In his new book, “The Working Landscape: Founding, Preservation, and the Politics of Place” (MIT Press), Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Peter F. Cannavò focuses on the displacement and transformation of our landscape, the “crisis of place facing the United States.” He points out that “rampant development, unsustainable exploitation of resources, environmental degradation, and the commodification of places are ruining built and natural landscapes, disconnecting people from their surroundings and threatening individuals’ fundamental sense of place. Meanwhile, preservationists often respond with a counterproductive stance that rejects virtually any change in the landscape.” More ...

Associate Professor of Dance Leslie Norton is the author of a new book, Frederic Franklin: A Biography of the Ballet Star. Franklin is one of the greatest ballet dancers of the twentieth century and is still performing at the age of 93, dancing principal roles for American Ballet Theatre. In writing the book, Norton conducted more than 60 hours of taped interviews with Franklin and his most noteworthy colleagues. More ...

Broadening the Horizon: Critical Introductions to Amma Darko, edited by Professor of English Vincent O. Odamtten, has been published by Ayebia Clarke Publishing Limited, Banbury Oxfordshire, UK. This collection of essays from nearly a dozen respected academics and practitioners in the field brings a number of critical perspectives to focus on the work of Amma Darko, a 21st century Ghanaian writer. More ...

Associate Professor of History Lisa Trivedi is the author of a new book, Clothing Gandhi’s Nation: Homespun and Modern India (Indiana University Press). According to the publisher: In Clothing Gandhi’s Nation, Lisa Trivedi explores the making of one of modern India’s most enduring political symbols: khadi, or home-spun, home-woven cloth. The image of Mohandas K. Gandhi clothed simply in a loincloth, plying a spinning wheel, is familiar around the world, as is the sight of Gandi, Jawaharlal Nehru and other political leaders dressed in 'Gandhi caps'and khadi shirts. Less widely understood today is how these images associated the wearers with the swadeshi movement – which advocated the exclusive consumption of indigenous goods to establish India’s autonomy from Great Britain – or how khadi was used to create a visual expression of national identity after Independence. Bringing together social history and the study of visual culture, Trivedi tells the story of khadi as both symbol and commodity, product and style of dress. More ...

Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert is the author of a new book, Mexico's Middle Class in the Neoliberal Era (The University of Arizona Press, March, 2007). Gilbert who joined the Hamilton faculty in 1976, earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Cornell University. His primary research interests are Latin American and American class system. He is also the author of Sandinistas: the Party and the Revolution (1988) and The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality (2003). More ...