The Specter and the Speculative examines how historical subjects and texts within the African Diaspora are re-fashioned, re-animated, and re-articulated, as well as parodied, nostalgized, and defamiliarized. The essays, by emergent and established scholars, explore how “living” archives circulate and haunt the popular imagination, engendering afterlives and liberating prior narratives from their original context.

Wake: Why the Battle Over Diverse Public Schools Still Matters tells the story of the aftermath of the 2009 Wake County school board election in favor of "neighborhood schools," including the fierce public debate that ensued during school board meetings and in the pages of the local newspaper, and the groundswell of community support that voted in a pro-diversity school board in 2011. What was at stake in those years was the fundamental direction of the largest school district in North Carolina and the 14th largest in the U.S. Would it maintain a commitment to diverse schools, and if so, how would it balance that commitment with various competing interests and demands? Through hundreds of published opinion articles and several in depth interviews with community leaders, Wake examines the substance of that debate and explores the community’s vision for public education.

This is the first book to examine how and why the United States refused to officially acknowledge the 1915-17 Armenian Genocide until the early 2020s. Drawing from congressional records, rare newspapers, and interviews with lobbyists and decision-makers, historian Julien Zarifian reveals how genocide recognition became such a complex, politically sensitive issue.

The Other Jersey Shore takes readers on a personal tour of the New Jersey portion of the Delaware River and its surroundings, from the archeological remnants of the former King of Spain’s mansion to waterfalls where bears and foxes frolic. Combining history and nature writing, it shares engrossing stories and surprising facts about a river that is both the backbone and lifeblood of the Garden State. 

Patricia Roos was a professor of sociology at Rutgers University when she lost her 25-year-old son Alex to a heroin overdose. Turning her grief into action, she began to research the social factors and institutional failures that contributed to his death. Surviving Alex tells her moving story while describing a more compassionate approach that would provide proper care to substance users and reduce addiction.

Meltdown Expected tells the story of how, both domestically and internationally, 1978 and 1979 saw a series of catastrophes that shook America’s confidence and hurtled the nation into the final phase of the Cold War. Covering everything from the Three Mile Island disaster to the Iran hostage crisis, it is a vivid portrait of a tumultuous time. 

Jewish education has been dominated by two concerns: What ought to be taught? And what is the best way to teach it?  This book upends the conventional approaches by asking a different question: How do people learn to engage in Jewish life?
 

In Belize, conservation NGOs push for wildlife sanctuaries to protect endangered ecosystems. State actors authorize timber extraction to generate revenue for debt repayment. Maya communities, dispossessed by state and NGO strategies, pursue claims for Indigenous rights to lands. This book explores the conflicting forms of governance that emerge as these trajectories intersect.

Global Film Color: The Monopack Revolution at Midcentury explores color filmmaking around the world during the mid-century era when color came to dominate global film production. As Eastmancolor, Agfacolor, Fujicolor and other film stocks became broadly available and affordable, national film industries increasingly converted to color, transforming the look and feel of global cinema.

Global Film Color: The Monopack Revolution at Midcentury explores color filmmaking around the world during the mid-century era when color came to dominate global film production. As Eastmancolor, Agfacolor, Fujicolor and other film stocks became broadly available and affordable, national film industries increasingly converted to color, transforming the look and feel of global cinema.