Faculty Authored and Edited Books & CDs

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New Directions in Jewish American and Holocaust Literatures: Reading and Teaching

Victoria Aarons and Holli Levitsky

What does it mean to read, and to teach, Jewish American and Holocaust literatures in the early decades of the twenty-first century? New directions and new forms of expression have emerged, both in the invention of narratives and in the methodologies and discursive approaches taken toward these texts. The premise of this book is that despite moving farther away in time, the Holocaust continues to shape and inform contemporary Jewish American writing. Divided into analytical and pedagogical sections, the chapters present a range of possibilities for thinking about these literatures. Contributors address such genres as biography, the graphic novel, alternate history, midrash, poetry, and third-generation and hidden-child Holocaust narratives. Both canonical and contemporary authors are covered, including Michael Chabon, Nathan Englander, Anne Frank, Dara Horn, Joe Kupert, Philip Roth, and William Styron.
Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Love, Life, and Labor

Norma E. Cantu

This collection is a beautifully crafted exploration of life in the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Written by Norma Elia Cantú, the award-winning author of Canícula, this collection carries the perspective of a powerful force in Chicana literature—and literature worldwide.

The poems are a celebration of culture, tradition, and creativity that navigates themes of love, solidarity, and political transformation. Deeply personal yet warmly relatable, these poems flow from Spanish to English gracefully. With Gloria Anzaldúa’s foundational work as an inspiration, Meditación Fronteriza unveils unique images that provide nuance and depth to the narrative of the borderlands.

Poems addressed to talented and influential women such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Adrienne Rich, among others, pour gratitude and recognition into the collection. While many of the poems in Meditación Fronteriza are gentle and inviting, there are also moments that grieve for the state of the borderlands, calling for political resistance.
Cabañuelas: A Novel

Norma E. Cantú

Nena leaves Laredo, Texas, and moves to Madrid, Spain, to research the historical roots of traditional fiestas in Laredo. Immersing herself in post-Franco Spain and its rich history, its food, music, and fiestas, Nena finds herself falling for Paco, a Spaniard who works in publishing. Nena's research and experiences teach her about who she is, where she comes from, and what is important to her, but as her work comes to a close, Nena must decide where she can best be true to her entire self: in Spain with Paco or in Laredo, her home, where her job and family await her return.
The Dynamic Frame: Camera Movement in Classical Hollywood

Patrick Keating

The camera’s movement in a film may seem straightforward or merely technical. Yet skillfully deployed pans, tilts, dollies, cranes, and zooms can express the emotions of a character, convey attitude and irony, or even challenge an ideological stance. In The Dynamic Frame, Patrick Keating offers an innovative history of the aesthetics of the camera that examines how camera movement shaped the classical Hollywood style.

In careful readings of dozens of films, including Sunrise, The Grapes of Wrath, Rear Window, Sunset Boulevard, and Touch of Evil, Keating explores how major figures such as F. W. Murnau, Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock used camera movement to enrich their stories and deepen their themes. Balancing close analysis with a broader poetics of camera movement, Keating uses archival research to chronicle the technological breakthroughs and the changing division of labor that allowed for new possibilities, as well as the shifting political and cultural contexts that inspired filmmakers to use technology in new ways. An original history of film techniques and aesthetics, The Dynamic Frameshows that the classical Hollywood camera moves not to imitate the actions of an omniscient observer but rather to produce the interplay of concealment and revelation that is an essential part of the exchange between film and viewer.
Syria: A Modern History

David W. Lesch

Today Syria is a country known for all the wrong reasons: civil war, vicious sectarianism, and major humanitarian crisis. But how did this once rich, multi-cultural society end up as the site of one of the twenty-first century’s most devastating and brutal conflicts?

In this incisive book, internationally renowned Syria expert David Lesch takes the reader on an illuminating journey through the last hundred years of Syrian history – from the end of the Ottoman empire through to the current civil war. The Syria he reveals is a fractured mosaic, whose identity (or lack thereof) has played a crucial part in its trajectory over the past century. Only once the complexities and challenges of Syria’s history are understood can this pivotal country in the Middle East begin to rebuild and heal.
Intangibles: The Unexpected Traits of High-Performing Healthcare Leaders

Amer Kaissi

As a leader, is it possible to be both successful and humble? Studies show that today’s emerging leaders not only prioritize achievement over humility but also see the two as mutually exclusive. Does this signal an existential crisis for healthcare—an industry that, at its essence, is supposed to embody humility and compassion?

Thankfully, no, according to Intangibles: The Unexpected Traits of High-Performing Healthcare Leaders, which demonstrates that you can embrace humility and still be excellent at your job.

The author, a healthcare professor, executive coach and consultant, gleans evidence and insights from researchers, executives, philosophers, and thought leaders. Intangibles is neither a self-help book offering prescriptive answers nor a leadership-guru memoir looking back at a lifetime of lessons learned. Rather, it offers an engaging exploration of evidence-based practices from an array of leaders in different settings.

The book’s stories, interviews, and research findings will appeal to readers of every stripe and career stage, from undergraduate students in healthcare administration to early careerists and even seasoned CEOs.

Part 1 introduces the four intangible leadership traits: humility, compassion, kindness, and generosity. Part 2 explores each trait in detail, and part 3 tackles the traits through the lenses of gender, age, and self-improvement.

Along the way, the book explores many intriguing questions: Is humility viewed as weakness? Can leaders balance kindness with a strong personality? How do men and women differ in their perceptions of these traits? Are there generational differences in how leadership is perceived? Can these characteristics be learned?

In the end, Intangibles concludes that high-performance in leadership can be achieved when humility is combined with ambition, and compassion with strength.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History

David W. Lesch

Whether filtered through the media or through the classroom, the Arab-Israeli conflict has become a pervasive--and often misunderstood--subject of our contemporary cultural landscape. In this compelling new edition of The Arab-Israeli Conflict, widely respected scholar David W. Lesch presents the most balanced and accessible account of the conflict. Combining narrative history, primary sources, and informative analyses, The Arab-Israeli Conflict enables students to form their own educated opinions about complex and controversial issues.
The Middle East and the United States: History, Politics, and Ideologies

David W. Lesch and M. L. Haas

The Middle East and the United States brings together scholars and policy experts to provide an empirical and balanced assessment of US policy in the Middle East primarily from the end of World War I to the present. Carefully edited by David W. Lesch and Mark L. Haas, this text provides a broad and authoritative understanding of the United States’ involvement in the Middle East.

The sixth edition is significantly revised throughout, including a new part structure and part introductions that provide students with greater context for understanding the history of the United States and the Middle East. The five parts cover the watershed moments and major challenges the United States faces in the Middle East, from the Cold War proxy wars and the Arab-Israeli conflict, to the Gulf wars and the upheaval in the region post-Arab uprisings. Three new chapters-on the Golan negotiations, US-Saudi relations, and the US fight against al-Qa'ida and ISIS-make this the most current and comprehensive book on the United States' involvement in the Middle East
Adam Smith and Rousseau: Ethics, Politics, Economics

Maria Pia Paganelli, Dennis C. Rasmussen, and Craig Smith

This collection brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of Adam Smith and Jean-Jacques Rousseau scholars to explore the key shared concerns of these two great thinkers in politics, philosophy, economics, history and literature.

Rousseau (1712-78) and Smith (1723-90) are two of the foremost thinkers of the European Enlightenment. They both made seminal contributions to moral and political philosophy and shaped some of the key concepts of modern political economy. Among Smith's first published works was a letter to the Edinburgh Review where he discusses Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. Smith continued to engage with Rousseau's work and to explore many shared themes such as sympathy, political economy, sentiment and inequality. Though we have no solid evidence that they met in person, we do know that they shared many friends and interlocutors. In particular, David Hume was Smith's closest intellectual associate and was also the one who arranged for Rousseau's stay in England in 1766.
A Concise Guide to Teaching With Desirable Difficulties

Diane C. Persellin, Mary B. Daniels, and Mary-Ann Winkelmes

This concise guidebook on desirable difficulties is designed to be a resource for academics who are interested in engaging students according to the findings of peer-reviewed literature and best practices but do not have the time to immerse themselves in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Intentionally brief, the book is intended to: summarize recent research on five aspects of desirable difficulties; provide applications to the college classroom based on this research; include special sections about teaching strategies that are based on best practices; and offer annotated bibliographies and important citations for faculty who want to pursue additional study. The book will provide a foundation for instructors to teach using evidence-based strategies that will strengthen learning and retention in their classrooms.

In addition to chapters on the desirable difficulties, the book also includes chapters on teaching first-year and at-risk students to embrace this approach, on negotiating student resistance, and on using this approach in teaching online.
Once and Future Antiquities in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Brett M. Rogers and Benjamin Eldon Stevens

In 15 all-new essays, this volume explores how science fiction and fantasy draw on materials from ancient Greece and Rome, 'displacing' them from their original settings-in time and space, in points of origins and genre-and encouraging readers to consider similar 'displacements' in the modern world. Modern examples from a wide range of media and genres-including Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and the novels of Helen Oyeyemi, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and the role-playing games Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer 40K-are brought alongside episodes from ancient myth, important moments from history, and more.

All together, these multifaceted studies add to our understanding of how science fiction and fantasy form important areas of classical reception, not only transmitting but also transmuting images of antiquity. The volume concludes with an inspiring personal reflection from the New York Times-bestselling author of speculative fiction, Catherynne M. Valente, offering her perspective on the limitless potential of the classical world to resonate with experience today.
Building Socialism: Architecture and Urbanism in East German Literature, 1955-1973

Curtis Swope

Building Socialism reveals how East German writers' engagement with the rapidly changing built environment from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s constitutes an untold story about the emergence of literary experimentation in the post-War period. It breaks new ground by exploring the centrality of architecture to a mid-century modernist literature in dialogue with multiple literary and left-wing theoretical traditions and in tune with international assessments of modernist architecture and urban planning.

Design and construction were a central part of politics and everyday life in East Germany during this time as buildings old and new were asked to bear heavy ideological and social burdens. In their novels, stories, and plays, Heiner Müller, Christa Wolf, Günter Kunert, Volker Braun, Günter de Bruyn, and Brigitte Reimann responded to enormous new factory complexes, experimental new towns, the demolition of Berlin's tenements, and the propagation of a pared-down modernist aesthetic in interior design. Writers' representation of the design, construction, and use of architecture formed part of a turn to modernist literary devices, including montage, metaphor, and shifting narrative perspectives. East Germany's literary architecture also represents a sophisticated theoretical reflection on the intractable problems of East Germany's socialist modernity, including the alliance between state socialism and technological modernization, competing commitments to working-class self-organization and the power of specialist planners and designers, and the attempt to create an alternative to fascism.
Frankenstein and Its Classics: The Modern Prometheus From Antiquity to Science Fiction

Jesse Weiner, Benjamin Eldon Stevens, and Brett M. Rogers

Frankenstein and Its Classics is the first collection of scholarship dedicated to how Frankenstein and works inspired by it draw on ancient Greek and Roman literature, history, philosophy, and myth. Presenting twelve new essays intended for students, scholars, and other readers of Mary Shelley's novel, the volume explores classical receptions in some of Frankenstein's most important scenes, sources, and adaptations. Not limited to literature, the chapters discuss a wide range of modern materials-including recent films like Alex Garland's Ex Machina and comics like Matt Fraction's and Christian Ward's Ody-C-in relation to ancient works including Hesiod's Theogony, Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Apuleius's The Golden Ass.

All together, these studies show how Frankenstein, a foundational work of science fiction, brings ancient thought to bear on some of today's most pressing issues, from bioengineering and the creation of artificial intelligence to the struggles of marginalized communities and political revolution. This addition to the comparative study of classics and science fiction reveals deep similarities between ancient and modern ways of imagining the world-and emphasizes the prescience and ongoing importance of Mary Shelley's immortal novel. As Frankenstein turns 200, its complex engagement with classical traditions is more significant than ever.
The Cambridge Companion to Saul Bellow

Victoria Aarons

Saul Bellow is one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American literature. Bellow's work explores the most important cultural and social experiences of his era: the impact of the Holocaust, the urban experience of European immigrants from a Jewish perspective, the fraught failures of the Vietnam War, the ideological seductions of Marxism and Modernism, and the changing attitudes concerning gender and race. This Companion demonstrates the complexity of this formative writer by emphasizing the ways in which Bellow's works speak to the changing conditions of American identity and culture from the post-war period to the turn of the twenty-first century. Individual chapters address the major themes of Bellow's work over more than a half-century of masterfully crafted fiction, articulating some of the most significant cultural experiences of the American twentieth century. It provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of a key figure in American literature.
Third-Generation Holocaust Representation: Trauma, History, and Memory

Victoria Aarons and Alan L. Berger

Victoria Aarons and Alan L. Berger show that Holocaust literary representation has continued to flourish well into the twenty-first century—gaining increased momentum even as its perspective shifts, as a third generation adds its voice to the chorus of post-Holocaust writers. In negotiating the complex thematic imperatives and narrative conceits of the literature of third-generation writers, this bold new work examines those structures, tropes, patterns, ironies, disjunctions, and overall tensions that produce a literature that laments unrecoverable loss for a generation removed spatially and temporally from the extended trauma of the Holocaust. Aarons and Berger address evolving notions of “postmemory”; the intergenerational and ongoing transmission of trauma; issues of Jewish cultural identity; inherited memory; the psychological tensions of post-Holocaust Jewish identity; the characteristic tropes of memory and the personalized narrative voice; issues of generational dislocation and anxiety; the recurrent antagonisms of assimilation and historical alienation; the imaginative re-creation and reconstruction of the past; and the future of Holocaust memory and representation.
Judgment Day: Judicial Decision Making at the International Criminal Tribunals

Rosa Aloisi and James Meernik

This book demonstrates how, after many years of inactivity after the World War II tribunals, judges at the Yugoslav, Rwanda and Sierra Leone tribunals, and to a lesser extent the International Criminal Court, have seized the opportunity to develop international law on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Meernik and Aloisi argue that judges are motivated by a concern for human rights protection and the legacy of international criminal justice. They have progressively expanded the reach of international law to protect human rights and have used the power of their own words to condemn human rights atrocities. Judges have sentenced the guilty to lengthy and predictable terms in prison to provide justice, deterrence of future violations and even to advance peace and reconciliation. On judgment day, we show that judges have sought to enhance the power of international justice.
El Gallo y La Veleta: Ensayos Últimos

Carlos X. Ardavín Trabanco

El 18 de enero de 1994, el ya desaparecido periódico El Siglo informaba a sus lectores, a través de una escueta nota, que el poeta y crítico Antonio Fernández Spencer comenzaría a publicar a partir de ese día su columna El signo y el tiempo en las páginas de opinión y de arte y literatura. Bajo esta rúbrica aparecieron las dos primeras entregas —dedicadas a Pablo Neruda—, pero desde el 25 de enero, con la publicación de la primera “Entrevista imaginaria”, hasta el 20 de marzo de 1995, en que se divulgó el último artículo enviado por el autor —consagrado a Borges—, la columna adoptó el título definitivo de El gallo y la veleta. Durante ese año y medio, Fernández Spencer no dejó de escribir en el citado rotativo hasta casi el final de sus días.

EL GALLO Y LA VELETA. ENSAYOS ÚLTIMOS, es resumen y testamento de la reconocida obra de Antonio Fernández Spencer (1922-1995), poeta y ensayista, miembro destacado del movimiento La Poesía Sorprendida.

Esta edición ha sido realizada por el Dr. Carlos X. Ardavín Trabanco, crítico y profesor asociado de literatura y cultura españolas en la Universidad de Trinity, San Antonio, Tejas. Es autor de una serie de libros entre los que se destacan La pasión meditabunda, La torre de los panoramas y Diccionario personal de literatura dominicana.
Arthur Golding's 'A Moral Fabletalk' and other Renaissance Fable Translations

Liza Blake and Kathryn Vomero Santos

Summary: "This volume brings together five translations of Aesopian fables that range from the beginning to the end of the English Renaissance. At the centre of the volume is an edition of the entirety of ArthurGoldings manuscript translation of emblematic fables, A Morall Fabletalke (c. 1580s). By situating Goldings text alongside William Caxtons early printed translation from French (1485), Richard Smiths English version of Robert Henrysons Middle Scots Moral Fabillis (1577), John Brinsleys grammar school translation (1617), and John Ogilbys politicized fables translated at the end of the English Civil War (1651), this book shows the wide-ranging forms and functions of the fable during this period. Because Renaissance fables were not only textual but also visual, the edition includes the original images (woodcuts and engravings) designed to accompany the fables. The variety of fable translation practices included in this volume expands our understanding of literary translation in the early modern period. Likewise, the diversity of what gets counted as a fable, as the introduction shows, has implications both for the history of the Aesopian fable, and for the history of reading and thinking about fiction in the English Renaissance"--Back cover.
We Are All Shipwrecks: A Memoir

Kelly Grey Carlisle

A mother’s murder. Her daughter’s redemption. And the complicated past that belongs to them both.

Kelly always knew that her family was different. She knew that most children didn’t live with their grandparents, and their grandparents didn’t own porn stores. Her classmates didn’t sleep on a boat in the marina and she knew their next-door neighbors weren’t drug addicts and johns. What Kelly didn’t know was if she would become part of the dysfunction that surrounded her. Would she sink into the depths of harbor life? Or would she end up alone and dead on Hollywood Boulevard like her mother had years before?

When the grittier aspects of her family history are unearthed, Kelly decides to discover how the place she was raised will define the person she will soon become. To do this, Kelly goes back to the beginning, to a mother she never knew, a twenty-five year old cold case, and two of LA’s most notorious murderers.

We Are All Shipwrecks is Kelly’s story of redemption from tragedy, told with a tenderness towards her family that makes it as much about breaking free as it is preserving the strings that anchor you.
Gender and Spanish Urban Spaces: Literary and Visual Narratives of the New Millennium

Maria C. DiFrancesco and Debra J. Ochoa

This edited collection examines the synergistic relationship between gender and urban space in post-millennium Spain. Despite the social progress Spain has made extending equal rights to all citizens, particularly in the wake of the Franco regime and radically liberating Transición, the fact remains that not all subjects—particularly, women, immigrants, and queers—possess equal autonomy. The book exposes visible shifts in power dynamics within the nation’s largest urban capitals—Madrid and Barcelona—and takes a hard look at more peripheral bedroom communities as all of these spaces reflect the discontent of a post-nationalistic, economically unstable Spain. As the contributors problematize notions of public and private space and disrupt gender binaries related with these, they aspire to engender discussion around civic status, the administration of space and the place of all citizens in a global world.
Advances in Difference Equations and Discrete Dynamical Systems: ICDEA, Osaka, Japan, July 2016

Saber Elaydi, Yoshihiro Hamaya, Hideaki Matsunaga, and Christian Pötzsche

This volume contains the proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Difference Equations and Applications, held at Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan, in July 2016. The conference brought together both experts and novices in the theory and applications of difference equations and discrete dynamical systems. The volume features papers in difference equations and discrete dynamical systems with applications to mathematical sciences and, in particular, mathematical biology and economics. This book will appeal to researchers, scientists, and educators who work in the fields of difference equations, discrete dynamical systems, and their applications.
The Ritual Landscape at Persepolis: Glyptic Imagery From the Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Archives

Mark B. Garrison

There are, perhaps, no more contentious issues within the study of Achaemenid Persia than those surrounding its religion(s) and religious iconography. Owing to the role that fire plays in Zoroastrian beliefs in later periods in Iran, almost any discussion of the subject of Achaemenid religion will eventually turn to the identification of sacred fire, fire temples, fire worship, and fire altars in the archaeological, epigraphic, and literary records.

The focus of this book is a corpus of glyptic imagery preserved as impressions on two large archives of administrative tablets from Persepolis, the Persepolis Fortification archive (509–493 BC) and the Persepolis Treasury archive (492–457 BC). The glyptic imagery here published concerns representations of what have been traditionally termed “fire altars” and/or “fire temples.” Most of this glyptic evidence has never been published; many of the structures and the scenes in which they occur are strikingly original.

The goals of this study are to introduce a new corpus of visual imagery concerning religious ritual in the Achaemenid period and to explore the significance of this visual language for our understanding of ritual traditions emerging within the heart of the empire at its most critical formative period, the reign of Darius I. This study seeks also to use the Persepolitan glyptic evidence as a springboard to re-visit the most famous “fire altar” depicted in Achaemenid art, that on the tomb relief of Darius I at Naqš-e Rostam. The glyptic images assembled in this study are the most numerous, the most visually complex, and the best dated and contextualized evidence that currently exists for the study of fire in ritual, and religious ritual more broadly, in early Achaemenid Iran. This study is also an initial step in the development of a religious topography for the zone encompassing Persepolis and Naqš-e Rostam, a topography that includes both images and the built environment.
The Arab Spring: The Hope and Reality of Uprisings

M. L. Haas and David W. Lesch

Beginning in late 2010, peaceful protests against entrenched regimes unexpectedly erupted in a number of Arab countries, causing political upheaval across the region. Through contributions from noted scholars, The Arab Spring provides a comprehensive overview of the causes, key issues, and aftermath of these events. Divided into two parts, the book first examines the Arab countries most dramatically impacted by the uprisings, as well as why some of their Arab neighbors avoided large-scale protests. The second part explores other countries inside and outside the region-that have a stake and interest in the uprisings.

The second edition includes a new chapter on Iraq and coverage of developments in the region since 2012 and how they have altered initial assessments of the Arab Spring's effects. New part introductions and a revised concluding chapter provide contextualization and comparative analyses of key themes and broader questions. This is an essential volume for students and scholars seeking the fullest understanding of how the Arab uprisings continue to impact the region and the world.
Divided Village: The Cold War in the German Borderlands

Jason B. Johnson

In 1983, then-US Vice President George H.W. Bush delivered a speech in London. He had just been in West Berlin and spoke about his first visit to the Berlin Wall. Bush then went on to describe another German wall he saw after Berlin: "if anything, that wall was an even greater obscenity than its eponym to the north."

The story of that wall is a fascinating and valuable slice of the history of post-war Europe. That wall had gone up nearly two hundred miles southwest of Berlin at the edge of divided Germany, in the tiny, remote farming village of Mödlareuth. For nearly half the twentieth century, the Iron Curtain divided Mödlareuth in two. In this little valley surrounded by forests and fields, the villagers of Mödlareuth found themselves on the literal front-line of the Cold War. The East German state gradually militarized the border through the community while eastern villagers exhibited a range of responses to cope with their changing circumstances, reflective of the variable nature of the Cold War border through Germany: along the Iron Curtain, the size and isolation of the divided place influenced the local character of the division.
Introduction to Programming and Problem-Solving Using Scala

Mark C. Lewis and Lisa L. Lacher

Mark Lewis’ Introduction to the Art of Programming Using Scala was the first textbook to use Scala for introductory CS courses. Fully revised and expanded, the new edition of this popular text has been divided into two books. Introduction to Programming and Problem-Solving Using Scala is designed to be used in first semester college classrooms to teach students beginning programming with Scala. The book focuses on the key topics students need to know in an introductory course, while also highlighting the features that make Scala a great programming language to learn.

The book is filled with end-of-chapter projects and exercises, and the authors have also posted a number of different supplements on the book website. Video lectures for each chapter in the book are also available on YouTube. The videos show construction of code from the ground up and this type of "live coding" is invaluable for learning to program, as it allows students into the mind of a more experienced programmer, where they can see the thought processes associated with the development of the code.