October, 2002
 |
October, 2002
| |
| **** -
suited for general audience or intro courses A blue button-- |
Itch Like Crazy, Wendy Rose, Univ of Arizona Press, $15.95 pb, 0-8165-2177-8, 2002. from the publisher... Itch Like Crazy is a finely crafted literary work that is also a manifesto addressing contacts and conflicts in the history of Indian-white relations. By presenting another view of U.S. history and its impact on the Native Americans who are Roses ancestors, it offers a new appreciation of the issue of tribal identity that too often faces Native peoples of the Americas -- and is too often misunderstood by Euro-American society. (****) Poetry; Native American ** Recommended
Repair: The Impulse to Restore in a Fragile
World, Elizabeth V. Spelman, Beacon Press, $24.00 cl, 0-8070-2012-5,
2002.
In preparing the review for this title, I wasn't prepared for how instantly
I would be drawn into this writing. According to Spelman, the human spirit wants
to repair and different individuals take different paths or use different creativities
or come to different philosophical conclusions about what should be repaired,
why, and how. she explores the benefits for this desire to mend while exposing
some of the dangers. This is an interesting and compelling discussion about
restoration and reparative improvisation. Her discussion of how women approach
being social and spiritual menders may initiate some interesting conversations
in womens studies circles. (****) Philosophy **
Recommended
Songs from a Lead-Lined Room: Notes -- High
and Low -- from My Journey through Breast Cancer and Radiation, Suzanne
Strempek Shea, Beacon Press, $23.00 cl, 0-8070-7246-X, 2002.
There are so many books out there now about breast cancer, both of the medical/health
genre as well as the memoir/my story variety. Its hard to know what will appeal
to whom. Here is another memoir book to add to the list. This author wryly reflects
on her frustrations with well-meaning friends and family who gave her those
same countless books while not recognizing her own terror and desperation about
having the disease. Shea does reflect, however, on what she has learned. Though
not claiming to be a cheery and upbeat survivor, she does admit to learning
to hope. (****) Autobiography/Memoir; Cancer
The Tiger Ladies: A Memoir of Kashmir,
Sudha Koul, Beacon Press, $23.00 cl, 0-8070-5918-8, 2002.
Sitting on the borders between the warring Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated
Pakistan, the small moutainous country of Kashmir awaits peace. But what is
known about Kashmir from the people who live there? This memoir tells the story
of Kashmir through the lives of four generations of women whose lives are based
in the struggles between tradition and change. (****) Autobiography/Memoir;
International: Asia ** Recommended
Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters, Katherine
S. White & Elizabeth Lawrence, Emily Herring Wilson, editor, Beacon
Press, $16.00 pb, 0-8070-8561-8, or $25.00 cl, 0-8070-8558-8, 2002.
This unique collection not only portrays the friendship between two women but
also celebrates the joys of and passion for gardening shared by Katherine White
(an editor) and Elizabeth Lawrence (a writer of gardening). (****) Autobiography/Memoir
Reissue now available
For Love of Country?, Martha Nussbaum, Beacon Press, $14.00
pb, 0-8070-4329-X, 2002. (****) Philosophy
Reissue now available
My Soul Is a Witness: African-American Womens Spirituality,
Gloria Wade-Gayles, editor, Beacon Press, $18.00 pb, 0-8070-0923-7, 2002. (****)
Spirituality/Religion; African-American
Now in paperback...
Making Babies, Making Families: What Matters Most in an Age of Reproductive
Technologies, Surrogacy, Adoption, and Same-Sex and Unwed Parents,
Mary Lyndon Shanley, Beacon Press, $18.00 pb, 0-8070-4409-1, or $27.00 cl, 0-8070-4408-3,
2002. (****) Reproductive Rights/Technology; Family Relations
University of California Press
The Paintings of Joan Mitchell,
Jane Livingston, Univ. of California Press, $35.00 pb, 0-520-23570-3, or $65.00
cl, 0-520-23568-1, 2002.
Joan Mitchell (1926-1992) was one of the few women among the first-rank Abstract
Expressionist painters. This book accompanies the exhibits of her work: Whitney
Museum of American Art, New York, June 20-October 6, 2002; Modern Art Museum
of Modern Art of Fort Worth, TX, September 21, 2003-January 7, 2004; and The
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., February 14-May 16, 2004.
(****) Arts: Art, Photography
Sexual Selections: What We Can and Cant Learn
about Sex from Animals, Marlene Zuk, Univ. of California Press, $24.95
cl, 0-520-21974-0, 2002.
Do you look to animal behavior to understand human behavior? Do you place human
perceptions on what animals do? In this book, Zuk exposes the ways in which
anthropomorphism and gender politics have colored our understanding of the animal
world/natural world and shows how feminism can help us move away from these
ideological biases. From p. 2 of the introduction... "I hope to
convince you that the natural world is much more interesting and varied than
we are often willing to recognize, but that if we try to use animal behavior
in a simplistic manner to reflect on human behavior, we will, in myriad ways
misperceive both." (****) Biology/Natural History **
Recommended
Feminist International Relations: An Unfinished
Journey, Christine Sylvester, Cambridge Univ. Press, $25.00 pb, 0-521-79627-X,
or $65.00 cl, 0-521-79177-4, 2002.
From the introduction.... "The structure of this volume reflects
the sense that a genealogy of feminist IR/IR feminism requires both a reminder
of the rise of a genres main works and stories that break the apparent seamlessness
of the project." (p. 16) (**) Womens Studies; Politics; International
A History of Womens Writing in Russia,
Adele Marie Barker and Jehanne M. Gheith, editors, Cambridge Univ. Press, $85.00
cl, 0-521-57280-0, 2002.
This volume offers a comprehensive account of the lives and works of Russias
women writers from the Middle Ages to the present. (**) Literature; International:
Eastern Europe
Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing,
Margaret Atwood, Cambridge Univ. Press, $18.00 cl, 0-521-66260-5, 2002.
Who is a gifted writer? and why? How does writing differ from being a writer?
Margaret Atwood revisits her writing career along with her childhood memories
to explore the metaphors that writers of fiction and poetry use to explain their
work. She discusses with humor and seriousness her own pleasures as a writer
and refers to numbers of other writers both living and dead. (****) Writing;
Autobiography/Memoir ** Recommended
Also of interest...
Natural Rights & the Right to Choose, Hadley Arkes, Cambridge Univ.
Press, $28.00 cl, 0-521-81218-6, 2002. (**) Politics; Philosophy
Gender, Politics, and Islam, Therese
Saliba, Carolyn Allen and Judith A. Howard, editors, Univ. of Chicago Press,
$21.00 pb, 0-226-73429-3, or $39.00 cl, 0-226-73428-5, 2002.
This collection contains essays first published in Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture and Society between 1997-2000. Now in 2002, amidst a political climate
increasingly hostile towards Islam, this timely volume extends the focus of
global feminism to include Islamic women. It explores the complexities of their
variable practices in region, nation, ethnicity, sect, class, religious beliefs
as it examines their participation in cultural, economic and nationalist projects.
(***) Womens Studies; International
Inconsequence: Lesbian Representation and
the Logic of Sexual Sequence, Annamarie Jagose, Cornell Univ. Press,
$18.95 pb, 0-8014-8798-6, or $39.95 cl, 0-8014-4001-7, 2002.
From the catalog... The field of lesbian studies is often framed in
terms of the relation between lesbianism and invisibility. Annamarie Jagose
here takes a radical new approach, suggesting that the focus on invisibility
and visibility is perhaps not the most productive way of looking at lesbian
representability. In her account, the regulatory difference between heterosexuality
and homosexuality relies less on codes of visual recognition than on a cultural
adherence to the force of first order, second order sexual sequence.Jagose reads
canonical novels by Charles Dickens, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and Daphne
du Maurier, drawing upon their elaboration of sexual sequence. (**) Literary
Criticism; Gay/Lesbian/Queer Studies
My Baby's Father: Unmarried Parents and Paternal
Responsibility, Maureen R. Waller, Cornell Univ. Press, $17.95 pb,
0-8014-8806-0, or $39.95 cl, 0-8014-3988-4, 2002.
The majority of research on low-incomes families -- generally on single moms
receiving welfare -- historically excludes the voice of the father -- generally
dismissed as the deadbeat dad. This research draws on interviews with both mothers
and fathers to learn how they define the fathers obligations, negotiate private
financial support or acknowledgment and interact with the mandatory welfare
and child-support regulations. (***) Social Sciences; Parenting
Compositional Subjects: Enfiguring Asian /
American Women, Laura Hyun Yi Kang, Duke Univ. Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8223-2898-4,
or $59.95 cl, 0-8223-2883-6, 2002.
This book examines the shifting identities of Asian American Women over the
past three decades. From the jacket... Kang then directs critical attention
to how the attempts to compose them as discrete subjects of consciousness, visibility,
and action demonstrate a broader, ongoing tension between socially particularized
subjects and disciplinary knowledges. In addition to the shifting meanings and
alignments of Asian, American, and women, the book examines the discourses,
political and economic conditions, and institutional formations that have produced
Asian/American women as generic authors, as visibly desirable and desiring bodies,
as excludable aliens and admissible citizens of the United States, and as proper
labor for transnational capitalism. (**) Multicultural: Asian American; Culture/Cultural
Studies; Womens Studies
EdgeWork
Books
for
orders call 800-773-7782
The
Fortune catcher: A novel, Susanne Pari, EdgeWork Books, $16.95 pb,
1-931223-08-4, 2002.
Susanne Pari, an Iranian-American writer, draws an amazing portrait of what
it is like to live as a women through political and religious extremism in a
country whose government has turned to Islamic fundamentalism. This timely novel
is set in a family saga against the Iranian Revolution and tells of epic love
and a young womans coming of age. The first chapter alone grabs the readers
attention and established the tensions between love and trust, hope and terror.
(****) Fiction; International: Middle East **
Recommended
The
Girl Who Went and Saw and Came Back, Kim Chernin, EdgeWork Books, $24.95
cl, 1-931223-00-9, 2002.
This suspenseful and psychological tale challenges the reader to explore the
mysteries of identity and of inner experiences that test the boundaries of language
-- and the fine line between spiritual awakening and madness. (****) Fiction
Loves
Learning Place: Truth as Aphrodisiac in Womens Long-Term Relationships,
Renate Stendahl, EdgeWork Books, $16.95 cl, 1-931223-04-1, 2002.
I must admit a certain bias against psychological self-help books, especially
on lesbian relationships, but Stendahls reputation helped me to move forward
with this one. Readable and interesting, this book helps those of us concerned
about truth to understand its power, and how to tell it. I especially liked
her direct discussion of lesbian bed death. Womens studies folks may not think
this academic enough, but those interested in psychology and relationships should
give it a look. (****) Lesbian Studies; Psychology; Sexuality
Moon
of the Swaying Buds, Gail Sher, EdgeWork Books, $26.95 cl, 1-931223-03-3,
2002.
This is a beautifully produced book and a pleasure to hold and leaf through.
written in Haibun -- a combination of prose and haiku first used by Basho, the
17th century haiku master -- evokes great feeling in this spiritual autobiography.
Sher recounts her journeys as a woman involved in the very beginnings of Zen
in the United States. With honesty and clarity she remembers her discomfort
as a child, her struggle with anorexia nervosa, and her journey into and out
of monastic life. (****) Autobiography/Memoir; Spirituality/Religion **
Recommended
Where
They Left You for Dead: and Halway Home, Margaret Randall, EdgeWork
Books, $16.95 cl, 1-931223-06-8, 2002.
This collection combines two books in one - or one book in two parts. Where
They Left You for Dead is a series of 38 poems written to the poets lifetime
companion who suffers chronic pain. In Halfway Home, Randall turns her attention
to her own process of aging. (****) Poetry
Also of interest
Charlies
Exit: A novel, Tobey Hiller, EdgeWork Books, $22.95 cl, 1-931223-01-7,
2002. (****) Fiction
Also of interest
The
Grasshoppers Secret: A Magical Tale, Renate Stendahl,
EdgeWork Books, $23.95 cl, 1-931223-05-X, 2002. (****) Young Adult Fiction
Also
of interest
Seduction:
A Portrait of Anas Nin, Margot Beth Duxler, EdgeWork Books, $24.95
cl, 1-931223-02-5, 2002. (****) Biography; Womens Studies
Daughters of Abraham: Feminist Thought in
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and John L.
Esposito, Univ. Press of Florida, $24.95 pb, 0-8130-2594-X, or $59.95 cl, 0-8130-2103-0,
2002.
How have women been constrained within the patriarchal teachings of religion?
In this collection, six scholars from the fields of feminist theology, comparative
religion and interfaith studies explore this question within their own faith
communities -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam. They open scripture and tradition
to feminist interpreatations. (***) Spirituality/Religion
Reissue now available
Holding On to the Air: An Autobiography, Suzanne Farrell and with Toni
Bentley, Univ. Press of Florida, $24.95 pb, 0-8130-2593-1, 2002.
This autobiography explores the life and art of Suzanne Farrell, a world-renowned
ballerina and one of George Balachines most celebrated muses. (****) Autobiography/Memoir;
Arts: Music, Dance, Theater
To Be the Poet, Maxine Hong Kingston,
Harvard Univ. Press, $19.95 cl, 0-674-00791-3, 2002.
I have almost finished my longbook. Let my life as Poet begin. I want the life
of the Poet. I have labored for over twelve years, one thousand pages of prose.
Now, I want the easiness of poetry. The brevity of the poem. Poets are always
hppy. I want to always be happy. So begins Hong Kingston as she takes us along
on her voyage to the power of the life as a poet. (****) Poetry
Humanity Books, Imprint of Prometheus
All about Thelma and Eve: Sidekicks and Third
Wheels, Judith Roof, Univ. of Illinois Press, $16.95 pb, 0-252-07047-X,
or $37.50 cl, 0-252-02728-0, 2002.
Exploring such films as Mildred Pierce, Auntie Mame, Rear Window, and Sister
Act (among others) and following the comic roles of Eve Arden, Thelma Ritter,
Rosalind Russell and Whoopi Goldberg (to name a few), Roof explores what it
means to be in the middle and, therefore, queer. Though secondary, these characters
reflects cultural anxieties about race, sex, class, and gender confusion through
shrewd, outspoken, pragmatic, and witty measures. (***) Arts: Film, Video; Gay/Lesbian/Queer
Studies
Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change,
Norma E. Cant and Olga Njera-Ramos, editors, Univ. of Illinois Press, $18.95
pb, 0-252-07012-7, or $44.95 cl, 0-252-02701-9, 2002.
From the introduction... Chicana Traditions is the first anthology to focus
specifically on the topic of Chicana expressive culture. It also represents
the first collection to be written by native scholars, that is, Chicanas, engaged
in various and sometimes multiple careers as professors, graduate students,
performing artists, public sector folklorists, archivists, museum coordinators,
and community activists....This collection of essays...offers and original and
timely perspective that places questions about the politics of culture at the
intersection of folklore, feminism and Chicana/o studies. (****) International:
Latin & Central America; Culture/Cultural Studies; Womens Studies **
Recommended
Genital Cutting and Transnational Sisterhood:
Disputing U.S. Polemics, Stanlie M. James and Claire C. Robertson,
editors, Univ. of Illinois Press, $29.95 cl, 0-252-02741-8 , 2002.
From the introduction (pps. 6-7)... [This collection of essays] problematizes
the often simplistic, sensationalized, and inaccurate portrayals of female genital
cutting ...in U.S. media and legal discourses. It plots a third course between
the relativistic and the militant approaches that appear to have been ineffective
in eradicating these harmful practices. Perspectives include history, human
rights, law, missionary feminism, cultural relativism, anthropology and the
intersex movement. (***) Womens Studies; International: Africa
Mothering the Race: Womens Narratives of
Reproduction, 1890-1930, Allison Berg, Univ. of Illinois Press, $35.00
cl, 0-252-02690-X, 2002.
By examining fictional portrayals of motherhood, Berg explores the attitudes
of the Progressive Era for both white and African American women to reproduce
as national racial imperative. Their diverse strategies reflect and contribute
to the public debates on race, reproduction, and female agency. (**) History;
Literary Criticism; Womens Studies
A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil,
Jane Addams and introduction by Katherine Joslin, Univ. of Illinois Press, $12.95
pb, 0-252-07092-5, or $24.95 cl, 0-252-02784-1, 2002.
Published in 1912, this work assesses the vulnerability of the rural and immigrant
working-class girls who moved to Chicago and fell prey to the white slave trade.
(****) Womens Studies; Philosophy; History
Out in Theory: The Emergence of Lesbian and
Gay Anthropology, Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap, editors, Univ. of
Illinois Press, $19.95 pb, 0-252-07076-3, or $44.95 cl, 0-252-02753-1, 2002.
A companion volume to Out in the Field (U. of Illinois, 1996, 0252065182), this
book presents lesbian and gay anthropology as a distinct specialization and
addresses the theoretical issues that define the emerging field. Topics include:
studying sexual subcultures, reading sexualities across cultures, language,
self-perception, gender and transgender, poverty and other issues. (***) Gay/Lesbian/Queer
Studies; Anthropology
Peace and Bread in Time of War,
Jane Addams and introduction by Katherine Joslin, Univ. of Illinois Press, $12.95
pb, 0-252-07093-3, or $24.95 cl, 0-252-02783-3, 2002.
First published in 1922, this was Addams third book to discuss her thoughts
on pacifism -- a view that adversely affected her popularity. (****) Womens
Studies; Philosophy; History
Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women: Sweetening
the Spirits, Healing the Sick, Isaac Jack Levy and Rosemary Lvy Zumwalt,
Univ. of Illinois Press, $34.95 cl, 0-252-02697-7, 2002.
Centered around interviews with the elders of the Sephardic communities of the
former Ottoman Empire -- a community on the verge of extinction -- this anthropological
study portrays complex curative rituals conducted by women at home. As a counterpart
to the rites conducted by men in synagogues, these spiritual-based acts ensured
both physical and spiritual well-being. Practices include such customs as the
veil eye, fright, witchcraft, herbology, mumia and other customs. (**) Anthropology;
Jewish Women
Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism,
Margaret Lamberts Benroth and Virginia Lieson Brereton, editors, Univ. of Illinois
Press, $19.95 pb, 0-252-06998-6, or $49.95 cl, 0-252-02691-8, 2002.
This collection of writings encompasses the variety of womens experiences in
modern Protestantism as missionaries, thinkers, activists, theologians, reformers,
and ministers. Topics include the emergence of Pentecostal Latina clergy, Focus
on the Family and fundmentalist values, women as faith healers, Chinese immigrant
women and African American women who assumed authority through historical writing.
(***) Spirituality/Religion; Womens Studies
Reissues
now available
Democracy and Social Ethics, Jane Addams and with introduction
by Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Univ. of Illinois Press, $12.95 pb, 0-252-07023-2,
or $24.95 cl, 0-252-02710-8, 2002. (****) Philosophy; Politics; History
Heroes of Their Own Lives: The Politics and Hisotry of Family Violence -- Boston, 1880-1960, Linda Gordon, Univ. of Illinois Press, $19.95 pb, 0-252-07079-8, 2002. First published in 1988, this volume still remains one of the most extensive histories of family violence in the U.S. (***) Womens Studies; History
The Long Road of Womans Memory, Jane Addams and with introduction by Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Univ. of Illinois Press, $10.95 pb, 0-252-07024-0, or $21.95 cl, 0-252-02709-4, 2002. (****) Philosophy; Politics; History
Also
of interest
Katherine Dunham: Dancing a Life, Joyce Aschenbrenner, Univ.
of Illinois Press, $29.95 cl, 0-252-02759-0, 2002. (****) Biography; Arts: Performance
Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity, Sophie Fuller and Lloyd Whitesell, editors, Univ. of Illinois Press, $39.95 cl, 0-252-02740-X, 2002. (***) Gay/Lesbian/Queer Studies; Music
The Woman in the Red Dress: Gender, Space, and Reading, Minrose C. Gwin, Univ. of Illinois Press, $34.95 cl, 0-252-02732-9, 2002. (***) Literary Criticism; Womens Studies
Birth: A Literary Companion, Kristin
Kovacic and Lynne Barrett, editors, Univ. of Iowa Press, $19.95 pb, 0-87745-831-6,
2002.
This collection of poetry, stories, and memoir creates a volume of work on pregnancy,
childbirth and parenting that these editors longed for in their own journeys
to motherhood. Its a collection from some of our most accomplished writers and
includes all kinds of parents (gay/straight, mother/father, partnered/single,
adoptive/biological) experiencing the journey from early pregnancy to late infancy.
The result is a companion and support for those who turn to reading other peoples
experiences to find their own way on new terrain. (****) Literature; Pregnancy/Birth
Johns Hopkins University Press
Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes
to Practice, Maryellen Weimer, Jossey-Bass Inc., $33.00 cl, 0-7879-5646-5,
2002.
From the catalog... As the author explains, learner-centered teaching
focuses attention on what the student is learning, how the student is learning,
the conditions under which the student is learning, whether the student is retaining
and applying the learning, and how current learning positions the student for
future learning. To help educators accomplish the goals of learner-centered
teaching, this important book presents the meaning, practice, and ramifications
of the learner-centered approach, and how this approach transforms the college
classroom environment. [It] shows how to tie teaching and curriculum to the
process and objectives of learning rather than to the content delivery alone.
(****) Education
The Brief, Madcap Life of Kay Kendall, Eve Golden and with Kim Kendall, Univ. Press of Kentucky, $25.00 cl, 0-8131-2251-1, 2002. Biography of a contemporary British film star. (****) Biography; Arts: Film, Video
Wellspring, Janice Holt Giles, Univ.
Press of Kentucky, $19.00 pb, 0-8131-9025-8, or $32.00 cl, 0-8131-2239-2, 2002.
This is the last collection of writing by Kentuckian Janice Holt Giles before
her death in 1979. It combines fiction and non-fiction as well as autobiography
and fictionalized autobiography revealing her life, politics, and views on writing.
(****) Regional: South; Autobiography/Memoir; Fiction
Peter
Lang Publishing
Ghosts in the Machine: Womens Voices in Research
with Technology, Nicola Yelland and Andee Rubin, editors, Peter Lang
Publishing, $29.95 pb, 0-8204-4911-3, 2002.
From the series -- Eruptions: New Feminism Across the Disciplines.
Written by women in four countries on three continents, this book discusses
the educational, social, artistic, and political implications of a feminine
voice in the design of technology. (***) Science/Technology
Growing Up in Kenya: Rural Schooling and
Girls, Anne M. Mungai, Peter Lang Publishing, $29.95 pb, 0-8204-5272-6,
2002.
The traditional values and roles for women in Kenya include wife, mother and
cultivator. Mungai shows the struggle between these values and the expectations
of education, curriculum and school culture. Although schooling is central to
womens status, parents -- even in higher-socioeconomic groups -- have lower
occupational aspirations for their daughters. (****) Education; International:
Africa
Life, Culture and Education on the Academic Plantation: Womanist Thought and Perspective, Dierdre Glenn Paul, Peter Lang Publishing, $23.95 pb, 0-8204-4562-2, 2002. This collection of essays centers on my life experiences and identity as a Black woman living in a racially schizophrenic society, a single mother, a former public school teacher, a teacher educator, and an emerging intellectual. Through the process of reflexivity and life history, I attempt to cohere the concentric spheres of race, gender, and class as they play themselves out in my daily living and multiple roles. This book has a transformative agenda. (****) Autobiography/Memoir; African-American; Education
Women Faculty of Color in the White Classroom:
Narratives on the Pedagogical Implications of Teacher Diversity, Lucila
Vargas, editor, Peter Lang Publishing, $32.95 pb, 0-8204-4994-6, 2002.
This anthology may well become a sanity-saver and important supportive piece
for women of color faculty teaching in predominantly white universities. These
essays cover a range of pedagogical considerations, as it considers the impact
of multiple social positions. The writers talk not only about their experiences
and challenges but also their teaching-learning strategies for dealing with
students. (****) Education; Race Theory; Womens Studies **
Recommended
Gender and Teaching, Frances A. Maher and Janie Victoria Ward, Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., $17.50 pb, 0-8058-2986-5, 2001. For those looking for an overview of important gender issues in education, this would be a useful book. Through a series of cases studies and public arguments, the authors cover a wide range of territory and also draw on historical and sociological frameworks. though primarily focusing on k-12 experiences, higher education professionals may recognize many of the issues as their own. (***) Education; Womens Studies
Globalization and Women in Academia: North/west, South/east, Carmen Luke, Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., $29.95 pb, 0-8058-3669-1, or $74.95 cl, 0-8058-3668-3, 2001. Lukes book attempts to fill some of the void of feminist writing on educational globalization, especially as it is experienced by women and especially as located for southeast Asian women in higher education. She calls into question the ways in which Western practices and cultural differences affect institutional power in higher education. In her introduction, Luke states I hope that the partial snapshots provided by women in this study will convey some of the intricacies and complexities of the glocalization of cultural politics that circumscribe womens professional career opportunities in academia (p. xxii). (***) Education; International TEXTBOOK
Mommy Queerest: Contemporary Rhetorics of
Lesbian Maternal Identity, Julie M. Thompson, Univ of Massachusetts
Press, $29.95 (sd) cl, 1-55849-355-7, 2002.
Sometimes when I prepare these reviews, I think it best to just let the author
tell us what a book is about, so heres Julie Thompson. "My concern is for
the rhetorically contested terrain of lesbian motherhood. Who is a lesbian?
Who is a mother? When the two identities intersect, who is a lesbian mother?"
(p. 1). "My purpose here is to examine the ways in which the words lesbian
and mother have been articulated at the nexus of mass media, legal, and academic
discourses so as to constitute a dominant reading of lesbian mother that is
oxymoronic..." (p. 7). "I will argue that for lesbian families to
achieve civil rights and legitimacy in various public spheres, the meanings
of mother and lesbian must be open to radical redefinition" (p. 28). (***)
Lesbian Studies; Parenting
Democrats, Republicans, and the Politics of
Womens Place, Kira Sanbonmatsu, Univ. of Michigan Press, $47.50 cl,
0-472-11260-0, 2002.
From Introduction (Chapter 1, p. 1)... This book analyzes the Democratic
and republican parties responses to debates about gender equality....Previous
studies argue that since the early 1970s the parties have continually polarized
on gender issues. But I will argue that the party strategies have varied across
issues. The issues she covers include abortion rights, the Equal Rights Amendment,
childcare, the role of women in party politics and others. (***) Politics; Womens
Studies
The Limits to Union: Same-Sex Marriage and
the Politics of Civil Rights, Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, Univ. of Michigan
Press, $47.50 cl, 0-472-11223-6, 2002.
Perhaps most same-sex couples see their desire for legal recognition of their
unions as an equal right (rite) recognizing the validity and sameness of loving
coupledom -- with all the legal benefits accomplished by heterosexual couples.
Goldberg-Hiller places the issues in a broader postmodern discourse while drawing
on postcolonial and queer legal theory to examine the depth to which same-sex
marriages create anxiety in the traditional nature of community, threaten a
change in social hierarchies and affect economic and national security in the
face of globalization. in current society, same-sex marriage is more than simple
acceptance of homosexual loving. (***) Gay/Lesbian/Queer Studies; Law
Staging Desire: Queer Readings of American
Theater History, Kim Marra and Robert A. Schanke, editors, Univ. of
Michigan Press, $22.95 pb, 0-472-06749-4, or $60.00 cl, 0-472-09749-0, 2002.
These critical and biographical essays focus on the lives and careers of notable
stage personalities (both actors and off-stage artists), prior to the Stonewall
Riots, whose unconventional sexualities influenced theater history. The women
presented here include: Rachel Crothers, Mercedes de Acosta, Djuna Barnes, Loie
Fuller and Jean Rosenthal. (***) Arts: Music, Dance, Theater; Gay/Lesbian/Queer
Studies
Susan Glaspell: Essays on Her Theater and
Fiction, Linda Ben-Zvi, editor, Univ. of Michigan Press, $22.95 pb,
0-472-08438-0, or $55.00 cl, 0-472-10549-3, 2002.
Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) was an American playwright and novelist whose career
followed a similar trajectory to those of Kate Chopin, and Zora Neale Hurston.
(****) Biography; Arts: Music, Dance, Theater
Cybering Democracy: Public Space and the
Internet, Diana Saco, Univ. of Minnesota Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8166-3541-2,
2002.
What is democratic participation? Does it demand physical space and face-to-face
meetings among citizens? How does the relative anonymity of the Internet affect
political discourse and democracy? Saco takes on these questions and argues
that cyberspace must be viewed as a produced social space, confounding our perceptions
of physical space and our politicss of collective action. This may be a crucial
book for exploring the meanings of participatory democracy, technology, and
space. (***) Politics; Science/Technology ** Recommended
The Girls in the Back Room: Looking at the
Lesbian Bar, Kelly Hankin, Univ. of Minnesota Press, $18.95 pb, 0-8166-3929-9,
2002.
When you see the words lesbian bar, what images or feelings get aroused for
you -- 1) a seedy alluring place both steamy with aberrant sexuality and sin,
or 2) an affirming place articulating lesbian public life and identity? Through
an in depth exploration of several films, including The Killing of Sister George,
Basic Instinct, The Last Call at Mauds and Chasing Amy among others, Hankin
suggests that the first image is an oppressive one created by Hollywood heterosexist
and popular culture oppession. The second image reflects the challenging paradigm
generally drawn by lesbian-produced works. (****) Lesbian Studies; Arts: Film,
Video ** Recommended
Globalizing AIDS, Cindy Patton,
Univ. of Minnesota Press, $18.95 pb, 0-8166-3280-4, or $52.95 cl, 0-8166-3279-0,
2002.
Cindy Patton, an AIDS educator and researcher since the early 80s, places her
experience and research in global and cultural perspective and she explores
the complex interactions between modern science, media coverage, and local activism
during the first decade of the AIDS epidemic. She critiques the implementation
of public health policy from scientific credibility and offers innovative approaches
for approaching the reality of the disease. (****) Health & Medicine; Gay/Lesbian/Queer
Studies ** Recommended
Homeless Mothers: Face to Face with Women
and Poverty, Deborah R. Connolly, Univ. of Minnesota Press, $17.95
pb, 0-8166-3282-0, 2002.
First published in 2000, this study follows the daily lives and struggles of
a small group of women as they negotiate violence, addition, poverty and other
obstacles while trying to navigate the social service system. (****) Womens
Studies; Social Sciences
The Secret Treachery of Words: Feminism and
Modernism in America, Elizabeth Francis, Univ. of Minnesota Press,
$18.95 pb, 0-8166-3328-2, 2002.
Francis explores the critical and cultural impasse between feminist and modernist
engagements with modern culture. Through the work of Isadora Duncan (performances
of the female body), Margaret Anderson (manifestos), Floyd dell (advocacy for
the revolutionary potential of sex) and Josephine Herbst ( insights into political
marginality), Francis shows how feminists challenged Victorian culture yet found
themselves bound by the historical representation central to modernism. (**)
Culture/Cultural Studies; History; Womens Studies
Taking the Field: Women, Men and Sports,
Michael A. Messner, Univ. of Minnesota Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8166-3449-1, 2002.
Has the increasing involvement of women into the public sports arena affected
gender relations and how women are viewed, especially in terms of weakness and
passivity? In this book, Messner asserts that the world of sports still retains
in longtime conservative role in gender relations. (****) Sports/Outdoors; Gender
Studies
Now in paperback
The Crisis of Desire: AIDS and the Fate of Gay Brotherhood,
Robin Hardy and with David Groff, Univ. of Minnesota Press, $17.95 pb, 0-8166-3911-6,
2002. (****) Gay/Lesbian/Queer Studies
How Women Saved the City, Daphne Spain, Univ. of Minnesota Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8166-3532-3, 2002. First published in 2001, this study explores womens contributions to affecting urban environment in the early 20th century. (***) Womens Studies; Social Sciences
Reissue now available
Feminine Endings: Music, Gender & Sexuality, Susan McClary,
Univ. of Minnesota Press, $18.95 pb, 0-8166-4189-7, 2002. Reprinted from 1991
- now has a new introduction discussing the critical reception of the original
publication and the debates it inspired. (***) Music; Culture/Cultural Studies
0-8262- Maternal Body and Voice in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Lee Smith, Paula Gallant Eckard, Univ. of Missouri Press, $34.951402-9 cl, 0-8262-, 2002. Using several novels of Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Lee Smith, Eckard examines how these authors portray maternal experience and focus on the body and voice of the mother. (**) Literary Criticism
Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity -- A Cultural Biography,
Irene Gammel, MIT Press, $39.95 cl, 0-262-07231-9, 2002.
Simply known as the Baroness, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven was an innovator
in poetry and early creator of junk sculpture and the mother of Dada. (****)
Biography; Arts: Art, Photography Also of interest
Reload:
Rethinking Women + Cyberculture, Mary Flanagan and Austin Booth, editors,
MIT Press, $29.95 pb, 0-262-56150-6, 2002.
From the introduction (p. 1)... This book fills two problematic gaps
-- the absence of a volume that introduces womens cyberfiction and the absence
of a volume that considers gender and technology issues from fictional and theoretical
viewpoints with and against each other. This collection brings together womens
fictional representations of cyberculture with feminist theoretical and critical
investigations of gender and technoculture. Alongside the fictional pieces,
this volume includes a few critical essays on works by such writers as Marge
Piercy and Gloria Anzalda and topics such as ethics, queer science fiction,
representations of bodies, and more. Some of the contributors include Octavia
Butler, Anne McCaffrey, Lisa Nakamura, Melissa Scott, Rajani Sudan, and James
Tiptree, Jr. among many others. (****) Fiction: Anthologies; Fiction: Science
Fiction/Fantasy; Womens Studies ** Recommended
Revolt, She Said, Julia Kristeva, Semiotext (Distributed by
MIT Press), $9.95 pb, 1-58435-015-6, 2002.
In
this treatise presented in a question/answer format, Kristeva presents revolt
as essential and as a permanent state of questioning and transformation. For
her, it is not enough to tear something down but its also necessary to engage
in the process of renewal and regeneration -- this too is revolt. (****) Essays
of Resistance; Philosophy
Now
in paperback
Two Sisters and Their Mother: The Anthropology of Incest, Franoise
Hritier and Translated by Jeanine Herman, Zone Books (Distributed by MIT), $18.00
pb, 0-942299-34-5, 2002. (***) Anthropology; Violence and Abuse
Reissue now available
Loretto: The Sisters
and Their Sante Fe Chapel, Mary Jean Straw Cook, Museum of New Mexico
Press, $22.50 pb, 0-89013-398-0, 2002.
This second edition adds new evidence to solve the mystery of who made the staircase
while offering a view of Santa Fe history through womens eyes. (****) Regional:
Southwest; Architecture; History
Holocaust Girls: History, Memory & Other
Obsessions, S.L. Wisenberg, Univ. of Nebraska Press, $24.95 cl, 0-8032-4801-6,
2002.
How do American Jewish women explore their connections with the Holocaust --
find ways to live with history without being swallowed by it? In this collection
of essays, S.L. Wisenberg explores this question through a variety of topics
(such as Kafka, Monica Lewinsky, the murder of a low-level Nazi bureaucrat)
using the lens of her memories, her feelings of guilt and her identities of
woman and writer. (****) Jewish Women; Autobiography/Memoir **
Recommended
The Nature of Home,
Lisa Knopp, Univ. of Nebraska Press, $24.95 cl, 0-8032-2754-X,
2002.
Homesickness, ecology, place, comfort, community, individual values and beliefs
-- these are some of the themes on this collection of essays exploring the meaning
and nature of home. I especially enjoyed the chapter on fungi, disguised by
the title Necessary, Honorable Work. (****) Autobiography/Memoir; Ecology &
Environment
Now in paperback
0-8032-7106-9 The Cold-and-Hunger Dance, Diane Glancy, Univ. of Nebraska Press,
$17.95 pb, 0-8032-7106-9, 2002.
First published in 1997. Reviewed in FBN 21#3, September, 1998. (****) Autobiography/Memoir;
Native American
Between Grass and Sky: Where I Live and Work,
Linda M. Hasselstrom, Univ. of Nevada Press, $24.95 cl, 0-87417-522-4, 2002.
Linda Hasselstrom, an acclaimed nature writer who is also a cattle rancher and
environmentalist, offers a new collection of personal essays in which she addresses
current concerns about the effects of ranching on the environment. (****) Ecology
& Environment
Chewed Water: A Memoir, Aishah Rahman,
Univ. Press of New England, $26.00 cl, 1-58465-143-1, 2002.
" From the publisher... Playwright Aishah Rahman, born Virginia Hughes,
has written a poignant account of events marking her first eighteen years growing
up in Harlem in the 40s and 50s as the foster child of a troubled woman. Chewed
Water vividly weaves the complex relationship between a young girl and her foster
mother who nurtured her with one hand and beat her with the other, as neighbors,
doctors, and social workers turned a blind eye. This memoir is in part a record
of psychological and physical abuse that eventually gave birth to a desperate
and self-destructive act of revenge." It is also a coming-of-age story
and an affectionate portrait of Harlem. Rahman beautifully conveys her own growing
awareness of the world, her gradual understanding not only of the racism and
sexism that set the boundaries of her life, but also of the lure of romance
and the transcendent powers of art and literature. (****) Autobiography/Memoir;
Theater; African-American
Univ.
of New Mexico Press
New
York University Press (NYU)
University of North Carolina Press
Mama Learned Us to Work: Farm Women in the
New South, LuAnn Jones, Univ. of North Carolina Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8078-5384-4,
or $49.95 cl, 0-8078-2716-9, 2002.
Far from being downtrodden and isolated, farm women of the 20th century in the
South were consumers, producers, and agents of cultural and economic change
in their communities. This study -- through oral history -- examines and demonstrates
the multifaceted roles women -- both white and black -- assumed and pursued
in creating rural reform. (****) Womens Studies; Regional: South
Persons of Color and Religious at the Same
Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860, Diane Batts Morrow,
Univ. of North Carolina Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8078-5401-8, or $49.95 cl, 0-8078-2726-6,
2002.
The Oblate Sisters of Providence (founded in Baltimore in 1828) formed the first
permanent African American Roman Catholic sisterhood in the U.S. and still exists
today. Their history has challenged the white societal view that women of color
lack moral standing while successfully dedicating themselves to their mission
to educate black children and dedicating themselves to spiritual practice. (***)
History; African-American; Spirituality/Religion
Reissue now available
Private Woman, Public Stage: Literary Domesticity in Nineteenth-Century
America, Mary Kelley, Univ. of North Carolina Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8078-5422-0,
2002. First published in 1984, this reissue includes a new preface. (**) Literary
Criticism
Also of interest
The Origins of Womens Activism: New York and Boston, 1797-1840,
Anne M. Boylan, Univ. of North Carolina Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8078-5404-2, or
$49.95 cl, 0-8078-2730-4, 2002.
This book examines a broad spectrum of womens groups -- religion, race, class
-- to explore womens activism in volunteer associations in the early 19th century.
(***) History; Regional: New England
L.M. Alcott: Signature of Reform,
Madeleine B. Stern, editor, Northeastern Univ. Press, $17.95 pb, 1-55553-512-7,
or $47.50 cl, 1-55553-513-5, 2002.
Perhaps best known for her fiction, Louisa May Alcott created an additional
wealth of writing addressing the social reform issues of her day. Her writings
(articles, letters, and other pieces) express her opinions on domestic reform,
alternative medicine, antislavery, feminism, suffrage, education, communal society
and other concerns. This is a collection of those writings. (****) Literary
Criticism; History
Woman-to-Women Sexual Violence: Does She
Call It Rape?, Lori B. Girshick, Northeastern Univ. Press, $16.95 pb,
1-55553-527-5, or $45.00 cl, 1-55553-528-3, 2002.
The silence on realities and concerns pertaining to lesbian (and bisexual womens)
battering and rape by other women has been deafening according to Lori Girshick.
In this book, she breaks that silence through detailed analysis of a nationwide
study and in-depth interviews exploring the experiences and reflections of seventy
women. Ranging from acquaintance rape, to sexual abuse by partners, and to sexual
harassment in the workplace, this book offers insights into the ways women experienced
and responded to the violence, and received additional support to cope with
the emotional impact of the violence. In addition, she recommends how agencies
can better serve women who are victims of woman-to-woman assault. (****) Lesbian
Studies; Violence and Abuse ** Recommended
Also of interest
More Than a Game: One Womans Fight for Gender
Equity in Sport, Cynthia Lee A. Pemberton, Northeastern Univ. Press,
$17.95 pb, 1-55553-525-9, or $45.00 cl, 1-55553-526-7, 2002. (****) Sports/Outdoors;
Anthropology; Autobiography/Memoir; Autobiography/Memoir
Now in paperback
1-55553-518-6 Vera Brittain: A Life, Paul Berry and Mark Bostridge, Northeastern
Univ. Press, $24.95 pb, 1-55553-518-6, 2002. (****) Biography
Whores and Thieves of the Worst Kind: A Study
of Women, Crime, and Prisons, 1835-2000, L. Mara Dodge, Northern Illinois
Univ. Press, $45.00 cl, 0-87580-296-6, 2002.
From the introduction (p.3)... This study explores the treatment of
women in Illinois prisons from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century.
Although it focuses on a small minority of women -- convicted felons -- it asks
far broader questions: Who were these women? What were their crimes? How and
why did patterns of criminality, prosecution, conviction, and sentencing shift
over the decades? How did factors such as race, class, ethnicity, age, martial
status, reputation, and social standing influence the chain of official decisions
that led from arrest to prosecution to conviction and, finally, to sentencing?
Dodge explores these and other questions to engage current debates in criminology
and womens history. (***) Criminology; Regional: Midwest
Illiterate Heart, Meena Alexander,
Northwestern Univ. Press, $15.95 pb, 0-8101-5118-9, or $44.95 cl, 0-8101-5117-0,
2002.
Using multiple languages, moving between worlds of memory and the present, drawing
on the images and geographies of her connections to both India and the U.S...these
are some of the treasures buried in this group of poems by Meena Alexander.
(****) Poetry
Feminism in the Heartland, Judith
Ezekiel, Ohio State Univ Press, $24.95 (sd) pb, 0-8142-0903-3, or $65.00 cl,
0-8142-5098-X, 2002. Detailing the histories of four organizations in Dayton,
Ohio in the 1970s, supported by the life stories of 58 activists, and the examination
of 3 para-feminist groups, this important study suggests that without utopian
vision, movements for social change are doomed. Recommended not only for those
doing history of the womens liberation movement, but also for those who want
to understand some of the ways in which movements work, it also provides a portrait
for a new generation of women wanting to get a feel for feminism in the 1970s.
(****) Womens Studies; History; Regional: Midwest **
Recommended
Taking Root: Narratives of Jewish Women in
Latin America, Marjorie Agosin, editor, Ohio University Center for
International Studies, $24.95 pb, 0-89680-226-4, 2002.
Once again, Agosn has added to the collection of writings by Jewish women in
Latin America. This collection draws on untold stories of first and second-generation
immigrants in Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, Chile, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia
and other countries. They echo the sadness of exile and loss while maintaining
a fierce determination to preserve Jewish heritage. These stories draw in the
reader into the intimacies of families, hopes, and ambitions. (****) Jewish
Women; International: Latin & Central America **
Recommended
The Mask Maker, Diane Glancy, Univ.
of Oklahoma Press, $24.95 cl, 0-8061-3400-3, 2002.
This novel explores language, identity, and values through the story of a mixed-blood
American Indian as she travels the state of Oklahoma teaching students the art
and custom of mask-making. (****) Fiction; Regional: West; Native American
Twenty-First-Century Feminist Classrooms:
Pedagogies of Identity and Difference, Amie A. Macdonald and Suan Snchez-Casal,
editors, Palgrave Macmillan (Global Publishing from St. Martins Press), $22.95
pb, 0-312-29534-0, or $65.00 cl, 0-312-29533-2, 2002.
This collection of essays sets forth a bold an important challenge. As the editors
state in the first sentences of their introduction, We are proposing a new paradigm
and application of identity theory in feminist pedagogy. Specifically, we formulate
a new theoretical approach that actively deploys a post-positivist realist position
on identity and experience in the feminist classroom. The essays explore the
impact of racism, white resistance and nationalism on feminist learning and
admit the challenges of teaching queer, Black history, and histories of genocide
in antiracist feminist classrooms. (***) Education; Womens Studies
Boneshaker, Jan Beatty, Univ. of
Pittsburgh Press, $12.95 pb, 0-8229-5779-5, 2002.
This collection of poetry wonders Is the body all its cracked up to be? Why
not leave it, only if for awhile? And leave it she does as this poetry expresses
the desire to get away -- to lose ones self, to ride the highway on a motorcycle,
to have sex with a stranger. (****) Poetry
Imagining Rhetoric: Composing Women of the
Early United States, Janet Carey Eldred and Peter Mortensen, Univ.
of Pittsburgh Press, $34.95 cl, 0-8229-4182-1, 2002.
Imagining Rhetoric examines how women's writing developed in the decades between
the American Revolution and the Civil War, and how women imagined using their
education to further the civic aims of an idealistic new nation. (**) Rhetoric;
History
The Volcano Sequence, Alicia Suskin
Ostriker, Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, $12.95 pb, 0-8229-5784-1, 2002.
Coming from a place of depression and and reflecting on themes of God and Shekhinah,
Ostriker says these poems come more from a process of reception rather than
composition. (****) Poetry
Welfare Hot Buttons: Women, Work, and Social
Policy Reform, Sylvia Bashevkin, Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, $19.95
pb, 0-8229-5799-X, 2002.
This comparative work on social policy provides feminist analysis of three systems
of welfare -- those in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. she
explores the ways in which supposedly progressive leaders implemented restrictive
and punitive social policies more regressive than their neo-conservative predecessors.
In doing so, this study offers an international perspective on the ways in which
social policy is being changed. (***) Social Sciences; Work & Labor
Also of interest
Writing the Siege of Leningrad: Womens Diaries, Memoirs, and Documentary
Prose, Cynthia Simmons, Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, $29.00 cl, 0-8229-4183-X,
2002. (****) History; Womens Studies
Now in paperback
The Truly Needy and Other Stories, Lucy Honig, Univ. of Pittsburgh
Press, $14.00 pb, 0-8229-5781-7, 2002. (****) Fiction: Short Stories
For a Christian America: A History of the
Religious Right, Ruth Murray Brown, Humanity Books, Imprint of Prometheus,
$28.00 cl, 1-57392-973-5, 2002.
This social history traces the 25-year growth of the religious right back to
some startling origins, namely, the activism of conservative women against the
Equal Rights Amendment. (****) History; Spirituality/Religion; Womens Studies
Young Women of Achievement: A Resource Guide
for Girls in Science, Math and Technology, Frances A. Karnes and Kristen
R. Stephens, Humanity Books, Imprint of Prometheus, $21.00 pb, 1-57392-965-4,
2002.
Intended for girls, this resource guide offers resources and useful information
for exploring and planning a career in science, math, or technology. It includes
the true stories of girls and young women in the sciences and offers timelines
of women in history. Websites, computer software, special program, competitions
and other recommended resources add to the importance and usefulness of this
book. (****) Science/Mathematics; Young Adult Non-fiction **
Recommended
Teaching Feminist Activism: Strategies from
the Field, Nancy A. Naples, Routledge, $22.95 pb, 0-415-93187-8, 2002.
I guess it all comes full circle! It was feminist activism that first got women’s
studies into the academy, and now women’s studies has to somehow “teach”
feminist activism. The articles in this collection take on that reality. It
explores the ways in which today’s feminists can create real change and
how educators can provide the theoretical and practical tools for doing so.
Perhaps budding academic feminists can once again find their way back to the
streets. Of course, my caution would be to learn the places where feminism still
exists in communities (those who remained in the streets). Fortunately it seems
a couple of the articles do address the need for building feminist community
partnerships. (****) Women’s Studies; Education; Social Sciences
This publisher is new to FAPC. Please note the publication dates of the titles. For orders call for orders call: (310) 473-3312 or email roxbury@roxbury.net or visit their website.
Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics
- Second Edition, Judith Lorber, editor, Roxbury Publishing Co, $36.95
pb, 1-891487-60-4, 2001.
This introductory text introduces undergraduates unfamiliar with feminist perspectives
to the range of contemporary feminist theories and writings.Primary sources
are excerpted for each of the eleven feminist perspectives presented (liberal,
Marxist and socialist, post-colonial, radical, lesbian, psychoanalytic, standpoint,
multicultural, social construction, postmodern and queer theory, and men’s
feminisms). There is also a chapter on feminist theories of the body. (****)
Gender Studies; Women’s Studies TEXTBOOK
The Sociology of Gender: A Brief Introduction,
Laura Kramer, Roxbury Publishing Co, $36.95 pb, 1-891487-48-5, 2000.
For those looking for an introductory text into sociological understandings
of gender in contemporary U.S. Chapters focus on family, work and economy, legal
and political systems as well as language, media, religion, knowledge systems
and religion.
An Instructor’s Manual and Examination copies are also available for this
textbook. (****) Social Sciences; Gender Studies TEXTBOOK
Workplace/Women’s Place: An Anthology
- Second edition, Paula J. Dubec and Dana Dunn, editors, Roxbury Publishing
Co, $50.95 pb, 1-891487-51-5, 2002.
What happens when women enter the workplace? This introductory anthology illuminates
the factor’s influencing women’s employment and experiences in the
workplace.Special attention is paid to the ways in which class and race and
ethnicity shape women’s experiences in the workplace. (****) Work &
Labor; Women’s Studies TEXTBOOK
Biology at Work: Rethinking Sexual Equality,
Kingsley R. Browne, Rutgers Univ. Press, $28.00 cl, 0-8135-3053-9, 2002.
Is biology destiny? Can it explain why even in the creation of nondiscriminatory
policies, women still earn less than men on average and why there is a scarcity
of female CEOs in Fortune 500 companies? Browne suggests we should look to biology
NOT for simple explanatory natural phenomenon but as the third leg of the stool
along with the roles of discrimination and sexist socialization. Through biology,
we can recognize how understanding evolutionary pressures and origins of human
behavior can help in the creation of policies and more successful attempts for
workplace equality. (***) Gender Studies; Work & Labor; Biology/Natural
History
Death by Fire: Sati, Dowry Death, and Female
Infanticide in Modern India, Mala Sen, Rutgers Univ. Press, $27.00
cl, 0-8135-3102-0, 2002.
In prose that is both engaging and beautifully written, Sen takes us through
three modern day examples of terrifying practices still common in India. She
creates the image of a political state in turmoil where womens roles are constantly
being redefined yet tragically still cause for deep alarm. (****) Womens Studies;
International: Asia ** Recommended
Sister Circle: Black Women and Work,
Sharon Harley and The Black Women and Work Collective, editors, Rutgers Univ.
Press, $22.00 pb, 0-8135-3061-X, or $60.00 cl, 0-8135-3060-1, 2002.
These essays come from may fields of study to explore the lives and activities
of black womens labor since slavery. They look at paid and unpaid work, racial
barriers restricting wages and occupational choices. Work includes tourism industry,
academia, social activists and labor leaders, single motherhood, visual artists,
authors, media figures, church workers and many other fields. (****) African-American;
Work & Labor
Women, Gender, and Human Rights: A Global
Perspective, Marjorie Agosin, editor, Rutgers Univ. Press, $25.00 pb,
0-8135-2893-2, or $60.00 cl, 0-8135-2982-4, 2002.
Though the United Nations made a Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948,
it wasnt until 1995 that womens rights and gender issues were officially recognized
in the global arena by the U.N. This collection of essays addresses the historical
development of human rights while encompassing a wide range of womens issues
internationally -- violence, education, literacy, reproductive rights among
others. The contributors include international experts in the fields of government,
medicine, bioethics, public affairs, literature, history, anthropology, law,
and psychology. Attention is also paid to women as activists working for social
change through a variety of NGOs and grassroots organizations. (***) Womens
Studies; International
Fabulae, Joy Katz, Southern Illinois
Univ. Press, $12.95 pb, 0-8093-2444-X, 2002. Winner of the Crab Orchard Award
Series in Poetry
From the publisher... Katz combines the art of fabulator with the art
of sculptor to construct a sensual and striking autobiography. Her collection...rejoices
in a beauty found in the world that includes both delight and suffering. (****)
Poetry
Feminism Beyond Modernism, Elizabeth
A. Flynn, Southern Illinois Univ. Press, $25.00 pb, 0-8093-2435-0, or $50.00
cl, 0-8093-2434-2, 2002.
Flynn distinguishes between postmodern and antimodern feminisms then reclaims
postmodern feminism by reconfiguring its relationship to modernism. In order
to do this, she looks at the works of John Locke, Sigmund Freud, Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, Michel Foucault, Donna Haraway, Virginia Woolfe, Adrienne Rich, and
Alice Walker (among others). From the introduction (p. 3)... I take
the risk of using the terms modernism and postmodernism to describe feminist
traditions, but I do so by describing postmodernism as a critique of modernism
rather than a complete rejection of it....I introduce a third term, antimodernism,
and suggest that it, rather than postmodernism, is relativist and subjectivist
and directly opposed to modernism. Unfortunately, the 9-point type makes this
dense (and perhaps promising) book frustrating and almost impossible to read.
(**) Rhetoric; Womens Studies
Muse, Susan Aizenberg, Southern
Illinois Univ. Press, $12.95 pb, 0-8093-2433-1, 2002. Finalist in the Crab
Orchard Award Series in Poetry
From the publisher... She reminds us that poetry is a form of intelligence
in which music creates a world full of mystery and depth. (****) Poetry
alterNatives: Black Feminism in the Postimperial
Nation, Ranu Samantrai, Stanford Univ. Press, $19.95 pb, 0-8047-4321-5,
or $49.50 cl, 0-8047-4320-7, 2002.
Through a careful look at the history and strategies of the British black womens
movement (Afro Caribbean and South Asian) of the 1970 and 80s, Samantrai addresses
questions of radical democracy, the meaning of gender equity across racial and
cultural lines, and the ways in which movements undermine thei intended purposes
as they become mired in identity discourse and internal dissent. (***) Womens
Studies; Social Sciences
The Chosen Body: The Politics of the Body
in Israeli Society, Meira Weiss, Stanford Univ. Press, $49.50 cl, 0-8047-3272-8,
2002.
This books examines how the social and cultural paradigms of contemporary Israel
are articulated through the body. (**) International: Middle East; Social Sciences
Errant Plagiary: The Life and Writing of
Lady Sarah Cowper, 1644-1720, Anne Kugler, Stanford Univ. Press, $55.00
cl, 0-8047-3418-6, 2002.
Through the analysis of Lady Sarah Cowpers diary, this study shows how an 18th
century woman might read and actively interpret the gender and social ideologies
of her era in ways that did not always fit the original intentions of the authors
of prescriptive literaure. (**) Literary Criticism
Rebuilding the House of Israel: Architects of Gender in Jewish Antiquity, Cynthia M. Baker, Stanford Univ. Press, $60.00 cl, 0-8047-4029-1, 2002. Introduces a new series from Stanford Univ. Press: Divinations - Rereading Late Ancient Religion. (*) Spirituality/Religion TEXTBOOK
Also of interest
Speaking Volumes: Women, Reading, and Speech in the Ages of Austen,
Patricia Howell Michaelson, Stanford Univ. Press, $ cl, 0-8047-4075-5, 2002.
(**) Literary Criticism; Rhetoric
State
Univ. of New York Pr. (SUNY)
Everybodys Paid But the Teacher: The Teaching
Profession and the Womens Movement, Patricia A. Carter, Teachers College
Press, $24.95 pb, 0-8077-4206-6, 2002.
This book highlights and chronicles the ways in which female teachers and the
womens movement have strategized to create better workplaces for teachers and
to secure equal pay for equal work and other meaningful benefits as well as
the right to bargain collectively and to participate in social reforms. (****)
Work & Labor; Education; Womens Studies
Refusing Racism: White Allies and the Struggle
for Civil Rights, Cynthia Stokes Brown, Teachers College Press, $18.95
pb, 0-8077-4204-X, or $46.00 cl, 0-8077-4205-8, 2002.
From the catalog... "Why and how have whites joined people of
color to fight against white supremacy in the United States? What have they
risked and what have they gained? For anyone who has wondered about the character,
motivations, and contributions of white civil rights activists, Refusing Racism
offers rich portraits of four contemporary white American activists who have
dedicated their lives to the struggle for civil rights." The activists
portrayed are: Virginia Foster Durr, J. Waties Waring, Anne McCarty Braden,
and Herbert R. Kohl. (****) Race Theory; Biography
Flannery O'Connor: A Life, Jean
W. Cash, Univ. of Tennessee Press, $30.00 cl, 1-57233-192-5, 2002.
According to the publisher, this is the first full-length biography of Flannery
OConnor. Cash draws on interviews with OConnors friends, relatives, teachers,
and colleagues as well as her correspondence. (****) Biography; Literature **
Recommended
The Poetics of Enclosure: American Women
Poets from Dickinson to Dove, Lesley Wheeler, Univ. of Tennessee Press,
$27.00 cl, 1-57233-197-6, 2002.
From the publisher... In this illuminating critical study, Lesley Wheeler argues
for a womens tradition in American lyric poetry characterized by figures of
enclosure. She examines how six dissimilar yet interconnected poets employ this
idiom: Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, H.D., Gwendolyn Brooks, Elizabeth Bishop,
and Rita Dove. (**) Literary Criticism; Literature; Womens Studies
Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal
Interpretations of the Quran, Asma Barlas, Univ. of Texas Press, $21.95
pb, 0-292-70904-8, or $50.00 cl, 0-292-70903-X, 2002.
Through historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas rereads
the Quran for its inequality and patriarchy in order to come to a new view on
Islamic teachings on women, gender, and patriarchy. As she states in the introduction
(p. x1), I have wanted not only to challenge oppressive readings of the Quran
but also to offer a reading that confirms that Muslim women can struggle for
equality from within the framework of the Qurans teachings, contrary to what
both conservative and progressive Muslims believe. In this way, Islam can be
understood through its sacred scripture rather than through Muslim cultural
practices. (**) Spirituality/Religion; International: Middle East **
Recommended
The Empress Theodora: Partner of Junstinian,
James Allen Evans, Univ. of Texas Press, $29.95 cl, 0-292-72105-6, 2002.
In Byzantine society, Theodora was born into the lowest class, worked as an
actress in burlesque theater, then became the wife of Emperor Justinian. Not
only did he share his life with her but also made her his partner in government
thus giving her power in her own right and unmatched by any other Roman or Byzantine
empress. (***) Biography; History
Let Me Tell You What I've Learned: Texas
Wisewomen Speak, PJ Pierce, Univ. of Texas Press, $19.95 pb, 0-292-76594-0,
or $39.95 cl, 0-292-76593-2, 2002.
In this collection of interviews, 25 Texas women ranging in age from 53-93 share
the wisdom they have acquired through living unconventional lives. (****) Biography;
Regional: Southwest
Sista, Speak!: Black Women Kinfolk Talk about
Language and Literacy, Sonja L. Lanehart, Univ. of Texas Press, $22.95
pb, 0-292-74729-2, or $55.00 cl, 0-292-74728-4, 2002.
Through interviews and written statements, Lanehart traces the linguistics and
language use of five African American women -- her grandmother, mother, aunt,
sister, and herself. She explores the ways in which the demands of using proper
English affected the language, literacy, educational achievements and self-perceptions
of these women. It adds to an understanding of womens use of African American
English, an area little studied. (****) Language / Linguistics; African-American;
Womens Studies ** Recommended
War, Women, and Druids: Eyewitness Reports
and Early Accounts of the Ancient Celts, Philip Freeman, Univ. of Texas
Press, $24.95 cl, 0-292-72545-0, 2002.
Drawing on classical writers and ancient texts, Freeman pieces together an overall
portrait of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe and the British Isles. He organizes
this view around the themes of war, feasting, poetry, religion, women and the
Western Isles. (****) History
Also of interest
Sugars Life in the Hood: The Story of a Former Welfare Mother,
Sugar Turner, Tracy Bachrach Ehlers and with Foreword by Molly Ivins, Univ.
of Texas Press, $29.95 cl, 0-292-72102-1, 2002. (****) Autobiography/Memoir;
Anthropology; African-American
Gender, Race, and Nation: A Global Perspective,
Vanaja Dhruvarajan and Jill Vickers, Univ. of Toronto Press, $29.95 pb, 0-8020-8473-7,
or $65.00 cl, 0-8020-3636-8, 2002.
Womens movements around the world exist and are highly effective. Western scholarship
and cultural values as well as notions of global sisterhood continue to be challenged
as diverse womens movements become more visible on the world stage. This collection
of essays questions old assumptions while analyzing womens movement and scholarship
on women within a one-world framework. (***) Gender Studies
Rethinking Womens Collaborative Writing:
Power, Difference, Property, Lorraine York, Univ. of Toronto Press,
$24.95 pb, 0-8020-8465-6, or $50.00 cl, 0-8020-3623-6, 2002.
From the author on the cover... Female collaborators have often and
understandably been led to idealize and fetishize their shared act. But as this
study will show, some women collaborators have found it nece
