A Sampling of Faculty Books
The latest novel by Associate Professor of English Jung Yun explores how we balance our needs and wants, as well as the regrets we live with and the chances to make them right. Set aboard an aging cruise ship bound for Bermuda just days after 9-11, All the World Can Hold follows the growing tensions that lead three strangers—a woman planning her estranged mother’s 70th birthday party; a washed-up TV star; and the sole Black female graduate student in her department—to confront their past mistakes and imagine different futures. Yun’s previous novels have been honored as a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a New York Times Group Read selection, a San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year pick and a long list candidate for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.
JACK GOLDSTEIN: ALL DAY NIGHT SKY
Associate Professor of Art History Alexander Dumbadze examines the career, artistic formation and enduring legacy of conceptual artist Jack Goldstein with a blend of biography, theoretical reflection and archival research. A defining figure of the 1970s and ’80s New York art scene, Goldstein’s wide-ranging body of work—including color films and paintings of appropriated images—has been complicated by his dramatic life story. Battling drug addiction, Goldstein dropped out of the art world in the 1990s, lived alone in an L.A. trailer park, resurfaced in a wave of critical fanfare and took his own life in 2003. Dumbadze’s book is a deeply compelling portrait of a significant artist, along with a nuanced meditation on the nature of images, the meaning of artistic subjectivity and the consequences of holding unwavering faith in art.
“Gentility.” “Delicacy.” “Indolence.” Those words appear throughout Jane Austen classics like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. But much of the language used in Austen’s time has either fallen out of common use or changed valence in significant and surprising ways. In this Janeite treasure trove, Professor of English Maria Frawley examines the distinctive language woven through Austen’s signature stories. An expert in 19th-century British literature, Frawley takes 50 words that are integral to the fabric of Austen’s fiction and explores them in short, accessible and lively entries. With juicy morsels for lifelong Austen lovers as well as new students of the great writer, Frawley offers new perspectives on Austen’s world, giving readers the tools to better understand her novels individually and as a whole.
THIS IS RHYTHM: ELLA JENKINS, CHILDREN’S MUSIC, AND THE LONG CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Ella Jenkins was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Her songs like “You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song” are classics in the world of children’s music. In a career spanning more than 60 years, she recorded 40 albums, won a lifetime-achievement Grammy and became the best-selling individual artist in the history of Smithsonian Folkways Records—including Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. But despite her wide-reaching influence, Jenkins’s civil rights activism isn’t widely known today. Based on dozens of interviews and access to Jenkins’s personal archives, Professor of American Studies Gayle F. Wald shares how Jenkins, a “rhythm specialist” with no formal musical training and the daughter of Southern migrants, created a beloved catalog of songs grounded in values of community-building, antiracism and cultural pluralism.
SACRED SISTERHOODS: A CELEBRATION OF BLACK WOMEN’S FRIENDSHIPS ON TV AND IN FILM
From creative visionaries like Debbie Allen to TV shows like Living Single, the 1990s saw a dramatic expansion of Black women into creative positions in entertainment. In Sacred Sisterhoods, Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs Imani M. Cheers offers an overdue analysis and elevation of Black women’s creative authority in popular culture. Editing and contributing to a collection of essays by academic scholars and media critics, Cheers examines how that shift introduced a previously invisible range of themes in Black women’s lives to wide audiences. Focusing on the theme of Black women’s friendship, star voices from across academia, journalism, the arts and activism offer critical-cultural commentary and personal reflections. Their essays explore the evolution of Black women directors, writers, producers and show runners from the 1930s through 2023.
FORGOTTEN SOULS: THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST TUSKEGEE AIRMEN
In Forgotten Souls, Cheryl W. Thompson, an associate professor of journalism, revisits the stories of the 27 Tuskegee Airmen who went missing in combat during the final critical missions over Europe in World War II. An award-winning NPR investigative journalist, Thompson explores why the remains of all but two were never found, and the impact their disappearances had on their families and communities. Thompson’s own father was among the nearly 1,000 trailblazing pilots trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field. In her book, she delves into the true stories of the Black airmen who faced unimaginable racism—before, during and after the war—even as their courage and aviation prowess saved scores of white airmen from the enemy and possibly death.
A Sampling of Alumni Books
In 1940, as the shadow of war loomed over American life, President Roosevelt understood that the nation was ill-equipped to battle deadly German U-boats without its own “Arsenal of Democracy” on the seas. In Launching Liberty, political communication major Doug Most, BA ’90, recounts FDR’s monumental ship-building campaign. Partnering with private businessmen, the U.S. government kicked off a massive effort to produce colossal Liberty Ships, cargo freighters longer than a football field. Shipyards across the country competed to see who could construct the fleet fastest. A veteran journalist and author of two previous books, Most has published feature stories for, among others, Sports Illustrated and Boston Magazine. His work has appeared in the anthologies Best American Sports Writing and Best American Crime Writing.
A seasoned political strategist, consultant and author, Robert Blaemire, BA ’71, MA ’75, dives into professional sports for a novel about a young Amish man who may be the greatest athlete ever. Discovered by a disgraced former Major League Baseball player, the fictional athlete rises through the worlds of baseball, football and basketball—all while hiding his identity to shield his community from the bright publicity lights. Throughout this energetic coming-of-age novel, the star athlete learns lessons about modern fame and riches—while encountering intrigue and betrayal. A political science major at GW, Blaemire consulted on numerous presidential campaigns for, among other candidates, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
With her debut novel, English major Isabelle Giuttari, MA ’24, writing under the name Isabelle Engel, leaps to the top of the romance charts. In her rom-com Most Eligible, investigative journalist Georgia Rose goes undercover to write an exposé on a reality TV dating show only to end up falling for the host—who happens to be her one-night stand. A sharp, snappy dive into the messy world of reality TV romance, Most Eligible is a treat for Bachelor fans and readers of authors like Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez. It was named one of Women.com’s Most Anticipated Books and selected as a Book of the Month pick. Good news: Readers don’t have to wait long for the next chapter. Giuttari’s follow-up novel is due in 2027.
TRAUMA-INFORMED AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICES IN SCHOOLS
To succeed in school, notes author and clinical psychologist Isaiah Pickens, BA ’05, students fundamentally need to feel safe and connected—particularly when chronic stress at home, in the community or at school makes it difficult to learn. In his book, psychology major Pickens explains practical ways to infuse schools with trauma-informed and culturally responsive (TICR) practices that can foster compassionate relationships, promote the well-being of students and educators alike and unlock young people’s academic and social emotional potential. He provides tools for implementing TICR strategies in classroom instruction, multi-tiered systems of support, school safety planning and professional learning. The book is packed with case study examples, checklists, activity guides, templates for assessment and best-practice resources.
During his years at GW, journalism major Alan Siegel, BA ’05, bonded with his classmates over their shared Simpsons super fandom. Now, in his book Stupid TV, Be More Funny, Siegel celebrates the animated impact of Homer, Bart and pop culture’s first family. A comprehensive account of the meteoric rise of the long-running cartoon, the book takes readers inside the making of an American phenomenon that Siegel calls “the most influential show in the history of TV.” He combines incisive pop culture criticism and interviews with the show’s creative team to chart how The Simpsons developed its singular sensibility throughout the ’90s, one that was at once groundbreakingly subversive for a primetime cartoon and shockingly wholesome. The result is a definitive history of The Simpsons through its most essential decade.
ADDICTION, INC. MEDICATION-ASSISTED TREATMENT AND AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN WAR ON DRUGS
Despite epidemic levels of overdoses in the United States, by 2020, only 20 percent of Americans suffering from opioid use disorder received medication-assisted treatment, the most effective—and possibly most controversial—method for reducing illicit drug use and curbing the symptoms of withdrawal. In Addiction, Inc., historian and American studies major Emily Dufton, MA ’10, PhD ’14, explains how this promising avenue of treatment emerged during President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs in 1971 as a radical experiment in public health, but eventually gave way to an immensely profitable private industry that offers poor care at high costs to an insufficient number of people.