Faculty Publications - Reviews

Laurentian Reviews (Summer/Fall 2002)

Collateral Language, (New York University Press, 2002), Assistant Professor of Global Studies John Collins and Visiting Instructor of Sociology Ross Glover

“Terrorism,” ”jihad,” “fundamentalism,” “blowback.” These and other highly charged terms have saturated news broadcasts and everyday conversation since September 11, 2001. But to keen ears their meanings change depending upon who’s doing the talking. So what do these words really mean? And what are people trying to say when they use them?

Collateral Language, edited by two St. Lawrence University professors, and with essays written by many others, is an effort to examine the meanings (literal and loaded) of the now commonplace terms. According to the publishers, “Each of the 13 essays in Collateral Language offers an informed perspective on a particular word or phrase that serves as a building block in the edifice of post-World Trade Center rhetoric. In some cases this involves a systematic examination of the term in question (such as “anthrax” or “unity”) - its historical roots, the development of its meaning and usage in the U.S. over time, and its employment in the current context. In other cases authors provide a set of more philosophical or autobiographical reflections on a particular idea (such as “vital interests” or “evil”), suggesting a need to consider the ethical and moral implications of using the concept uncritically. In every instance, however, the overriding goal is to give the reader a set of practical tools to analyze the political language that surrounds all of us at this critical point in our nation's history.”

Chapters and authors (St. Lawrence faculty unless noted) are “Anthrax,” Assistant Professor of Sociology R. Danielle Egan; “Blowback,” Trinity College Assistant Professor of Political Science Patricia M. and St. Lawrence Associate Professor of Global Studies Thomas F. Thornton; “Civilization vs. Barbarism,” Assistant Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures Marina Llorente; “Cowardice,” Egan; “Evil,” Assistant Professor of Philosophy Laura Rediehs; “Freedom,” Andrew Van Alstyne ’00, student at the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan; “Fundamentalism,” Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Leah Renold; “Jihad,” Assistant Professor of History Kenneth Church; “Justice,” Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy Erin McCarthy; “Targets,” SUNY Potsdam Associate Professor of Politics Phil Neisser; “Terrorism,” Collins; “Unity,” Professor of English Eve Stoddard and Dean and Professor of Philosophy Grant Cornwell; “Vital Interests,” St. Lawrence Associate Professor of English Natalia Rachel Singer; and “The War On ________,” Glover.

 

 

Laurentian Reviews (Spring 2003)

Shaping the Upper Canadian Frontier: Environment, Society, and Culture in the Trent Valley (University of Calgary Press, 2003) by Professor of Canadian Studies Neil S. Forkey

Neil Forkey, visiting assistant professor in Canadian studies and the First-Year Program, has written a book about Canada's Trent Valley in the 19th century that its publishers call “a microcosm for wider human and environmental changes throughout North America. Forkey makes a significant contribution to the growing body of work on Canadian environmental history,” the publishers state. “Themes of ethnicity and environment in the Trent Valley are brought into wider perspective with comparisons to other areas of contemporary settlement throughout the British Empire and North America.”

Forkey begins by placing his study within the literature of settler societies of Upper Canada and North America. The Trent Valley's geography, prehistory and Native peoples--the Huron and the Mississauga--are discussed alongside the Anglo-Celtic migrations and resettlement of the area. Four distinct case studies of environmental, social and cultural change are presented.

The book gives special attention to the life and nature writings of Catherine
Parr Traill; her descriptions of life and environmental changes in the valley illustrate Canadian attitudes about the natural world during the 19th century. --Macreena Doyle

Sid Sondergard, The Cabala of Pegasus: An Annotated Translation of Giordano Bruno's Cabala del cavallo Pegaseo (co-trans.), Yale University Press, 2002, and Sharpening Her Pen: Strategies of Rhetorical Violence by Early Modern English Women Writers, Susquehanna University Press, 2002.

It was a busy and productive year for Professor of English Sid Sondergard, who had two books published within months of each other in 2002.

The Cabala of Pegasus is a translation of the book by Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno and is accompanied by essays and commentary by Sondergard and his co-translator, Madison Sowell. Bruno published six philosophical dialogues while in England in 1583-85, including The Cabala of Pegasus. It consists of vernacular dialogues that turn on the identification of the noble Pegasus (the spirit of poetry) and the humble ass (the vehicle of divine revelation). In the interplay of these ideas, Bruno explores the nature of poetry, divine authority and secular learning, which had great influence on James Joyce and many other writers and artists from the Renaissance to the modern period. This first English translation contains both the English and Italian versions as well as annotations.

According to Sondergard, “The ‘kaballah’ is a system of erudite decoding of holy texts in order to uncover God’s revelations within them. We use the secularized spelling ‘cabala’ to signify a secularized conceptualization of the system--in Bruno's case, his disguising of his text’s meaning to hide it from those ‘unworthy’ to understand it.” “Pegasus” holds figurative meaning for the text, standing for the spirit of freethinking; “What could be more free than a flying horse?” Sondergard asks. “The book is a satire on British education because it cleverly makes fun of the British university system.”

Sharpening Her Pen is about six women writers from the 16th and 17th centuries who practiced rhetorical violence in their writing. Sondergard defines rhetorical violence as “the replication in language of the physical experience of pain: its causes, its consequences, its analogues in conflict and suffering, real and imagined. This replication may itself prove capable of producing the trauma of pain (by stirring the reader to actual violence, or by triggering an actual physical response in the reader), or it may function more figuratively, provoking an illusory sensation of pain (as in the empathetic sense it ‘hurts’ to read of another's agony), or summoning an individual's private and cultural memories of the experience of pain.”

The women Sondergard profiles range from the well-known Queen Elizabeth
to the virtually unknown Anne Dawriche. “I realized these women are important,” Sondergard said. “I wanted to show how they were still effectively able to show what was important to them when there wasn’t a market for women writers.”

The original manuscript looked at how both men and women use rhetorical violence in their writing, but “It dawned on me that it was actually more interesting that the women used this technique,” Sondergard says. --Jackie Roy ’04 and Macreena Doyle

 

The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen (University Press of Kentucky, 2001) by Professor of English Peter Bailey

If you've ever wanted to reach right into the movie screen, shake one of Woody Allen's characters by the shirt collar, and say, "Snap out of it, bub," here's a book for you. Professor of English Peter Bailey offers a fascinating, crystalline analysis of one of the most vexing questions to dog three generations of Woody Allen characters: Is the fictional world of art--especially film art--more a help or a hindrance in our difficult lives?

Bailey demonstrated his gift for making sense of challenging contemporary literary art with Reading Stanley Elkin in the mid-80s. In The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen, he takes on a more readily accessible subject but does not hold back any of the tremendous critical insight at his command. The result is a book both for serious film buffs--that is, buffs of serious film (a subjective distinction taken up in this book)--and film scholars alike. This book makes watching his movies a more intellectually stimulating experience without killing the comic moments so abundant in them.

Bailey succeeds admirably with this book, mainly because he never puts Allen on a pedestal. The author is a fan, to be sure, as indicated by his generous praise for what Allen does well--and has done well at a pace of roughly one film a year since 1972. This book's thesis, however, delves more deeply into a particularly compelling set of questions at the core of most of Allen's films: What do they say about the role of art in our lives? Is it a redeeming social force or merely a pleasant diversion from life's suffering? Are Woody Allen's films art or merely pleasant, entertaining diversions?

Bailey combines his own convincing interpretations of Allen's film work with previously reported comments from Allen on these questions to show not only how equivocal Woody Allen movies are on the matter of art's benefits and costs, but how central a theme this equivocating is in those movies. To his great credit--and unlike many scholarly investigations of film and literary art--Bailey avoids overbearing suggestions that HIS interpretations are REALLY what Allen's films are all about. Rather, he has found a thread running through Allen's work that he holds up to the light--a light that has lingered too long on the personality of Woody Allen and the attending tabloid drama. This more illuminating thread--the vexed relationship of art to life and the difficulty of reconciling the two, both in art and in life--is of such enormous importance in the broader conversation of American popular culture that the absence of details on Allen's personal travails reads as a virtue in Bailey's book.

While Woody Allen fans will definitely find The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen most enjoyable and accessible, any moviegoer who has ever contemplated what distinguishes the cinematic good and bad from the ugly will find this book thought-provoking, perhaps at times profound. Ultimately, this is not a portrait of a filmmaker so much as the study of an intriguing film mind at work--and a snapshot of a possible film legend as a work-in-progress.
--Adapted from an unsigned review on Amazon.com

 

Mementos, Artifacts, and Hallucinations From the Ethnographer's Tent (Routledge, 2002) edited by Assistant Professor of Music David R. Henderson and Ron Emhoff

Assistant Professor of Music David Henderson’s new book of essays and stories has contributions from leading researchers in the fields of anthropology, ethnomusicology and folklore, as well as personal, imaginative accounts of ethnographic fieldwork that do not fit into a traditional scholarly context but are “a vital and engaging aspect of studying different cultures,” according to the publishers. Individual pieces vary from autobiographical accounts of ethnographers’ experiences in the field to fictional narratives. Henderson, the author of one of the 10 essays, has been on the faculty at St. Lawrence since 2001. --Macreena Doyle

 

Laurention Reviews Winter 2004

Five Key Concepts in Anthropological Thinking (Prentice Hall, 2002) by Professor of Anthropology Richard Perry

A new anthropology textbook by St. Lawrence University Professor of Anthropology Richard J. Perry examines the five "key concepts" that form the basis of study in the discipline.

Five Key Concepts in Anthropological Thinking (Prentice Hall, 2003) is being used as a textbook for anthropology courses at colleges and universities across the country. Rather than approaching topics from the relative views of individual theorists, the book instead discusses the concepts of evolution, culture, structure, function and relativism. Publishers describe it as "A thought-provoking reference for anyone interested in learning about anthropology."

Perry is the author of three other books, Western Apache Heritage: People of the Mountain Corridor (1991), Apache Reservation: Indigenous Peoples and the American State (1993) and From Time Immemorial: Indigenous Peoples and State Systems (1997), all from the University of Texas Press . Since joining the faculty in 1971, he has been a co-director of the University's program of study in Kenya , and recently returned from a research trip to Australia for his next project, which will address the concepts and attribution of human differences cross-culturally.

 

Paradise Valley (The Bellevue Press, 1975) by Professor of English Albert Glover

Poet Al Glover offers a brief and highly personal tribute to Paradise Valley, the land on the outskirts of Canton between Brick Chapel and Waterman hill so dubbed by Irving Bacheller in his novel Eben Holden. The poem pays tribute to the wholeness he has heard the land once possessed, as he has seen the land bruised by bulldozer, speculator and economic decision.

 

Ski-Touring—A Winter Affair (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1975), by Director of Athletics Margaret F. Strait and Gail A. Bigglestone

This beginners manual to ski-touring (commonly known as cross-country skiing) has a simple, straightforward approach designed primarily to assist physical educators and recreation directors in establishing sound ski touring programs. It includes helpful hints, tips available on films, demonstration pictures and ski and pole size charts.

 

The Great Prairie Fact and Literary Imagination (University of New Mexico, 1989) by Professor of Canadian Studies Robert W. Thacker

Thacker discusses how the prairie has influenced literary imagination while examining the fact and the imagination of the land and the people on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border. His book demonstrates that prairie landscape conventions and techniques of symbolic depiction have been derived from essential elements of the land itself.

 

Democracy Upside Down: Public Opinion and Cultural Hegemony in the United States (Praeger Publishers, 1987) edited and co-authored by Professor of Government C. Fred Exoo

Exoo presents the intriguing and uncomforting idea that politicians, the media and big business don’t take their lead from us, the people. Rather, those in power decide which course of action is best for them and spend their time sending us the message that it is best for us, too, as well as trying to make us feel good about it.

 

Songs and Sonets (Rootdrinker, 1986) by Piskor Professor of English Albert Glover

John Jeffire ’85 writes “Songs and Sonets is an exceptionally tight group of poems that should be read as one complete poem in which the reader is taken from the metaphysical to the physical, from a North Country field to an African path, from the tractor to the weight-room, and from modern despair to post-modern possibility with grace and insight. The themes and forms are traditional, but Glover’s untraditional illustration, comparison, and allusion make for a rewarding poetic experience.”

 

Social Mobility in the English Bildungsroman: Gissing, Hardy, Bennett and Lawrence (UMI Research Press, 1986) by Professor of English Patricia Alden

Alden examines the mid-nineteenth century evolution of the Bildungsroman genre in the context of social change in nineteenth century England. She synthesizes the writing and the autobiographies of four genre authors, enforcing her point that literature, to be properly understood, must be considered in the context of the social ideologies which directly or indirectly inform the text.

 

The Puritan Movement: The Coming of Revolution in an English County (Harvard University Press, 1985) by Professor of History William A. Hunt

This prize-winning account of Puritanism in Essex explores its influence in bringing the county into conflict against the King of England in1642. It is a study of the social and religious origins of the 17 th century English revolution, focusing on the county of Essex, northeast of London. Hunt provides a social interpretation of the movement with emphasis on the importance of Puritan preachers and gentry as its leaders and links Puritan social values with tensions in late-Elizabethan Essex. The result is an interpretive synthesis of social, political and biographical sections that shed light on the advent of revolution in an English county.

 

Beiträge zur MusilKritik (1983) by Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures Gudrun Brokoph

A German-language book about Austrian novelist Robert Müsil, this volume is a collection of criticism of Müsil’s writings by scholars, among them Professor Brokoph, from several countries. “Müsil is the most important German prose writer of the 20 th century, next to Thomas Mann,” Brokoph notes.

 

Next (Burns Books, 1981) by Piskor Professor of English Albert Glover

Glover’s collection of poetry contrasts two different ways of perceiving human existence. Poems such as Mushroom and The Masque delineate a tension between myth and history, spiritual and secular views of life. Peter Bailey says “Employing a number of forms and poetic voices, Next powerfully and articulately delineates the mythos permeating our secularized world, evoking with subtlety the sacred truths which underlie our mythless condition.”

 

Queer Family Values: Debunking the Myth of the Nuclear Family (Temple University Press, 1999) by Professor of Gender Studies Valerie Lehr

Lehr’s book challenges the forms of oppression—gender, racial, economic—that lead society to grant privilege to the traditional nuclear family. “Lehr urges activist to counter conservative discourses that recognize the nuclear family as the only responsible and mature family alternative, and encourages them to advocate social policies that champion the freedoms of all people,” says the book’s back cover.

 

Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh (Sage Publications, 1999) co-authored by Professor of Sociology Stephen Papson

This book is a look at whether advertising is changing the way we think about ourselves and society. The authors accomplish this by discussing the Nike “swoosh” logo in terms of political economy, sociology, culture and semiotics.

 

The Canadian Forces: Hard Choices, Soft Power (Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 1999) by Professor of Canadian Studies Joseph T. Jockel

In this examination of Canada’s military forces, Jockel analyzes how budget cuts and policy changes have affected the readiness of the Canadian military, especially in a time of increasing demand.

 

Economics as a Moral Science: The Political Economy of Adam Smith (Edward Elgar Publishing, Ltd., 1998) by Hepburn Professor of Economics Jeffrey Young

In it Young proposes new ways of linking Smith’s moral theories to his economics, stressing that for Smith, a moral science of economics is not a contradiction and that moral questions lie at the heart of positive and normative economic analysis.

 

Relax Yr Face (Glover Publishing, 1998) by Piskor Professor of English Albert Glover

This innovative collection of poems takes readers on a journey into freshly, though not always happily, discovered territory. His work is akin to the confessionals of Lowell, Sexton and Plath exploring the themes of love, grief, loneliness, betrayal and near madness.

 

Local Environmental Struggles: Citizen Activism in the Treadmill of Production (Cambridge University Press, 1996) co-authored by Associate Professor of Sociology Kenneth Gould

The book is a tribute to the power of diverse people banding together and understanding their individual responsibility to protect the environmental rights of their communities. It shows that the environment has an impact on every aspect of our society with a diversity of issues covering the entire ecological, social, economic and political spectrum.

 

Women Stage Directors Speak: Exploring the Effects of Gender of Their Work (McFarland and Co. Publishers, 1996) by Associate Professort of Speech and Theatre Rebecca Daniels

The author explores the ways gender issues affect a female director’s artistic process and choices. A series of interviews with thirty-five well-established and well-respected female directors, the book examines gender as well as other forces such as ethnicity, social class, religion and sexual preference that affect the way a person directs.

 

Dear Home: the 1901 and 1902 Diary of Mabel Lila Wait (Friends of the Owen D. Young Library, 1996) Edited by Professor of English Susan Ward

These diaries of Mabel Lila Wait of the Brick Chapel area just south of Canton are a wonderful look at the daily life of a farm woman in northern New York at the turn of the century. Glimpses of North Country life as well as personal stories of a strong, independent single woman make this book a cherished look at the region.

 

Drama and Performance: An Anthology (HarperCollins College Publishers, 1996) co-authored by Associate Professor of Speech and Theatre Andrea Nouryeh

This collection of thirty-seven plays that emphasizes the dual nature of play as both text and performance covers a wide-range from the obscure to the well-known. Each play is introduced by extensive background material placing it in socio-political and historical context, followed by a discussion of the author and the text and then an analysis of the play as a living and breathing performance. Personal reflections encourage readers to imagine themselves within a production of each play.

 

The Felix M. Warburg Print Collection: A Legacy of Discernment (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1995) by Associate Professor of Fine Arts Dorothy Limouze

Limouze, whose scholarly specialty is northern and central European art history, illuminates the art collection of New York City financier Felix M. Warburg, consisting primarily of works by Dürer and Rembrandt, given to Vassar College in 1941. She provides thoroughly researched discussions of the 67 included works that shed light on the understanding of a period and place critical in the development of Western art.

 

A Companion to V. (University of Georgia Press, 2001) by Professor of English J. Kerry Grant

This companion to Thomas Pynchon’s most accessible work recognizes that it is also a work that defies interpretation. Grant has compiled and explained 480 references in two editions of the novel. As Grant notes in his introduction, he hopes the companion will help those readers who are convinced that Pynchon is “too weird, too clever too something” for them.

This book is a guide to reading the novel V. by Thomas Pynchon, which, according to the publishers, “seems to defy comprehension with its open-ended and fragmented narrative, huge cast of characters (some 150 of them), and wide range of often obscure references. Grant takes readers through the novel chapter by chapter, breaking through its daunting surface by summarizing events and clarifying Pynchon’s many allusions.”

 

The Urgency of Identity—Comtemporary English-language Poetry from Wales (Evanston: Northwestern University Pres, 1994) ed. Associate Professor of History David Lloyd

This assembly of 105 contemporary English language proems from Wales includes extended interviews with four poets, biographical sketches, explanatory notes and an index of first lines. In assembling such a work, Lloyd poses the questions “Can one be Welsh without speaking Welsh?” as he explores the influence of language and poetry.

 

Conflict of Interests: Organized Labor and the Civil Rights Movement in the South 1954–1968 (Cornell University Press, 1994) by Professor of Government Alan Draper

Draper’s book sheds light on the role of organized labor in the Southern civil rights movement. It provides scholarly inquiry into what he calls “the intersection of black and labor history,” when labor’s response to the civil rights movement was uncertain. The book explores the resulting tension.

 

Environment and Society: the Enduring Conflict (Worth Pubishing, 1994) co-authored by Associate Professor of Sociology Kenneth Gould

The authors provide an analysis of how economic institutions are systematically protected and supported, and looks at how the social interest groups that derive the greatest benefits from the system pass on the environmental and social costs to less powerful groups.

 

Hannah Arendt: Critical Essays (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994) by Professor of Government Sandra Hinchman

Hinchman and her husband selected 14 essays by the author of The Origins of Totalitarianism for inclusion in their anthology. They present the views of essayists who have both sympathetic and unsympathetic commentaries. In their introduction, they conclude that the value and originality of Arendt’s work may lie in reopening questions that modern and postmodern writers tend to neglect.

 

Canada and International Peacekeeping (Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 1994) by Professor of Canadian Studies Joseph T. Jockel

Jockel examines Canada’s historical role in international peacekeeping in comparison with the current military situation in the post-Cold War era when the peacekeeping efforts of many countries were under examination.

 

African Studies and the Undergraduate Curriculum (Boulder: Lynne Riener Publishers, 1994) eds. Associate Dean of International and Intercultural Studies Pat Alden and Associate Professor of History David Lloyd

This volume is a collection of papers presented at a 1992 conference held at St. Lawrence. It includes articles on interculturalism, how to teach African history and how to build a program of study at a college or university. It includes a discussion of St. Lawrence’s Kenya program and its development as an approach to integrated study of a non-Western culture.

 

Memory from a Broader Perspective (McGraw-Hill, 1994) by Professor of Psychology Alan Searleman

This widely-used textbook on memory features a look at memory research, theory and phenomena from the perspective of the theorist and from the average person. The breadth of the text is unique as it presents chapters on a wide range of topics and contains great memory-related cartoons sure to please students of memory.

 

In a World Not of His Own Making (Blue Canary Press, 1993) by Professor of Sociology Stephen Papson

Papson’s first novel propels his reader 25 years into a society where individuality has given way to a complex system of totalitarian structure. The protagonist, James Smokes, is chosen to track down a missing viroid and accepts the challenge to journey through a world where violence and moral corruption are widespread. The science fiction novel offers and eerie glimpse into a world teetering on moral and environmental collapse.

 

The Politics of the Mass Media (West Publishing Co., 1993) by Professor of Government C. Fred Exoo

This book concentrates on the biases of the news media, the advertising industry and the entertainment business. By stripping stories and programs of political content that has the potential to offend (and thereby affect revenues), as well as to incite and educate, Exoo argues, the media are making their own political statement.

 

Modern Nicaraguan Poetry: Dialogues with France and the United States (Associated University Presses, 1993) by Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures Steven F. White

White argues that, to understand 20 th century Nicaraguan poetry, one must understand the French and United States literary traditions that have influenced Nicaraguan writers. This “international literary dialogue,” as White describes it, has created in a relatively small country a rich and diverse literary heritage.

 

Mobilizing the Community: Local Politics in the Era of the Global City (Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1993) co-ed. by Professor of Government Joseph Kling

This is volume 41 of the Urban Affairs Annual Review, a collection described as a “semiannual series of reference volumes discussing problems, policies, and current developments in all areas of concern to urban specialists.” This particular volume deals with such topics as grassroots organizing, temporary social movements, multiracial environments and the fight for welfare rights. It sheds light on how movements in population centers can affect public policy.

 

Monetary Evolution, Free Banking, and Economic Order (Westview Press, 1992) by Associate Professor of Economics Steven G. Horwitz

Horwitz discusses the origin and functions of money and banking with focus on their roles in promoting economic order. His message is that an understanding of spontaneous and evolutionary processes that affect monetary institutions should cause us to question the value of efforts to plan or regulate the production of money.

 

Robert Musil, Essayismus und Ironie (Tubingen, Francke, 1992) by Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures Gudrun Brokoph

Brokoph’s third volume about Robert Musil examines the personal relationship between Musil and Hermann Broch, his chief rival for the title of Austria’s principal writer between the wars, as revealed in their letters. Musil’s most notable innovation in writing was the incorporation of elements of essay into fiction which led to the coining of the term “essayism.”

 

Seagulls Don't Fly Into the Bush: Cultural Identity and Development in Melanesia (Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1992) by Professor of Anthropology Alice Pomponio

The book explores how the natives of Mandock Island ( Papua New Guinea) reacted to schemes of Western development in a manner that reflected the cultural codes that had defined their lives prior to Western intrusion. Beginning with mythology, and working her way through kinship structure, political organization and economic development, Pomponio paints a picture of a dynamic people whose seemingly chaotic introduction to Western development is more the result of our ethnocentrism than of their inability to adjust.

 

Which Shakespeare? (Open University Press, 1992) by Craig Professor of English Thomas L. Berger

A handy resource for serious students of Shakespeare, this is a collaboration of the five Shakespeare authorities on a guide to the many editions of Shakespeare’s plays. The authors do not rate the editions but merely lay out in concise terms what each one provides.

 

The Book of the Toad: A Natural and Magical History of Toad–Human Relations (Park Street Press, 1991) by Professor of English Robert M. DeGraaff

The dust cover notes that the book is “far more than a volume for bufophiles,” or toad-lovers. Rather it is “a uniquely insightful and engaging look at how humans through the ages have responded to and been influenced by their amphibian neighbors.”

 

The Dinner Guest and Other Poems (Glover Publishing, 1990) by Piskor Professor of English Albert Glover

This collection of poems that speak mainly of northern New York along the shores of the St. Lawrence river carries Glover’s lyric, often witty voice. With rich images of the natural beauty of the region, Glover seems to urge the world to slow down, pause and appreciate the important moments in life that often go overlooked.

 

Dilemmas of Activism: Class, Community and the Politics of Local Mobilization (Temple University Press, 1990) co-written and co-edited by Associate Professor of Government Joseph M. Kling

In this anthology, the authors concentrate on problems emerging from three basic conflicts: between class and community, between false consciousness and truth, and between administrative power and democratic self-determination. These dilemmas stem from the ideologies employed by socio-political movements. The anthology calls our attention to the need for careful scrutiny of these dilemmas by those who theorize or participate in social activism.

 

Hiking the Southwest's Canyon Country (Mountaineers Press, 1990) by Professor of Government Sandra Hinchman

In this guide to the high-desert “slickrock” wilderness and parklands surrounding the Four Corners where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet, Hinchman provides day-by-day itineraries with directions for several driving/hiking tours. An introductory chapter surveys ecological, geological and cultural aspects of the region while providing etiquette in the fragile ecosystem. Includes excellent photographs, most by the author.

 

River of Dreams: American Poems from the St. Lawrence Valley (Canton, NY: Glover Publishing, 1990) by Piskor Professor of English Albert Glover

is anthology of North Country poets of yesterday and today records the history of the region through poetic expression. The themes of appreciation of natural beauty, respect for the land, love of the woods and admiration for the people provide constants throughout.

 

L’Ecrivain Imaginaire. Essai sur le Roman Québécois 1960-1995 (Hurtubise, 2004) by Assitant Professor of French Roseline Tremblay

This reference text on the contemporary Québec novel is a study of the writer as character. Tremblay considers works by essential Québécois authors of the past thirty-five years to provide a sociological and historical study of the recent institutionalization of Québec prose.

 

Photographs at St. Lawrence University (2001) co-ed. by Director of the Brush Art Gallery Catherine Tedford

This book highlights the range of expressive strategies in the University’s 1,000-piece collection. It features over 200 duotone and full-color reproductions, plus essays on how photographs enhance teaching and learning.

 

Global Multiculturalism: Comparative Perspectives on Ethnicity, Race, and Nation (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001) by Professor of Philosophy Grant H. Cornwell

Each chapter is written by a St. Lawrence faculty member on his or her country of expertise (e.g., Laura O’Shaughnessy on Mexico, Steven White on Brazil, Celia Nyamweru on Kenya). It comes out of the global studies and cultural encounters programs, and represents the scholarship that has been done here for the past decade.

 

Living North Country: Essays on Life and Landscapes in Northern New York (North Country Books, 2001) co-authored by Publications Editor Neal Burdick and Associate Professor of English Natalia Rachel Singer

The two authors complied an anthology of more than two dozen essays about the North Country by alumni and well-known regional writers. Ranging from the St. Lawrence River to the Adirondacks, the book looks at the region frankly asking more questions than it answers.

 

Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective (Routledge, 2000) by Professor of Economics Steven G. Horwitz

Part of the publisher’s series Foundations of the Market Process, the publishers state that “This original and highly accessible work provides the reader with an introduction to Austrian economics and a systematic understanding of macroeconomics.”

 

When Women Become Priests: The Catholic Women's Ordination Debate (Columbia University Press, 2000) by Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Kelley Raab

This book explores the symbolic implications of women at the altar, providing insight into issues of gender, symbolism and power.

Winter 2005

Dream Season: A Professor Joins America 's Oldest Semi-Pro Football Team , by Associate Professor of English Robert Cowser Jr. (Grove/Atlantic, 2004)

“At the age of 30, Bob Cowser, Jr., is leading a happy life as a husband, father, and English professor at St. Lawrence University. But he misses the exhilaration he felt when he took the field for high school football games. In what is every Monday morning quarterback's fantasy, Cowser revisits his days as a football player by joining the Watertown Red and Black, the country's oldest semi-professional football team.” That's how the publishers of Dream Season describe the book by Bob Cowser, who ultimately quit the team to join the nearer-to-home St. Lawrence Valley Trailblazers, at the time the country's newest semi-professional football team. “Inviting us onto the line of scrimmage,” the publishers state, "Dream Season also takes us into the locker room of a fabled team. Witty, heartwarming, and written with the power and grace of a Hail Mary toss caught in the end zone, this remarkable story reminds us why we love the games we play.” Cowser’s well-received book (see “St. Lawrence in the News” in the print version of the Winter 2005 St. Lawrence Magazine) is a revealing, self-deprecating memoir that presents occasional glimpses of St. Lawrence University and an intertwined frank commentary on North Country culture. It’s also one participant’s inside look at the world of semi-professional football, where compelling dedication to the sport produces a willingness to endure long trips in cramped vans (on one trip to Montreal for a game, some team members were not allowed across the border because they had criminal records), injuries, and nearly empty bleachers for the retro glory of competing. An Academy of American Poets prizewinner on a team of cynical corrections officers, Fort Drum soldiers and assorted transients, “the professor” has to prove himself more than most, not only to his football teammates, but also to his faculty colleagues, not to mention a skeptical though grudgingly supportive wife. Cowser’s memoir shows how a person manages to operate in more than one world at a time.

Scraping By in the Big Eighties, by Associate Professor of English Natalia Rachel Singer ( University of Nebraska Press, 2004)  

If you're of a certain age, a feeling of déjà vu might come over you as you scan the nightly news. And if some of the themes have a familiar, vaguely-like-the-80's feel to them – and not in a good way – rest assured that it's not just you. In Scraping By in the Big Eighties Natalia Rachel Singer combines memoir with political commentary to make the point that “history is being revisited upon us" in a trickle-down phenomenon she dubs “déjà-voodoo.” The book is part of the American Lives series, edited by Tobias Wolff, and featuring books of literary nonfiction. “My book is dedicated to everyone who lived through the eighties convinced that the whole world had gone crazy,” Singer says, “and who are feeling a very uncomfortable déjà vu now. It's also dedicated to my students, who were born during the Reagan years and have never lived in the America I knew as a child, when, for all its flaws, the commitment to end poverty and injustice was a top-down mandate.” Ironically, the book came out very close to the time of Ronald Reagan’s death. Singer's plan, when she headed for Seattle in 1979, was to get laid off, go on unemployment, and become laid back. Meanwhile she would train herself to become a writer. “Rejecting the avid materialism of her generation and the violence of American culture,” the editors state, “she vowed to surround herself with natural beauty, steer clear of her mentally ill mother, and contribute nothing to the fluorescent-lit, acronym-ridden, anesthetizing military-industrial complex. “Her quest, which she hoped would bring her peace, safety, and creative fulfillment, actually put her increasingly in harm's way. It has, however, paid enormous dividends for readers who here have the perverse yet exquisite pleasure of following Singer's low-budget search for a bohemian haven during the last gasp of the Cold War. [Her] tortuous path, chronicled with self-deprecating wit and disconcerting candor, leads her to a duplex in Seattle, a Buddhist monastery in the Catskills, a ghost town on the Olympic Peninsula, a beach hut in Mexico, graduate school in western Massachusetts, and even a Left Bank convent, but it never frees her from her identity and obligations as an American, either at home or abroad. “Singer blends memoir with cultural history to critique Reaganomics, military buildups in the face of eroding social programs and growing national debt, the hypocrisy of so-called family values, and her own complicity in all of it,” the editors continue. “Scraping By in the Big Eighties is, more than anything, about taking politics personally. Lyrical, meditative, occasionally heartbreaking, and often darkly comic, this book about mistakes blithely made in decades past is still timely today.”

Occupied by Memory, by Assistant Professor of Global Studies John Collins (New York University Press, 2004)

This timely volume explores the memories of Palestinians in the “intifada generation,” those who were between 10 and 18 years old when the intifada began in 1987. Based on extensive personal interviews, “the book provides a detailed look at the intifada memories of ordinary Palestinians,” according to the publishers. These personal stories are presented as part of a complex and politically charged discursive field through which young Palestinians are invested with meaning by scholars, politicians, journalists and other observers. What emerges from their memories is a sense of a generation caught between a past that is simultaneously traumatic, empowering and exciting and a future that is perpetually uncertain. In this sense, Collins argues that understanding the stories and the struggles of the intifada generation is a key to understanding the ongoing state of emergency for the Palestinian people. The book will be of interest not only to scholars of the Middle East but also to those interested in nationalism, discourse analysis, social movements and oral history.