Hofstra Magazine

The Big Picture
A Look at Some of the Events That Made 2008 One of the Most Memorable Years in Hofstra History

The Page Turners

Adjunct Assistant Professor of English Zachary Lazar received raves for Sway, a novel about the early days of the Rolling Stones, including the romantic triangle of Brian Jones, Anita Pallenberg and Keith Richards. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Newsday, Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Time Out New York weighed in with high praise.

English Professor Paula Uruburu saw the publication of American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White: The Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century, about America's early 20th-century supermodel Evelyn Nesbit and the media frenzy following the murder of architect Stanford White by her psychotic husband, Harry K. Thaw. This book received favorable reviews in The New York Times Book Review, Newsday, Vogue, O -- The Oprah Magazine, New York Post and Los Angeles Times.

Acclaimed essayist Phillip Lopate, the John Cranford Adams Chair in the Humanities, examined relationships in Two Marriages, novellas about complex couples. Appropriately in the spring, Professor of English Phillis Levin celebrated the publication of her latest collection of poems, May Day, exploring how tenderness and violence change our lives.

Professor of English John Bryant, one of the world's foremost experts on Herman Melville, shed new light on the author and his writing process with Melville Unfolding: Sexuality, Politics, and the Versions of Typee.

Adjunct Associate Professor of English Charles Anderson released his second novel, A Highland Fling, the sequel to 2007's Playing for Blood, about two retired school teachers who open a private investigation business.

Not every publication, though, was born out of the English Department. Professor of Law Alafair Burke published her fifth novel, Angel's Tip, the second book in her Ellie Hatcher series. Professor Burke is also known for her crime novels featuring Portland prosecutor Samantha Kincaid.

Professor of Economics Gregory DeFreitas, who serves as director of the Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy (CLD), authored Young Workers in the Global Economy: Job Challenges in North America, Europe and Japan, chronicling the surprising decline in the economic status of young people that is underway today in the United States and many other high-income nations.

Meena Bose, the Peter S. Kalikow Chair in Presidential Studies and director of the Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency, authored The New York Times on the Presidency: 1853-2008, the first in a series of Times Reference books to be published by Congressional Quarterly Press that makes use of the Times' extensive archives to trace the evolution of American political institutions and organizations.

Professor of History Stanislao Pugliese edited a new edition of Carlo Levi's Fear of Freedom, featuring newly published pieces of Levi's artwork and the first English translation of his essay "Fear of Painting."

Daniel Varisco, professor of anthropology and department chair, wrote Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid, a critical study of the late and controversial intellectual Edward Said, whose 1978 book Orientalism argued that a dominant discourse of West over East has warped virtually all past European and American representation of the Near East.

Kristal Brent Zook, associate professor of journalism, media studies and public relations, examined the place of African Americans within the television and radio industry with I See Black People: The Rise and Fall of African American-Owned Television and Radio. In the book she profiles 10 key figures, including Catherine Liggins Hughes, who faced overwhelming challenges establishing Radio One but became the first black woman to own a publicly traded company, and Booker Wade, who currently operates one of the last African American-controlled public television stations in the country.

From the School of Education, Health and Human Services, Associate Professor of Literacy Studies Alan Flurkey was a co-editor on Scientific Realism in Studies of Reading, featuring research-based insights that broaden current understandings of the nature of reading. Professor Flurkey and Andrea Garcia, also an associate professor of literacy studies, contributed chapters to the book as well.

Judith Kaufman, associate professor and chair of curriculum and teaching, served as a co-editor on Dissecting the Mundane: International Perspectives on Memory-Work, a collection of contemporary perspectives on memory-work from researchers in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States, and from the disciplines of education, marketing, sociology, psychology, masculinity studies and social work practice.

Professor Emeritus Maureen Miletta co-edited a collection of 19 essays, Classroom Conversations: A Collection of Classics for Parents and Teachers, with her daughter, Alexandra, who is also an educator. The featured essays are intended to help younger teachers better understand the importance of their work and to offer renewed meaning to more experienced educators. For parents, the book should enrich their understanding of their children's educational experience.

Jeffrey P. Rosenfeld, director of the Gerontology Program, co-authored Home Design in an Aging World, which examines changing norms and social strains in an aging world and their implications for home design. The book looks at senior home design in Brazil, China, India, Israel, Japan, Sweden, and the United States, which are now faced with the challenge of providing housing for populations that are living longer than ever before.

Professor of Curriculum and Teaching Alan Singer saw the publication of New York and Slavery, Time to Teach the Truth. New York, both the city and the state, were centers of the abolitionist struggle to end human bondage; however, at the same time, enslaved Africans built the infrastructure of the colonial city. In the book, Dr. Singer shows teachers how to develop ways to teach about this very difficult topic. He also demonstrates how to deal with racial preconceptions and tensions in the classroom and calls upon teachers and students to become historical activists, conduct research, write reports, and present their findings to the public. Additionally, Dr. Singer and the Hofstra New Teachers Network published the third edition of Social Studies for Secondary Schools, a text intended for use in undergraduate and graduate pre-service social studies methods courses.

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