IWU Authors Bookshelf

The Illinois Wesleyan University Authors Bookshelf collection represents the breadth of research and scholarship produced by faculty from nearly all departments, programs and schools on campus.

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Thunder in the Soul: To Be Known By God

Robert Erlewine

The book explores the life and philosophy the great American rabbi and civil rights leader Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Medicare and Medicaid: A Reference Handbook

Greg Shaw

Professor of Political Science Greg Shaw takes on the behemoth question of how to pay for healthcare in the United States in a new book titled Medicare and Medicaid: A Reference Handbook (ABC-CLIO, Contemporary World Issues). Shaw charts the history of Medicare and Medicaid since 1965, examining strengths, shortcomings and major controversies at an introductory level targeted at high school and college students, as well as the general public.
Hans Christian Andersen in Russia

Marina Balina, Mads Sohl Jessen, Ben Hellman, and Johs. Nørregaard Frandsen

From Amazon: Hans Christian Andersen’s longstanding canonical status among his Russian readers is owed specifically to his fairy tales. For the nearly two centuries of their presence in Russian culture, these stories have become an organic part of the cultural memory of generations of readers, his texts constituting a particular cultural code that is employed in various artistic fields. The scholars involved in the “Andersen in Russia” project, whose works are published here, aimed to analyze the cultural code of Russian Anderseniana. They have explored specifically the legacy of Andersen’s fairy tales, which has influenced the most diverse spheres of Russian culture: literature, literary criticism, music, film, theater, various media forms, and the art of illustration.
Decoding Dogs: Inside the Canine Mind

Ellen Furlong

Read by the author, this audiobook takes listeners on a deep dive into the minds of dogs. As listeners learn about the canine brain, they also gain a deeper understanding of canine feelings and thoughts.

Part of the Great Courses series from audible.com
Hindu Kingship Rituals: Power Relation and Historical Evolution

Nawaraj Chaulagain

In recent decades, Nepal has witnessed a dramatic shift from its ancient form of Hindu kingship to a federal republican democratic secular order, with the official dissolution of monarchy in 2008. This study deals with the religious lives of the Śāh kings of Nepal, concentrating on such major rituals as the “coronation” (rājyābhiṣeka) and the autumnal navarātri (Goddess-centered) festival. This study unravels how religion and politics were deeply intertwined in the ritual activities, and how the rituals, in their traditional deeply religious and devotional settings, exerted a maximum of socio-political powers for the king and his institutions.
Mathematical Physics in Theoretical Chemistry

James House and S. M. Blinder

Mathematical Physics in Theoretical Chemistry deals with important topics in theoretical and computational chemistry. Topics covered include density functional theory, computational methods in biological chemistry, and Hartree-Fock methods. As the second volume in the Developments in Physical & Theoretical Chemistry series, this volume further highlights the major advances and developments in research, also serving as a basis for advanced study.
The 100 Greatest Literary Characters

James Plath, Gail Sinclair, and Kirk Curnutt

In The 100 Greatest Literary Characters, James Plath, Gail Sinclair, and Kirk Curnutt identify the most significant figures in fiction published over the past several centuries. The characters profiled here represent a wide array of storytelling, and the authors explore the significance of the figures at the time they were created as well as their relevance today. Included in this volume are characters from literature produced around the world, such as Aladdin, James Bond, Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, Hercule Poirot, Don Quixote, Lisbeth Salander, Ebenezer Scrooge, Jean Valjean, and John Yossarian.
A Critical Companion to English Mappae Mundi of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

Dan Terkla and Nick Millea

This volume provides a comprehensive Companion to the seven most significant English mappae mundi. It begins with a survey of the maps' materials, types, shapes, sources, contents, conventions, idiosyncrasies, commissioners and users, moving on to locate the maps' creation and use in the realms of medieval rhetoric, Victorine memory theory and clerical pedagogy. It also establishes the shared history of map and book making, and demonstrates how pre-and post-Conquest monastic libraries in Britain fostered and fed their complementary relationship. A chapter is then devoted to each individual map. An annotated bibliography of multilingual resources completes the volume.
Keats's Negative Capability: New Origins and Afterlives

Michael Theune and Brian Rejack

In late December 1817, when attempting to name "what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature," John Keats coined the term "negative capability," which he glossed as "being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason." Since then negative capability has continued to shape assessments of and responses to Keats's work, while also surfacing in other contexts ranging from contemporary poetry to punk rock. The essays collected in this volume, taken as a whole, account for some of the history of negative capability, and propose new models and directions for its future in scholarly and popular discourse.

From Amazon.com
Colorblind Racism

Meghan Burke

From the publisher:

Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches and real-life examples, Meghan Burke reveals colorblind racism to be an insidious presence in many areas of institutional and everyday life in the United States. She explains what is meant by colorblind racism, uncovers its role in the history of racial discrimination, and explores its effects on how we talk about and treat race today. The book also engages with recent critiques of colorblind racism to show the limitations of this framework and how a deeper, more careful study of colorblindness is needed to understand the persistence of racism and how it may be challenged.
Physical Chemistry of Gas-Liquid Interfaces

James House and Jennifer Faust

Physical Chemistry of Gas-Liquid Interfaces, the first volume in the Developments in Physical & Theoretical Chemistry series, addresses the physical chemistry of gas transport and reactions across liquid surfaces. Gas–liquid interfaces are all around us, especially within atmospheric systems such as sea spry aerosols, cloud droplets, and the surface of the ocean. Because the reaction environment at liquid surfaces is completely unlike bulk gas or bulk liquid, chemists must readjust their conceptual framework when entering this field. This book provides the necessary background in thermodynamics and computational and experimental techniques for scientists to obtain a thorough understanding of the physical chemistry of liquid surfaces in complex, real-world environments.
Affect Theory and Comparative Education Discourse: Essays on Fear and Loathing in Response to Global Educational Policy and Practice

Irving Epstein

What does educational policy-making and institutional practice entail in an era of globalization? Global interactions challenge conventional assumptions governing the certainty of geographical boundedness; simplistic notions of citizenship and identity; fixed notions of time, space and movement, and clear distinctions between economic modes of production and consumption.

Irving Epstein argues that conventional educational institutions and the policies that support them tend to ignore such anxiety by affirming a belief in educational modernism to the exclusion of other possibilities. What is missing in most of these analyses is an appreciation for the role of affect in determining how our encounters with these practices become significant and how our efforts to find meaning in those policies and practices lead to their acceptance or rejection.

This book is the first application of affect theory to comparative education themes and shows how it can help to form a more robust discussion of the policy-making process and the popular reactions to it. After discussing the key concepts associated with affect theory, he presents a total of six case studies. Three of the cases depict relationships between educational, cultural, and social organizations whose purposes conflict with one another but whose presence is indicative of a loss of faith in the efficacy of public schooling. Three of the cases are illustrative of an even greater systematic rejection of educational institutional aim and purpose.
Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories about Faith and Politics

Todd N. Fuist, Ruth Braunstein, and Rhys H. Williams

The authors have compiled a series of 15 chapters following the work of liberal religious groups and movements, and the unique challenges they face in spreading messages that straddle the preconceived gap between the right and left when it comes to religion.
Undergraduate Research and the Academic Librarian: Case Studies and Best Practices

Merinda Kaye Hensley and Stephanie Davis-Kahl

Undergraduate research is often conflated with standard end-of-semester research papers, featuring APA style bibliographies and a certain number of sources. But in fact, undergraduate research is one of several high-impact educational practices identified by George Kuh and the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and is increasingly seen as a vital part of the undergraduate experience. Research helps students connect the dots between their interests, general education courses, writing requirements, and major coursework, and increases learning, retention, enrollment in graduate education, and engagement in future work.

In 25 chapters featuring 60 expert contributors, Undergraduate Research and the Academic Librarian examines how the structures that undergird undergraduate research, such as the library, can become part of the core infrastructure of the undergraduate experience. It explores the strategic new services and cross-departmental collaborations academic libraries are creating to support research: publishing services, such as institutional repositories and undergraduate research journals; data services; copyright services; poster printing and design; specialized space; digital scholarship services; awards; and much more. These programs can be from any discipline, can be interdisciplinary, can be any high-impact format, and can reflect upon an institution’s own history, traditions, and tensions.

As higher education becomes more competitive—for dollars, for students, for grant money, for resources in general—institutions will need to increase their development of programs that provide the experiential and deep learning, and increased engagement, that research provides. The scholarly and extracurricular experiences of college are increasingly becoming a major part of marketing college education. Beyond the one-shot, beyond course-integrated instruction, Undergraduate Research and the Academic Librarian is a detailed guide to how librarians can help students go beyond a foundation of information literacy toward advanced research and information management skills.

This book is available as an Open Access Edition.
Self, Other, and Context in Early Modern Spain : Studies in Honor of Howard Mancing

Carolyn A. Nadeau, Isabel Jaén, and Julien Jacques Simon

From Amazon.com:

This collection of articles from an all-star cast of Hispanists is divided into three sections: I. Cognitive Literary Studies, II. The Human Body and the Mind, and III. Author and Protagonist: Inside the Mind of a Genius. This volume, in honor of Howard Mancing, is number 49 in Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monograph's Homenaje series.
Everything Shapes Itself to the Sea

James Plath

A collection of poetry inspired by the author's time living and working in the Caribbean during 1995.
The Dysfunctional Politics of the Affordable Care Act

Greg Shaw

In The Dysfunctional Politics of the Affordable Care Act, Professor Greg Shaw examines the Affordable Care Act, and offers a new understanding of lawmakers’ motivations in crafting the legislation. The book also provides suggestions on how to improve dialogue as our society grapples with issues surrounding health care costs, quality and access.
We Need to Talk: A New Method for Evaluating Poetry

Michael Theune and Bob Broad

The authors introduce a new method for evaluating poetry. We Need to Talk: A New Method for Evaluating Poetry aims to answer the question of how people judge the success of poetic verse, and suggests why and how people who care about poetry should communally explore and document their shared and conflicting values.
Reading and Writing About Literature

Joanne Diaz and Janet E. Gardner

Reading and Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide is an ideal supplement for writing courses where literature anthologies and individual literary works that lack writing instruction are assigned. This brief guide introduces strategies for reading literature, explains the writing process and common writing assignments for literature courses, provides instruction in writing about fiction, poetry, and drama, and includes coverage of writing a research paper as well as sections on literary criticism and theory.

From Amazon
Judaism and the West

Robert Erlewine

From Indiana University Press:

Grappling with the place of Jewish philosophy at the margin of religious studies, Robert Erlewine examines the work of five Jewish philosophers—Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Joseph Soloveitchik—to bring them into dialogue within the discipline. Emphasizing the tenuous place of Jews in European, and particularly German, culture, Erlewine unapologetically contextualizes Jewish philosophy as part of the West. He teases out the antagonistic and overlapping attempts of Jewish thinkers to elucidate the philosophical and cultural meaning of Judaism when others sought to deny and even expel Jewish influences. By reading the canon of Jewish philosophy in this new light, Erlewine offers insight into how Jewish thinkers used religion to assert their individuality and modernity.
Critical Insights: Casablanca

James Plath

From Salem Press:

Considered one of the greatest films of the twentieth century, Casablanca earned three Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and instant critical and commercial success following its release in 1942. Directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, this romantic drama is still hailed for its all-star cast, exceptional screenwriting, and memorable soundtrack, and continues to be ranked as one of the greatest motion pictures ever made.
John Updike's Pennsylvania Interviews

James Plath

Updike wrote about his home town of Shillington in Berks County, Pennsylvania for much of his adult life, setting most of his early fiction and all of his award-winning novels in his home state. In John Updike's Pennsylvania Interviews, James Plath has compiled the first collection of interviews that illustrates and helps to explain the bond between one of America's greatest literary talents and his beloved Pennsylvania.
Race, Gender, and Class in the Tea Party: What the Movement Reflects about Mainstream Ideologies

Megan Burke

It has been all too tempting to characterize the Tea Party as an irrational, racist, astro-turf movement composed of members who are working to subvert their own economic interests. Race, Gender, and Class in the Tea Party reveals a much messier and much more fascinating analysis of this movement. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with organizers and fieldwork at conservative campaign trainings and conventions, its rich ethnographic data explores how the active folks in this movement, specifically organizers in one Midwestern state, understand their world, and how they act on that basis to change it. As this book will reveal, most Tea Party organizers do depend on deeply flawed understandings of race and class –either believing wholeheartedly in myths, or confining their analyses to the narrow limits of the conservative media system. Yet, Tea Party racism is simply American racism. Race, Gender, and Class in the Tea Party reveals the complexities and contradictions inherent in this movement, where organizers attempt to reconcile their personal experiences with their conservative politics. In the end, these dynamics reveal as much about us as it does about the Tea Party. It is certain to challenge all of our politics, and especially our scholarly thinking, about the movement, and offers a path toward real conversations about our collective future in the United States.

From Amazon.com
The Whole World is Texting: Youth Protest in the Information Age

Irving Epstein

The authors of this volume address multiple questions involving the nature of youth protest in the twenty-first century. Through their use of a case study approach, they comment upon the ways in which youth protest has been influenced by the electronic and social media and evaluate the effectiveness of protest activities, many of which were framed in reaction to neo-liberalism and state authoritarianism. A number of the authors further comment upon the utility of employing social movement theory to analyze the nature and character of protest actions, while others situate such events within specific political, social and cultural contexts. The case studies focus upon protest activities in Bahrain, Turkey, Iran, Cambodia, South Africa, China, Russia, Chile, Spain, and the U.S., and together, they offer a comparative analysis of an important global phenomenon. In so doing, the authors further address issues involving the changing nature of globalized protest participation, its immediate and long-term consequences, and the ways in which protests have encouraged a re-evaluation of the nature of inequality, as constructed within educational, social, and political spheres.

From Amazon.com
Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry, Third Edition

James E. House and Kathleen A. House

House’s Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry, Third Edition, provides thoroughly updated coverage of the synthesis, reactions, and properties of elements and inorganic compounds. Ideal for the one-semester (ACS-recommended) sophomore or junior level course in descriptive inorganic chemistry, this resource offers a readable and engaging survey of the broad spectrum of topics that deal with the preparation, properties, and use of inorganic materials.

Using rich graphics to enhance content and maximize learning, the book covers the chemical behavior of the elements, acid-base chemistry, coordination chemistry, organometallic compounds, and numerous other topics to provide a coherent treatment of the field. The book pays special attention to key subjects such as chemical bonding and Buckminster Fullerenes, and includes new and expanded coverage of active areas of research, such as bioinorganic chemistry, green chemistry, redox chemistry, nanostructures, and more.

From Elsevier