“Working Women in Jordan: Education, Migration, and Aspiration”
Fida J. Adely, associate professor and director at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) and the Clovis and Hala Salaam Maksoud Chair in Arab Studies, examines the hurdles that college-educated women have in building their futures in Amman, Jordan, in her new book “Working Women in Jordan: Education, Migration and Aspiration.” Changes in the country including increased educational opportunities for women, urbanization, privatization and the restructuring of the labor market have impacted the scope of Jordanian women’s lives, gender roles and family relations.
Adely contextualizes these women in recent history while highlighting the “creative agency” they deploy in crafting their futures.
“The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea”
Victor Cha, D.S. Song-KF Endowed Chair in Government and International Affairs, paints a vivid picture of the global enigma that is North Korea and develops a grounded account of its behavior in his new book, “The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea.” In the book, Cha shares a collection of new information on the country collected through innovative research methods like data scraping and ethnography, including micro surveys of ordinary North Koreans. Pulling from his experience as a White House official negotiating with North Korean interlocutors and his travels to the country, he explores the regime’s core tendencies, its policies toward the U.S.–South Korea alliance, cybersecurity threats, the potential for economic development, the growth of a nascent civil society and pathways toward Korean unification, among other topics.
“Unification as a topic is not really very well studied but I do believe it is inevitable. The division of Korea was an aberration. It was a country that was united for thousands of years, and, then, as a result of Cold War politics, it was divided at the end of the Second World War. The system in North Korea right now by any metrics should not be continuing to survive,” Cha said in an interview for the CSIS podcast The Impossible State: North Korea. He explained why he wanted to write the book: “I think that unification is something that will eventually happen, and yet, the range of plausibility is so wide that it’s not something that governments can devote attention to….I always thought it was important that there be a book in English about the topic of unification that was independent scholarship not tied to some government affiliated think tank.”
“Handbook of Aid and Development”
Raj Desai, professor of international development, and Shantayanan Devarajan, professor of the practice of international development, co-edited the new “Handbook of Aid and Development” with Jennifer Tobin, associate professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy. Desai, Devarajan and Tobin used the contributions to their edited volume to examine the relationship between aid and development while also discussing recent trends within the field and future prospects. The book features contributions from an array of eminent scholars who assess the controversies surrounding aid and development stemming from the effects of aid in donor and recipient countries and highlights the need for more innovation and experimentation.
“The Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Victims, Perpetrators, Justice, and the Question of Genocide”
Diana Dumitru, Ion Ratiu Associate Teaching Professor in Romanian Studies at SFS, and Dirk Moses, Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of International Relations at the City College of New York, CUNY, co-edited “The Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Victims, Perpetrators, Justice, and the Question of Genocide.” Through the contributions to the edited volume, Dumitru and Moses analyze the crucial facets of the Russian invasion. Topics include Russian sexual violence against occupied Ukrainians, their “collaboration” and “filtration,” legal prosecutions especially relating to kidnapped Ukrainian children, the portrayal of events in Bucha on Russian social media and the lessons learned from the Ukrainian refugee crisis in Poland during the initial weeks of the war. Also examined are the potential pursuit of justice at the International Court of Justice and the genocide claim more generally.
“God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America”
Bruce Hoffman, professor at the School of Foreign Service, and Jacob Ware (SSP’19), research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, published “God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America,” which examines how vast conspiracy theories and radical ideologies such as white supremacism, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia and hostility to government converge into a deadly threat to democracy in the form of far-right terrorism. The book is a definitive account of the rise of far-right terrorism in the United States and how to counter it.
“Why now is there a book necessary on far-right terrorism? Jacob and I are by no stretch of the imagination arguing that this is the only terrorist threat facing the United States. This is not a partisan choice that we focus on the far-right….It is just the numbers on the far-right completely eclipse a threat that is a bonafide threat in the United States from the far-left and indeed from other actors,” Hoffman said at a virtual event held by New America.
“Human Rights in a Divided World: Catholicism as a Living Tradition”
David Hollenbach, S.J., Pedro Arrupe Distinguished Research Professor, published “Human Rights in a Divided World: Catholicism as a Living Tradition,” which offers a comprehensive and cohesive analysis of today’s challenges to human rights, suggesting that global realities call for important developments rooted in Catholic ethics. Hollenbach draws on a range of disciplines to address the question of whether or not human rights remain valid as universal standards for action and provides an account of the contribution that Catholic ethics make to an unequal world.
At a book launch event hosted by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Hollenbach encouraged thinking of human rights in the context of participation in community: “Human rights interpreted that way can make a very important contribution to healing some of the rifts that are dividing our world.”
“The Outbreak Atlas”
Rebecca Katz, professor and director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, and Mackenzie S. Moore, junior scientist at the Center for Global Health Science and Security, published “The Outbreak Atlas,” which provides an overview of outbreak activities alongside compelling case studies and visuals to guide readers through the complexity involved in outbreak preparedness, response and recovery. They discuss the rationale and interconnectedness of outbreak responses across different fields and at various levels, presenting accessible information that ensures a shared understanding of the essential activities to control an outbreak.
“We know there are thousands of people who have taken a keen interest in tracking outbreaks after living through the COVID-19 pandemic,” Katz said in a news release by the Georgetown University Medical Center. “We hope our book helps lift the curtain on what goes on behind the scenes in the management of an outbreak, including topics such as preparedness, response and recovery.”
“Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah”
Charles King, professor of government and international affairs, published “Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah,” which explores the life of George Frideric Handel, composer to kings but, at midlife, in ill health and straining to keep an audience’s attention. Against this turbulent background, King describes the troubled lives that shaped Handel’s Messiah.
King says, “Messiah is one of world civilization’s great monuments to the possibility of hope. That’s an especially strange fact about a work that came out of the dark shadows of the Enlightenment.” Read more in this Q&A with King.
“We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War”
Matthew Kroenig, professor in the School of Foreign Service and the department of government, and Dan Negrea, distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Freedom & Prosperity Center, published, “We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War.” The authors propose a straightforward goal for the struggle with China —we win, they lose — and describes a conservative foreign policy approach. Kroenig covers a comprehensive strategy for tackling foreign policy challenges facing the United States, including: defense, trade, Russia, Iran and North Korea; allies and institutions; border security and immigration; energy and the environment and more.
Explaining why he was inspired to write the book, Kroenig said, “There’s this sense that the Republican party is very divided between the Reaganite and the Trumpian wings. Look at aid to Ukraine and other debates,” at a book talk held by the Hudson Institute. “It becomes a central argument in the book, because despite this common misperception, there is actually a lot of unity still within the conservative movement on foreign policy.”
“Winning Without Fighting: Irregular Warfare and Strategic Competition in the 21st Century”
Rebecca Patterson, professor of the practice of international affairs; Susan Bryant (SFS’89), executive director of SEI; Ken Gleiman, professor of practice at Arizona State University’s Future Security Initiative; and Mark Troutman, chief operating officer at SEI, published “Winning Without Fighting: Irregular Warfare and Strategic Competition in the 21st Century.” The authors provide an in-depth analysis of the evolving landscape of irregular warfare and its implications in an era of global crises and competition. Their study defines irregular warfare as actions taken below the threshold of armed conflict-activities that do not necessitate force or violence and highlights the role of resilience as a foundation for national defense, alongside military, political, economic and informational measures.
“For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy Through the Arts in the Digital Age”
Jessica Roda, assistant professor at the Center for Jewish Civilization, published “For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy Through the Arts in the Digital Age,” which explores how access to technology has completely transformed how ultra-Orthodox women express their way of being religious. She describes how the digital era has enabled these women to create an alternative entertainment market outside of the public, male-dominated one. Roda examines modern performances on the stage and screen directed by and for ultra-Orthodox women. It is the first work to focus on the ultra-Orthodox female art scene in music, film, and dance across North America and on social media.
“My book argues that ultra-Orthodox women are developing diverse strategies to gain visibility and navigate agency, going beyond secular liberal models that typically involve showing one’s face and voice to all genders. By exploring the paradox of religious women balancing modesty with the need for public presence in the arts, I demonstrate that these women employ various approaches to make their art accessible while adhering to their community’s modesty norms,” Roda says. Read more in her Q&A.
“African Perspectives on South-South Migration”
Lahra Smith, associate professor and director of the African Studies Program, and Meron Zeleke, associate professor of social anthropology at the Peace and Development Centre Ethiopia, co-edited “African Perspectives on South-South Migration,” which investigates the diverse and dynamic forms of migration within Africa. Centering on themes of agency, resource flows and transnational networks, the contributors examine the enduring appeal of the Global South as a place of origin, transit and destination. Composed by a majority of scholars from the Global South, the book will be crucial reading for researchers, students and policy makers with a focus on south-south migration, migration and inequalities, migration and development, and refugee and humanitarian studies.
“Between Pasts and Future: A Conceptual History of Israeli Art”
Ori Z. Soltes, teaching professor at the Center for Jewish Civilization, published “Between Pasts and Future: A Conceptual History of Israeli Art,” which explores how Israeli art has changed form and meaning over time. It began as part of the statement that we are here and has become part of a question: what are we? In layered pasts, in indigenous internationality, in diversity of experience and reflection, Israeli art inevitably echoes what the community is or how its artists feel about or wish to see it.
“Welcoming the Stranger: Abrahamic Hospitality and its Contemporary Implications”
Soltes also co-edited “Welcoming the Stranger: Abrahamic Hospitality and its Contemporary Implications,” with Rachel Stern, founding and executive director of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art in New York. The contributors reflect on the signal moments in the narrative of the biblical Abraham is his insistent and enthusiastic reception of three strangers, a starting point of inspiration for all three Abrahamic traditions as they evolve and develop the details of their respective teachings. The essays explore these issues from historical, theoretical, theological and practical perspectives, offering an enlightening and compelling discussion of what the Abrahamic traditions teach us regarding welcoming people we don’t know.