Professors make important contributions to their fields with recently published books
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Russian Hajj: Empire and the Pilgrimage to Mecca
by Eileen Kane, Associate Professor of modern European and Russian history
My book is about how Russia became a patron of the hajj—the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca—in the late nineteenth century. The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and a requirement for Muslims. The question that my book tries to answer is this: Why did Russia, officially a Christian state, come to sponsor a central Muslim ritual?
In fact, the Russian Empire was diverse, including Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim populations. By 1900, at its greatest extent as an empire, “Christian” Russia ruled more Muslims than the neighboring “Muslim” Ottoman Empire (20 million, compared to 14 million).
Most historians agree that Russia feared Islam—a decentralized, global religion—and tried to cut ties between its Muslim communities and the wider Islamic world. My book challenges this stark view. I show that in the case of the hajj, one of the great mass migrations of the modern era, Russia supported, and even reinvigorated, ties between its Muslims and the Islamic world. I argue that Russia saw the hajj not just as a liability, but also an opportunity to expand its global reach and integrate Muslims into the empire.
Islam has a long history in Europe that is little understood today. Muslims lived in Europe as early as the eighth century, yet many today think of Islam as alien to Europe and a recent foreign import, brought in through waves of immigration from former colonies after WWII. Russia, which today has 14 million Muslim citizens, has been ruling Muslims since the fifteenth century.
The history of Islam and Muslim communities in Europe is not simply conflict-driven, it cannot be reduced to immigration, and it encompasses a range of traditions and experiences. My book offers an entry point into this rich, long obscured history.
- Eileen Kane
We are in a moment of high hysteria about Islam. This comes from lack of understanding about Islam and Muslims beyond deadly terrorist attacks carried out by small numbers of people who claim to represent the faith. Many people today apparently think of Muslims as terrorists. Fear and lack of historical understanding fuel bigotry and negative stereotypes. There is a need to correct a lot. This goes for the average person, as well as scholars. I hope my book gives readers a deeper understanding of Islam and Muslim communities as part of the fabric of Russian and European history, going back centuries. The particular story I tell is one in which Russian officials disregarded fears about Islam and instead acted with optimism, tapping into the global network of the hajj as a means to expand Russia’s global presence, and in the hope of cultivating Muslim loyalties to Russia. I think this story has relevance for us today.
This book is available for purchase from Cornell University Press
Transforming the Doctor's Office: Principles from Evidence-based Design
by Ann Sloan Devlin, Sadowski Professor of Psychology
A visit to a doctor's office can stress out even the healthiest among us. And the design of the office can make it worse. Even locating an office for the first visit can be challenging, given the lack of adequate signage.
In her latest book, Devlin examines the ways in which physicians and those who design their offices can improve the outpatient experience. She follows the flow from parking lot to examination room, using research to illustrate the features — some as small as clothing hooks — that can make a difference in a patient’s state of mind and even state of health.
"As an environmental psychologist, one of my interests is the way in which we begin to make judgments about aspects of care, starting with the exterior appearance of a facility, in much the same way we do with people," Devlin said.
And her interest in art and architecture, coupled with a family background in health care, led her to focus on improving the experience of patients by focusing on the oft-overlooked designed environment. The research reported in the book reflects the current evidence-based design movement in health care, in which design decisions to improve healthcare outcomes are based on credible evidence.
"I wanted to look at how design issues for physicians' offices had changed over 100-plus years," said Devlin, who includes historical material about the office practice of physicians at the beginning of the 20th century that reveal design has been an issue for more than a century. These early practitioners were encouraged to work in rooms that were well-lighted, with windows on two walls - recommendations which Devlin notes foreshadowed the importance of natural light in today's medical facilities.
The book covers extensive territory, but when asked to identify major areas of concern, Devlin narrows them down to three: positive distraction, such as providing art and music to distract patients and help reduce anxiety; social support, which can include providing sufficient seating in exam rooms for relatives who accompany the patient; and perceived control, which entails providing ways for a patient to modify the environment through, for example, adjustable lighting in the waiting room.
"The presence of television - an element of positive distraction - is a contentious issue," said Devlin.
The research suggests that having television may increase anxiety because it is not controllable, but practitioners continue to think of television as a positive distraction. There are alternatives to television such as loops of nature images that are far more appropriate than is television, but practitioners often seem to choose an easy and familiar solution, i.e., television.
- Ann Sloan Devlin
The book has both practical advice and research support, but the research citations are provided through endnotes to avoid interrupting the text. While the book will be of assistance to health care designers and practitioners, "I think it would be interesting reading for a general audience and might help people evaluate whether the offices of their healthcare providers 'measure up.'" Devlin said.
This book is available for purchase on amazon.com
Women and Aging: An International, Intersectional Power Perspective
by Joan C. Chrisler, Class of '43 Professor of Psychology, Varda Muhlbauer and Florence L. Denmark
Gender inequality doesn't end at the wage gap or the division of household labor. Women also get the short shrift when it comes to research on aging.
Despite our growing numbers in the population, older women are understudied by behavioral science researchers, and there has been little interaction between women's studies and gerontology.
- Joan C. Chrisler
Her book, "Women and Aging," is a follow-up to "Women over 50: Psychological Perspectives," which Chrisler also co-edited with Muhlbauer, a senior lecturer in the Department of Management and Business Administration at the Academic College of Netanya, Israel. (Denmark is a pioneering social psychologist and past president of the American Psychological Association.) Both books address the fact that social, economic, medical and educational changes in Western countries have provided women considered "midlife" and "young-old" (ages 65-74) with a very different aging experience than that of their elders.
"Western women ages 50-74 have more social and economic power than ever before, and it is interesting to see how they are — or could be — using it," said Chrisler. "In the current book we show how these changes do not extend to low-income women in the West or to most women in lesser-developed countries. Some older women are working, traveling, building communities, running for political office, taking courses, engaging in hobbies and sports, and are in good health, whereas others are struggling to make ends meet or dealing with ill health and disability."
In commissioning chapters from faculty and students in the U.S. and Israel who are working in the fields of psychology, social work and economics, Chrisler and her co-editors instructed them to think internationally and cross-culturally. (Chrisler's chapter, "Older Women, Power, and the Body," was co-authored with Meaghan Rossini '13 and Jessica Newton, M.A. '14.) She hopes the information revealed in the new book inspires others to do further research so that psychotherapists, health care providers and public policy makers can address the very diverse needs of older women.
In 2013, Chrisler and Muhlbauer received the Florence L. Denmark Award for Contributions to Women and Aging from the Society for the Psychology of Women, a division of the American Psychological Association.
This book is available for purchase on springer.com
Illuminating Disease: An Introduction to Green Fluorescent Proteins
by Marc Zimmer, Tempel Professor of Chemistry
Zimmer doesn't downplay the underlying message of his latest book:
Fluorescent proteins are changing the world. This comes as no surprise to people working in medicine and the biological sciences, and yet it is exceedingly rare to read about fluorescent proteins in the popular press.
- Marc Zimmer
Hoping to advance the topic beyond the realm of science, Zimmer authored an accessible look at green fluorescent proteins (GFP), the jellyfish proteins that have become one of the most important tools available to researchers in modern medicine and biology. GFP are used to illuminate other proteins that were previously invisible even under a microscope, allowing scientists to observe facets of disease that would have otherwise gone undetected. They are used in over three million experiments a year and have proved invaluable for tasks such as tracking HIV, breeding bird flu-resistant chickens and confirming the existence of cancerous stem cells.
The richly illustrated "Illuminating Disease" is arranged by the types of diseases that can be impacted by GFP, a decision that came out of Zimmer's spring 2012 stint as an instructor in the University of Virginia's Semester at Sea onboard study abroad program. Before they would arriving at a particular port, he Zimmer would teach about a disease indigenous to that locale: For example, before the trip to Ghana, the topic was malaria; for India, it was dengue fever; and for South Africa, it was HIV/AIDS.
Zimmer's desire to make the topic accessible also dictated the writing style in "Illuminating Disease," which avoids a purely academic tone in favor of one that's comprehensible to a wider audience.
This book is available for purchase on amazon.com
Saving the World's Deciduous Forests
by Robert A. Askins, Blunt Professor of Biology
Askins' new book is about the challenges faced by deciduous forests on three different continents - East Asia, Europe and North America. Such forests have been remarkably resilient throughout their history, recovering from major shifts in climate and surviving periods of massive deforestation. But today, the world's great forests confront more ominous threats than ever before.
Among many topics, Askins discusses the wildlife, both native and introduced, that are alternately destroying and preserving deciduous forests. White-tailed deer, for example, face fewer predators than ever before and are growing fat on young deciduous trees. On a more hopeful note, Askins examines what conservation efforts are working in places like England and Japan, and how they can be applied to preserve the forests that are such a part of Connecticut's character.
I was surprised at the similarity of conservation problems on the three continents, and by how differently conservationists have responded to these problems. The North American, European, and Japanese approaches to conservation are all effective in sustaining some species but not others, and an ideal conservation strategy would combine these apparently disparate approaches.
- Robert A. Askins
This book is available for purchase on amazon.com
The Second Daughter
by Andrew Pessin, Professor of Philosophy
Writing under the pen name J. Jeffrey, Pessin self-published "The Second Daughter" in 2012. The novel garnered positive reviews, including Honorable Mention at the New England Book Festival, and has been re-issued by California-based publishing house Winter Goose.
It's exciting to have the third-party confirmation of the quality of the book - sort of comparable to 'peer review' in academic contexts - and of course, a goal is always to reach as many people as possible, so there's hope that the publisher will have a greater marketing reach than I had on my own.
- Andrew Pessin
The book follows the complex dynamics of a changing family, the mother, daughters, sisters and the father who both divides and unifies them. It's a storyline full of secrets, lies, heartbreaks and betrayals, with an ending that will leave readers to ponder the eccentric but beautiful and humorous love story.
This book is available for purchase on amazon.com
A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
by Lisa Wilson, MacCurdy Professor of American History
In "A History of Stepfamilies in Early America," Wilson argues with the modern notion that stepfamilies are the unique burden of the present. They were, in fact, quite common in the historical past.
"About 42 percent of people today say they have step-relations of some kind, according to a recent survey," Wilson said. "The culprit in the past was death, not divorce, but stepfamilies were equally common."
In her book, she examines the stereotypes and realities of colonial stepfamilies and reveals them to be important factors in early United States domestic history. Remarriage was a necessity in the era, when war and disease took a heavy toll, and cultural views of — even prejudice against — stepfamilies placed great strain on stepmothers and stepfathers. They were seen either as unfit substitutes or potentially unstable influences, and nowhere were these concerns stronger than in white, middle-class families, for whom stepparents presented a paradox.
In the end, Wilson offers a new way of looking at family units throughout history and the cultural stereotypes that still affect stepfamilies today.
I hope scholars and others can start to see these modern families as traditional American families. As we rethink what makes a family today, maybe we can put aside the idea of stepfamilies as the opposite of 'intact' families or somehow the remnants of a 'broken' family. They are families that existed prior to the increased divorced rates of today - they are not a pathology of the 21st century. They are legitimate families that deserve better treatment and inclusion in the historical narrative of America.
- Lisa Wilson
This book is available for purchase from the University of North Carolina Press
Against Authenticity: Why You Shouldn't Be Yourself
by Simon Feldman, Associate Professor of Philosophy
There's no big twist at the conclusion of Feldman's book "Against Authenticity." In fact, he gives it away right in the subhead. Yet it may shock some readers, given the pervasiveness of the maxim "be true to yourself."
In his work as a philosopher, Feldman investigates questions that lie at the intersection of moral psychology and ethics: What does it mean to know yourself? Do we always know ourselves best? Why do we sometimes do things that we know are wrong? Are there any standards that we have to live up to, other than our own? What does it mean to be a rational person?
"It struck me, as I thought and taught about these questions over recent years, that unless we have good answers to them, the ideal of being true to ourselves makes little sense," Feldman explained. "And I don't think we do have good answers to most of these questions."
The explorations in 'Against Authenticity' take the reader through these questions and lead to the surprising conclusion that the idea of being true to yourself, though appealing, is mostly empty and often pernicious.
- Simon Feldman
Rather than applying arcane philosophical methodology to those situations, he bases his arguments on simple common sense.
"But one of the things I love most about philosophy is that common sense can sometimes lead us away from ideas that many find commonsensical," he said. "This, I think, is precisely the case with the idea of authenticity. I propose that in order to live a good life, we should be thinking less about what it means to be 'us' and more about the things out in the world that we take to have value; the nature of right and wrong; what principles ought to govern our treatment of others."
Positive Couple Therapy: Using We-Stories to Enhance Resilience
by Jefferson A. Singer, Faulk Foundation Professor of Psychology, and Karen Skerrett
When relationships hit rough patches, shared positive memories of compassion and resilience, or "we-stories," can become touchstones for rebuilding intimacy and strengthening bonds, according to Singer.
In "Positive Couple Therapy: Using We-Stories to Enhance Resilience," Singer and his co-author examine the power of stories to mend struggling relationships. Singer, a clinical psychologist and the Faulk Foundation Professor of Psychology at Connecticut College, teams with Skerrett, a licensed clinical psychologist and faculty member at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, in examining the effectiveness of such stories in all types of relationships, from LGBT partnerships to husbands and wives reunited after military deployments.
In each case, they found couples could learn to focus on moments of mutuality and caring in their past together, then use those positive memories to turn the focus from their individual needs to the needs of the relationship. In the book, the authors utilize a strength-focused approach to teach couples and therapists these unique methods for improving relationships.
Jefferson Singer and Karen Skerrett have done a great favor for couples and couples therapists. Our whole society needs a lot less focus on 'me' and a lot more emphasis on 'we.'
- Gene Combs, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine
Based on the concepts discussed in the book, Singer recently wrote in a blog post for Psychology Today about the seven elements of "we" in a relationship.
US Foreign Policy Decision-Making from Truman to Kennedy: Responses to International Challenges and US Foreign Policy Decision-Making from Kennedy to Obama: Responses to International Challenges
by Alex Hybel, Lynch Professor of Government and International Relations
Since the end of World War II, American presidents have been faced with numerous crises that have tested their leadership and shaped their legacies. In his new books, Hybel extensively analyzes foreign policy decisions of multiple presidencies. Several undergraduate students contributed to the volumes by co-writing chapters with Hybel.
The books, "US Foreign Policy Decision-Making from Truman to Kennedy: Responses to International Challenges" and "US Foreign Policy Decision-Making from Kennedy to Obama: Responses to International Challenges," focus specifically on key decisions made during times of international conflict or war.
The comprehensive titles cover more than 60 years of foreign policy, examining closely the challenges that were presented to each president, from the Cold War through the ongoing strife in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Bodies Without Borders and Global Beauty, Local Bodies
by Afshan Jafar, Associate Professor of Sociology, and Erynn Masi de Casanova
"Bodies without Borders" comprises original empirical research and personal reflections on a range of migrating body practices and ideals that stretch across national boundaries, including Zumba fitness classes, martial arts in Thailand, fashion blogs in Malaysia and Singapore, and the meanings of tattooing and body modification, among others.
"Global Beauty, Local Bodies" is also a collection of scholarly work and first-person accounts, these taking globalization processes and the transnational links these processes create as the jumping-off point for an examination of what it means to be, have or aspire to a beautiful body. The chapters address media depictions of Nordic metrosexual athletes; prostitutes working at the U.S./Mexico border; beauty ideals among Somali migrants to Kenya; Nigerian beauty pageants, and the popularity of nose jobs among Iranian women, among other timely and understudied topics.
Both of these books show that globalization is experienced and embodied in particular ways, in specific locations. Thus, just as our understanding of the local is incomplete without an examination of the global, we must never lose sight of the local in our examination of the global. In a departure from previous studies, the research compiled in both the books takes as its starting point the intersection of bodies and globalization.
- Afshan Jafar
Uncommon Sense: The Strangest Ideas from the Smartest Philosophers
by Andrew Pessin, Professor of Philosophy
In "Uncommon Sense: The Strangest Ideas from the Smartest Philosophers," Pessin explores some seemingly outlandish theories — among them, time is an illusion and the physical world only exists in your head — posited by some of the greatest philosophical minds in history, including Plato, Aristotle, René Descartes, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Friedrich Nietzsche. Pessin examines some of their most unusual ideas, how they have influenced the course of Western thought and why, despite being so odd, they just might be correct.
These aren't just the random spoutings of madmen. Their conclusions might be very counter-intuitive, but they were reached by means of careful reasoning, and there's a lot to be learned not just from these philosophers' strange ideas but also from the arguments they used to defend them.
- Andrew Pessin
The book was included in 2013 the list of Outstanding Academic Titles compiled by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, a publication of the American Library Association. When reviewing eligible titles, editors at Choice look for overall excellence in presentation and scholarship; importance relative to other literature in the field; distinction as a first treatment of a given subject in book or electronic form; originality or uniqueness of treatment; value to undergraduate students; and importance in building undergraduate library collections.
The Quest for the Golden Trout: Environmental Loss and America's Iconic Fish
by Douglas M. Thompson, Professor of Geology
Longtime efforts by private individuals, fishing clubs and federal and state agencies to improve the experience of trout-fishing on our nation's rivers are actually causing great harm, according to Thompson's "The Quest for the Golden Trout: Environmental Loss and America's Iconic Fish."
In the book, Thompson takes a look at the damaging effects of stocking rivers with hatchery-raised trout, eliminating natural predators, and employing engineered devices designed to improve on nature. These practices not only hurt the ecosystem, they also create a false environment that's antithetical to a pristine, pastoral pastime.
Artificialness is not in keeping with the philosophy of trout fishing. I want people to be aware of the history of 'trout fisheries management' and to remove the fallacy that they're connecting with nature.
- Douglas M. Thompson
The Poetic Character of Human Activity
by Wendell John Coats, Jr., Professor of Government, and Chor-Yung Cheung
In "The Poetic Character of Human Activity," Coats and his co-author explore the work of 20th-century political philosopher Michael Oakeshott.
The book's title is a phrase Oakeshott used in his critique of modern rationalism. It refers to his view that all human experience - including both thought and action - arises creatively, or poetically. In this series of essays, Coats and Cheung, a political theorist and dean of students at City University of Hong Kong, apply the phrase to Oakeshott's body of work and draw comparisons between his theories and those of Taoist thinker Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), among others.
Reason and Revelation Before Historicism: Strauss and Fackenheim
by Sharon Portnoff, Associate Professor of Religious Studies
"Reason and Revelation Before Historicism: Strauss and Fackenheim" is the first full-length comparison of two German-born Jewish philosophers: the theologian Emil Fackenheim and the political philosopher Leo Strauss, both of whom sought to define standards of morality in a post-Holocaust world.
Portnoff traces the tension between the concept of natural law, which can be discovered through thought and reason, and revelatory theology, which holds that truth is revealed to humanity by God. According to Portnoff, Fackenheim was strongly influenced by Strauss and "devoted his intellectual life to the question - raised by Strauss - whether it was possible for belief in revelation to survive within the context of modern thought."
Embodying Latino Masculinities
by Jennifer Rudolph, Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies
In her book "Embodying Latino Masculinities," Rudolph provides an in-depth analysis of six case studies in order to examine Latino manhood and representations of masculinity in theater, literature, media, music and sports.
One case study considers the public persona of Major League Baseball player Manny Ramirez, while others explore gang life, prison experiences, literature by Latino authors, a performance piece by an all-Latina women's theater group, and the experience of reggaeton musician Don Omar. According to Rudolph, the book pushes the reader to consider "to what extent is developing these representations empowering and to what extent are they a detriment? And how do we negotiate the two?"
Diatoms of North America: The Freshwater Flora of Waterbodies on the Atlantic Coastal Plain
by Peter Siver, Becker Professor of Botany, and Paul Hamilton
Siver won the 2013 Gerald Prescott Award from the Phycological Society of America (PSA) for his book "Diatoms of North America: The Freshwater Flora of Waterbodies on the Atlantic Coastal Plain," co-authored with Hamilton, a senior research assistant at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
The book, part of a series about diatoms - or photosynthesizing algae - in North America, includes a large catalog of the microorganisms that Siver and his team found in Carolina Bays, shallow crater-like depressions scattered along the Atlantic coast. They were the first to study the diatom flora in those areas. The book also includes 2,331 photographs of diatoms, all of which were taken in Connecticut College labs.
August 24, 2016
