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Academics in Action!: A Model for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Service

Sandra L. Barnes, Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, Bernadette Doykos, Nina C. Martin, and Alison McGuire (eds)

The edited volume describes a multi-disciplinary model where students and faculty work with communities, learn from them, and contribute the fruits of theory and research to solving community ... More

The edited volume describes a multi-disciplinary model where students and faculty work with communities, learn from them, and contribute the fruits of theory and research to solving community problems. It is a model where theory and action span multiple ecological levels from individuals and small group to organizations and social structures. The communities of engagement range from local neighborhoods and schools to national policy and international development. These forms of engagement require carefully crafted institutional structures to support them. This volume offers examples of community-engaged theory, scholarship, and action, and the structures that foster them within a research university. The examples are drawn from the Department of Human and Organizational Development at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, whose programs, from undergraduate service learning and internships to doctoral training in community research and action, embody the vision of The Academy in Action! The chapters document how authentic partnerships between the academy and the community result in meaningful research and praxis.Less

Oh Capitano!: Celso Cesare Moreno - Adventurer, Cheater, and Scoundrel on Four Continents

Rudolph J. Vecoli and Francesco Durante

Donna R. Gabaccia (ed.)

Italian adventurer and sea captain Celso Cesare Moreno traveled the world lying, scheming, and building an extensive patron/client network to establish his reputation as a middleman and person of ... More

Italian adventurer and sea captain Celso Cesare Moreno traveled the world lying, scheming, and building an extensive patron/client network to establish his reputation as a middleman and person of significance. Through his machinations, Moreno became a critical player in the expansion of western trade and imperialism in Asia, the trafficking of migrant workers and children in the Atlantic, the conflicts of Americans and Native Hawaiians over the fate of Hawaii, and the imperial competitions of French, British, Italian, and American governments in an important era of imperial expansion during the nineteenth century. This book teases out Moreno's enormous peculiarities and fascination as well as his significance. It examines how he repeatedly sought a role at the center of a globalizing world with gusto and had no qualms about lying or betraying others. Dragged by his uncontrollable polemical passions, the old Captain died alone, unloved by anyone and with no meaningful relations to others. With its focus on Moreno, this book illustrates some of the most puzzling cultural traits of emigrant Italian elites. Called a “carpetbagger,” “land pirate,” “extinct volcano,” among many other derogatory monikers, Celso emerges in this fascinating biography as a multifaceted, chameleon-like personality not reducible to a single epithet.Less

Sabato Rodia's Towers in Watts: Art, Migrations, Development

Luisa Del Giudice (ed.)

The extraordinary Watts Towers were created over the course of three decades by a determined, single-minded artist, Sabato Rodia. Now a National Historic Landmark and internationally renowned ... More

The extraordinary Watts Towers were created over the course of three decades by a determined, single-minded artist, Sabato Rodia. Now a National Historic Landmark and internationally renowned destination, the Watts Towers in Los Angeles are both a personal artistic expression and a collective symbol of Nuestro Pueblo—Our Town/Our People. Featuring fresh and innovative examinations, this book is a much-anticipated revisitation of the man and his towers. In 1919, Sabato Rodia purchased a triangular plot of land in a multiethnic, working-class, semi-rural district. He set to work on an unusual building project in his own yard. By night, Rodia dreamed and excogitated, and by day he built. He experimented with form, color, texture, cement mixtures, and construction techniques. He built, tore down, and re-built. As an artist completely possessed by his work, he was often derided as an incomprehensible crazy man. Providing a multifaceted, holistic understanding of Rodia, the towers, and the cultural/social/physical environment within which the towers and their maker can be understood, this book compiles essays from twenty authors, offering perspectives from the arts, the communities involved in the preservation and interpretation of the towers, and the academy. The Watts Towers are wondrous objects of art and architecture as well as the expression and embodiment of the resolve of a singular artistic genius to do something great. But they also recount the heroic civic efforts (art and social action) to save them, both of which continue to this day to evoke awe and inspiration.Less