Legends practice literacy! Whether to broaden your knowledge, improve your focus, or reduce stress with an interesting story, consider exploring these books written and/or co-authored by BCAS faculty this summer:

How My Father Became a Boat

John Miller (New College, mille031@ua.edu)

John Miller described, “How My Father Became a Boat is about the loss of my father — but it’s also about place, about how language works (or doesn’t), and about finding hope (or at least meaning) in uncertain times. It’s an approachable collection with a narrative and “characters” (after a fashion). Plus, anyone who appreciates the natural world of the coastal South will enjoy images from its rivers, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf.”

Early Modern Women’s Writing and the Future of Literary History

Co-authored by Michelle Dowd (English, mmdowd1@ua.edu)

“While many readers are familiar with the plays of Shakespeare and the works of his male contemporaries such as Ben Jonson and John Donne, far fewer know about the wide variety of writings by women from the same period,” Michelle Dowd stated. “But women in sixteenth and seventeenth century England wrote and published a large number of texts in a broad range of literary genres, including drama, lyric and epic poetry, prose romances, recipe books, and religious texts, to name just a few. In this book, Lara Dodds and I provide a big-picture account of the theoretical and critical debates that have shaped the study of early modern women authors in order to explain why these texts are still relatively unknown and why they have still not been fully integrated into English literary studies writ large. We argue that the field of English Renaissance literary studies is incomplete without early modern women’s writing. To make that case, we look both backwards and forwards: in the first half of the book, we analyze some of the approaches and perspectives that have often limited the study of these authors, and in the second half of the book, we propose new directions for the field going forward. Our goal, then, is not only to bring renewed attention to early modern women writers but also to help reimagine the broader field of English literary studies.”

Closed Seasons: The Transformation of Hunting in the Modern South

Julia Brock (History, jbrock2@ua.edu)

Julia Brock outlined, “In Closed Seasons, I argue that the emergence and institutionalization of game and fish laws in the South effectively modernized hunting by turning it into a regulated, state-sanctioned activity. This shift redefined access to and control over natural resources along lines of race and class—highlighting how environmental policy supported transformation of the post-bellum political economy and served as a tool of social transformation. Hunting and fishing regulation is more connected to modern state building than you might think (but is often left out of that story in the U.S. South)! And, there’s a compelling, complex, and sometimes frustrating cast of characters therein whose voices reveal the wide-ranging motivation for and effects of the new regulation.”

Supremely Polarizing

Co-authored by Nicholas Davis (Political Science, ntdavis2@ua.edu)

“The Supreme Court has a complicated place in the United State’s development as a pluralistic democracy, serving as both a barrier to and a protector of equality throughout American history,” Nicholas Davis argues. “In the post-New Deal period, the Court enjoyed enormous deference as a key player in expanding democracy. A combination of its role in sustaining the Civil Rights movement alongside idiosyncratic rulings that favored both Republicans and Democrats helped establish a narrative that the Court was a nonpartisan actor that approached the law as a neutral umpire calling legal balls and strikes.”

“Today, however, that legacy has dramatically shifted as the Court’s balance of power now lopsidedly benefits one party at the expense of the other. In turn, ordinary Republicans and Democrats now view the Supreme Court in very different ways. Our short book, Supremely Polarizing, uses original survey and experimental data to unpack changes in how contemporary American citizens view the Court in the aftermath of this sea change in judicial power. We show that unlike earlier eras, partisanship now dominates how Americans view the Court: Republicans view it as a legitimate body, while Democrats believe that it threatens the fabric of democracy. Although low levels of legitimacy are traditionally worrisome for institutions, Supremely Polarizing concludes by exploring how a loss of trust and satisfaction with the Court open new pathways for support for reforms that might weaken the Court’s stranglehold on the practice of democracy.”

The American Open Road: Narrative and Popular Imagination

Jeffrey Melton (American Culture & Society, jmelton@ua.edu)

Jeffrey Melton explained, “Americans believe in the open road. That faith arises from an assumption that the road, as a practical fact, is open but also from a dream that the road is a place of endless possibilities. We see its grip on our popular imagination in many ways but most often in stories of self-discovery. Though the open road idea has been integral to American culture from its beginnings, it was the post-World War II boom that made the concept a core facet of popular culture.”

“Although The American Open Road draws upon a range of texts, the discussion throughout depends mostly on literary and cinematic narratives that have made a profound impact upon American culture. Bestselling prose works like Kerouac’s On the Road and Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and films like National Lampoon’s Vacation and Thelma & Louise illustrate how Americans tell their road stories forever with an eye upon the horizon. Road narratives may be triumphant or tragic as they explore a complicated and often tumultuous history. It is my hope that readers can recognize the intricacies of the open road and appreciate their own connections to an ever-evolving dream of discovery.”

Long Eye

Kwoya Fagin Maples (English, knmaples@ua.edu)

In this sea-bound collection of poems, Kwoya Fagin Maples explores the power and divinity of being a Black woman, a mother, a thinker, a protector, and creator. Inspired by a water spirit of West African folklore, the mythic, defiant voice of a Black mermaid is woven throughout the book, serving as a guide in an astonishing, immersive experience that pulses with human longing.

Art and Citizenship in Conflict: British Women War Artists, 1939-45

Lucy Curzon (Art & Art History, lcurzon@ua.edu)

The Dunkirk Evacuation, Operation Overlord, the Battle of Britain, and civilian experiences of the Blitz are among the customary subjects of British histories of the Second World War. But, as Lucy Curzon observes, “rarely do these histories focus on art.” Art and Citizenship in Conflict: British Women War Artists, 1939–45 seeks to fill this gap. It examines art produced by women employed by the British government to document women’s wartime contributions across roles including nursing, agriculture, industrial production, and service in the WRNS, WAAF, and ATS. Curzon argues that these artists reveal a fundamental tension between ideals of wartime citizenship—patriotism, service, and sacrifice—and prevailing notions of femininity. Although women undertook physically demanding work in both civilian and military contexts, they were still expected to embody traditional roles as wives, mothers, daughters, and sweethearts. Artists such as Evelyn Dunbar, Ethel Gabain, and Laura Knight, among others, negotiated this contradiction through varied, often subtle and occasionally humorous, representational strategies that both reflected and questioned the expectations shaping women’s wartime participation.