Faculty authors share knowledge, perspectives beyond PC
From chronicling human rights movements in Latin America following the Cold War to detailing the process of child adoption in Eastern Europe, members of the Providence College academic community have made diverse academic and literary contributions that have extended far beyond the campus’s gates.
The following roundup of recent works authored or co-authored by 11 Providence College faculty members demonstrates the scholarship and creativity that these authors bring to their classrooms.
Dr. Douglas W. Blum, professor of political science, wrote National Identity and Globalization: Youth, State and Society in Post-Soviet Eurasia (Cambridge University Press, 2007). The focus of the 225-page book is the social process of constructing national youth identity in the former Soviet Union, Blum said.
“I look at the way in which young people’s self-understandings, as individuals and as citizens of the nation-state, are strategically shaped in the course of controlled activities deemed ‘healthy’ and ‘proper’ for them,” Blum explained. He arrived at the book’s topic, he said, by following his curiosity about how cultural globalization would affect the states of the former Soviet Union.
“The result is a surprisingly high level of collaboration between state and non-state actors, as they struggle to socialize young people to be at once modern entrepreneurs, members of a traditionally defined culture, loyal citizens of the state, and sophisticated agents able to interface with the world,” Blum stated.
In addition to National Identity and Globalization, Blum is currently completing an edited manuscript, Russia and Globalization: Identity, Security and Society in an Era of Change, which is scheduled to be published in spring 2008.
Rev. Edward L. Cleary, O.P., professor of political science, penned his 10th book, Mobilizing for Human Rights in Latin America (Kumarian Press, 2007). The 224-page work is a follow-up to Father Cleary’s widely read The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America (Kumarian Press, 1997).
In Mobilizing for Human Rights in Latin America, Father Cleary recounts some of the grassroots human rights movements of the past two decades in that region. “Human rights became a major issue when militaries took over in many Latin American countries during the Cold War years,” he explained. “There was an indiscriminate attempt to root out anyone who disagreed with the government at that time.”
In addition to Mobilizing for Human Rights in Latin America and The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America, his other books have focused on religion and politics, mostly in that part of the world. He is currently writing another book about how the Church has thrived in Latin America.
Dr. Anthony M. Esolen, professor of English, wrote Ironies of Faith: The Laughter at the Heart of Christian Literature (ISI Press, 2007). The 350-page work—dedicated to his late colleague, Dr. Rodney K. Delasanta—deals with the ironies and paradoxes of the Christian faith as they appear in the writings of St. Augustine, Dante, John Milton, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and others.
“The topic of irony has always interested me,” said Esolen, who noted that ironies that “turn the world’s expectations upside down” were of particular interest to him, such as “that the weak shall overcome the mighty” and “the last shall be first.”
In addition to Ironies of Faith, Esolen served as editor and translator for the Random House edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy in three volumes (Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise), as well as for Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things (Johns Hopkins, 1995) andTorquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered (1995). He also published a volume of poetry called Peppers (1992) and serves as an editor of Touchstone magazine.
Esolen’s upcoming works include The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization, to be published in 2008, and a translation of 105 Psalms from the Vulgate Latin.
Dr. Juan Carlos Flores, associate professor of philosophy, co-wrote the 389-page Historical Dictionary of Medieval Philosophy and Theology (Scarecrow Press, 2007) with Stephen F. Brown, Boston College professor of theology.
Part of the series Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements, the book examines the influence of ancient Greek philosophy--as well as the Arabian and Hebrew scholars who transmitted it. It presents the philosophy of the Christian West from the 9th to 17th centuries through entries on philosophers, concepts, issues, institutions, and events, Flores said.
“This book is very wide-ranging. I learned a lot about different aspects of the medieval period and about philosophy and theology in general,” he said.
This is Flores' second book; his first was Henry of Ghent: Metaphysics and the Trinity (Leuven University Press, 2006).
Dr. Thomas J. Guilmette, professor of psychology, was one of six authors to co-write Traumatic Brain Injury: Evaluation and Litigation 2006 Edition (LexisNexis, 2006). The volume is an update of a 1994 book, of which Guilmette was one of three authors. Along with Guilmette, the revised version was written by law and medical professionals who specialize in brain injuries.
“It’s meant to inform lawyers, so they can bring cases to trial or defend against them,” explained Guilmette, who is the first neuropsychologist in Rhode Island to be board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology and the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology.
He added that he got involved with the project because he saw a need to educate others on the medical, psychological, and neurobehavioral aspects of brain injury. “I think it outlines, pretty well, the major issues in terms of effects of brain injury and legal ramifications,” he said.
Guilmette also wrote the Pocket Guide to Brain Injury, Cognitive, and Neurobehavioral Rehabilitation (Singular Publishing Company, 1994), has contributed five chapters to various books, and has had more than 40 articles published in various scientific journals.
Dr. Peter M. Johnson, professor of English, penned his first novel, What Happened (Front Street Press, March 2007). A 136-page book geared toward young adults, it is a coming-of-age story told through the eyes of a 16-year-old boy.
Accustomed to writing books of poetry, Johnson said shifting from poetry to fiction writing required developing a deeper connection with the narrator of his piece. “For the novel, I needed a big block of time. I had to inhabit this narrator, plug into his obsessions, then hang on for the ride,” he said.
In addition to What Happened, Johnson’s book of prose poetry, Eduardo & I (White Pine Press), was published in spring 2006. His book of poetry, Miracles and Mortifications (White Pine Press, 2001), was awarded the James Laughlin Award in 2001.
Johnson is also the editor of The Best of the Prose Poem: An International Journal (White Pine Press, 2000) and a contributing editor to American Poetry Review, Web del Sol, and Slope.
Dr. Robert I. Krasner, professor of biology, wrote 20th Century Microbe Hunters: Their Lives, Accomplishments, and Legacies (Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2007). The 200-page book reveals the excitement, diligence, and sacrifices of 10 eminent researchers whose discoveries changed the world in their pursuit of microbes.
Among the scientists Krasner interviewed while researching the book were Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, in Paris; Peter Salk, son of Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif.; Kevin Brown, curator of the Fleming Museum at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, England; and Donald Hopkins of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga. Hopkins oversees the center’s Guinea worm eradication unit.
Krasner also spent time at the London School of Hygiene and Medicine gathering information about selected microbe hunters.
In addition to 20th Century Microbe Hunters, Krasner wrote the Microbial Challenge: Human-Microbe Interactions (ASM Press, 2002). He is also an associate editor of volumes I and II of The Science of Biotechnology: Theory and Technologies (Jones and Bartlett, 1995).
Dr. Josephine A. Ruggiero, professor of sociology, wrote Eastern European Adoption: Policies, Practice, and Strategies for Change (Aldine-Transaction, 2007). Intended as a resource for policymakers, practitioners, health professionals who work with adoptive families, and people interested in adopting children from Eastern Europe , Ruggiero’s book highlights and provides critiques of current adoption policies and practices.
In writing the 238-page book, Ruggiero drew on data from a questionnaire survey she designed and conducte d with 121 adoptive parents. She also worked on demographic analyses of international adoption statistics obtained from the federal government and drew on her personal experience as an adoptive parent of three siblings born in Russia , now all teenagers.
Ruggiero’s book--focused primarily on the adoption of siblings and older children-- suggests changes that she believes need to be made to make the adoption process run smoother for older adopted children and the people who adopt them.
This is Ruggiero’s second book. In addition to dozens of journal articles and other published pieces, she wrote Thinking Sociologically: A Critical Thinking Activities Manual (Prentice Hall, 1990; second edition: 1999).
Dr. Raphael Shargel, associate professor of English, compiled his first book, Ingmar Bergman: Interviews (University of Mississippi Press , 2007). The 200-page book is the culmination of a lifelong interest in the legendary Swedish movie director and film, Shargel said.
Interviews is a collection of previously published interviews, with an introduction, chronology, and filmography written by Shargel. Although Bergman wrote two autobiographies in the latter part of his life—one personal and one professional—Shargel noted that those works “capture him attempting to control his legacy at a particular moment in time.”
“What’s fascinating about reading a series of interviews conducte d over a period of 45 years is that we can both follow the artist as he creates his legacy and as he interacts with the very different types of interviewers, each of whom . . . perceives a very different Bergman,” Shargel said. Interviews by James Baldwin, Michiko Kakutani, John Simon, and Vilgot Sjoman are just a few of those included.
Dr. Michael D. Spiegler, professor of psychology, co-edited and co-authored a 667-page textbook entitled Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World (Houghton Mifflin/Lahaska, 2008). Spiegler and co-author Dr. Jon Frew, professor of psychology at Pacific University, recruited the foremost therapists in each of the major forms of psychotherapy to write about the current state of their approach.
The premise of the book, he explained, is that “given the dramatic shift in the demographics of psychotherapy clients in the United States, traditional psychotherapies must and can adapt to meet the needs of the increasingly diversified clients who are, and will continue to be in the future, seeking treatment.
In addition to extensive editing of the entire book, Spiegler wrote two chapters and co-authored a third. Besides Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World, Spiegler is the author of Contemporary Behavioral Therapy (Mayfield, 1982) and co-author of Contemporary Behavior Therapy (Wadsworth, 4th ed., 2003). He also co-authored Personality: Strategies and Issues (Wadsworth, 8th ed., 1998) and The Community Training Center: An Educational Behavioral Social Systems Approach to Rehabilitating Psychiatric Patients (Brunner/Mazel, 1977).
Dr. Tuire Valkeakari, assistant professor of English, authored Religious Idiom and the African American Novel, 1952-1998 (University Press of Florida, June 2007). The 272-page scholarly monograph delves into late-twentieth-century African-American novelists’ play with Christian idiom and imagery.
The book’s historical introduction demonstrates how African-American writers have, over the centuries, evoked and manipulated Christian discourse for a number of purposes, such as social analysis and protest, secular and spiritual reflection, and the enrichment of artistic expression. Valkeakari’s discussion of the late 20th century draws on novels by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Leon Forrest, Ernest Gaines, and John Edgar Wideman, among others.
Valkeakari has also authored several articles on American literature for Studies in American Fiction, Crossings, and Atlantis, among other publications, and is also a frequent contributor of academic reviews to American Studies in Scandinavia. She is currently working on a book that explores literary renditions of the social, cultural, and psychological consequences that involuntary and voluntary migrations have had for black communities and individuals in North America, the Caribbean, and Great Britain.