwood on Writing