R equired Reading

Required Reading

Living in Infamy: Felon Disfranchisement and the History of American Citizenship Pippa Holloway, Professor of History

HISTORY

Living in Infamy examines the history of disfranchisement for criminal conviction in the United States. In the post-war South, white Southern politicians expanded the usage of laws disfranchising for crimes of infamy in order to deny African Americans the suffrage rights due them as citizens, employing historical similarities between the legal statuses of slaves and convicts as justification. At the same time, our nation's criminal code changed.

As racial barriers to suffrage were challenged and fell, rights remained restricted for persons targeted by such infamy laws; criminal convictions—in place of race— continued the disparity in legal status between whites and African Americans. Decades later, after race-based disfranchisement has officially ended, legislation steeped in a legacy of racial discrimination continues to perpetuate a dichotomy of suffrage and citizenship that still affects our election outcomes today.

Lyric & Blake V. Nikki Jones, Assistant Professor of Social Work YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Lyric & Blake is a young adult novel about two African American female junior high school students who defy gender norms by wearing boys’ clothes and dating girls. The book follows them as they explore personal identity among the judgmental cliques in the student body.

Gennett Records and Starr Piano Charlie B. Dahan, Professor of Recording Industry, and Linda Gennett Irmscher HISTORY

In 1915, the Starr Piano Co., one of the largest piano manufacturers in the United States during the 19th century, opened a recording division, Gennett Records, that led to a dynamic change in the music industry and American culture. Gennett embraced the vastly under-recorded genres of jazz, blues, and country music in the 1920s.

The Feral Condition Gaylord Brewer, Professor of English POETRY

In The Feral Condition, Brewer's 10th collection of poetry, the poet engages more deeply than ever before in his work the challenges and rewards of the untamed world. In this uniquely private yet universal series of intersections with the wild, serendipitous moments abound, whether small or grand, sought out, or fatefully offered. These are unforgettable meditations, poems by turns whimsical, harrowing, and delightful.

No. 731 Degraw-street, Brooklyn, or Emily Dickinson's Sister: a play in two acts Claudia Barnett, Professor of English DRAMA

Kate Stoddard murdered Charles Goodrich in 1873—after he told her they weren't really married and had her evicted from his Brooklyn brownstone in a blizzard. Kate's struggles to maintain her sanity and her identity, both before and after she shot her one true love three times in the head, are the subject of this play, which moves backwards and forwards through time and invokes a poetry of madness.