From unraveling the hidden histories of museum collections to exploring the enduring power of Orwell’s 1984, faculty books at the College of Arts and Sciences have been shaping conversations across disciplines in 2024. Their latest works dive into everything from the global influences of music—spanning Bach to hip-hop—to the story of Little Saigon in California’s Orange County, which has become a sanctuary for Vietnamese refugees and immigrants.  

Read on for a glimpse into the CAS books that are making waves this year.

Plunder? How Museums Got Their Treasures
Justin M. Jacobs

In Plunder? How Museums Got Their Treasures, historian Justin M. Jacobs challenges the widely accepted belief that much of Western museums’ treasures were acquired by imperialist plunder and theft. (University of Chicago Press)

 

Topics in Korean Language and Culture: Volume One
Hye Young Shin (with Jihye Moon, Haewon Cho, Jae Hong Lee)

Topics in Korean Language and Culture: Volume One covers 12 essential topics relating to both traditional and contemporary Korean culture and society. Routledge

Bayesian Social Science Statistics: Volume 1 From the Very Beginning
Jeff Gill and Le Bao

In Bayesian Social Science Statistics, the authors introduce Bayesian probability and inference for social science students and practitioners starting from the absolute beginning and walk readers steadily through the Element. (Cambridge University Press)

Orwell's Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-First Century
Laura Beers

For the 75th anniversary of 1984, Orwell's Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-First Century explores George Orwell’s still-radical ideas and why they are critical today. A New Yorker Best Book of 2024. (WW Norton)

Introduction to Health Promotion, 2nd edition
Anastasia M. Snelling (Editor)

Introduction to Health Promotion gives students a working knowledge of health promotion concepts and their applications, with a special emphasis on the philosophical and theoretical foundations of health promotion. (Wiley)

What's Eating Jackie Oh?
Patricia Park

In What's Eating Jackie Oh?, a Korean American teen tries to balance her dream to become a chef with the cultural expectations of her family when she enters the competitive world of a TV cooking show. A Kirkus Review Best Book of the Year. (Penguin Random House)
 

Bodies on the Front Lines: Performance, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean
Edited by Brenda Werth and Katherine Zien

Revolutionary feminism, queer, and trans activist movements are traversing Latin America and the Caribbean. Bodies on the Front Lines situates recent performances and protests within legacies of homegrown gender and sexual rights activism from the South. (University of Michigan Press)

Health Promotion Moving Forward: A Population Health Approach
Jody Gan

Health Promotion Moving Forward: A Population Health Approach is the most current foundational health promotion textbook to dynamically reflect upon the collective pandemic experience, the lessons learned, and the strategies for national recovery. (Springer Publishing)

Digital Storytelling as Translanguaging: A Practical Guide for Language Educators
Polina Vinogradova and Heather A. Linville

Digital Storytelling as Translanguaging is an innovative and accessible book that introduces using digital storytelling in language teaching, with a focus on English as an Additional Language (EAL) instruction. (Routledge)

Transpacific, Undisciplined
Edited by Lily Wong, Christopher B. Patterson and Chien-ting Lin

Transpacific, Undisciplined activates generative, if obscured, connections against fixed national and methodological boundaries and reveals how an undisciplined approach can reconfigure itself in relation to unequal exchanges among Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas. (University of Washington Press)

The Making of Little Saigon Narratives of Nostalgia, (Dis)Enchantments, and Aspirations
Quynh H. Vo and Tung X. Bui

A collective memoir of community reimagining, The Making of Little Saigon orchestrates the voices of activists, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, and scholars who have inhabited and nurtured Little Saigon, Orange County, California, into a beloved sanctuary. (Rowman and Littlefield)

Longings: Contemporary Fiction by Vietnamese Women Writers
Translated by Quynh H. Vo and Quan Manh Ha

The stories in Longings appear in English for the first time, focusing on the “Longings” of Vietnamese women as they have faced suffering and struggle, hope and despair, sorrow and joy, while navigating life since the US–Vietnam normalization in the mid-1990s. (Texas Tech University Press)

Scrap Theory: Reproductive Injustice in the Black Feminist Imagination
Mali D. Collins

In Scrap Theory, Collins uses works by Black women to document mother–child separation to deploy a theory of “scraps” to understand the how the lives of Black mothers and children document centuries of racialized and gendered torment. (The Ohio State University Press)

She Changed the Nation: Barbara Jordan’s Life and Legacy in Black Politics
Mary Ellen Curtin

She Changed the Nation is an important new biography of Barbara Jordan, the first Black woman from the South to serve in Congress. (University of Pennsylvania Press)
 

Swinglines: Rhythm, Timing, and Polymeter in Musical Phrasing
Fernando Benadon

Swinglines offers insights into underexplored topics and cuts across musical styles and traditions, encompassing Bach, Hendrix, Brazilian music, hip-hop, tango, Herbie Hancock, and more. (Oxford University Press)