Faculty Publish on a Variety of Topics In addition to their teaching duties, many of our professors also are engaged in scholarly activities. Here is just a sampling of recent books published by faculty at The College at Brockport. Alison Parker, chair of the Department of History, has published a new book, Articulating Rights: Nineteenth Century American Women on Race, Reform and the State (Northern Illinois University Press, 2010). In this original study of six notable reformers, Parker illuminates the connections between the gradual transformation of reform strategies over the course of the 19th century and the political ideas of the reformers themselves. This book reveals Fanny Wright, Sarah Grimké, Angelina Grimké Weld, Frances Watkins Harper, Frances Willard, and Mary Church Terrell to be political thinkers who were engaged in re-conceptualizing the relationship between the state and its citizens. SUNY at Sixty: The Promise of the State University of New York (SUNY Press, 2010) offers an in-depth look at SUNY’s history, political landscape, evolving mission, institutional variety, international partnerships, leadership,
and much more. It also examines the accomplishments and potential of SUNY from several perspectives. The book is the product of a conference that was held in the spring of 2009 and brought together distinguished scholars from across the country who presented on a number of topics, such as the creation of SUNY in the state and national context; accessibility, quality education, and SUNY as an economic engine for the state of New York. The proceedings were edited by John B. Clark, a former interim chancellor of the system and interim president of The College at Brockport, and Brockport Professors of History W. Bruce Leslie and Kenneth P. O’Brien. With a foreword by SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, and contributions from a range of SUNY-affiliated staff and professors both past and present, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the problems and promise of public higher education in New York State and across the nation. Robert J. Gemmett, professor of English, has just published the first scholarly edition of Azemia, a satirical novel by William Beckford that
originally appeared in 1797. Beckford (1760-1844) was a British writer associated with the Gothic movement that flourished in England during the 1790s and early 1800s. Azemia is a satirical novel that mocks the sentimental writing that was popular in the late 18th century and that was mostly written by women. Gemmett’s scholarly edition of Azemia (Valancourt Books, 2010) includes a 42-page introduction, copious annotations, lively illustrations, and a bibliography. Steve Fellner, assistant professor of English, published a memoir, All Screwed Up, that won the Benu Press Social Justice and Equity Award in Creative Non-Fiction. All Screwed Up (Benu Press, 2009) is described by the publisher as being told with shocking humor and startling honesty, managing to reinvent the coming out story, and describing one of the strangest mother-son relationships in recent memory. Darkly comic stories of murder attempts, missing umbilical cords, haunted quarries, and fat camps fill the pages of All Screwed Up. Young, gay, and poor, Fellner attempts to shed his trailer park past and seize a better life for himself.
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