An accomplished triathlete and social scientist, Diana Tracy Cohen offers much insight into the effects of endurance-sport training on family, parenting, and the sense of self.  Based in part on in-depth interviews with forty-seven triathletes and three prominent men in the race industry, Iron Dads explores the sacrifices that are required—both at home and at work—to cross an iron-distance finish line.    

Public Interests fills in a key part of the history of American social reform movements, revealing the impressive battles fought by groups like the NAACP, NOW, and the conservative Parents Television Council to shape both the nation’s television programming and its broadcasting policies. Allison Perlman takes us behind the scenes of several key regulatory fights, in the process vividly illustrating the resilience, flexibility, and diversity of media activist campaigns from the 1950s onward.  

The Jewish practice of bar mitzvah dates back to the twelfth century. Yet, as this new study reveals, the ritual has changed dramatically over time and now serves as a sometimes shaky bridge between the values of contemporary American culture and Judaic tradition. Interviewing over 200 individuals involved in bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies, from family members to religious educators to rabbis, Patricia Keer Munro presents a candid portrait of the conflicts that often emerge and the negotiations that ensue. 

Is sport good for kids? Child’s Play presents a nuanced examination of this question, considering not only the physical impacts of youth athletics, but its psychological and social ramifications as well. The eleven original scholarly essays in this collection provide a probing look into how sports—in community athletic leagues, in schools, and even on television—play a major role in how young people view themselves, shape their identities, and imagine their place in society.

Focusing largely on triathlon and “extreme” mountain biking, sociologist Stephen C. Poulson offers a fascinating exploration of the new lifestyle sports, shedding light on why people find them so compelling. Drawing on interviews with competitors, on his own experience as a participant, and other materials, Poulson looks at the commodification of the new sports, the types of people who decide to participate, those most often excluded, and whether or not participation in lifestyle sport should always be considered “good” for athletes. 

Designing Sound demonstrates how Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, and other groundbreaking American directors of the 1970s possessed not only visionary eyes, but also keen ears that enabled them to take cinematic sound design in innovative directions. Offering detailed case studies of key films and filmmakers, Jay Beck explores how sound design was central to the era’s experimentation with new modes of cinematic storytelling and aesthetic sensibilities, from the lyricism of Terrence Malick to the gritty realism of Martin Scorsese.   

Based on almost a decade of research in the Kathmandu Valley, Planning Families in Nepal offers a compelling account of Hindu Nepali women as they face conflicting global and local ideals regarding family planning. By examining family life as it unfolds over time, Jan Brunson delivers a fresh perspective on discussions of contraception, son preference, the joint family, and the inability of the concept “planning” to accurately describe conception and reproduction in a patrilocal family system. 

Written in the midst of a moment when transgender people are enjoying unprecedented visibility, this interdisciplinary essay collection brings together leading experts in the burgeoning field of Trans Studies to ask tough questions about what gender and embodiment mean in the twenty-first century. Both theoretically sophisticated and deeply grounded in real-world concerns, Trans Studies bridges the gap between activism and academia by offering examples of cutting-edge activism, research, and pedagogy.  

Written in the midst of a moment when transgender people are enjoying unprecedented visibility, this interdisciplinary essay collection brings together leading experts in the burgeoning field of Trans Studies to ask tough questions about what gender and embodiment mean in the twenty-first century. Both theoretically sophisticated and deeply grounded in real-world concerns, Trans Studies bridges the gap between activism and academia by offering examples of cutting-edge activism, research, and pedagogy.  

In Invisible Asians, Kim Park Nelson analyzes the processes by which Korean American adoptees have been rendered racially invisible, and how that invisibility facilitates their treatment as exceptional subjects within the context of American race relations and in government policies, including immigration law. Park Nelson connects this invisibility to the ambiguous racial positioning of Asian Americans in American culture, and explores the implications of invisibility for Korean adoptees as they navigate race, culture, and nationality.