The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will hold a Faculty Book Showcase and reception from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Oct. 6 in the Mukaiyama University Room in the Frame-Westerberg Commons.
The event, organized by Dr. Nancy McCabe and sponsored by Pitt-Bradford Arts, is free and open to the public and will showcase books written by five Pitt-Bradford professors.
“I thought we needed to do something to recognize and celebrate new books, especially given the past couple of years,” McCabe said. “The releases got lost in the pandemic … it’s something we’re just starting this year and I’d like to make it a regular thing, at least in the years we have faculty books.”
Each author will display their new books and talk briefly about them. Some books may also be available for purchase.
Descriptions of the books are adapted from synopses provided their publishers:
“Writing Home: A Quaker Immigrant on the Ohio Frontier: The Letters of Emma Botham Alderson” by Dr. Donald Ulin, associate professor of English. Ulin has edited and annotated a book of letters from a 19th-century Quaker woman living on the Ohio frontier to her family in England, including Mary Howitt, one of the most popular writers of her day. The book was published by Bucknell University Press. The letters, Ulin said, describe in depth many of the experiences of immigrants at the time – a two-month voyage by sailing ship, the challenges of winter, first impressions of a new land and people, the trials of people recently escaped or released from enslavement, Shaker life, rich landscapes, and much more.
“Stop Trying to Fix Policing: Lessons Learned from the Front Lines of Black Liberation” by Dr. Tony Gaskew, professor of criminal justice and associate dean of academic affairs. Published by Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Books, Gaskew’s book guides readers through the phenomena of police abolition, using the cultural lens of the Black radical tradition. The author weaves a combination of critical race theory, spiritual inheritance, decolonization, self-determination, and armed resistance, into a critical autoethnographic journey that illuminates the rituals of revolution required for dismantling the institution of American policing.
“Food Security, Poverty and Nutrition Analysis: Statistical Methods and Applications” by Dr. Shailendra Gajanan, professor of economics. The book, published by Elsevier Publishing Company, will help students and practitioners perform statistical analyses in evaluating poverty and nutrition.
This new edition includes large amounts of information about Latin America, Asia and food insecurity, and obesity in the United States as well as case studies about the effect of educating women, using corn and other foods to produce biofuels, and the effects of the 2008 global economic crisis.
“Can This Marriage Be Saved? A Memoir” by Dr. Nancy McCabe, director of creative and professional writing and professor of writing. This humorous book from the University of Missouri Press focuses on McCabe’s ill-advised marriage at the age of 20. Incorporating photographs and borrowing from Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” instruction manuals and before-and-after weight loss ads, a curriculum guide, Bible study notes, an obsession with Tom Swiftie jokes, and women’s magazine columns and quizzes that oversimplified women’s lives and choices, McCabe explores the influences that led her into and out of her youthful marriage.
“Evolution and Phylogeny of Pancrustacea: A Story of Scientific Method” with illustrations by Dr. Ovidiu Frantescu, director and associate professor of environmental science. Frantescu illustrated the 840 pages of research in his book, published by Oxford University Press. Frantescu tends to concentrate his research in the invertebrate paleontology but has interests in a variety of topics related to the earth sciences, especially soft rock geology.
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