The following books were authored or edited by William & Mary faculty members and published in 2024. Books are listed in alphabetical order within the following categories: arts & sciences, education, fiction, law and wellness. Additional categories may be added throughout the year as more books are published. The information contained herein was submitted by the authors. Additional books may be submitted via this online form. – Ed.

Arts & Sciences

Activism in Hard Times in Central and Eastern Europe: People Power

Co-edited by Paula M. Pickering, Richard S. Perles Professor of Government, along with Patrice McMahon and Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves

“Activism in Hard Times in Central and Eastern Europe” elevates the voices of civic activists from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and analyzes a wealth of information to generate new insights into how activism in the region manages to be vibrant, diverse, and consequential. Because of these countries’ unique historical trajectory, CEE activists have, in important ways, leap-frogged their counterparts in the West. Responses by CEE activists to the recent “hard times” – the shrinking of public space for civil society, democratic backsliding, polarization, and Russia’s war in Ukraine – provide important lessons for others confronting similar challenges around the world.

Published by Routledge | More information

The Assault on the State: How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers Our Future

By Stephen E. Hanson, Lettie Pate Evans Professor of Government, and Jeffrey S. Kopstein

In “The Assault on the State,” political scientists Stephen Hanson and Jeffrey Kopstein offer an impassioned plea to defend modern government against those who seek to destroy it. They dissect the attack on the machinery of government from its origins in post-Soviet Russia to the core powers of Western democracy. The dangers of state erosion imperil every aspect of our lives. Hanson and Kopstein outline a strategy that can reverse this destructive trend before humanity is plunged back into the pathological personalistic politics of premodern times.

Published by Polity | More information

The Child Witches of Olague

By Lu Ann Homza, James Pinckney Harrison Professor of History

“The Child Witches of Olague” features translations of newly-discovered archival documents from Navarre, Spain. It reveals what happened in the tiny village of Olague when witchcraft accusations surged there in 1611-1612.

Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, “Magic in History” series | More information

Engaging Children in Vast Early America

Co-edited by Holly N.S. White M.A. ’12, Ph.D. ’17, Adjunct Lecturer of History, and Julia M. Gossard

“Engaging Children in Vast Early America” examines the often overlooked roles that children played in moments of contact between Indigenous groups, Europeans, and Africans in North and South America over the course of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. This collaborative collection is the first of its kind to invite experts in the field of Vast Early America to engage with the history of childhood and youth. The result is nine innovative essays that expand our understanding of childhood and agentive children but also of empire and everyday life in Vast Early America.

Published by Routledge | More information

A Grammar of Arabic

Corinne Stokes, Assistant Professor of Arabic Studies, served as co-author/contributor

“A Grammar of Arabic” is a non-traditional reference grammar that is structured around patterns of Arabic language usage rather than prescriptive rules. Using data from Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic and dialects spoken in Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, the Levant, Iraq and the Arabian Gulf, this grammar models a new framework for studying varieties of Arabic comparatively.

Published by Routledge | More information

A History of American Literature: 1900-1950

By Christopher MacGowan, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English, Emeritus

A wide-ranging history of the literature, cultural context and major movements in the story of American literature in the first half of the 20th century.

Published by Wiley-Blackwell | More information

An Introduction to Decision and Game Theory

By William P. Fox, Visiting Teaching Professor of Mathematics

This book covers decision theory methods for risk, uncertainty, certainty, and competition. Multi-attribute decision-making, linear programming with data envelopment analysis. Both total conflict and partial conflict games are covered for simultaneous and sequential games.

Published by Taylor and Francis

Jacob van Ruisdael’s Ecological Landscapes

By Catherine Levesque, Associate Professor of Art & Art History

The 17th-century Dutch artist Jacob van Ruisdael is one of the foremost landscape painters of his time. This study examines how Ruisdael’s paintings, though fictive, pay close attention to the complexities of familiar environments that can be fruitfully considered “ecological.” His depiction of nature’s dynamism and generative force provided an alternative vision at an important moment when the lived landscape, increasingly manipulated and controlled, was most often considered property and investment.

Published by Amsterdam University Press | More information

Numerical Methods and Analysis through mathematical modeling

By William P. Fox, Visiting Teaching Professor of Mathematics, and Richard West

The book is an applied mathematical modeling book illustrating numerical analysis and methods to solve the models. The coverage includes discrete dynamical systems, interpolation, root finding, numerical methods to ODEs and PDEs, and single variable and multivariable numerical optimization methods.

Published by Taylor and Francis

Practitioner’s Guide to Operations Research

By William P. Fox, Visiting Teaching Professor of Mathematics, and R. Burks

This book is a quantitative textbook for managers and practitioners in methods of operations research. The book illustrates methods and technology to solve many of these types of problems.

Published by Taylor and Francis

Privileging Place: How Second Homeowners Transform Communities and Themselves

By Meaghan Stiman, Assistant Professor of Sociology

In recent decades, Americans have purchased second homes at unprecedented rates. In “Privileging Place,” Meaghan Stiman examines the experiences of predominantly upper-middle-class suburbanites who bought second homes in the city or the country. Drawing on interviews with more than 60 owners of second homes and ethnographic data collected over the course of two years in Rangeley, Maine, and Boston, Massachusetts, Stiman uncovers the motivations of these homeowners and analyzes the local consequences of their actions. By doing so, she traces the contours of privilege across communities in the 21st century.

Published by Princeton University Press | More information

Victorian Animals in Literature and Culture (audio book)

By Deborah Denenholz Morse, NEH Eminent Professor of English

“Victorian Animals in Literature and Culture” is a series of eight lectures that center on the literary and cultural representation of animals in the Victorian era and beyond, into contemporary fiction. The lectures are concerned with animal welfare and animal rights as well as literary and cultural representation.

Published on Audible for Great Courses | More information

Education

Exploring Complexities in College Student Development: Critical Lessons From Researching Students’ Journeys

By Patricia M. King, Rosemary J. Perez and James P. Barber, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Professor of Education

This book explores how college students address life challenges and develop the self-authoring capacities needed to deal with the ambiguities and complexities of life after graduation.

Based on the in-depth interview portion of the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, this book draws on almost 1,000 interviews with a diverse cohort of 315 students from six institutions over four years. It traces these students’ journeys, documenting the wide variety of pathways they followed, the range of contexts in which their experiences took place, the liberal education outcomes associated with these experiences and the factors that affected quality and impact. The authors critique current student development theory and offer a new interactionist model to guide future study in the field, inviting readers to adopt five habits of mind to guide their praxis and practice to promote student development.

Published by Routledge | More information

Fiction

Fractured Frame

By Robert B. Archibald, Chancellor Professor of Economics

In 1968, Horace Narwhal commits a stupid crime and ends up paying for it by serving a stint in the Army. When his required enlistment ends, he returns home and finds a new job. A new life. He takes classes at night, gets his GED, and finds he has a natural talent creating whimsical sculptures. And he meets a police detective, a woman who captures his heart.

In 1980, Kenny Sturgis lives with his dad, an abusive loner, at a remote hunting camp. Barely out of high school, he spends his time working for his father, driving around town and target shooting. When he meets Maybell Wilcox, his luck seems to have changed. But why is she really interested in Kenny, and what kind of plan does she have for him?

By the time Horace Narwhal crosses paths with Kenny Sturgis, one man is dead and another is wrongly accused.

Published by Blue Fortune Enterprises LLC | More information

Law

Philosophical Foundations of Private International Law

By Michael S. Green, Woodbridge Professor of Law

The first interdisciplinary engagement between private international law (the conflict of laws) and philosophy. The book brings philosophers in conversation with private international law scholars to demystify the analytical tools of each discipline in relationship to the other.

Published by Oxford University Press | More information

Wellness

Art Therapy Directives: An Intervention Toolbox

By Sarah Balascio, Art Therapist & Adjunct Lecturer

“Art Therapy Directives: An Intervention Toolbox” is an all-inclusive manual of art therapy directives designed to be a comprehensive and organized resource for art therapists and other trained mental health professionals.

Published by Routledge Taylor & Francis | More information

Read the 2023 faculty book listing here.