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Sunday, May 18, 2014

Violent Masculinities: Male Aggression in Early Modern Texts and Culture




Since the dawn of humans, there has been a link between masculinity and violence, and this macho ideal is perpetuated today through culturally accepted gender norms and roles.  Thomas Page McBee wrote in The Atlantic Magazine about a new and growing trend of eschewing traditional definitions of what it means to be a man and embracing a contemporary "healthy masculinity," advocating compassion, respect, and cooperation.  Despite McBee's assertions, we are clearly living in a culture which glorifies aggression, violence, and domination while minimizing the importance of traditionally feminine characteristics.  This is not a recent turn of events, and Jennifer Feather, Assistant Professor of English at UNCG, and Catherine E. Thomas, Associate Professor of English at The College of Charleston, recently explored the issue as it relates to the Renaissance Man.

Feather and Thomas co-edited Violent Masculinities: Male Aggression in Early Modern Texts and Culture, a collection of original essays that, as the publisher writes, explores the changing social expectations of men in early modern England "as the armed knight went into decline and humanism appeared".  The essays "analyze a wide-range of violent acts in early modern literature and culture – everything from civic violence to chivalric combat; from verbal attacks to masochistic suffering; from political assassination to personal retaliation; and from brawls to battles.  In so doing, they interrogate the seemingly inevitable connection between masculinity and aggression, placing it in a specific historical context and showing how differences of status, ethnicity, and sexual identity inform masculine ideals"(Macmillan).

The collection is "a strong contribution to emerging scholarship on early modern masculinities... show[ing] how the achievement of normative manhood depended on the performance of violence. In the turbulent social world of early modern Europe, these essays suggest male aggression signified differently according to distinctions of age, status, and sexuality. These compelling historicist readings of male aggression and suffering illuminate forms of violence ranging from duels to brawls to military campaigns" (Mario DiGangi, Professor of English, Lehman College and Graduate Center, CUNY, USA).

"Violent Masculinities challenges the easy association between masculinity and violence, opening up crucial new channels in early modern masculinity studies. The articles here go beyond a simple equation of fictional and historical practice to demonstrate the importance of the place of violence in the early modern mind. With a range of critical approaches, from rhetorical analysis to historical contextualization to the framing of philosophical assumptions, these essays emphasize the textuality of a broad array of critical and historical writings, and give us new insights into what constituted Renaissance manhood" (Jennifer A. Low, Associate Professor of English, Florida Atlantic University, USA).

Monday, May 5, 2014

Congratulations UNCG Authors!


On Tuesday, April 30th, we gathered in the Hodges Reading Room in Jackson Library to celebrate the many faculty authors who have published books during the past academic year.  If you published a book recently, please let us know.  We would be happy to include you in next year's celebration!

Books Written, Edited, or Translated by UNCG Faculty in 2013-2014

African American Studies

Naurice Frank Woods, Jr., A History of African Americans in the Segregated United States Military: From America's War of Independence to the Korean War
Naurice Frank Woods, Jr., Rooted in the Soul: An Introduction to African American Studies and the African American Experience
Naurice Frank Woods, Jr., African American Pioneers in Art, Film & Music 

Anthropology

Susan L. Andreatta, Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective

Art

Elizabeth Perrill, Ukucwebezela: To Shine - South Africa
Christopher Thomas and Barbara Campbell, Exquisite History; A Visionary Workbook

Community and Therapeutic Recreation

Stuart J. Schleien, OnStage and InFocus: The Story

Counseling and Educational Development

Todd F. Lewis, Substance Abuse and Addiction Treatment: Practical Application of Counseling Theory

Economics

Albert N. Link, Handbook on the Theory and Practice of Program Evaluation
Albert N. Link, Bending the Arc of Innovation
Albert N. Link, Recent Developments in the Economics of Science and Innovation
Albert N. Link, Public Support of Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms
Kenneth Snowden, Jr., Well Worth Saving: How the New Deal Safeguarded Home Ownership

Education Leadership and Cultural Foundations

K.K. Hewitt, Postcards from the Schoolhouse:  Practitioner scholars examine contemporary issues in instructional leadership 

English

Jennifer Feather, Violent Masculinities: Male Aggression in Early Modern Texts and Culture
Terry L. Kennedy, New River Breakdown
Karen L. Kilcup, Fallen Forests
Karen L. Kilcup, Over the River and Through the Wood: An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century American Children's Poetry
 Noelle Morrissette, James Weldon Johnson's Modern Soundscapes
Craig Nova, All the Dead Yale Men
Karen A. Weyler, Empowering Words: Outsider & Authorship in Early America

Geography

Corey Johnson and Susan M. Walcott, Eurasian Corridors of Interconnection: From the South China to the Caspian Sea
Susan M. Walcott, A Profile of the Furniture Manufacturing Industry: Global Restructuring

History

Chuck Bolton, William F. Winter and the New Mississippi: A Biography
Emily J. Levine, Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School

Human Resources

Edna Chun, The New Talent Acquisition Frontier: Integrating HR and Diversity Strategy in the Private and Public Sectors and Higher Education

Kinesiology

Shirl J. Hoffman, Introduction to Kinesiology

Languages, Literatures, Cultures

David A. Fein, The Danse Macabre: Printed by Guyot Marchant, 1485
Mark Smith-Soto, Splices

Library and Information Studies/University Libraries

Nora Bird and Michael Crumpton, Handbook for Community College Librarians

Mathematics and Statistics

Jan Rychtar, Game-Theoretical Models in Biology

Music

David Teachout, The Journey from Music Student to Teacher: A Professional Approach

Nursing

Kay J. Cowen, Child Health Nursing
Kay J. Cowen, Maternal & Child Health Nursing
Laurie Kennedy-Malone, Advanced Practice Nursing in the Care of Older Adults

Peace and Conflict Studies

Tom Matyok, Peace on Earth

Religious Studies

Eugene F. Rogers, Jr., Aquinas and the Supreme Court

School of Education

Karen Wixson,Teaching with the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts: PreK-2
Karen Wixson, Teaching with the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts: Grades 3-5

Teacher Education and Higher Education

Wayne Journell, Online Learning: Strategies for K-12 Teachers
Ye He, The Appreciative Advising Revolution Training Workbook: Translating Theory to Practice
Deborah Taub, Preventing College Student Suicide