Books in The Honors College - Launches and Lunches!

The Honors College will see a number of new books launched this coming Fall, with opportunities to explore with the authors their research and their books.

Dr Harper, The Honors College Director, will launch his new novel, which has just been completed. He thinks it might be his 23rd or 24th book, but says he doesn't really keep count. 

"You do these things because you're passionate about investigating the world and about writing" he said. "It's a really important part of being in a university. There is a world-class community of critical and creative scholars here at Oakland, so it is important we in The Honors College keep reaching out to our colleagues via our work."

His new novel is a comic novel exploring the arrival of medicine in a remote island community. With medicine and foreign travel at its core he says the novel involved work around the USA and internationally. He'll combine the novel's launch with a launch, later in the year, of a new co-edited book on creative writing, about which he is equally excited.

In Fall, The Honors College will also welcome (via video link) the editors of a new book entitled "De-Westernizing Film Studies" (Taylor & Francis, 2012). Dr Harper, who wrote the Foreword to the book, says:

"De-Westernizing Film Studies is an excellent piece of work. Thought-provoking and challenging, but also extremely readable. It combines work by film critics and practitioners -- so it shows different kinds of knowledge at work, and that's really important to highlight. Frankly, there is nothing better than working with colleagues to bounce ideas around and come up with something new. It's always a real privilege to be involved in collaborative work, and the Editors of 'De-Westernizing Film Studies' show exactly what can be achieved with that collaborative spirit."

Other book events and launches are planned during Fall, including work on culinary history, poetry, new technologies, film, education, creativity, and more!

Dr Harper commented: "It is already shaping up to be a really exciting year. But we've not even started yet! There is much more to come."