Fordham Impressions » Education

Book Expo NYC

FUPress — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:52:15 +0000

BookExpo America 2013
May 30 – June 1, Jacob Javits Convention Center, NYC

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS

Booth #1752

Visit Books@BEA, the official online catalog for BEA!

Why University Presses Matter

FUPress — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 07:27:50 +0000

We are excited to have Fordham University Press Director, Fredric Nachbaur, blogging for us as part of the University Press Week blog tour! The tour continues today at Texas A&M University Press. A complete blog tour schedule is also available here.

Witnessing all the damage caused by Sandy has me feeling a melancholy. I was born and raised in New Jersey and spent many summers “down the shore.” In recent summers I have taken my daughter to some of the same beaches I enjoyed as a kid. I’ve been a New Yorker since 1991 and am a regular visitor to Coney Island, and lived for a short time in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is quite devastating to see all the massive destruction done to our great city and state and to our neighbors in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. As I was preparing to write my post for University Press Week, I reflected on how university presses have bonded together in the past during times of tragedy to help us all understand what is happening at the moment and how we can move forward. “Books for Understanding” was developed by the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) soon after 9/11 to bring the latest and most valuable scholarship to readers in an easy to find and easy to use place. The AAUP instantly became a resource for people who wanted to know more and to find it from reliable sources—University Presses—the pillars of knowledge. The day after hurricane Sandy hit, a reporter from the Huffington Post contacted me about a Fordham University Press (FUP) author who wrote a history of the NYC subways. She wanted to interview him about the flooding of the tunnels and the mass transit shutdown. It is a prime example of how the media turns to university presses for expertise during times of crisis.

We emphasize scholarship by being witnesses to global events, detectives for finding the best authors, and sharers of critical information that has been researched and vetted. Combining efforts to make all of our books on a specific topic of current concern to citizens of the world is invaluable. There are several lists related to Hurricane Sandy, including one on Katrina. Knowing this, I’m not feeling as sad. Thank you AAUP! In preparation for University Press Week to celebrate the AAUP turning 75, Will Underwood, Director of Kent State University Press, asked fellow directors to gather some endorsements from key stakeholders. Happily, I got a great response from faculty and administrators on the Fordham campus as well as some FUP authors and friends. Here is what the Provost of Fordham University wrote:

“As the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) celebrates its 75th anniversary, Fordham University joins in honoring a rich history of committed leadership and collaborative service to the academy and to society. Fordham University Press has partnered with AAUP since 1938 to advance academic excellence in the full pursuit of truth and to enrich public discourse through the dissemination of scholarly research of the highest quality across the disciplines. We look forward to our work with the AAUP to engage evolving challenges and opportunities for university presses in the decades ahead. —Stephen Freedman, Provost, Fordham University

FUP celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2007. Established in 1907 to help Fordham faculty publish monographs based on their research, we now publish up to 70 books per year from faculty at institutions all over the globe. Not unlike the AAUP, FUP is a small organization with big ambitions. We have established ourselves as a leading academic press concentrating in history, literary theory, philosophy and religion. We also publish well established series in continental philosophy, American philosophy, medieval studies, World War II, and the Civil War among others and have created new series spanning a diversity of topics from Orthodox Christianity to Italian American studies. We have a long history publishing regional books focusing on New York City and the Hudson Valley. In 2010, we established the Empire State Editions imprint to better brand and market these titles.

To kick off the festivities of UP week, we hosted an open house for faculty showcasing their work as authors and series editors. Despite the previous evening’s nor’easter, we got a nice turnout and received positive feedback. Here are a few shots.

On Veteran’s Day, FUP hosted a Veteran’s Day public program entitled Five Historians Reflect on World War II: What We Know, What We Still Need to Learn and What We May Never Know. It turned out to be a successful event with a lively engaged audience. Here are some pics.

Dr. Scott H. Bennett, author of Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank and Albert Dietrich

Dr. G. Kurt Piehler, Dr. Scott H. Bennett, Dr. Sidney Pash, Dr. Ann Pfau, Dr. John Chambers, Dr. J. Garry Clifford

FUP is lean, resourceful, hardworking, and determined. I’d say that about captures the definition of a university press and the AAUP. I’m proud to be a member of this superb, caring, humane community. Happy birthday AAUP. Here’s to another 75 years.

I’ll end with a quote from a friend and a fan of university presses:

“What words to describe the university press? Patient, ambitious, demanding, sustaining, generous, utterly essential. Serious thinking is unimaginable without it.”
—William Germano, Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union

Fredric Nachbaur (Twitter: @FNachbaur) is the Director of Fordham University Press.

Next stop: Texas A&M University Press.

How to Lose a Close Election

FUPress — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:13:13 +0000

A version of this first appeared on the blog With A Brooklyn Accent on October 22, 2012.

By Mark Naison, co-author of The Rat That Got Away (Fordham University Press).

Virtually every poll now has President Obama and Mitt Romney embroiled in an extremely close race. The president could very well win this election; but he could also lose. And if he does lose, I will have to go back to something I first started saying nearly three years — namely that turning off the nation’s teachers with educational policies which silence their voice and put them under extreme stress is not only bad for the nation’s schools, it could cripple the president’s re-election efforts.I have worked to get the president to incorporate the nation’s teachers into education policy discussions, and stop requiring schools to ratchet up the number of standardized tests to receive federal funding. I have privately engaged people close to the president in conversation about teachers’ disillusionment, efforts which were totally unsuccessful.The president’s inner circle, from what I could gather, refused to bend on support for Race to the Top and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. They were not only convinced that these policies would end up improving the nation’s schools; they felt that the political gains to be made in terms of support from wealthy donors and influential journalists was far greater than any losses that would occur in terms of teacher enthusiasm. They knew the largest teachers unions would support the president no matter what policies he chose to implement.

Now, at crunch time, when it’s too late to change course, I can tell you that this judgment was a severe miscalculation. Not only have the president’s policies failed to narrow testing gaps by race and class, they have contributed to teacher morale in the nation to be the lowest it has been since pollsters began measuring this trait.

But the political consequences may have been even more serious than the educational ones. Most teachers will probably end up voting for the president, but from what I have seen, in both New York and around the nation, they will not be manning phone banks, canvassing in their neighborhoods, traveling to swing states on the weekends and generally giving time, money and energy to assure the president’s election the way they did in 2008.

Many pundits attribute the Obama victory in 2008 to an incredibly strong “ground game” composed of huge numbers of volunteers, as well as paid staff, working to get out the vote in battleground states. Many of those individuals, including me, my wife, and many of my friends, were teachers, professors and school administrators. During this election, I know of few, if any educators putting in that kind of heroic effort, almost entirely because they are feeling betrayed by the president, indeed, by the entire Democratic Party, on educational issues, even though they support the president’s positions on reproductive freedom, gay rights, taxation and medical care.

There is no way of knowing whether the phenomenon I am describing is will be a “game changer” in this election. But based on what I have seen in 2008 and in this campaign, there is a chance it could be. And if it is, the Obama brain trust has no one to blame but themselves.

Mark Naison is co-author of The Rat That Got Away (Fordham University Press). He is professor of African and African American Studies at Fordham University in New York and chairman of the department of African and African-American Studies. He is also co-director of the Urban Studies Program, African-American History 20th Century. A version of this first appeared on the blog With A Brooklyn Accent.

Fordham Values Diversity

FUPress — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:24:51 +0000

By Fredric Nachbaur, Director of Fordham University Press

When I received my certificate from the university’s Office of Multicultural Affairs for successfully completing training to be an ally of support for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Network, I felt very exultant. This seemed very cool to be happening at a Catholic university. After attending two half-day sessions with students, faculty, and other administrators, I received my button and plaque that I proudly display on the wall in my office. Along with my fellow trainees, I am available on campus to offer support to any students or community members who are feeling anxious, unsure, or unsafe about their sexual identity and how it affects their life at Fordham.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs created the network and training program to foster an environment of inclusiveness, awareness, understanding, and open-mindedness. During the sessions, we participated in role playing in which we acted out anonymous student stories confronting homophobia and other hostile situations; discussed LGBT terminology, stereotypes, and common language; and learned about campus and community resources for LGBT students. Guest speakers talked about how we can be good listeners and offer support when needed, and we heard from a student about his journey from closeted high school student to openly gay college student. It was an incredible experience and one that made me feel honored to be a member of the Fordham community.

Soon thereafter a rash of unsettling incidents occurred on campus that undermined the efforts of programs like the LGBT Network. Racial and homophobic slurs were found in the hallways of different buildings on campus both at Rose Hill (Bronx) and Lincoln Center (Manhattan).

Now that this news has hit the national media, as an administrator of the university and the director of Fordham University Press I felt compelled to express my feelings on the series of events. These atypical actions go against everything that Fordham stands for, which is to promote an understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of all our students that is rooted in the Jesuit tenet of Cura Personalis and the principle that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, which is explicit in Catholic teaching. The narrow-mindedness of the individual or group that made these slurs via graffiti should not overshadow the efforts that Fordham has made to work actively toward promoting an environment in which all members of the university community are welcomed and valued.

Fordham University Press has a commitment of mirroring the values and mission of the university that is evident in the types of books it publishes. On our current spring list are two lead titles that exemplify our appreciation of diversity, whether exploring LGBT issues or delving into the history of African Americans.

Hidden: Reflections on Gay Life, AIDS, and Spiritual Desire by Richard Giannone, professor emeritus at Fordham University, is a deeply personal account of the author’s struggle of being gay, Catholic, and caretaker for his dying sister and mother. From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family by James H. Johnston is the true story of an African American family in Maryland over six generations. A recent backlist title – Civil Rights in New York City: From World War II to the Giuliani Era edited by Clarence Taylor – addresses varying aspects of New York’s civil rights struggle and reaffirms their importance to the larger national fight for equality for Americans across racial lines. These are only three of the many books that represent our effort and desire to publish books that welcome and encourage an understanding and awareness of diversity in the world and that, we hope, will widen people’s understanding and appreciation of race and gender.

As an openly gay man who has recently married (thank you, New York) and is raising a child, it is important to me that I feel welcome on campus, which I do. I have never felt like an outsider and have always been encouraged to be proud of who I am. Fordham has always fostered this atmosphere, which is exemplified by the LGBT training that it offers; the resources available to LGBT students; the diversity of the students, faculty, and staff; and the books published by the university press. The ignorance represented by these recent slurs should not and will not undo all the understanding and awareness that exist at Fordham.

NYROB on School 'Reform'

FUPress — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:55:05 +0000

In the latest issue of the New York Review of Books, Diane Ravitch dissects two books on school reform in America, including As Bad as They Say? Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx by Janet Grossbach Mayer. Below is an excerpt from the article:

Janet Grossbach Mayer represents the kind of person who is on the other side of the “class war.” In As Bad as They Say? Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx, she vividly describes her life on the front lines of urban education. She went to public school in the Bronx and graduated from Queens College. She saw teaching as a career and a calling, not a stepping stone to policymaking or law school. Like most career teachers, she chose to teach where she grew up, which happened to be one of the poorest districts in the nation. Over many years as an English teacher, she taught 14,000 students. She wrote her book because she wanted the world to know that Bronx students, “contrary to expectations, were young people of remarkable character, unlimited potential, uncommon courage, and indomitable will.”

Read the entire article

Janet Mayer Reflects on Her Career as a Bronx High School Teacher

FUPress — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:03:30 +0000

NY Daily News Metro News writer, Corinne Lestch, sat down with author, Janet Grossbach Mayer, to discuss her upcoming book, AS BAD AS THEY SAY? Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx:

Teacher’s latest chapter tells inspiring stories of Bronx kids in book.

JANET MAYER taught more than 14,000 students in two Bronx high schools during a 45-year career, and learned so much.

Janet Grossbach Mayer

Now 72, Mayer has had time to reflect on her profession in a new book, “As Bad As They Say? Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx,” due out in April from Fordham University Press.

“The kids are not all the same, and I wanted to present different problems,” she said in an interview. “It’s very hard to teach literature to a kid whose mother just died the night before, or was evicted and living in the street.”

She said she made a promise to a class that when she retired, she would write a book about them so that the whole world could learn that Bronx students, contrary to expectations, were “young people of remarkable character, unlimited potential, uncommon courage and indomitable will.”

Mayer chronicles the hardships students faced and overcame since she started teaching English in 1960. She gives fictitious names to the schools where she taught — “Harriman High School” for an all-white school, “Carter High School” for a mostly minority one — to protect her students’ identities.

Daily News, Metro News, Monday, March 7, 2011

To read more, visit the As Bad As They Say? Facebook Fan Page.

As Bad As They Say?

FUPress — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:57:15 +0000

Author, Janet Grossbach Mayer, comments on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plans to take thousands of teachers off the payroll to help balance a strained budget:

Mayor Bloomberg (not Chancellor Black) has announced that 4,600 New York City teachers will have to be let go because of budget cuts. Never mind that Governor Cuomo has said that no teacher needs to be fired. Never mind that releasing 4,600 teachers will destroy the public schools which have already lost 5,000 teachers in the last two years. Mr. Bloomberg will have his way because he always does!

In my about-to-be-released book, AS BAD AS THEY SAY? Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx not only do I write about my heroic Bronx students, but I also include a chapter entitled the “Deception, Dismantling and Demise of Public Education.” In that well-documented chapter (70 footnotes) I chronicle the reign of Mr. Bloomberg, a dictatorial non-educator, as he barrels ahead seeking no one’s advice and changes law after law to get his way. His panel on education has never dissented from his demands and, for the most part, the Board of Regents approves everything too.

But under Mayor Bloomberg, standardized test scores are a sham. Look at the just-released National Assessment of Education scores in science: only 18% of fourth graders are at proficiency (average) and only 13% of eighth graders are at proficiency. Plus, the achievement gap has widened! Look at the June 2010 abysmal New York City standardized test scores. Look at the increase in charter schools (an increase Bloomberg went to the legislature to obtain) and then at the studies and statistics that show that charter schools not only cause collateral damage to neighboring public schools, they also perform less well than public schools. The mayor got the legislature to change term limits so that he could run for another term. Where was the outcry? He chose a new chancellor, another non-educator. Where was the outcry?

Now Mr. Bloomberg has gone again to the legislature to do away with seniority retention rights and keep only the “best” teachers. Now, I was an award-winning teacher, but it took many years to acquire my expertise and experience. Do you think I would keep my job when I could be replaced by less expensive, inexperienced teachers? Since most administrators today are not master teachers, who will help and train the new teachers? Who will keep the schools functioning? Make no mistake about it. There is no way to choose teachers by merit when the test scores have been dumbed down and there are so many factors beyond the control of teachers, such as an excess of English Language learners, many special ed students, students with poor health and poor attendance, etc. This new plan by Bloomberg is nothing but a ploy to save money by keeping the lower-salaried, inexperienced teachers and eliminating the experienced ones. Mr. Bloomberg is hastening the demise of the public schools. Do not let him fire our best teachers, the highly experienced, but higher paid teachers! You get what you pay for! Save our schools!

Janet Grossbach Mayer

Miracle on High Street

FUPress — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:05:17 +0000

It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City

South Orange author Tom McCabe traces the history of Newark and St. Benedict’s

By Marcia Worth | SouthOrangePatch.com | November 1, 2010

South Orange author Thomas McCabe views local history through the lens of St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark. McCabe’s book, Miracle on High Street: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of An American Catholic Prep School, will be released today by Fordham University Press.

A decade-long labor of love, it’s fitting that McCabe’s book is released on All Saints Day. He explains that the Benedictine tradition calls for service in a particular setting, rather than itinerant good works. Thus, St. Benedict’s has been teaching young men in Newark since 1868. The school’s fortunes mirror that of the city. Teachers saw students move out of the city, first to the Oranges and Maplewood, then further west. Now the school stands at the center of a Newark renaissance.

McCabe, a graduate of Delbarton in Morristown, notes that his alma mater grew from St. Benedict’s. He began teaching, then serving as an administrator at the Newark school, after he graduated from Princeton. He saw the school develop through the 1990s, adapting to the changes of Newark and demands of the times.

“Somebody needs to write this,” McCabe said to himself 10 years ago, when he looked around the now-thriving school. Some 95 percent of its graduates–mainly boys from Newark, Irvington and the Oranges –go to college, a statistic unimaginable in 1967, when monks watched riots from the school rooftop. Five years later, in 1972, the school closed.

McCabe explains that the Benedictine monks’ “vow of stability” kept them focused on Newark. The school reopened a year later with a handful of teachers and students. Its current student body numbers more than 550, in addition to more than 50 faculty members.

A life-long South Orange resident, McCabe holds a doctorate in history from Rutgers University. He teaches at Montclair State and Rutgers – Newark, where he crafted a popular course centered on this summer’s World Cup, drawing parallels between past events and present ethnic loyalties.

McCabe sees the pull of tradition in Catholic education at St. Benedict’s and even locally, in South Orange. He explains that what draws students and their parents to St. Benedict’s are “tradition, the safe school environment, the excellent extra-curricular activities, and the rigorous academics.” He hypothesizes that the same qualities attract parents to South Orange’s Catholic schools. Our Lady of Sorrows and Marylawn of the Oranges have both grown significantly this year, and Seton Hall University boasts the largest freshman class in decades.

However, McCabe notes that schools such as St. Benedict’s offer a sense of community, as well, that may be their greatest strength throughout the decades. “Convocation,” which is a daily morning meeting, “draws the community together for prayers, ritual, a message from the headmaster,” according to McCabe.

“The message,” McCabe adds, “is that if you, as an individual, don’t show up, the school is lesser for it.” Likewise, without St. Benedict’s, says McCabe, the community would be lesser for it, too.

Tom McCabe will read from Miracle on High Street: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of An American Catholic Prep School at Words on Tues., Nov. 16, 2010, at 7:30 p.m.
Read more

Visit www.miracleonhighstreet.com

The Last Professors

FUPress — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:03:01 +0000

Frank Donoghue, author of Fordham’s The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities , has an article in the September 5, 2010 issue of The Chronicle Review called “Can the Humanities Survive the 21st Century?” The answer may surprise you.

In his provocative book, Donoghue argues that the rise of the corporate university culture is leading to the demise of the tenured university professor. In this article, he elaborates his argument against for-profit schools and corporate sponsorships, stating that it is their rise that is also contributing to the alarming decline of the study of the humanities in higher education. It is not the university’s decline he argues here, saying, “In fact, the humanities and the university are not the same. Since the 1970s, all disciplines in the humanities have suffered from budgetary shortfalls and the absence of a job market.”

With drastic changes in curriculum fueled by the introduction of academic majors and electives, students are choosing not to study humanities. College is becoming more and more compulsory, but also more expensive, leading to a surge in community colleges and profession-oriented for-profit schools.

The problem is not just at for-profit schools, however–large state universities no longer get much funding from the state, so they are forced to turn to corporations for funding, while most private schools are reliant on donations from wealthy alumni (who typically don’t fund humanities). Says Donoghue, “Corporations don’t earmark donations for the humanities because our research culture is both self-contained and absurd.”

So what will happen to the humanities as we know them today? Donoghue concludes, “The humanities will have a home somewhere in 2110, but it won’t be in universities. We need at least to entertain the possibility that the humanities don’t need academic institutions to survive, but actually do quite well on their own.”

What do you think? Are the humanities in danger of disappearing from higher education altogether? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

National Teacher Day

FUPress — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:21:18 +0000

May 4 is National Teacher Day (as well as Star Wars Day, coincidentally). Fordham just released a new title from Kevin Cahill, director of Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, called Even in Chaos: Education in Times of Emergency. The book comes at a time rife with global disasters, when the world’s people need education and the power of knowledge most. In this book, world leader, disaster relief volunteers, and other experts stress the importance of education around the world, especially in nations where devastation has struck.

We also have two Education titles on our White Sale list:

Counter-Institutions: Jacques Derrida and the Question of the University (NOW $12.00, Was $24)

The Gleam of Light: Moral Perfectionism in Dewey and Emerson (NOW $11, Was $22)