New books in 2019

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Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Global Governance Challenges, by Simon Dalby, Susan Horton, Rianne Mahon, Diana Thomaz. CRC Press, 2019.

This book draws on the expertise of faculty and colleagues at the Balsillie School of International Affairs to both locate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a contribution to the development of global government and to examine the political-institutional and financial challenges posed by the SDGs. The book begins by focusing on individual SDGs, examining briefly the background to the particular goal and evaluating the opportunities and challenges (particularly governance challenges) in achieving the goal, as well as discussing how this goal relates to other SDGs. The book goes on to address the broader issues of achieving the set of goals overall, examining the novel financing mechanisms required for an enterprise of this nature, the trade-offs involved (particularly between the urgent climate agenda and the social/economic goals), the institutional arrangements designed to enable the achievement of the goals and offering a critical perspective on the enterprise as a whole.

Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic, Translated with an introduction by Dan Attrell and David Porreca. Penn State University Press, 2019.

A manual for constructing talismans, mixing magical compounds, summoning planetary spirits, and determining astrological conditions, Picatrix is a cornerstone of Western esotericism. It offers important insights not only into occult practices and beliefs but also into the transmission of magical ideas from antiquity to the present. Dan Attrell and David Porreca’s English translation opens the world of this vital medieval treatise to modern-day scholars and lay readers.

Book cover for Planting the Anthropocene

Planting the Anthropocene: Rhetorics of Natureculture, by Jennifer Clary-Lemon. University of Colorado Press, 2019.

Planting the Anthropocene is a rhetorical look into the world of industrial tree planting in Canada that engages the themes of nature, culture, and environmental change. Bringing together the work of material ecocriticism and critical affect studies in service of a new materialist environmental rhetoric, Planting the Anthropocene forwards a frame that can be used to work through complex scenes of anthropogenic labor.

Finance or Food? The Role of Cultures, Values, and Ethics in Land Use Negotiations, edited by Hilde Bjørkhaug, Philip McMichael, and Bruce Muirhead. University of Toronto Press, 2019.

Exploring the ways in which culture, systems of value, and ethics impact agriculture, this volume addresses contemporary land questions and conditions for agricultural land management. Throughout, the editors and contributors consider a range of issues, including pressure on farmland, international and global trade relations, moral and ethical questions, and implications for governance.

On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy, by Imre Szeman. West Virginia University Press, 2019.

On Petrocultures brings together key essays by Imre Szeman, a leading scholar in the field of energy humanities and a critical voice in debates about globalization and neoliberalism. Szeman’s most important and influential essays, in dialogue with exciting new pieces written for the book, investigate ever-evolving circuits of power in the contemporary world, as manifested in struggles over space and belonging, redefinitions of work and individual autonomy, and the deep links between energy use and climate change. At the heart of the volume is the concept of “petrocultures,” which demands that we understand a fundamental fact of modern life: we are shaped by and through fossil fuels. Szeman argues that we cannot take steps to address global warming without fundamentally changing the social, cultural, and political norms and expectations developed in conjunction with the energy riches of the past century.

Energy Culture: Art and Theory on Oil and Beyond, by Imre Szeman and Jeff Diamanti. West Virginia University Press, 2019.

Energy Culture is a provocative book about oil’s firm grip on our politics and everyday lives. It brings together essays and artwork produced in a collaborative environment to stimulate new ways of thinking and to achieve a more just and sustainable world. Imbued with a sense of urgency and hope, Energy Culture exposes the deep imbrications of energy and culture while pointing provocatively to ways of thinking and living otherwise.

Other People's English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy, by Vershawn Ashanti Young, Rusty Barrett, Y’Shanda Young-Rivera, and Kim Brian Lovejoy. Parlor Press, 2019.

Other People’s English presents an empirically grounded argument for a new approach to teaching writing to diverse students in the English language arts classroom. Responding to advocates of the “code-switching” approach, four uniquely qualified authors make the case for “code-meshing”—allowing students to use standard English, African American English, and other Englishes in formal academic writing and classroom discussions. This practical resource translates theory into a concrete road map for pre- and inservice teachers who wish to use code-meshing in the classroom to extend students’ abilities as writers and thinkers and to foster inclusiveness and creativity.

Reinventing Maimonides in Contemporary Jewish Thought, by James A. Diamond and Menachem Kellner. Liverpool University Press, 2019.

Every work on Jewish thought and law since the twelfth century bears the imprint of Maimonides. A. N. Whitehead’s famous dictum that the entire European philosophical tradition ‘consists of a series of footnotes to Plato’ could equally characterize Maimonides’ place in the Jewish tradition. The critical studies in this volume explore how Orthodox rabbis of different orientations—Shlomo Aviner, Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin (Netziv), Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Joseph Kafih, Abraham Isaac Kook, Aaron Kotler, Joseph Soloveitchik, and Elhanan Wasserman—have read and provided footnotes to Maimonides in the long twentieth century. How well did they really understand Maimonides? And where do their arguments fit in the mainstream debates about him and his works? Each of the seven core chapters examines a particular approach.

Financial Accounting Theory, 8/E, by William R. Scott and Patricia O'Brien. Pearson Education Canada, 2019.

Financial Accounting Theory continues to orient the coverage of accounting standards to those of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). As in previous editions, some coverage of major U.S. accounting standards is also included. While the text discussion concentrates on relating standards to the theoretical framework of the book, the coverage provides students with exposure to the main features of the standards themselves.

Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science: Issues and Methods, by Randy Allen Harris. CRC Press, 2019.

Landmark Essays in Rhetoric of Science: Issues and Methods compiles the essential readings of the vibrant field of rhetoric of science, tracing the growth and core concerns of the field since its development in the 1970s. This collection serves as a textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in science studies, and is an invaluable resource for researchers concerned with science not as a special, autonomous, sacrosanct enterprise, but as a set of value-saturated, profoundly influential rhetorical practices.

Governing the World's Biggest Market, edited by Eric Helleiner, Stefano Pagliari and Irene Spagna. Oxford University Press, 2019.

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the regulation of the world's enormous derivatives markets assumed center stage on the international public policy agenda. Critics argued that loose regulation had contributed to the momentous crisis, but lasting reform has been difficult to implement since. Despite the global importance of derivatives markets, they remain mysterious and obscure to many. In Governing the World's Biggest Market, Eric Helleiner, Stefano Pagliari, and Irene Spagna have gathered an international cast of contributors to rectify this relative neglect. They examine how G20 governments have developed a coordinated international agenda to enhance control over these markets, which had been allowed to grow largely unchecked before the crisis.

Lernbewegungen inszenieren: Performative Zugänge in der Sprach-, Literatur- und Kulturdidaktik, by Susanne Even, Dragan Miladinovic, Barbara Schmenk. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2019.

Rivalrous Masculinities: New Directions in Medieval Gender Studies, by Ann Marie Rasmussen. University of Notre Dame Press, 2019.

Bringing together the work of both leading and emerging scholars in the field of medieval gender studies, the essays in Rivalrous Masculinities advance our understanding of medieval masculinity as a pluralized category and as an intersectional category of gender. The essays in this volume are distinguished by a conceptual focus that goes beyond heteronormativity and by their attention to constructions of medieval masculinity in the context of femininity, class, religion, and place.

History in the Age of Abundance? How the Web Is Transforming Historical Research, by Ian Milligan. McGill-Queen's Univeristy Press, 2019.

In History in the Age of Abundance? Ian Milligan argues that web-based historical sources and their archives present extraordinary opportunities as well as daunting technical and ethical challenges for historians. Through case studies, he outlines the approaches, methods, tools, and search functions that can help a historian turn web documents into historical sources. He also considers the implications of the size and scale of digital sources, which amount to more information than historians have ever had at their fingertips, and many of which are by and about people who have traditionally been absent from the historical record. Scrutinizing the concept of the web and the mechanics of its archives, Milligan explains how these new media challenge, reshape, and enrich both the historical profession and the historical record.

Introduction to International Studies, by Brian Orend. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Now in its second edition, this concise introduction to the wide-ranging field of international studies provides an overview of the political, social, economic, and cultural issues that shape our world. Known for its accessible tone, this text helps students develop a thorough understanding of our increasingly complicated and interconnected world while presenting an informed, Canadian perspective on important global issues.

Seizure the Day, by Brian Orend. Freehand Books, 2019.

Everyone can live a happier life, especially those with chronic illnesses. Brian Orend’s smart and accessible guide for people with illness, injury, or other challenges provides both a satisfying look into happiness as well as practical steps for living a measurably happier life.

War and Political Theory, by Brian Orend. Polity Books, 2019.

In a world that continues to be riven by armed conflict, the fundamental moral and political questions raised by warfare are as important as ever. Under what circumstances are we justified in going to war? Can conflicts be waged in a ‘moral’ way? Is war an inevitable feature of a world driven by power politics? What are the new ethical challenges raised by new weapons and technology, from drones to swarming attack robots? This book is an engaging and up-to-date examination of these questions and more, penned by a foremost expert in the field.

Rome and the Seleukid East: Selected Papers from Seleukid Study Day V, Brussels, 21-23 August 2015, edited by Atlay Coskun and D. Engles. Peeters Publishers, 2019.

Seleukos I (312-281) was the strongest among the Successors of Alexander the Great, and his territory extended as far as Thrace in the West and Pakistan in the East for over a century. The book tries to redress the balance of Seleukid weaknesses and strengths. Case studies either focus on power, politics and ideology of the Seleukid centre, or on continuity and change in 2nd-century Anatolia, Judaea and Babylon, before trying to integrate into a braoder picture the factors that led to Seleukid disintegration.

Science Communication Online: Engaging Experts and Publics on the Internet , by Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher. The Ohio State University Press, 2019.

As science communication has moved online, a range of important new genres have emerged that put professionals and the public into conversation with each other. In Science Communication Online: Engaging Experts and Publics on the Internet, Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher takes up these “trans-scientific” genres to explore how scientists are adapting their communications, how publics are increasingly involved in science, and how boundaries between experts and nonexperts continue to shift.

Sharing Life: Stories of L'Arche Founders, by Carolyn Whitney-Brown. Paulist Press, 2019.

What does it take to begin a spiritual community? Jean Vanier and other founders of early L’Arche communities tell stories of risk, joy, pain, and growth from life shared with people with intellectual disabilities in France, Canada, India, USA, UK, Ivory Coast, Haiti, and Honduras.

Tender to the World: Jean Vanier, L'Arche, and the United Church of Canada, by Carolyn Whitney-Brown. McGill Queen's Univesity Press, 2019.

Tracing the five-decade relationship between L'Arche and the United Church alongside evolving disability theories, Whitney-Brown examines both the fundamental importance of stories and the agency of people with intellectual disabilities. Inversion - a transformative overturning of expectations in social interactions - can be upsetting or exciting, challenging or inspiring, she argues. This book offers a fresh look at how L'Arche and the United Church have worked to break down walls of difference, illuminating how each tenders something unexpected to the other and to the world.

Linguistic Turns, 1890-1950: Writing on Language as Social Theory, by Ken Hirschkop. Oxford University Press, 2019.

A study of the rise of 'linguistic philosophy', structuralist linguistics, Formalist criticism and other movements from 1890 to 1950 that offers a fresh account of what has come to be known as the 'linguistic turn'.

Redefining the Situation: The Writings of Peter McHugh, edited by Kieran Bonner and Stanley Raffel. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019.

Redefining the Situation is a compendium of McHugh's published and unpublished short-form writings, along with three new essays on McHugh's work, one by his long-time collaborator and friend Alan Blum. The collection contributes to the project of reinventing social theory by providing a new perspective from which to imaginatively rethink the development of sociology over the last fifty years. It locates McHugh's work not only within the modern and postmodern sociological tradition but also within contemporary social theory broadly, including hermeneutics, critical theory, deconstruction, and Hannah Arendt's political theory. The essays in this volume show the development of a method to analyze everyday behaviour in light of fundamental questions, exploring conflicts and connections between socialization and recidivism, fragmentation and ethnic cleansing, justice and affirmative action, teaching and university politics, and intimacy and aesthetics. 

Shakespeare On Stage and Off, edited by Kenneth Graham and Alysia Kolentsis. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019.

Today, debates about the cultural role of the humanities and the arts are roiling. Responding to renewed calls to reassess the prominence of canonical writers, Shakespeare On Stage and Off introduces new perspectives on why and how William Shakespeare still matters. Lively and accessible, the book considers what it means to play, work, and live with Shakespeare in the twenty-first century. Contributors - including Antoni Cimolino, artistic director of the Stratford Festival - engage with contemporary stagings of the plays, from a Trump-like Julius Caesar in New York City to a black Iago in Stratford-upon-Avon and a female Hamlet on the Toronto stage, and explore the effect of performance practices on understandings of identity, death, love, race, gender, class, and culture. 

Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes, by Douglas E. Cowan. University of California Press, 2019.

Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes looks at fantasy film, television, and participative culture as evidence of our ongoing need for a mythic vision—for stories larger than ourselves into which we write ourselves and through which we can become the heroes of our own story. Why do we tell and retell the same stories over and over when we know they can’t possibly be true? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not because pop culture has run out of good ideas. Rather, it is precisely because these stories are so fantastic, some resonating so deeply that we elevate them to the status of religion. Illuminating everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Dungeons and Dragons, and from Drunken Master to Mad Max, Douglas E. Cowan offers a modern manifesto for why and how mythology remains a vital force today.

The Little Animals, by Sarah Tolmie. Aqueduct Press, 2019.

Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek, a quiet linen draper in Delft, has discovered a new world: the world of the little animals, or animalcules, that he sees through his simple microscopes. These tiny creatures are everywhere, even inside us. But who will believe him? Not his wife, not his neighbors, not his fellow merchants—only his friend Reinier De Graaf, a medical doctor. Then he meets an itinerant goose girl at the market who lives surrounded by tiny, invisible voices. Are these the animalcules also? Leeuwenhoek and the girl form a curious alliance, and gradually the lives of the little animals infiltrate everything around them: Leeuwenhoek’s cloth business, the art of his friend Johannes Vermeer, the nascent sex trade, and people’s religious certainties. But Leeuwenhoek also needs to cement his reputation as a natural philosopher, and for that he needs the Royal Society of London—a daunting challenge, indeed, for a Dutch draper who can't communicate in Latin.