University Press Roundup

Welcome to our weekly roundup of the best posts from the blogs of academic publishers! We hope you have a happy Memorial Day and an enjoyable long weekend! As always, if you particularly enjoy something or think that we missed an important post, please let us know in the comments.

This Sunday, Arrested Development makes its long-awaited return to the small screen, and in preparation for this momentous occasion, the OUPblog has an excellent post by Mark Peters comparing the use of language in AD to other well-known television comedies: 30 Rock, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

NYC mayoral candidate Christine Quinn has been the subject of a great deal of media scrutiny recently, and at From the Square, the blog of NYU Press, Margaret S. Williams argues that Quinn’s public treatment highlights the way that female candidates for political office still face a “double-bind.” Williams claims that “Female candidates need to seem tough, but not too tough …. Female candidates need to appear to represent women, but not too much …. And, above all, the female candidate needs to be well-dressed.”

In a fascinating post at the University of Minnesota Press blog, science writer Dorion Sagan discusses the differing views, differing approaches to science, and differing legacies of his parents, astronomer Carl Sagan and biologist Lynn Margulis.

The DSM-5 comes out later this week, and at the Harvard University Press Blog, Liah Greenfeld weighs in on the controversy surrounding this latest edition of the DSM. Greenfeld claims that the DSM-5 “is just an expression of the increasing confusion in the mental health community … in regard to the nature of the human mental processes—or the mind—altogether.”

Prompted by a recent string of apparently homophobic violence in New York City, and in particular by the murder of Mark Carson, Jay Michaelson has a guest post on Beacon Broadside discussing how the growing acceptance of gay marriage, while a step towards legal equality, may be masking deeper prejudices against the LGBT community.

Janis Joplin grew up in Port Arthur, but her relationship with the Texas town was “complicated.” In a fascinating excerpt from History Along the Way at the Texas A&M Press blog, Dan Utley and Cynthia Beeman look at the complex history between Port Arthur and its most famous citizen.

What lessons can today’s leaders take from one of history’s most famous explorers? At the Yale Press Log, Patrick J. Murphy and Ray W. Coye look at how Magellan used his single-mindedness to quell mutinies and deal with calamities on his voyage around the world, and explain how, despite his flaws, he can serve as an example for leaders today.

May 22 is National Maritime Day, and at the MIT Press blog, Larrie Ferreiro has a guest post looking at the current state of trade by sea. He points out that marine freight carriers are more energy-efficient and safer than either truck or rail transport, and that the US “has the industrial and engineering skills to expand the national maritime infrastructure” to better utilize intranational sea-transport possibilities.

The UNC Press Blog has an excerpt this week from Emily Clark’s American Quadroon, a look at how “the antebellum mixed-race free woman of color has long operated as a metaphor for New Orleans” in American literature.

Finally, This Side of the Pond, the blog of Cambridge University Press, challenges you to put your knowledge of cotton and the history of its cultivation and use to the test in “Cotton: The Quiz!”

Thanks again for reading this week’s roundup! Have a great weekend, and leave any thoughts in the comments!