illustration of books

5 books by UR authors to round out your summer reads

July 18, 2022

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Looking for some summer book suggestions? Faculty at the University have penned compelling reads for a general audience on a wide variety of topics — from weighty issues like racial inequality to a children’s book about dreams. We’re highlighting five that were published in the past year, recently cited by the media, or include a collaboration among several Spiders.

History professor Samantha Seeley’s first book received two major awards this year. Race, Removal, and the Right to Remain: Migration and the Making of the United States examines how the states and federal government excluded groups of people from the nation after the American Revolution. Race and Removal focuses on how early nation building in the U.S. was purposefully constructed through contentious legal, political, and diplomatic negotiation.

Seeley’s book received the 2022 Merle Curti Social History Award from the Organization of American Historians as well as the Jon Gjerde Prize from the Midwestern History Association. Hear Seeley discuss her work on this New Books Network podcast.

Sonic Identity at the Margins is an anthology that explores “how marginalized identities manifest in music and sound,” the authors write, shaping our society from the 19th century until now. The book, featuring works from four University of Richmond faculty, aims to bring awareness and to disrupt identity-based stereotypes, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability, in music and media.

The anthology was co-edited by University of Richmond music professors Joanna K. Love and Jessie Fillerup and features chapters from UR colleagues, Andy McGraw, associate professor and chair of the Department of Music, and Bert Ashe, professor of English and Africana studies advisory board member.

Ashe is also the author of Twisted: My Dreadlocks Chronicle, which was featured in a question on Jeopardy earlier this year.  The personal account traces Ashe’s experience and issues surrounding Black male identity through cultural perceptions of hair.

Dozens of recent media reports related to legislation on the use of rap lyrics in court have cited Rap on Trial, which was co-authored by liberal arts professor Erik Nielson. The book looks at rap lyrics used as criminal evidence in cases against young men of color. Nielson also helped write the legislation.

And on the lighter side, Yesternight is an illustrated book by Linda Hobgood, longtime director of the Speech Center and a faculty member in rhetoric and communication studies. A fellow Spider, UR alum Sarah Muse, created the drawings for the book. 

The publisher describes Yesternight as the story of a girl who spends “four seasons filled with exciting daytime adventures that inspire her imagination and lead to wondrous nighttime escapades, travel to make-believe places, moonlight rides and dancing with stuffed animals that come alive on starlit nights.”