College of Arts & Letters Bookshelf

A gallery of books by faculty from the Batten College of Arts & Letters, Old Dominion University. Faculty books are also listed under specific departments.

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Families Communicating with Children
2010
Thomas Joseph Socha and Julie Yingling

This book offers a fresh and insightful introduction to children's communication development that emphasizes how families help children learn to communicate optimally. Writing for communication students, parents, teachers, and all who care for children, the authors argue that optimal development of children's communication competencies depends on family participation in everyday learning situations that challenge children's skills and build communication confidence… [From Amazon.com]
Early Professional Baseball in Hampton Roads: A History, 1884-1928
2010
Peter C. Stewart

This work focuses on the Norfolk team (nicknamed the Mary Janes), which played in the Virginia, Eastern and Atlantic leagues. Much attention is given to the players, coaches and teams of the Virginia League and the local news coverage from 1884 through 1928 as well as the business of baseball, the relations between major and minor league teams, and the controversy over hosting professional baseball games on Sundays. Photographs of the players, cartoons, and an appendix of league statistics are included. [From Amazon.com]
Facebook and Philosophy: What's on Your Mind?
2010
Dylan E. Wittkower (Editor)

Facebook and Philosophy is an entertaining, multi-faceted exploration of what Facebook means for us and for our relationships. With discussions ranging from the nature of friendship and its relationship to "friending," to the (debatable) efficacy of "online activism," this book is the most extensive and systematic attempt to understand Facebook yet. And with plenty of new perspectives on Twitter and Web 2.0 along the way, this fun, thought-provoking book is a serious and significant contribution for anyone working with social media, whether in academia, journalism, public relations, activism, or business. Exploring far-reaching questions — Can our interactions on Facebook help us care about each other more? Does Facebook signal the death of privacy, or (perhaps worse yet) the death of our desire for privacy? — Facebook and Philosophy is vital reading for anyone involved in social networks today.
Mr. Monk and Philosophy: The Curious Case of the Defective Detective
2010
Dylan E. Wittkower (Editor)

Mr. Monk and Philosophy is a carefully and neatly organized collection of eighteen chapters divided into exactly six groups of precisely three chapters each. Drawing on a wide range of philosophers—from Aristotle and Diogenes, to Siddhartha Gautama and St. Thomas Aquinas, to David Hume and Karl Popper—the authors ask how Adrian Monk solves his cases, why he is the way he is, how he thinks, and what we can learn from him.
Women's Activism in South Africa: Working Across Divides
2009
Hannah Britton, Jennifer Fish, and Sheila Meintjes

Women's Activism in South Africa provides the most comprehensive collection of women's experiences within civil society since the 1994 transition. This book captures South African women's stories of collective activism and social change at a crucial point for the future of democracy in the country, if not the continent. Pulling together the voices of activists and scholars, South Africa's path to democracy and the assurance of gender rights emerge as a complex journey of both successes and challenges. The collection elucidates a new form of pragmatic feminism, building upon the elasticity between the state and civil society. What the cases demonstrate is that while the state itself may not be a panacea, it still represents a key source of power and the primary locus of vital resources, including the rights of citizenship, access to basic needs, and the promise of protection from gender-based violence - all central to women's particular needs in South Africa.
Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of Discoveries
2009
Chandra R. De Silva (Editor)

Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of the Discoveries is designed to provide access to translations of 16th- and 17th-century documents which illustrate various aspects of this encounter, combining texts from indigenous sources with those from the Portuguese histories and archives. These documents contribute to the growing understanding that different groups of European colonizers - missionaries, traders and soldiers - had conflicting motivations and objectives. Scholars have also begun to emphasize that the colonized were not mere victims but had their own agendas and that they occasionally successfully manipulated colonial powers. The texts in this volume help to substantiate these assertions while also illustrating the changing nature of the interactions. The present volume contains chapters covering the Portuguese arrival in Sri Lanka and their first encounters with the island and its peoples, their subsequent relations with Kandy and Jaffna, and a final chapter on Portuguese relations with the Maldive Islands. [From Amazon.com]
The Artful Nuance: A Refined Guide to Imperfectly Understood Words in the English Language
2009
Rod L. Evans

Many people use these words interchangeably but there are actually subtle and interesting differences in meaning and usage. Now from the author of Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge comes a fun and fascinating word reference book for word lovers, students, and trivia collectors alike. Readers will relish learning about these distinctions in this entertaining homage to a gift we use every day? Words. [Amazon.com]
Juan Luna's Revolver
2009
Luisa A. Igloria

The poems in Juan Luna' s Revolver both address history and attempt to transcend it through their exploration of the complexity of diaspora. Attending to the legacy of colonial and postcolonial encounters, Luisa A. Igloria has crafted poems that create links of sympathetic human understanding, even as they revisit difficult histories and pose necessary questions about place, power, displacement, nostalgia, beauty, and human resilience in conditions of alienation and duress. Igloria traces journeys made by Filipinos in the global diaspora that began since the encounter with European and American colonial power. Her poems allude to historical figures such as the Filipino painter Juan Luna and the novelist and national hero José Rizal, as well as the eleven hundred indigenous Filipinos brought to serve as live exhibits in the 1904 Missouri World’s Fair. The image of the revolver fired by Juan Luna reverberates throughout the collection, raising to high relief how separation and exile have shaped concepts of identity, nationality, and possibility. [Amazon.com]
Mercy Otis Warren: Selected Letters
2009
Mercy Warren Otis, Jeffery H. Richards (Editor), and Sharon M. Harris (Editor)

This volume gathers more than one hundred letters-most of them previously unpublished-written by Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814). Warren, whose works include a three-volume history of the American Revolution as well as plays and poems, was a major literary figure of her era and one of the most important American women writers of the eighteenth century. Her correspondents included Martha and George Washington, Abigail and John Adams, and Catharine Macaulay… [From Amazon.com]
State Criminality: The Crime of All Crimes
2009
Dawn L. Rothe

State crimes are historically and contemporarily ubiquitous and result in more injury and death than traditional street crimes such as robbery, theft, and assault. Consider that genocide during the 20th century in Germany, Rwanda, Darfur, Albania, Turkey, Ukraine, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and other regions claimed the lives of tens of millions and rendered many more homeless, imprisoned, and psychologically and physically damaged. Despite the gravity of crimes committed by states and political leaders, until recently these harms have been understudied relative to conventional street crimes in the field of criminology. Over the past two decades, a growing number of criminologists have conducted rigorous research on state crime and have tried to disseminate it widely including attempts to develop courses that specifically address crimes of the state. Referencing a broad range of cases of state crime and international institutions of control, State Criminality provides a general framework and survey-style discussion of the field for teaching undergraduate and graduate students, and serves as a useful general reference point for scholars of state crime. [From Amazon.com]
Parents and Children Communicating with Society: Managing Relationships Outside of Home
2009
Thomas J. Socha (Editor) and Glen H. Stamp (Editor)

The volume opens a new frontier in parent-child communication research as it brings together veteran researchers and newcomers to explore the communication of parents and children as they create relationships outside the family. The chapters herein examine communication processes and problems of parents and children as they interact with childcare, healthcare, education, and youth sports; investigate the unique challenges facing various types of families as they communicate outside the family (e.g., stepfamilies and gay/lesbian/bisexual families); and consider the role of media in family relationships outside of home.The primary audiences for the volume includes scholars, researchers and graduate students studying communication in families, children’s communication, communication in personal relationships, organizational communication, group communication, and health communication. It will also be of interest to psychologists who study families, children, and organizations; sociologists who study families, children, and organizations; education researchers; teachers; coaches; family physicians; and family therapists.It has the potential for use in courses in family communication, family studies, family sociology, and child development. [Amazon.com]
The Durable Dominion a Survey of Virginia History
2009
Peter C. Stewart

Text provides a survey of Virginia history from the colonial era to the end of the 20^th century.
The Legacy Renewed Football and Foreman Field : Norfolk Division--Old Dominion University
2009
Peter C. Stewart and Thomas R. Garrett

Just in time for the return of Old Dominion football, a university history professor and alumnus have teamed up to publish a book about the school's humble beginnings in the sport, and about the venerable stadium that has been revitalized as the venue for games decades after the steel cleats and leather helmets were retired in 1940. "The Legacy Renewed: Football and Foreman Field: Norfolk Division - Old Dominion University" represents the collaborative efforts of Peter C. Stewart, associate professor emeritus of history, and Thomas R. Garrett '72 (M.S.Ed. '81). Stewart, who still teaches a History of Sports course at the university, wrote the text, while Garrett acquired the historical photos and conducted some of the research. The book, published by Outer Banks Press, includes a foreword by another graduate, ESPN SportsCenter anchor Jay Harris '87. [From Amazon.com]
Migration, Accommodation and Language Change: Language at the Intersection of Regional and Ethnic Identity
2008
Bridget L. Anderson

This work marries qualitative ethnographic methods to quantitative acoustic methods. The analysis describes how internal and external factors in phonological change differ and demonstrates how these two forces interact to structure the phonological systems of Appalachian and African American Southern Migrant speakers in the Detroit, Michigan area. [Amazon.com]
Once Upon a Time: Myth, Fairy Tales and Legends in Margaret Atwood's Writings
2008
Sarah A. Appleton (Editor)

While it is often acknowledged that Margaret Atwood's novels are rife with allusions from the oral tradition of myth, legends, fables, and fairy tales, the implications of her liberal usage bear study. The essays in this volume have been written by some of the most influential Margaret Atwood scholars internationally, each exploring Atwoodâs use of primal, indeed archetypal, narratives to illuminate her fiction and poetry. These essays interact with all types of such narratives, from fairy tales and legends, to Greek, Roman, Biblical, and pagan mythologies, to contemporary processes of myth and tale creation. And, as the works in this collection demonstrate, Atwoodâs use of myths and fairy tales allows for an abundance of old, yet fresh material for contemporary readers. By reconciling, yet by also revisioning, the archetypal motifs, characters, and narratives, Atwoodâs writings present a familiar, yet unique, reading experience. [From Amazon.com]
Robert Ryman: Critical Texts Since 1967
2008
Vittorio Colaizzi (Editor) and Karsten Schubert (Editor)

Through an extremely restricted vocabulary, Robert Ryman became a leading figure on the fringes of Minimalist and Conceptual art. This anthology of essays reviews and charts the evolution of the artist's critical reception. A comprehensive selection of over 60 essays and exhibition reviews has been collated into one volume, including texts by some of the most influential art historians, art critics, and cultural commentators, like Lucy Lippard, Dan Cameron, Ernesto Pujol, and Robert Storr. The writers look at Ryman's work within the context of the 'challenge to painting' during the 1960s, the artist's work in relation to other influential painters in art history, and contemporary cultural trends. Drawing upon the words of key contemporary thinkers, an introduction by Vittorio Colaizzi explores the importance of elements of 'support, color, brushstroke' in Ryman's paintings. [Amazon.com]
Old Nations, New Voters: Nationalism, Transnationalism, and Democracy in the Era of Global Migration
2008
David Earnest

In this groundbreaking study, David C. Earnest analyzes why democracies give noncitizens the right to vote. Bringing together theoretical debates in international relations and comparative politics about globalization, sovereignty, nationalism, citizenship, and state building, he examines how twenty-five democracies are coping with growing populations of immigrants who increasingly demand political rights. Earnest employs statistical analyses, along with case studies, to uncover surprising facts that national courts are not necessarily progressive and that the left-right differences of political parties disguise intriguing coalitions that may either welcome or marginalize immigrants. The author concludes that rather than undermining the rights of citizens, the enfranchisement of noncitizens reflects shared national myths. In this respect, when faced with growing migration, old nations welcome new voters in ways that reinforce the bond between the nation and state." [From Amazon.com]
Little House, Long Shadow Laura Ingalls Wilder's Impact on American Culture
2008
Anita Clair Fellman

Fellman shows that Laura Ingalls Wilder's magical Little House series contained a covert political message that made many readers comfortable with the resurgence of conservatism. Because both Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, opposed the New Deal programs being implemented as they wrote, their books use family history as an argument against the state's protection of individuals from economic uncertainty, emphasizing the Ingalls family's isolation and resilience in the face of crises. Fellman argues that the books' popularity helped lay the groundwork for a negative response to big government and a positive view of political individualism, contributing to the acceptance of contemporary conservatism while perpetuating a mythic West. Fellman also explores the continuing presence of the books--and their message--in modern cultural institutions from classrooms to tourism, newspaper editorials to Internet message boards.
Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500-1677: Imprints of the Invisible
2008
Imtiaz H. Habib

Containing an urgently needed archival database of historical evidence, this volume includes both a consolidated presentation of the documentary records of black people in Tudor and Stuart England, and an interpretive narrative that confirms and significantly extends the insights of current theoretical excursus on race in early modern England. Here for the first time Imtiaz Habib collects the scattered references to black people-whether from Africa, India or America-in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, and arranges them into a systematic, chronological descriptive index. He offers an extended historical and theoretical interpretation of the records in six chapters, which serve as an introductory guide to the index even as they articulate a specific argument about the meaning of the records. Both the archival information and interpretive scholarship provide a strong framework from which future historical debates on race in early modern England can proceed. [Amazon.com]
Nietzsche's 'On the Genealogy of Morality': An Introduction
2008
Lawrence J. Hatab

Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality (1887) is a forceful, perplexing, important book, radical in its own time and profoundly influential ever since. This introductory textbook offers a comprehensive, close reading of the entire work, with a section-by-section analysis that also aims to show how the Genealogy holds together as an integrated whole. The Genealogy is helpfully situated within Nietzsche's wider philosophy, and occasional interludes examine supplementary topics that further enhance the reader's understanding of the text. Two chapters examine how the Genealogy relates to standard questions in moral and political philosophy. Written in a clear, accessible style, this book will appeal to students at every level coming to read the Genealogy for the first time, and a wider range of readers will also benefit from nuanced interpretations of controversial elements in Nietzsche's work. [From Amazon.com]
On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam
2008
Joyce Hoffmann

Over three hundred women, both print and broadcast journalists, were accredited to chronicle America’s activities in Vietnam. Many of those women won esteemed prizes for their reporting, including the Pulitzer, the Overseas Press Club Award, the George Polk Award, the National Book Award, and the Bancroft Prize for History. Tragically, several lost their lives covering the war, while others were wounded or taken prisoner. In this gripping narrative, veteran journalist Joyce Hoffmann tells the important yet largely unknown story of a central group of these female journalists, including Dickey Chapelle, Gloria Emerson, Kate Webb, and others. Each has a unique and deeply compelling tale to tell, and vivid portraits of their personal lives and professional triumphs are woven into the controversial details of America’s twenty-year entanglement in Southeast Asia. [Amazon.com]
Beyond the Page: Latin American Poetry from the Calligramme to the Virtual
2008
Angélica Jiménez Huízar

This scholarly monograph offers a fresh look at modern experimental poetry in Spanish, Portuguese and French produced in Latin America. The work uses a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to examine how these experimental poetic forms can be best interpreted and understood through a performative lens. Examined structures and textures inherent in these performed works vary: they include paintings, typographical art, optophonetic (visual representations of sounds) techniques, and music, to name only a few examples. The investigative scope of the study is large---it includes texts from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil and includes texts in Spanish, Portuguese and French. Through detailed analysis Professor Huizar demonstrates what we can read in the visual and sound components of these poems as performance on a page, and while these may be limited on the bound text, they do produce a performativity that is predictive of current technological innovations of the canon whose performative and interactive aspects include the latest multi-media technologies resulting in forms as cyper poetry and hypertextuality, electronic music and pictorial language. [From Amazon.com]
Writing Across Distances and Disciplines: Research and Pedagogy in Distributed Learning
2008
Joyce Magnotto Neff and Carl Whithaus

Writing Across Distances and Disciplines addresses questions that cross borders between onsite, hybrid, and distributed learning environments, between higher education and the workplace, and between distance education and composition pedagogy. This groundbreaking volume raises critical issues, clarifies key terms, reviews history and theory, analyzes current research, reconsiders pedagogy, explores specific applications of WAC and WID in distributed environments, and considers what business and education might teach one another about writing and learning. Exploring the intersection of writing across the curriculum, composition studies, and distance learning, it provides an in-depth look at issues of importance to students, faculty, and administrators regarding the technological future of writing and learning in higher education. [From Amazon.com]
Innocents Abroad Too: Journeys Around the World on Semester at Sea
2008
Michael Pearson

Most people don't get the opportunity to circumnavigate the globe. Michael Pearson has had the good fortune to do it twice. As a two-term professor in the Semester at Sea Program, Pearson journeyed by ship in 2002 and 2006 to such countries as Japan, China, Vietnam, India, Myanmar, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, and Cuba. In Innocents Abroad Too he shares his experiences and candid impressions transporting the reader to bustling streets outside Shanghai's City God Temple to the Serengeti Plain. Along the way Pearson provides a literary journey, enriching his encounters with descriptions of the great books and great writers who have also brought the world closer to their readers. These touchstones are combined with journalistic sketches of the people and places he visits and Pearson's thoughtful meditations on the significance of travel and the importance of encountering the new. In the rich tradition of travel literature Innocents Abroad Too offers a blend of experience and imagination, worlds familiar and strange, seen through the eyes of a true traveler. [Amazon.com]
Beauté Suburbaine/Suburban Beauty
2008
Jacques Réda (Author) and Peter Schulman (Translator)

Collection of poems by Jacques Réda originally published in 1985. Translated from the French by Peter Schulman, ODU Professor of French and International Studies.