On January 28, 2019 Anthropology Professor Jan English-Lueck was interviewed by the New Books Network about her book Cultures@SiliconValley: Second Edition. The interview is available as a podcast.
Tag Archives: faculty research
Ruma Chopra in the Academic Spotlight
Dr. Ruma Chopra (Professor, Department of History) was recently featured in the SJSU Office of the Provost “Academic Spotlight” online newsletter. The November 2018 “Emeritus and Retired Faculty Support Scholarly Work” post outlines Professor Chopra’s Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association’s Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award, which enabled her “to travel to various libraries across the United Kingdom to conduct research on how climate-based migrations shaped empires — in this case, the eighteenth-century British Empire’s expansion into the Americas, West Africa, South Asia and the South Pacific.” Professor Chopra’s latest book — Almost Home: Maroons between Slavery and Freedom in Jamaica, Nova Scotia, and Sierra Leone — was published earlier this year.
Faculty books published in 2018
On November 2, 2018 the SJSU Annual Author & Artist Awards event celebrated faculty who published books in 2018. The following College of Social Sciences faculty were recognized:
Theodorea Regina Berry, Author
States of Grace: Counterstories of a Black Woman in the Academy
Publisher: Peter Lang, 2018
This book recognizes, acknowledges and centers race and gender through the embodiment of Black womanhood in the academy in the context of grace. Encapsulated in concepts of grace, this book reveals the dynamic, multidimensional presence of a scholar who brings her wholeness into her scholarship and teaching, providing insights and guidance along the way.
Ruma Chopra, Author
Almost Home
Publisher: Yale University Press, 2018
This is the story of a small community of escaped slaves who revolted against the British government and managed to maneuver and survive against all odds.
Stephanie Coopman, Co-Author, James Lull, Co-Author
Public Speaking: The Evolving Art
Publisher: Cengage, 2018
works.bepress.com/stephanie_coopman/
The fourth edition of this book combines time-tested techniques with innovative variations on the foundations of public speaking instruction to produce more confident, competent and ethical public speakers. Integrating examples from popular culture, this edition analyzes the public speaking success of such contemporary figures as Bernie Sanders and Malala Yousafza and prompts learners to put their new skills into practice.
Gordon Douglas, Author
The Help-Yourself City: Legitimacy and Inequality in DIY Urbanism
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2018
works.bepress.com/gordon-douglas/
This book looks closely at people who take urban planning into their own hands with homemade signs and benches, guerrilla bike lanes, and more. It explores the frustration, creativity, and technical expertise behind these interventions, but also the position of privilege from which they often come. Presenting a needed analysis of this growing trend from vacant lots to city planning offices, The Help-Yourself Citytells a street-level story of people’s relationships to their urban surroundings as well as a worrying individualization of civic responsibility.
Deanna Fassett, Co-Author, John T. Warren, Co-Author, Keith Nainby, Co-Author
Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction
Publisher: Cognella, 2018
works.bepress.com/deanna_fassett/
This book provides first-year students a comprehensive yet focused overview of communication theory, interpersonal communication, and public communication and culture through the lens of contemporary critical theory. The authors show how we produce our world through communication, challenging us to explore power, ideology and diversity through daily interactions, both public and private.
Joel Franks, Author
Asians and Pacific Islanders in American Football
Publisher: Lexington Books, 2018
works.bepress.com/joel_franks/
This book is an analysis of the experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders with American football. In particular, it examines how Asian and Pacific Islander peoples used American football to develop and maintain a sense of community while experiencing institutional racism, colonialism and labor exploitation.
Robert Ovetz, Author
When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict 1877-1921
Publisher: Brill, 2018
This book explores one of the most tumultuous times in United States history and argues that the escalation of working class conflict drives rather than reacts to the consolidation and reorganization of capital and economic and political reform of the state. Studying the class composition of this period illustrates why workers escalated the intensity of their tactics, even using tactical violence, to extract concessions and reforms when all other efforts to do so were blocked, co-opted or repressed.
Mary Pickering, Co-Editor, Michel Bourdeau, Co-Editor, Warren Schmaus, Co-Editor
Love, Order, & Progress: The Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Auguste Comte
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh, 2018
This book examines Auguste Comte’s system of positivism. Comprising essays from leading Comte scholars, the work is the most comprehensive book in English on his philosophy of science and political and social philosophy.
Matthew Spangler, Author
“The Kite Runner” (stage script)
Publisher: Penguin, 2018
works.bepress.com/matthew-spangler/
This is a stage script based on Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, coinciding with the London West End production of the play and UK / Irish tour.
Jan English-Lueck publishes an article about Silicon Valley culture
Anthropology Professor Jan English-Lueck recently published an article in Anthropology News. Navigating Silicon Valley’s Contradictions explores how “Silicon Valley’s workers must maneuver their way through this place of diversity and discrimination, capitalist aims, and countercultural aspirations.”
2018 Burdick Military History Symposium
The San Jose State University History Department, School of Music, the California State Military Reserve and Burdick Military History Project Present the 2018 Charles Burdick Memorial Military History Symposium:
Culture & WW1
Sunday April 15, 2018 1:00 to 7:00 pm
San Jose State University
This Event is Free and Open to the Public
Panel: SJSU Engineering Auditorium (ENG 189) 1:00 to 4:00
Moderator: Dr. Jonathan Roth, Professor of History and Director, Burdick Military History Project.
Dr. Karen English of San Jose State University will speak on American Poetry in the Great War. The most famous poem of World War One “In Flanders Fields” was written by a Canadian about a British battle, but there were many American poems written in support of, and against the war, by men and women, officers and enlisted. Educated in North Carolina and raised in a military family, Dr. English has taught American Literature and American Studies at San José State University since 1989. Her academic field is American Literature before 1865, but she saw the film Gallipoli in 1981 and has since been passionately interested in literature written during and about WWI, esp. American poetry, but also fiction, autobiography, and drama.
Professor Kimberly Schafer of San Francisco’s Academy of Arts University will present Otto Dix: Combat Veteran and Avant Garde Painter. Otto Dix was already a painter when at age 23, he volunteered for the German Army and served continually from 1914 to 1918. Dix fought in the Battle of the Somme, on the Eastern Fronter, and took part in Germany’s final Spring Offensive in the West. He earned an Iron Cross (2nd Class) and left the army as the equivalent of a Staff Sergeant (Vizefeldwebel). After the war, Dix became a leading painter a critical observer of Weimar and the Great War. Prof. Schafer holds two graduate degrees from Oxford Brookes University (formerly Oxford Polytechnic), and has been with the Academy of Art University since 1996. Her graduate thesis focused on the twentieth century British artist Stanley Spencer (another World War One veteran).
Dr. English will introduce the 1918 film Shoulder Arms, which Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed and starred in. We meet his famous character in boot camp, and the 46 minute movie takes us with him to the Western Front. The film was hugely popular and was used in bond drives. Although almost 100 years old, the movie still resonates with today’s veterans.
Concert: SJSU Concert Hall (Music 176)
Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CA) James Lamb and the 11-member California State Military Reserve Band present From Ragtime to Jazz: The Music of James Reese Europe, bringing to life the fascinating tale of Jim Europe, a leading figure in the transition from ragtime to jazz. Travelling from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the battlefields of World War I France, the presentation combines narrative, images, video, and live music to chart the story of this groundbreaking African-American musician and soldier. The band uses historically accurate compositions and scores as played by Jim Europe’s ensembles and instruments common to the period to accurately reproduce the music as it sounded 100 years ago. The California State Military Reserve Band is made up of members of the CSMR or CalGuard, a volunteer organization that backs up the California National Guard, as well as Guard and Reserve musicians.
To reserve free concert tickets please go to:
eventbrite.com/e/from-ragtime-to-jazz-the-music-of-james-reese-europe-tickets-43523007487
For further information, including regarding accessibility and accommodation, please contact Dr. Jonathan Roth (email: jonathan.roth@sjsu.edu).