Böcker utgivna av Lexington Books

This collection, edited by Jim A. Kuypers, analyzes genres of public communication to examine how the pandemic has impacted specific areas of scholarship within the communication discipline. Contributors begin each chapter by acknowledging the parameters of their sub-discipline and then discussing key elements being affected by the pandemic and pandemic responses. Viewing the pandemic through the eyes of their sub-disciplines, contributors offer unique insights on the effects of the pandemic upon human communication in their specific area of focus, examining how the pandemic will continue to affect the teaching of their subject areas and providing suggestions for future research. Sub-disciplines represented in this collection include digital rhetoric, journalism & mass communication, free speech, public relations, sports communication, public address, health communication, spiritual communication, and popular culture. Scholars of communication, media studies, and education will find this book particularly useful.

Neglected Social Theorists of Color: Deconstructing the Margins provides a novel contribution to the ongoing debates concerning the canon in contemporary sociological theory. In particular, the editors argue that many scholars whose work may hold significant potential for contributions to contemporary debates in social theory go unrecognized. Still others, while not completely ignored, have fallen victim to a cultural and political climate not receptive to their work. Feminist scholars have been in the forefront of these debates, arguing that many insightful social theorists have been marginalized because of their gender. More recently, studies of individual theorists of color have appeared, but these have been limited to African American scholars such as W.E.B. Du Bois. In the present text, the editors extend this approach to include a broad diversity of theorists of color, including those of African American, Afro-Caribbean, Latinx, Asian, Asian American, and Native American backgrounds. In addition, the editors also include the work of authors who come from academic fields outside of sociology and others who are journalists, activists, or independent writers. The work has a unique format, where the authors of each chapter provide a theoretical analysis of their subject and a discussion of the contemporary significance of their work, lending to a rich discussion of underappreciated sociological scholars.

From the concrete experience of war, Michael S. Yandell constructs a phenomenology of "negative revelation" in which false or distorted claims of goodness and justice disintegrate, becoming meaningless. Yandell argues that the disintegration of meaning in war is itself a meaningful experience; "revealing" comes to signify the presence of goodness and justice through the profound experience of their absence. The heart of this work adds a layer of complexity or depth to the term "moral injury" as a negative revelation. Yandell emphasizes the context and logic of war itself beyond the actions of individuals, paying specific attention to the U.S. led Global War on Terror. Moral injury as a negative revelation is a disintegration of false normative claims of goodness and justice, as well as a disintegration of one's sense of self oriented toward those normative claims. This disintegration is prompted by the recognition of life in the midst of war's diminishment of life.

Moral evaluations of actions are only appropriate for actions within the moral domain. Actions outside of the moral domain are amoral actions. In Why Suicide Is Amoral: A Philosophical Account, Robyn Gaier emphasizes the role of agency in determining whether an action is within the moral domain. If an agent lacks either deliberative agency or moral agency, then their action is amoral. An agent lacks deliberative agency if they cannot evaluate and act upon reasons, and moral agency if they cannot act upon moral reasons. Actions in which such agencies are compromised are also amoral actions. In treating actions of suicide, while granting their diversity, this book traces them to the loss or threat of loss of basic psychological needs. Gaier argues that when basic psychological needs are lost or under threat, an agent's deliberative agency, moral agency, or both are either lacking or compromised. Hence, actions of suicide are amoral, and it is a conceptual mistake to attempt the moral evaluation of actions of suicide. Furthermore, when we regard actions of suicide as within the moral domain, we perpetuate a social stigma against suicide.

';Hey, that was kind of racist.'';Im not a racist! I have Black friends.'This exchange highlights a problem with how people in the United States tend to talk about racially tricky situations. As Racist, Not Racist, Antiracist: Language and the Dynamic Disaster of American Racism explores, such situations are ordinarily categorized as either racist or not racist (or, in other cases, as antiracist). The problem is, there are often situations that are racially not good, but that we do not want to categorize as racist, either. However, since we don't have the language to describe this in-between, we are forced to fall back on the racist/not racist/antiracist trinary, which tends to shut down productive discussion. This is especially true for white people, who tend to take claims of racismbe they interpersonal or institutionalas a personal attack. This is problematic, not only because it means that white people never learn about their own racially troubling behaviors, but also because such fragility keeps them from being able to engage in productive discussions about systemic racial oppression. Leland Harper and Jennifer Kling demonstrate how expanding our racial vocabulary is crucial for the attainment of justice equally enjoyed by all.

Performing Craft in Mexico examines how Mexican artisans and diverse actors perform as translators of aesthetics, politics, and history through the field of craft. The contributors build from historical and ethnographic archives and direct engagement with makers to reassemble an expanded vision of artisanal production and the complicated classifications that surround Mexican popular art-making--from the Anglo term "craft" to the Spanish term "artesanía." This book also homages Dr. Janet Brody Esser's research on the Blackmen masquerades of Michoacán, exploring African history and presence in Mexico. The contributors provide wide-ranging insight into the agency, history, and contemporary world of Mexican makers and other entangled actors in the field of craft.

Silence, Civility, and Sanity addresses the reclamation of civil communication and healthy public conversation at a time when people are very divided. Throughout this book, Stephanie Bennett focuses on the importance of silence to temper speech and embrace the art of listening to foster a more positive dialogue and civil society. Throughout this book, the author addresses the place of silence as a communicational good, intrapersonal silence in the history of contemplative prayer, the importance of attentive silence, the reflective use of silence, the ethical dimensions of silence, and the abuses of silence. This book also delves into the layers of technological advancement that obscure perception and act as noise that poses as silence, phantom silence. Bennett offers readers an alternative to the false binaries of culture-warring that plague our relationships, institutions, and public sphere. Scholars of communication, rhetoric, and media studies will find this book of particular interest.

Democratic Disunity: Rhetorical Tribalism in 2020 addresses that while attention has recently and rightly been paid to the tribal bifurcation of the GOP, the Democratic Party is similarly divided. Americans live in a democratic republic rather than a direct democracy and choices regarding governing concerns are configured through communicative action. These choices include those made between and within American political parties. Without rhetorical mediation and intervention, toxic partisan tribalism within the two major American political parties is likely to destabilize the nations' federalist system of government. Kelley argues that intraparty tribalism poisons public life and consumes public space within which electoral politics, including discussion, deliberation and compromise, should be thriving. Democratic Disunity considers intraparty tribalism as a rhetorical form, uniquely positioned within the twenty-first century. Details are provided regarding language-in-use strategies with which to anchor a rhetoric of governing through a mindful, deliberative dialogue which diminishes the effect of political partisanship, including its toxic variations both between and within American political parties. Scholars and students of rhetoric, political communication, and political science will find this book particularly interesting.

The authors argue that the potential threat of a resurgence of fascism has been consistently exaggerated from 1945 until present day; that the ongoing lack of conceptual and definitional clarity with respect to terms like fascism, the radical right, the alt right, white supremacism, populism, racism, etc., has enabled ill-informed or dishonest commentators to distort their meaning and abusively misapply those labels so as to delegitimize their political opponents; and that the political and economic elites in charge of contemporary Western societies are now deliberately exaggerating and exploiting the threat posed by the domestic radical right in order to facilitate vilifying, harassing, de-platforming, censoring, canceling, and repressing disgruntled citizens (no matter where they may lie along the political spectrum) who openly criticize and vigorously oppose their agendas. The authors also advocate the use of well-established scholarly methods for carrying out research on the right and provide precise definitions of various terms in order to facilitate the development of more accurate categorizations.

In Anti-racist Pedagogy in the Early Childhood Classroom, author Miriam Tager provides detailed descriptions of Anti-Racist lessons and activities in early childhood classrooms. With accounts and examples from educators integrating anti-racist teachings into their classroom, this book explores what Anti-racist Pedagogy can look like and how these early childhood educators effectively utilize Anti-racist Pedagogy to combat racism within schools. The book also includes professional tips and advice for the higher education teacher to use in their teacher education programs to better prepare pre-service teachers for addressing issues on race and racism within their classrooms.

In Robert Frost's Visionary Gift: Mining and Minding the Wonder of Unexpected Supply, William F. Zak provides groundbreaking analysis of well over one hundred of Frost's lyrics, considering each poem as an interrelated portion of the poet's overarching "constellation of intention." Beyond biography, this book offers extended, close readings of Frost's oeuvre, building its case incrementally from deftly examined particulars. Zak discusses how the pastoral mode Frost adopts is no depleted, homespun idiom retreating from modernism's complexities, but a self-conscious determination to assume the prophetic mantle from his predecessors (Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Emerson, and Thoreau). Frost's version of pastoral represents no escape from life's stresses, but the most constructive and life-sustaining means to address life's struggles "head on"--in both sense of that last phrase'".This book makes a case for Frost as America's preeminent philosophical poet. The unfortunate effect of Frost's early detractors' claim that he was merely an ironic and equivocal anecdotalist has for too long relegated his work to the second tier of the modernist poetic pantheon. This study, by contrast, supports Robert Graves' claim for Frost as the "first American poet who could be honestly reckoned a master poet by world standards."

Examples of sexual violence and mentions of it appear with a disturbing level of frequency in the literature of early Christianity. This collection of essays explores these occurrences in canonical and noncanonical Christian texts from the first until the fifth centuries CE. Drawing from a range of interpretive lenses, scholars of early Christianity approach these writings with the goal of identifying how their authors employ the language of sexual assault, rape, and violence in order to formulate and support various rhetorical and theological claims. Individual chapters also address how and why these episodes of sexual violence have been ignored or, sometimes, read in a way that would make them less problematic. As a collection, Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts examines these texts carefully, ethically, and with an eye toward shining a light on the scourge of sexual violence that is so often manifest in both ancient and contemporary Christian communities.

The films of Sofia Coppola have moved and entranced audiences with her minimalist style, moody soundscapes, and commitment to centering the lives and experiences of women and girls. A Critical Companion to Sofia Coppola explores the implications of her stories, images, and convictions in a comprehensive study of all eight of her major works. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, each chapter offers a fresh, interdisciplinary reading of one of Coppola's films and her treatment of core themes like masculinity, sexual politics, bodies, and love. Rigorously researched and unique, the arguments presented within this volume shed new light on one of the most important women filmmakers in film history.

John Stuart Mill and Epistemic Democracy explores the epistemic, or cognitive, character of democratic institutional practices and the protection of basic liberties in Mills political thought. Mapping Mills theory of representative democracy and critically engaging Mills more controversial issues, Ivan Cerovac identifies the epistemic criteria within these proposals and uses them as a basis for unifying Mills political thought. The book addresses the epistemic role of wide democratic participation on the one hand and institutional mechanisms used to filter the public willsuch as political representation, plural voting proposals, partisanship, division of epistemic and political laboron the other, and it analyzes how Mill tries to resolve the conflict between political and epistemic values. Characterizing Mill as both a political instrumentalist and an epistemic democrat, Cerovac sets Mills theory in a broader explanatory framework and compares it with contemporary accounts of epistemic justification. Emphasizing Mills normative considerations regarding franchise and the exercise of political power over others, this book discusses how to implement the epistemic ideal in real-world politics. It will be a fascinating read for anyone interested in democratic decision-making.

Building on various feminist theories of ethos, the authors in this collection explore how North American Catholic women from various periods, races, ethnicities, sexualities, and classes have used elements of the group's positionality to make change. The women considered in the book range from the earliest Catholic sisters who arrived in the United States to women who held the Church hierarchy accountable for the sexual abuse scandals. The book analyzes women such as those in an African American order who developed an ethos that would resist racism. Chapters also consider better known Catholic women such as Dolores Huertas, Mary Daly, and Joan Chittister.

Geoengineering, the idea of addressing climate change through large-scale technological projects, stands out among contested technologies in the degree to which its scope of possibilities and its premise are characterized by global existential risks. Despite controversy, this field has been shifting toward mainstream consideration. Geoengineering Discourse Confronting Climate Change: The Move from Margins to Mainstream in Science, News Media, and Politics examines the trajectory of geoengineering through critical discourse analysis of three key genres: science policy reports, news journalism, and congressional hearings. Brynna Jacobson explores how reports from distinguished scientific societies have constructed certain notions of legitimacy around geoengineering, how narratives within news coverage have reflected and shaped the public discourse and understanding of geoengineering, and how geoengineering has garnered political support from both major political parties in the United States. Through analysis of discursive conventions within these genres, the author reveals the evolution of notions of normalcy, legitimacy, and imperative around the field of geoengineering.

Movies and television series are excellent tools for teaching political science and international relations. Understanding how stories in various film and television genres illustrate political ideas can better assist students and fans understand and appreciate the political subtext of these media products. This book examines politics through five film genres and their variants. Gangster movies focus on American and other organized crime. They reached their zenith in the films of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. Political thrillers express paranoia about secrecy and political conspiracies, while action movies channel anger at foreign and domestic threats to order. Superhero films and TV present modern characters who seek to serve society as they face personal struggles about their individual identities. War movies promote positive images of wars when conflicts are perceived as successful, but often include antiwar messages when wars turn out badly. Western movies fell out of favor in the 1970s and 1980s but have undergone a renaissance since the 1990s. Westerns can be taken as either political parables, or as meditations on policing, anarchy, community organization. The author argues that while these genres all offer escape, they also offer important political lessons.

In The Intersectional Other, Alex Rivera deconstructs the history of power in the United States, critiquing the white colonialism and heteronormativity evident in psychological and medical literature and rejecting the deficiencies projected onto queer Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color (BIPOC). Rivera compels her readers to envision a world where Intersectional Others hold not just power, but the capacity to evoke societal transformations through creativity, self-love, and revolution. The Intersectional Other boldly reimagines the margins, creating a radical space for readers to de-vilify Otherness and conjure a better future.

The American Dream and Dreams Deferred: A Dialectical Fairy Tale shows how rival interpretations of the Dream reveal the dialectical tensions therein. Exploring often neglected voices, literatures, and histories, Carlton D. Floyd and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer highlight moments when the American Dream appears both simultaneously possible and out of reach. In so doing, the authors invite readers to make a new collective dream of a better future, on socially just, multicultural, and ecologically sustainable foundations.

Romantic relationships and health are fundamental for society, but what happens to a person's well-being when he or she chooses the "wrong" partner? Interracial Romance and Health: Bridging Generations, Race Relations, and Well-Being tackles this growing public health issue, which impacts millions of people in interracial relationships, especially young adults. With a particular focus on a group of young adults whom he calls the Bridge Kids, Byron Miller provides a critical examination of how racial identity, socialization, and the partner selection process influence whether a person becomes interracially involved. For those that do cross racial lines for romance, Miller reveals that the race of one's partner can have a significant impact on their lived experiences and health outcomes. Opposing the idea that interracial relationships are bad for society and an individual's health, Miller argues that interracial romance has health benefits for some, is generally good for society, and that what is truly detrimental is the unnecessary stress people in interracial relationships feel due to their experiences with stigma, racism, and discrimination. Miller concludes that as the prevalence of interracial romance grows, so does the urgency to address these issues to protect the well-being of the Bridge Kids and others in interracial romantic partnerships.

Happiness in Kant's Practical Philosophy: Morality, Indirect Duties, and Welfare Rights examines the role and normative implications of Kants understanding of happiness for his moral, political, and legal philosophy. Kant's underlying assumptions about happiness are rarely overtly discussed or given much detail in his works. By bringing these assumptions to the fore, Alice Pinheiro Walla sheds light on some puzzling claims and on the scattered, sometimes contradictory remarks Kant makes about happiness. The book shows that happiness shapes or indirectly influences Kant's methodology and many of his conclusions, including his views on the nature of practical rationality, meta-ethics, the role of the state, and of political justification. The challenge with happiness is that it is impossible to know for certain what will make us happy, and what we take to be happiness changes over our lifetime. The book argues that Kant offers a distinctive strategy for dealing with this indeterminacy of happiness, one rooted in understanding our duties to ourselves and others. Happiness in Kant's Practical Philosophy provides a map of the areas in which the concept of happiness or considerations about the happiness of individuals appear in Kant's practical works and analyses the way they relate to central themes of his practical theory.

In The Transmedia Construction of the Black Panther: Long Live the King, Bryan J. Carr explores and analyzes the evolution of the Black Panther character since his inception in the 1960s across comics, film, television, video games, and music. The Black Panther, Carr argues, is the sum of the creative works of countless individuals across various media that have each contributed to the legacy of the first mainstream Black superhero, all happening against a backdrop of social and cultural upheaval, global political struggle for equality, and the long shadow of colonizing Western attitudes. The Panther's existence is a complex one that not only illustrates in microcosm those same struggles in the historically white superhero space, but also offers a perfect case study for media trends of representation then and now. Carr addresses a number of questions: Does the Black Panther really represent a powerful counter-narrative to long-standing regressive attitudes toward Black identity and Africa? Who were the key contributors to our understanding of the character? And finally, how can we use the character to understand the complexities of our modern consolidated media systems? Scholars of media studies, film and television studies, comics studies, cultural studies, critical race studies, and African studies will find this book particularly useful.

In this book, Brian Baugus examines home schooling as an education enterprise, arguing that successful home school families have the same characteristics and motivations as entrepreneurs. Baugus examines the history and economic theories behind home schooling to explain the rational decision-making that motivates home schooling endeavors, examining dissatisfaction with mainstream education, expectations of return on investment, and resistance from established providers.

Gender and Sexuality in Ghanaian Societies explores cultural dynamics embedded in the interstices of agency, vulnerability, and power within patriarchal structures that seek to regulate the sexual lives of women in Ghana. Emphasizing the centrality of gender as a motive force for sexual expression, the book stresses that contemporary Ghanaian women's sexual expressions are caught at the intersection of traditional gender expectations of heteronormativity and women's perceptions of how heteronormativity should operate in their lives. The book's emphasis on women's agency is significant because it highlights a flaw in earlier, Western accounts of African women's lives under Africa's special brand of patriarchy that held women in total subjection to men. Gender and Sexuality debunks that trope and presents Ghanaian women's dynamism, resilience, and vulnerabilities embedded in the diverse cultures in which they live.

The year 2020 marks the centenary of the passing of the 19th Amendment that allowed for women in the United States to vote. The strategic struggle of women demanding equal dignity and the right to vote in the United States helped to shed light on the systemic evils that have plagued the collective history of the country. Ideologies of racism, genderism, classism, and many more were and continue to be used to deny women their dignities both in the United States and in other parts of the world. This work sheds light on the intersectionality of religion, class, gender, philosophy, theology, and culture as they shape the experiences of women, especially women of color. A fundamental question that this volume aims to address is: What does it mean to be a woman of color in a world where systems of erasure dominate? The title of this volume is meant to showcase a deliberate engagement with the uncelebrated insights and perspectives of women of color in a world where systemic discrimination persists, and to articulate new strategies and paradigms for recognizing their contributions to the broader struggles for freedom and equity of women in our world.

From historical games to hyperrealism to retro gaming, Authenticity in the Music of Video Games explores, the shifting understanding of authenticity among players. What do gamers believe authenticity to be? How are their expectations structured by the soundtrack? And how do their actions impact the overall interaction of sound with narrative? Ranging from harmonic analysis to more multimedia approaches, the book links musical analysis to the practical experience of gamers.

Representing Latina/x Reproductive Decision Making examines representations of reproductive decisions in cultural texts and engages with scholarship on Latina/x representation to interrogate what these representations mean for Latinx popular culture. Melissa Huerta demonstrates that cultural texts ranging from the work of Teatro Luna and television series like Jane the Virgin and Vida to the film Quinceaera and Favianna Rodriguez's artwork can challenge traditional notions of Latina/x reproductive decisions, pointing to more inclusive understandings of people's experiences. Huerta argues for the importance of cultural representation in theater, television, film and art and analyzes the roles language and images play in shaping meaning. This book will be of interest to scholars of cultural studies, gender studies, Latin American studies, and film and media studies.

Rape in Period Drama Television considers the representation of rape and rape myths in a number of the most influential recent television period dramas. Like the corset, has become a shorthand for womens oppression in the past. Sexual violence has long been, and still is, commonplace in television period drama, often used to add authenticity and realism to shows or as a sensationalist means of chasing ratings. However, the authors illustrate that the depiction of rape is more than a mere reminder that the past was a dangerous place for women (and some men). In these series, they argue, rape functions as a kind of ';anti-heritage' device that dispels the nostalgia usually associated with period television and reflects back on the current cultural moment, in which the #MeToo and #Timesup movement have increased awareness of the prevalence of sexual abuse, but in which legal and political processes have not yet caught up. In doing so, Rape in Period Drama Television sets out to explore the assumptions and beliefs which audiences continue to hold about rape, rapists, and victims.

Drawing on insights from political science, criminology, and sociology, Torture: An Interdisciplinary Approach investigates the nature and evolution of torture. By surveying the use of torture across time and space, this book considers the development of an international human rights discourse challenging the legitimacy of torture as an instrument of interrogation. Kathleen Barrett, George Klay Kieh, Jr., Gavin M. Lee, and Neema Noori critically assess the effectiveness of legal regimes, both national and international, that arose as a result of this discourse and the emergent global movement to ban the use of torture. In addition to grappling with colonial legacies of torture and the particular ways that great powers, whether liberal or illiberal, deploy these coercive practices, this book argues that torture continues to serve as a repressive practice that mediates the relationship between the state and its citizens in many countries within the global south. The authors demonstrate that as governments move away from one set of perceived atrocities, they develop new methods of torture and establish novel strategies for justifying these coercive practices.

With the tomboy figure currently operating in a liminal space between extinction and resurgence, Reclaiming the Tomboy: The Body, Identity, and Representation is an unabashed celebration of her rebellious, independent, and pioneering spirit. This collection examines the tomboy as she appears throughout history, in the arts and in real-life. It also addresses how she has changed over the centuries, adapting to the world around her and breaking new boundaries in new ways (sometimes with a "simple" selfie). While this collection addresses the claim of the tomboy as being antiquated or even "problematic," it more vigorously offers examples of where she is thriving and benefiting from her tomboy identity. Ultimately, this book underscores the tomboy's legacy as well as why she is still relevant, if not needed, today.