Your summer reading list, as written by FIU faculty

Find these books and more published by FIU professors in the “Faculty” section at the FIU bookstore.

Looking for a bit of light reading this summer? Need some advice on homeschooling your child? Or maybe you’re ready to delve into the intricacies of extragalactic astrophysics?

Whatever your fancy, Barnes & Noble @ FIU has the perfect book – written by a member of the university’s diverse faculty – for you.

More than 30 faculty members published books in 2016 that are available for purchase at the FIU bookstore. The range of topics includes banking law, orchid biotechnology, Java programming, international women’s rights and more.

“The publishing of intellectual work is a time-honored tradition in academia.It helps us to establish our reputation as scholars, and it inspires our colleagues and students to pursue their own research. Certainly, the landscape of academic publishing is changing due to technology, but today, the printed book remains a symbol of scholarly achievement,” Provost Kenneth Furton said at the annual Faculty Book Authors’ Reception, co-hosted by the Office of the Provost and Barnes & Noble @ FIU each April.

Faculty Members who published books in 2016 were honored at the annual Faculty Book Authors’ Reception. (Left to right: Ajeet Kaushik, Margaret Sibley, David Dolata, Kianoosh Gholami Boroojeni, Khokiat Kengskool, Victor Uribe-Uran, Sitharama Iyengar, William Newburry, Provost Kenneth Furton, Barbara Thomlison, Alexis McKenney, Stanley Fish, Eloisa Rodriguez-Dod, Mark McGowan, Michael Robinson, Okezi Otovo, Steven Thomson Moore, Ulrich Oslender, Joselyn Smith, Amir Khoddamzadeh)

Creative writing professor Julie Marie Wade published two books in 2016: “Catechism: A Love Story” and “SIX: Poems.”

The first is a collection of lyric essays titled for each of the seven Catholic sacraments.

“I wrote this book thinking about – and hoping to resist – binaries of both content and form. As a lesbian who was raised in a conservative Christian home, I learned to view coming out as a choice between the secular world and the spiritual,” Wade said. “For me, this project became an act of reclamation, tracing my love story with the woman who is now my spouse within – rather than apart from – a spiritual, sacramental framework.”

Her second book is a collection of poems inspired by advice from her poetry mentor, Bruce Beasley, who told her: “You’re only going to write about six things your whole life.”

Wade said being featured in the FIU bookstore is an honor because it represents what she tries to help her students accomplish in the Creative Writing program.

“I want my students to know I’m engaged in the same processes they are. I want them to know me as a teacher who writes.”

History professor Victor Uribe-Uran published “Fatal Love: Spousal Murder, Law and Punishment in the Late Colonial Spanish Atlantic” with Stanford University Press. His book discusses cases of domestic violence in Spain, Mexico and Colombia in the Colonial period. While conducting archival research, he was struck by the number of incidents of spousal murder.

“Such extreme cases of marital disputes could shed light on gender relations, an area of growing interest to me. They might also help us understand, especially, the reasons under which chronic domestic disputes could become violent.”

Uribe-Uran said he feels honored to be featured by FIU among so many of his distinguished fellow faculty.

“It is nice to be surrounded by productive colleagues and to know our bookstore cares about disseminating our achievements among book buyers, especially our own students.”

Click here for a full list of the books published by FIU faculty this year.