Books and Publications
• English professor
David Gewanter’s new poetry collection takes on the personal costs and complicities of wartime America. “War Bird” (The University of Chicago Press, 2009), the professor’s third book of poetry, delves into the constructs of social life, the conventions of political values and the ambitions of private fantasies in poems that pull together details from science, history, philosophy and emotional life.
• In “Expecting Pears from an Elm Tree: Franciscan Missions on the Chiriguano Frontier in the Heart of South America, 1830–1949” (Duke University Press, 2009),
Erick Langer, associate professor of history and acting director of the Center for Latin American Studies, looks at the intersection of Catholic missions and the Chiriguano Indians in southeastern Bolivia. Langer uses the Franciscan mission as a model for understanding the shifting power and negotiation relationships between missionaries and indigenous populations in the post-independence period.
• “Vaults, Mirrors, and Masks: Rediscovering U.S. Counterintelligence” (Georgetown University Press, 2009), co-edited by
Jennifer Sims and
Burton Gerber, explores the challenges posed by political culture, bureaucracy and technology. Sims, director of intelligence studies and visiting professor of security studies, and Gerber, adjunct professor of security studies, worked with experts in the field to explain the importance of counterintelligence and how the United States can fix weaknesses that may arise.
•
Charles Weiss, distinguished professor of science, technology and international affairs, and
William Bonvillian, adjunct assistant professor of science, technology and international affairs, co-authored a book about the implications of America’s addiction to fossil fuels. “Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution” (MIT Press, 2009) proposes a federal program on par with the Manhattan Project or Apollo Program to stimulate energy policy innovations. The authors outline a four-step approach to encourage energy innovations, which they argue are needed to stem the environmental and geopolitical costs of America’s fossil fuel addiction.
