Two faculty members are scheduled to give book presentations on campus this week, and a third can be seen on video, talking about his new book.
鈥 Emilio Bejel, distinguished professor of Spanish, Jos茅 Mart铆: Images of Memory and Mourning 鈥 Exploring how visual images of Mart铆, a 19th-century Cuban national hero, have seduced people across ideologies and have figured in Cuban history and culture. Bejel is critical of the ways in which governments and political and civic groups have exploited this iconography for their own political agendas. "Rigorously researched, theoretically sophisticated, this groundbreaking book will certainly remain as an authoritative and persuasive study of Marti鈥檚 iconicity in relation to state power and ideology," wrote Leopoldo M. Bernucci, the Russell F. and Jean H. Fiddyment Chair in Latin American Studies at 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis. "A must-read," he added. Bejel, a Cuban-born poet, critic and narrator, is the author of several books on literary and cultural criticism, as well as poetry. Presentation, noon today (Jan. 23), 273 Social sciences and Humanities Building.
鈥 David Simpson, the G.B. Needham Distinguished Professor of English, Romanticism and the Question of the Stranger 鈥 Simpson calls to mind post-9/11 and homeland security fears and practices, pointing out that the view of the stranger as the enemy is not new to the early 21st century. Rather, he shows that debates about the stranger loomed large throughout history. "As in his earlier work (9/11: The Culture of Commemoration), Simpson writes at once as a prominent literary scholar and an incisive public intellectual, and in both capacities, he issues a forceful warning against failing to 鈥榬eckon with the stranger,鈥 whether by acts of exclusion, by making distinctions and patrolling their boundaries, or by suspecting the stranger from outside while failing to recognize the strangeness and estrangement inside鈥 within the self, home or homeland," wrote Kevis Goodwin, associate professor of English, 澳门六合彩资料库 Berkeley. Presentation, noon-1:30 p.m. Friday (Jan. 25), lounge inside the main bookstore, .
鈥 Larry Berman, professor emeritus of political science, Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt Jr. 鈥 Bill Clinton, Donna Shalala and Thurgood Marshall Jr. are among those offering . Wrote former President Clinton: "You can鈥檛 understand today鈥檚 Navy without acknowledging Bud Zumwalt鈥檚 role in modernizing its technology and renewing its soul. He believed deeply in a strong Navy worthy of our great nation, and that anyone who chose to serve in it was deserving of respect and dignity. Zumwalt is the story of a true American hero.鈥 Marvin Kalb, the Edward R. Murrow Professor Emeritus at Harvard, wrote: 鈥Zumwalt may be Larry Berman鈥檚 best book on Vietnam. Exhaustively researched, beautifully written, here is the war through the prism of one of America鈥檚 greatest officers." at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., as recorded by (carried on C-SPAN2).
Media Resources
Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu