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PSU PUBLICATIONS

Slave of Allah

PSU Anthropology Professor Katherine C. Donahue has written Slave of Allah, published by University of Michigan Press.

In 2006, Zacarias Moussaoui became the first person to stand trial for the events of September 11, 2001. Donahue was present at the trial. Based on firsthand evidence, Donahue provides a unique picture of an al Qaeda convert in the process of forming his identity just when he is calling the death sentence upon himself. It is the story of Moussaoui’s opposition to western democracy, seen through the experience of a man who calls himself a “slave of Allah.”

Through a Lens Darkly

Mediated Deviance and Social Otherness: Interrogating Influential Representations critically examines and analyzes how today’s media, from books to the Internet, represent such topics as age; crime and criminals; disease and disability; gender, race, and class; sexual orientation; and more. PSU Professor Kylo-Patrick Hart, who chairs the Department of Communication and Media Studies, edited the book, which was published earlier this year by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

“Hart’s collection is important to expanding the scholarly understanding of media representations,” wrote reviewer Elesha Ruminski, an assistant professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, “because it provokes thinking about what makes media mean so much to humans in particular social, cultural, historical, and even technological contexts.”

Anthology on Deviant Behavior

PSU Professor Robert Heiner specializes in studying crime and deviance and has published a new anthology portraying deviant behaviors in different cultures. Heiner has been studying deviant behavior for more than 20 years, and Deviance Across Cultures is the last in a trilogy of anthologies he started 12 years ago. Heiner teaches Criminology, Social Problems, and the Sociology of Deviance.

“There’s been very little done in the study of deviant behavior from a cross-cultural perspective,” said Heiner. “I imagine most professors who compile anthologies do so because the ones that are currently on the market do not satisfy their teaching needs, and I felt a cross-cultural perspective was sorely lacking in our age of globalization.”

Deviance Across Cultures is published by Oxford University Press, which describes the anthology as “a collection that builds on classic deviance theory and basic sociological concepts to introduce students to this complex subject with a rich global perspective.”

Watershed Perspective

Steve Kahl, director of the Center for the Environment, served as a guest editor for the March 2007 edition of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. The issue focused on mercury and nitrogen biogeochemistry in watershed studies at Acadia National Park in Maine.

A Troubled Teen Comes of Age

PSU English Professor Joseph Monninger ventured into new territory when writing his most recent book, Baby. It’s his first novel written for a teenage audience.

Baby is a 15-year-old girl in foster care. She is startled by her new placement in rural New England with Fred and Mary Potter, a quiet older couple whose main passion is raising and racing sled dogs. Initially resistant, Baby is soon a convert to the joys of running sled dogs, and she’s particularly smitten with snow-white Laika. The New Hampshire winter cold is also a constant presence, with the season a very different force in different situations. The descriptions of dogsledding, the sheer rush of adrenaline, the frosty air, the blur of dogs in motion, and the heady thrill of pack participation are keenly observed.

Published by Boyd Mills Press, one reviewer wrote that readers will find Baby warming beneath its crisp exterior.

Murder at the Mount Washington Hotel

PSU Professor Mark Okrant has released the second book in his Kary Turnell mystery series, entitled I Knew You When.

Kary is a university professor who is drawn into investigations at historic resort hotels. In I Knew You When (Oak Manor Publishing, 2008), a friend’s body is found in the shrubbery at the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

Kary arrives to aid his grieving sister-in-law but is as welcome as an ant at a picnic. His sister-in-law despises him, the police are sure the death is an accident, and people seem to be vanishing.

The first book in the series, A Last Resort, involves Kary solving a mystery at The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville Notch, NH.

“My niche in the world of mystery writing is to place my lead character, Kary Turnell, in a position to work crime scenes at historic resort hotels,” Okrant said. “As an author, having the opportunity to learn the inner workings of two grand old ladies, The Balsams and the Mount Washington, has been a wonderful experience for me and a terriffc way to kick off this new series. My publisher and I are already looking for the next resort where Kary will do his sleuthing.”

Okrant is professor of geography and tourism development and director of the Institute for New Hampshire Studies at Plymouth State University. He has coordinated tourism research for the state of New Hampshire since 1990. Okrant is past president of the Travel and Tourism Research Association and past president of the New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society. He was the 1998 recipient of the Association of American Geographers’ John Rooney Award, for excellence in applied tourism research.

All About Human Leydig Cells

Frederick P. Prince, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and professor of anatomy, authored a chapter on human Leydig cells in The Leydig Cell in Health and Disease, published by Humana Press in June. The book provides a comprehensive study of the cell, which is found in the testicles and secretes testosterone, while exploring a wide variety of current and potential clinical applications. Prince’s chapter is titled “The Human Leydig Cell: Functional Morphology and Developmental History.” Prince also created the color image of Leydig cells featured on the book’s cover.