New Books in Higher Education

Political Scientist Stacy Ulbig has a new book that dives into the political attitudes and behaviors of college students to assess how polarization and partisan antipathy in the general public have some genesis on college campuses. Angry Politics: Partisan Hatred and Political Polarization Among College Students (UP of Kansas, 2020) explores affective polarization, and elicited responses from students who have noted that they are experiencing self-censorship, across the political spectrum. The study measured levels of political animosity based on different kinds of news media consumption, with those who consumed social media as the source of their news demonstrating the most animosity towards opposition partisans. Students tend to be nervous when faced with having to deal with conflict, and this inclination also leads them to self-sort and isolate from those who hold different political views. At the same time, the research indicates that students are feeling more vocal in articulating their opinions and beliefs. Part of the experience at college is to learn how to listen to different perspectives and opinions, and to assess diverse input and information. This study is fascinating, examining the layers of student behavior around politics in an atmosphere that is characterized as fraught by a variety of news outlets.Lilly J. Goren is professor of political science at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. She is co-editor of the award winning book, Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics (University Press of Kentucky, 2012), as well as co-editor of Mad Men and Politics: Nostalgia and the Remaking of Modern America (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015). Email her comments at lgoren@carrollu.edu or tweet to @gorenlj. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of John Measey, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and author of How to Write a PhD in Biological Sciences: A Guide for the Uninitiated (CRC Press, 2021). We talk about how the communication of science is changing, and we talk about how you can keep up and produce the research you want to produce.John Measey : "We're in an extremely interesting time, because the potential that we have to not just publish what we've written — which is where we used to be with scholarly journals, which just had the articles and the predigested data (if you like) in the tables and figures — but now we're at a moment where we can actually put all the data out there, and we can also put out there all of the code that we wrote so that people can repeat the analysis. And really, the writing that we're doing is to communicate one team's particular understanding of the questions they've posed and of their particular interest in certain parts of the dataset. The writing is now a means of not just communicating the particular questions that we have there, but also of producing and of advertising the dataset for other people to use. So, I think we're starting to enter this very dynamic period in publishing where the actual article will be one of our many products in any study that we do."Read and use How to Write a PhD in Biological Sciences http://howtowriteaphd.org/Read and use How to Publish in Biological Sciences http://howtopublishscience.org...Watch Daniel edit your science here. Contact Daniel at writeyourresearch@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The University Network for Human Rights facilitates supervised undergraduate engagement in the practice of human rights at colleges and universities in the United States and across the globe. The University Network partners with advocacy organizations and communities affected or threatened by abusive state, corporate, or private conduct to advance human rights at home and abroad; trains undergraduate students in interdisciplinary human rights protection and advocacy; and collaborates with academics and human rights practitioners in other parts of the world to foster the creation of practical, interdisciplinary programs in human rights.James (Jim) Cavallaro is Executive Director of the University Network for Human Rights. He has taught human rights law and practice for nearly a quarter-century, most recently at Wesleyan University, Stanford Law School (2011-2019), and Harvard Law School (2002-2011).Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I talked to Autumn Wilke of Grinnell College about her book (co-authored with Nancy J. Evans, Ellen M. Broido, and Kirsten R. Brown) Disability in Higher Education: A Social Justice Approach (Jossey-Bass, 2017).Disability in Higher Education examines how disability is conceptualized in higher education and ways in which students, faculty, and staff with disabilities are viewed and served on college campuses. Drawing on multiple theoretical frameworks, research, and experience creating inclusive campuses, this text offers a new framework for understanding disability using a social justice lens. Many institutions focus solely on legal access and accommodation, enabling a system of exclusion and oppression. However, using principles of universal design, social justice, and other inclusive practices, campus environments can be transformed into more inclusive and equitable settings for all constituents.The authors consider the experiences of students, faculty, and staff with disabilities and offer strategies for addressing ableism within a variety of settings, including classrooms, residence halls, admissions and orientation, student organizations, career development, and counseling. They also expand traditional student affairs understandings of disability issues by including chapters on technology, law, theory, and disability services. Using social justice principles, the discussion spans the entire college experience of individuals with disabilities, and avoids any single-issue focus such as physical accessibility or classroom accommodations.The book will help readers: Consider issues in addition to access and accommodation Use principles of universal design to benefit students and employees in academic, cocurricular, and employment settings Understand how disability interacts with multiple aspects of identity and experience. Despite their best intentions, college personnel frequently approach disability from the singular perspective of access to the exclusion of other important issues. This book provides strategies for addressing ableism in the assumptions, policies and practices, organizational structures, attitudes, and physical structures of higher education.Marshall Poe is the founder and editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a time when a growing number of universities are moving away from tenure and hiring a higher percentage of faculty on non tenure-track appointments, Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA recently made the decision to reinstate tenure more than two decades after phasing it out. I discuss the factors that originally led Chatham to replace tenure with a capstone system and what convinced the Board to restore tenure with VPAA Dr. Jenna Templeton and Dr. Joe MacNeil, who chaired the faculty committee that conducted the review of the system for reviewing and promoting faculty. One of the distinctive elements of Chatham’s new tenure system is that it includes professors of practice and clinical professors through a broadened definition of scholarship. We conclude by examining the lessons for other institutions as they prepare for the challenges higher education will be facing in the coming decade.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Joseph Cheatle, Director of the Writing & Media Center at Iowa State University. We talk about how communication will change your life.Joseph Cheatle : "One of the typical traits of writing center tutors is that they are just really great. I don't know how else to describe it other than that they are often the best of the best at an institution in terms of their leadership, their vision, their work ethic, their desire for professional development. I mean, people who are writing center tutors, when they go out for job interviews, they often get asked about their writing center work, because people know that those are going to be good employees. So, there's a lot to be said for the students who come in and work at writing centers. Really these are just some of the best students at the institution: hard-working, ethical, interesting, and dedicated."Visit the Writing & Media Center.Watch Daniel edit your science here. Contact Daniel at writeyourresearch@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Joe Esposito, Senior Partner of Clarke & Esposito. We talk about the space between academic research and consumer markets, and we travel in space to the metaverse!Joe Esposito : "The thing that's at issue when a field of study begins publishing more in journals and less in books is another aspect of the audience. If you're a scientist, you write short articles because this is what gets you tenure, this is what gets you a promotion, this is what allows you to go to grants-making bodies and get money to hire postdoctoral students and to build out your laboratory. So the aspect of audience I'm talking about here is broader than just your fellow experts in your field — it's broader than just the readers of your communications, because it includes, too, the business model that these communications are placed into. There is money in articles in the sciences. There is very little money in books in the sciences. But switch over to history, anthropology, literary criticism, and the whole situation gets turned on its head. There the tenure promotion committees are looking for books, preferably published with a university press. So, when we talk about questions like where the book is going, where text is going, or whether digital or print, we can't escape the fact that all these things live within an environment of people pursuing their own personal interests, which itself has a economic basis as well."Clarke & Esposito have an excellent newsletter on scholarly communication and publishing. You can read and subscribe here. Joe is also a regular contributor to The Scholarly Kitchen, which you can read and subscribe to here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been called “the most innovative square mile on the planet.” It's a life science hub, hosting Biogen, Moderna, Pfizer, Takeda, and others. It's a major tech center, with Google, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple all occupying big chunks of pricey office space. Kendall Square also boasts a dense concentration of startups, with leading venture capital firms conveniently located nearby. And of course, MIT is just down the block. In Where Futures Converge: Kendall Square and the Making of a Global Innovation Hub (MIT Press, 2022), Robert Buderi offers the first detailed account of the unique ecosystem that is Kendall Square, chronicling the endless cycles of change and reinvention that have driven its evolution.Buderi, who himself has worked in Kendall Square for the past twenty years, tells fascinating stories of great innovators and their innovations that stretch back two centuries. Before biotech and artificial intelligence, there was railroad car innovation, the first long-distance telephone call, the Polaroid camera, MIT's once secret, now famous Radiation Laboratory, and much more. Buderi takes readers on a walking tour of the square and talks to dozens of innovators, entrepreneurs, urban planners, historians, and others. He considers Kendall Square's limitations—it's “gentrification gone rogue,” by one description, with little affordable housing, no pharmacy, and a scarce middle class—and its strengths: the “human collisions” that spur innovation.What's next for Kendall Square? Buderi speculates about the next big innovative enterprises and outlines lessons for aspiring innovation districts. More important, he asks how Kendall Square can be both an innovation hub and a diversity, equity, and inclusion hub. There's a lot of work still to do.Galina Limorenko is a doctoral candidate in Neuroscience with a focus on biochemistry and molecular biology of neurodegenerative diseases at EPFL in Switzerland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A veteran journalist, essayist, and award-winning education writer, Linda K. Wertheimer is the author of Faith Ed: Teaching about Religion in an Age of Intolerance. The book focuses on public schools’ ups and downs as they teach about world religions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: The science that explains our busy minds What mindfulness is The difference between mindfulness and meditation How changing our habits is a small-step by small-step process A discussion of the book Bettter Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact Today’s book is: Better Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact Mindfulness by Kristen Manieri. Mindfulness is a powerful tool for staying calm, centered, and steady―but it can be challenging to remember to stay mindful. Better Daily Mindfulness Habits helps practitioners of any level. Rooted in proven habit-building methodology, the book contains 40 practices designed to orient your attention to the present. In as little as a few minutes at a time, it can become easier to practice self-compassion and connect with others, your work, and yourself more mindfully.Our guest is: Kristen Manieri, a certified habits coach as well as a certified mindfulness teacher. Kristen believes that when we actively engage in our growth and evolution, we can begin to live a more conscious, connected, and intentional life. She is the author of Bettter Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.Listeners to this episode might also be interested in: Atomic Habits by James Clear Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg Create Your Own Calm: A Journal for Quieting Anxiety by Meera Lee Patel The Mindfulness Journal by Worthy Stokes Quick Calm: Easy Meditations to Short-Circuit Stress Using Mindfulness and Neuroscience by Jennifer Wolkin The 60 Mindful Minutes podcasts with Kristen Manieri This discussion of meditation You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices