Alumni Ink


Fighting for Humanity

There is a war being waged. For the ruthless and mysterious Channel, the objective is to unlock a treasure trove of extraordinarily advanced science and technology holding promise of unlimited power and wealth. But the Channel must not win. At stake is the future of humankind. The possessor of the key must know the unknowable. The Realm of Colliding Spirits is the third novel by Richard Hobbs 76M, also author of Entangled Realms, which features an Emory connection, and The Realm of Misplaced Hearts, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award in Speculative Fiction. Hobbs is an assistant professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth University's Geisel School of Medicine, director of longitudinal curriculum in medical acupuncture at Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency, clinical associate professor of family medicine at University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, and clinical associate professor of family medicine for Northeast Osteopathic Medical Education Network, as well as founder of Plum Blossom Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine in Waterville, Maine.

Unto Others

The dominant narrative of the role of white citizens and the white church in Mississippi's civil rights era focuses on their intense resistance to change. However, twenty-eight white Methodist pastors chose to sign the "Born of Conviction" statement published in the Mississippi Methodist Advocate on January 2, 1963, reminding readers of the Methodist Discipline's claim that the teachings of Jesus permit "no discrimination because of race, color, or creed." The pastors sought to lead white Methodists to join the conversation on the need for racial justice. In Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi's Closed Society, author Joe Reiff 80MDiv 92PhD explores the theological and ethical understandings of the signers. Reiff is the Floyd Bunyan Shelton Professor of Religion at Emory & Henry College in Virginia.

One on One?

Propelled by queer feminist desires for new modes of conceptualization and new forms of belonging, Angela Willey 10PhD offers a radically interdisciplinary exploration of the concept of monogamy in US science and culture in Undoing Monogamy: The Politics of Science and the Possibilities of Biology. Refusing to answer the naturalization of monogamy with a naturalization of nonmonogamy, Willey demands a critical reorientation toward the monogamy question in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Willey is assistant professor of women, gender, sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Granting immunity

Oregon pediatrician Paul Thomas and science journalist Jennifer Margulis 99PhD present Thomas's approach to building immunity in The Vaccine-Friendly Plan. The book presents a new protocol that limits a child's exposure to aluminum, mercury, and other neurotoxins while building overall good health. Thomas's vaccine-friendly protocol gives readers information about what to expect at every well-child visit from birth through adolescence, advice about how to talk to health care providers when you have concerns, the risks associated with opting out of vaccinations, and more.

Negotiating Constitutionality

In Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law, authors Bruce Frohnen 93L and George Carey argue that challenges to the interpretation of the US Constitution have replaced a Constitution designed to mediate among society's different geographic and socioeconomic groups with a body of quasi-laws commanding the democratic reformation of society. Pursuit of a progressive vision has become ingrained in American legal and political culture—at the cost, according to the authors, of the constitutional safeguards that preserve the rule of law. Frohnen is a professor of law at Ohio Northern University College of Law.

Literary Science

Gaston Bachelard, one of twentieth-century France's most original thinkers, made significant contributions to the philosophy and history of science. In Gaston Bachelard, Revised and Updated: Philosopher of Science and Imagination, Roch C. Smith 70G 71PhD traces Bachelard's trajectory from science to a specifically literary imagination by recognizing his concern with what science teaches about how we know, and his increasing preoccupation with questions of being when dealing with poetic imagery. Smith is professor emeritus of French at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the author of Understanding Alain Robbe-Grillet.

Economy of Education

More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, yet little is known about why they have expanded so rapidly in recent years. In Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy, Tressie McMillan Cottom 15PhD shows how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today, disclosing recruitment and marketing strategies these schools deploy and how ending for-profit colleges won't end the vulnerabilities that made them the fastest-growing sector of higher education at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Future Past

The fascinating rise of an international subculture is chronicled in Like Clockwork: Steampunk Pasts, Presents, and Futures. Editors Rachel A. Bowser 08PhD and Brian Croxall 06G 08PhD present cutting-edge essays on steampunk: its rise in popularity, its many manifestations, and why we should pay attention. Like Clockwork offers wide-ranging perspectives on steampunk's history and its place in contemporary culture, while speaking to the "why" and "why now" of the genre. Bowser is associate professor of English at Georgia Gwinnett College, and Croxall is digital humanities librarian at Brown University.

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