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Mason Spirit is published three times a year by the Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations in conjunction with the Office of Communications and Marketing.
Faculty Books
Race and Justice in America
By Colleen Kearney Rich on May 4, 2016
In the new book Deadly Injustice: Trayvon Martin, Race, and the Criminal Justice System (New York University Press, 2015), Mason criminology, law and society professor Devon Johnson and coeditors Patricia Y. Warren of Florida State University and Amy Farrell of Northwestern University use the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case to explore how highly publicized criminal cases shape public opinion about offenders, the criminal process, and justice in the United States.
The (Literary) South Does Rise Again
By Colleen Kearney Rich on January 28, 2016
It was at the 2012 Society for the Study of Southern Literature conference that Mason English professor Eric Gary Anderson and coeditors Taylor Haygood of Florida Atlantic University and Daniel Cross Turner at Coastal Carolina University started hatching the idea for the anthology Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture (LSU Press, 2015).
The Pursuit of Happiness
By Colleen Kearney Rich on January 28, 2015
The senior scientist at Mason’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being says our pursuit of happiness is actually making us unhappy,
Identity and Power in Ukraine
By Buzz McClain, BA '77 on September 12, 2014
At the time of the publication of Mason professor Karina Korostelina’s book, Constructing the Narratives of Identity and Power: Self-Imagination in a Young Ukrainian Nation (Lexington Books, 2013), Ukraine had stepped to the forefront of the world’s news as the power struggle between the country, independent since the early 1990s, and Russia’s subsequent usurpation of Crimea grew violently hostile.
The Challenges of International Adoption
By Colleen Kearney Rich on April 8, 2014
When Mason anthropology professor Linda J. Seligmann and her husband adopted a baby girl from China in 2000, the reception they received triggered her professional, as well as personal, curiosity. The experience led to her latest book, Broken Links, Enduring Ties: American Adoption across Race, Class, and Nation (Stanford University Press, 2013), which focuses on families who have adopted children from China and Russia, and families who have adopted African American children transracially.
Finding the New Normal
By Tara Laskowski, MFA '05 on November 12, 2013
A new book provides reference points for couples to compare their relationship with others and to judge how “normal” they really are.
Fighting the Good Fight: An Interview with Mason Professor Angela J. Hattery
By Colleen Kearney Rich on June 3, 2013
When Mason sociologist Angela J. Hattery published her research monograph Intimate Partner Violence in 2008, the acquisition editor at Westview Press approached her to write a textbook. “I was hesitant at first since I’d never written a textbook before, but I knew it was desperately needed in the classroom,” says Hattery, the associate director of the Women and Gender Studies Program. The result is her eighth book, The Social Dynamics of Family Violence, which she co-wrote with Earl Smith, Rubin Distinguished Professor of American Ethnic Studies at Wake Forest University.
Continue Reading Fighting the Good Fight: An Interview with Mason Professor Angela J. Hattery
All the President’s Czars
By Mason Spirit contributor on October 31, 2012
“Czars are a constitutional aberration,” says Mason policy professor Mark Rozell. “There is no official title of executive branch ‘czar’ in the U.S. Constitution, federal laws, or government manuals. Czars may in theory exist to merely provide advice to presidents, but the reality is that many of these officers have gone well beyond merely advising and often supervised statutory programs, administered a policy area, controlled appropriated funds, or regulated industries. White House and executive branch aides who exercise decision-making authority that has the force of law and are not confirmed by the Senate violate the U.S. Constitution.”
Creating a Blueprint for Health Research
By Leah Kerkman Fogarty on October 24, 2011
Kathryn Jacobsen is an old hand at writing textbooks. After the success of this associate professor in the Department of Global and Community Health’s 2007 text Introduction to Global Health, she decided to tackle the world of research in Introduction to Health Research Methods (Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011). An epidemiologist, Jacobsen explains that her…
Right of Way
By Mason Spirit contributor on May 10, 2011
The stories in Right of Way (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 2010)describe fictional Cleave Springs, a gentrifying neighborhood in the nation’s capital. These insightful stories introduce the neighborhood’s dazzling variety of characters—longtime survivors and new arrivals, preservationists and visionaries, black people and white people—as they navigate the complexities of diversity and change, and strive to realize…
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