Archive of Book Launches
2023-2024 Books in Dialogue
September 15, 2023 1pm
Theme: Race and Identity
Authors: Jorge Chinea and Howard Lupovitch
October 13, 2023 3pm
Theme: Southern History
Authors: Michael Fuhlhage and Michael Goldfield
2022-2023 Book Launches
November 18, 2022 3:00pm-4:30pm
Fred Vultee
Associate Professor of Journalism, Department of Communication
"A Media Framing Approach to Securitization: Storytelling in Conflict, Crises and Threat"
Abstract: This book approaches securitization theory successfully positioning a potential risk as an existential threat that requires extraordinary measures until the powers that be decide the threat has passed as an issue of media framing. The first chapters outline a common theoretical grounding in communication and political science and explore the role of American exceptionalism, news routines and risk analysis in the structuring of threats. The second part of the book looks at how threats perform in the lab and how they come and go in media content, as well as how security threats have played out in news across a century of mass media. It concludes by examining the ethics of security practice in light of global approaches to media ethics.
October 26, 2022 6:00-7:30pm
Beth Fowler
Associate Professor of Teaching, Irvin D. Reid Honors College
"Rock and Roll, Desegregation Movements, and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era: An 'Integrated Effort' YouTube Link
Abstract: The rock and roll music that dominated airwaves across the country during the 1950s and early 1960s is often described as a triumph for integration. Black and white musicians alike scored hit records with young audiences from different racial groups, blending sonic traditions from R&B, country, and pop. Yet the centering of integration, as well as the supposition that democratic rights largely based in consumerism should be available to everyone regardless of race, has resulted in very distinct responses to both music and movement among Black and white listeners. This book traces these distinctions to determine the uncertain legacies of the civil rights movement and early rock and roll music in a supposedly post-civil rights era.
21-22 Book Launches
March 24, 2022 3-4:30pm
Steven Shaviro
DeRoy Professor of English, Department of English, Wayne State University
"Extreme Fabulations: Science Fictions of Life"
Abstract: In Extreme Fabulations: Science Fictions of Life, Steven Shaviro discusses a number of science fiction narratives: three novels, one novella, three short stories, and one musical concept album. Shaviro not only analyzes these works in detail but also uses them to ask questions about human, and more generally, biological life: about its stubbon insistence and yet fragility; about the possibilities and perils of seeking to control it; about the aesthetic and socail dimensions of human exisitence, in relation to the nonhuman; and about the ethical value of human life under conditions of extreme oppression and devastation,
(flyer) (982) Extreme Fabulations: Science Fictions of Life by Steve Shaviro Book Launch - YouTube
April 7, 2022 4-5:30pm
Josh Wilburn
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Wayne State University
"The Political Soul: Plato on Thumos, Spirited Motivation, and the City "
Abstract: In The Political Soul: Plato on Thumos, Spirited Motivation, and the City, Wilburn discusses Plato's views in relation to a broad range of early Greek Literature and though. Wilburn examines Plato's account of the psychology of friendship and political life, offers a new interpretation of moral education and social organization in the Republic, and traces the development of Plato's thinking from his early to late dialogues, including chapters on Protagoras, Statesman, and Laws.
2020-2021 Book Launches
April 1, 2021
William T. Lynch
Associate Professor Department of History, Wayne State University
"Minority Report: Dissent and Diversity in Science "
Abstract: A book that analyzes the support that should be given to minority views, reconsiders classic debates in Science and Technology Studies and examines numerous case studies.
April 19, 2021
Stephen Chrisomalis
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University
"Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History. "
Abstract: In Reckonings, Stephen Chrisomalis considers how humans past and present have used numerals, reinterpreting historical and archaeological representations of numerical notation and exploring the implications of why we write numbers with figures rather than words.
October 29, 2021
Kevin Deegan-Krause
Associate Professor. Political Science, Wayne State University
"The New Party Challenge: Changing Cycles of Party Birth and Death in Central Europe and Beyond. "
Abstract: A new party bursts onto the political scene promising to put an end to corrupt business-as- usual. It fails, but things don't return to normal because an even newer party takes its place.
(Flyer)
November 9, 2021
Jessica Robbins
Associate Professor, Institute of Gerontology and Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University
"Aging Nationally in Contemporary Poland: Memory, Kinship, and Personhood. "
Abstract: Through intimate portrayals of a wide range of experiences of aging in Poland, Robbins shows that everyday practices of remembering and relatedness shape how older Poles come to be seen by themselves and by others as living worthy, valued lives.