Media Shelf: LSU Books and Creative Work
January 25, 2023
Aerodynamics
Aly Mousaad Aly
Associate Professor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering
Aerodynamics, the study of air motion around solid objects, allows us to understand and measure the dominating forces acting on aircrafts, buildings, bridges, automobiles, and other structures. The forces that result in an aircraft overcoming gravity and drag are called thrust and lift. Various parameters, such as geometrical configurations of objects, as well as physical properties of air, which may be functions of position and time, affect those forces. Co-edited by Aly Mousaad Aly, this book covers some of the latest studies regarding the application of
the principles of aerodynamics to the design of many different engineered objects.
The Qualifications Gap: Why Women Must be Better than Men to Win Political Office
Nichole M. Bauer
Associate Professor of Political Communication, Remal Das and Lachmi Devi Bhatia Memorial
Professor
Applying insights from psychology and political science and drawing on experiments, public opinion data, and content analysis, Nichole M. Bauer presents new evidence of how voter biases and informational asymmetries combine to disadvantage female candidates. The book shows that voters conflate masculinity and political leadership, receive less information about the political experiences of female candidates, and hold female candidates’ qualifications to a higher standard.
We Ourselves: The Politics of Us, Letting Be Volume II
Translated by Jon Cogburn
Professor of Philosophy
Tristan Garcia’s radical historicization of the ways we have imagined ourselves is more than a commentary on the dynamics of representation in a given society. This work is a rigorous engagement with the history of humanity’s attempts at being collectively. For fans of The Life Intense, the first volume in the Letting Be series, We Ourselves is the next step in the development of Garcia’s thought, but for those who have not read it, it also stands alone. Garcia provides a methodological framework that critically reinvigorates our dreams of the society to come.
Experiencing WS: The Making of An Artist Scholar
Femi Euba
Louise and Kenneth Kinney Professor of Black Drama and Playwriting
Femi Euba’s book deals extensively with his evolutionary growth as a theater artist—from actor to director to playwright—and scholar under the tutelage of Wole Soyinka, the author’s former mentor. Soyinka’s influence on Euba’s career journey and intellectual development is evident in the initials, WS, included in the book’s main title. Much of the book takes the reader through various stages of the author’s artistic and intellectual endeavor, particularly in the context of the mentor-mentee relationship between Soyinka and the author. This is a relationship that has contributed significantly in promoting African theater on the international stage, particularly from the mid-20th century to the early 21st century.
In & Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam
Stephen C. Finley
Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African & African American Studies
With In and Out of This World, Stephen C. Finley examines the religious practices and discourses that have shaped the Nation of Islam in America. Drawing on the speeches and writing of figures such as Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Warith Deen Mohammad, and Louis Farrakhan, Finley shows that the Nation of Islam and its leaders used multiple religious symbols, rituals, and mythologies meant to recast the meaning of the cosmos and create new transcendent and immanent black bodies whose meaning cannot be reduced to products of racism. Whether examining how the myth of Yakub helped Elijah Muhammad explain the violence directed at Black bodies, how Malcolm X made Black bodies in the Nation of Islam publicly visible, or the ways Farrakhan’s discourses on his experiences with the Mother Wheel UFO organize his interpretation of Black bodies, Finley demonstrates that the Nation of Islam intended to retrieve, reclaim, and reform Black bodies in a context of anti-Black violence.
The Sky Is for Everyone: Women Astronomers in Their Own Words
Gabriela González
LSU Boyd Professor of Physics
The Sky Is for Everyone is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical essays by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern astronomy. Virginia Trimble and David Weintraub vividly describe how, before 1900, a woman who wanted to study the stars had to have a father, brother, or husband to provide entry, and how the considerable intellectual skills of women astronomers were still not enough, even through much of the 20th century. Their book brings together the stories of the tough and determined women who flung the doors wide open, including LSU Professor Gabriela González.
The American Newsroom: A History, 1920–1960
William Mari
Assistant Professor in Media Law
The story of the American newsroom is that of modern American journalism. In this
holistic history, Will Mari tells that story from the 1920s through the 1960s, a time
of great change and controversy in the field, one in which journalism was produced
in “news factories” by news workers with dozens of different roles, and not just once
a day, but hourly, using the latest technology and setting the stage for the emergence
later in the century of the information
economy.
Racial Realism and the History of Black People in America
Lori Latrice Martin
Associate Dean, College of Humanities & Social Sciences Professor of Sociology and
African & African American Studies
Lori Latrice Martin demonstrates how racial realism is a key concept for understanding why and how Black people continue to live between a cycle of optimism and disappointment in the U.S. Central to her argument is Derrick Bell’s work on racial realism, who argued that the subordination of Black people in America is permanent. Racial Realism includes historical topics, such as Reconstruction, race in the 20th century, and recent events like #BlackLivesMatter, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the killing of George Floyd. At various times in American history, Black people felt a sense of hopefulness and optimism that America would finally extend treasured American values to them only to find themselves marginalized.
Blackwell’s Five-Minute Veterinary Consult: Reptile and Amphibian
Javier G. Nevarez
Professor of Zoological Medicine
Blackwell’s Five-Minute Veterinary Consult delivers a comprehensive exploration of the treatment of the most common diseases and disorders in reptiles and amphibians. The book is organized for quick and easy access to information, acting as an indispensable resource for veterinarians engaged in the care of chelonians, lizards, snakes, crocodilians, and amphibians and offers readers guidance from leading international voices in the field of reptile and amphibian care, packaged in a perfect clinical manual.
The British Jesus, 1850-1970
Meredith Veldman
Associate Professor of History
The British Jesus focuses on the Jesus of the religious culture dominant in Britain from the 1850s through 1970, the popular Christian culture shared by not only church, kirk, and chapel goers but also the growing number of Britons who rarely or only episodically entered a house of worship. An essay in intellectual as well as cultural history, this book illumines the interplay between and among British New Testament scholarship, institutional Christianity, and the wider Protestant culture.
Sporting Performances: Politics in Play
Shannon L. Walsh
Associate Professor of Theatre History
Through a series of intriguing case studies that blur the lines between the realms of politics, sports, physical culture, and performance, this book assumes that sporting performances, much like theatre, serve as barometers, mirrors, and refractors of the culture in which they are enmeshed. While analyzing sport through the lens of theatre and performance, this anthology, edited by Shannon Walsh, reflects on how physical culture and sports contribute to identity formation and the effects of nuanced imprints of physical activity on the mind, soul, and tongue.