Pioneer Prophetess is an “Esoteric Classic”

Mitch Horowitz (author of Occult America) included Pioneer Prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend by Herbert A. Wisbey Jr. in his list of Esoteric Classics on BoingBoing on October 1. Horowitz writes:

Pioneer Prophetess by Herbert A. Wisbey. Jr.
A painstakingly researched biography of one of the least-known but widely influential occult figures in American history: the Publick Universal Friend, a spirit channeler who became the nation’s first female religious leader in 1776.

Congratulations to Duncan McCargo and William W. Grimes

The Asia Society has announced the winner and honorable mentions for its inaugural Bernard Schwartz Book Award. The winner of the 2009 award is Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand by Duncan McCargo. Currency and Contest in East Asia: The Great Power Politics of Financial Regionalism by William W. Grimes is one of four books selected for honorable mention by the award jury. Congratulations to them both and to the other authors selected for honorable mention.

Read the entire press release here: Asia Society Announces Winner of 2009 Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award

Dani Filc as Guest Blogger at the Washington Post

Dani Filc, author of Circles of Exclusion: The Politics of Health Care in Israel guest-blogged about Health Care Lessons from Israel on the Washington Post’s Short Stack blog.

Icons of the Desert reviewed

Reviews are rolling in for the stunning Icons of the Desert show and catalog:

Minus Space blog

Aboriginal Art & Culture: An American Eye

The New York Observer, Aboriginal Painting, Gift and Cost

Material World

The Thinking Eye

Flavorpill

Intelligent Life

NY Art Beat

My Word! in the Times Higher Education Supplement

In the September 10, 2009, issue of The Times Higher Education Supplement, Kim Louise Walden discusses My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture by Susan D. Blum:

“Blum’s study set out to uncover student values, attitudes and experiences. Four undergraduates at US higher education institutions were enlisted to conduct interviews with their contemporaries. Although the total number of participants was just 234, which is statistically insignificant in a country with more than 15 million undergraduates, the author makes no categorical claims but rather seeks to discern underlying issues that might throw light on a problem that haunts all of us working in education.

The student interviews were revealing. Testimonies recounted the whole gamut of experiences: from bandying around quotations via instant messaging and listing favourite quotes (without attribution) in Facebook profiles, to the routine and near-universal disregard for laws of copyright when downloading software, music and films. The research clearly indicates a disconnection between student attitudes to citation and conventions in the academic community.”

Read the whole article here.

Giambattista Vico

In The Philosophers’ Magazine, Giorgio Baruchello profiles Italy’s great philosopher Giambattista Vico. Read the profile here.
Please note that all the suggested readings associated with this article are available from Cornell University Press:
On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians
On the Study Methods of our Time
The New Science

We also publish these texts by Vico:
On Humanistic Education
The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico

Our other titles in Vico studies include:

Giambattista Vico: Keys to the “New Science,” edited by Thora Ilin Bayer and Donald Philip Verene
Vico’s Uncanny Humanism: Reading the “New Science” between Modern and Postmodern by Sandra Rudnick Luft
Vico’s Science of Imagination by Donald Philip Verene

James T. Fisher video at America

America, the National Catholic Weekly, features a video of James T. Fisher, author of On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York:

Waterfront Priests

Up in the Air featured in the Australian Financial Review

The August 25 issue of the Australian Financial Review featured two articles about the airline industry, drawing upon the expertise of Greg J. Bamber, coauthor with Jody Hoffer Gittell, Thomas A. Kochan, and Andrew von Nordenflycht of Up in the Air: How Airlines Can Improve Performance by Engaging Their Employees

Take it or leave it . . . the new way to fly

Successful transformation of an airline

Amy B. Dean on Making Contact

Amy B. Dean, coauthor with David B. Reynolds of A New New Deal: How Regional Activism Will Reshape the American Labor Movement, was featured on the September 2 episode of Making Contact, “Still Look for the Union Label.” Listen here.

Thomas M. Malaby Interviewed at Boxes and Arrows

In preparation for the IDEA 2009 social and experience design conference, Russ Unger interviews Thomas M. Malaby, author of Making Virtual Worlds: Linden Lab and Second Life.

Living a Second Life in Online Worlds