{"id":177,"date":"2024-08-20T14:36:49","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T21:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsi\/?page_id=177"},"modified":"2026-07-19T17:19:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:19:52","slug":"executive-board","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/executive-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Featured New Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n  \n\n                    \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--stacking-cards \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--stacking-cards\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n            <div class=\"header-container\">\n                                \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Featured New Books \n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n            \n                    <\/div>\n    \n            <div class=\"cards-container\">\n            \n                <div class=\"card\">\n\n                    <div class=\"title-description\">\n\n                                                      \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          Society, Power and Land in Northeastern Zimbabwe, ca 1560-1960\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                                                        \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  <p>Admire Mseba, Assistant Professor, Van Hunnick Department of History, received the American Historical Association (AHA)\u2019s Martin A Klein Prize in African History for 2025 for his book, <em>Society, Power and Land in Northeastern Zimbabwe, ca 1560-1960 (<\/em>Ohio University Press, 2024).<\/p>\n<p><em>Society, Power and Land in Northeastern Zimbabwe, ca 1560-1960 <\/em>refocuses attention on how regimes of power rooted in kinship, gender, generation, and status have, individually and in combination, informed access to land in precolonial northeastern Zimbabwe. It then examines how these regimes of power interacted with colonial policies to inform the African experience in colonial Zimbabwe. Further, the book places land and the ability to ensure its fecundity at the center of the making and moderation of precolonial political power and how this power was impacted by the imposition of colonial rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                    <\/div>\n\n\n                    \n                        \n                            \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img decoding=\"async\"\n                            src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/461\/2026\/07\/unnamed-768x1024.jpg\"\n          srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/461\/2026\/07\/unnamed-1280x1707.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/461\/2026\/07\/unnamed-768x1024.jpg 768w\"          sizes=\"(min-width:1024px) 50vw, (min-width:768px) 100vw, 100vw\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Society, Power and Land in Northeastern Zimbabwe, ca 1560-1960 book cover\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n\n                    \n                <\/div>\n\n            \n                <div class=\"card\">\n\n                    <div class=\"title-description\">\n\n                                                      \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          Let\u2019s Talk about DEI: Productive Disagreements about America\u2019s Most Polarizing Topics\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                                                        \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  <p>Shaun Harper, University Professor of Education, Business, and Public Policy and Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership published a book, <em>Let\u2019s Talk about DEI: Productive Disagreements about America\u2019s Most Polarizing Topics<\/em> (Teachers College Press, 2025).<\/p>\n<p><em>Let&#8217;s Talk About DEI<\/em> models for professionals and everyday Americans ways to productively critique, learn from, and respond to other people\u2019s perspectives on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). A variety of contested issues are debated, including consequences for kids who do racist things in schools, the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s affirmative action reversal, legacy advantages in college admissions, the tumultuous tenure of Harvard\u2019s first Black president, legislative attacks on DEI initiatives, and celebrity coaches at historically Black universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                    <\/div>\n\n\n                    \n                        \n                            \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img decoding=\"async\"\n                            src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/461\/2026\/07\/71CVPX2F5bL._AC_UF10001000_QL80_.jpg\"\n                    sizes=\"(min-width:1024px) 50vw, (min-width:768px) 100vw, 100vw\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Let's talk about DEI, book cover\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n\n                    \n                <\/div>\n\n            \n                <div class=\"card\">\n\n                    <div class=\"title-description\">\n\n                                                      \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dukeupress.edu\/dominican-crossroads\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Dominican Crossroads: H.C.C. Astwood and the Moral Politics of Race-making in the Age of Emancipation<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                                                        \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  <div class=\"x_e2ma-combo-content x_e2ma-content-block\">\n<div class=\"x_e2ma-p-div\">Please help us congratulate <strong>Dr. Christina C. Davidson<\/strong>\u00a0for her recent publication,\u00a0Dominican Crossroads: H.C.C. Astwood and the Moral Politics of Race-making in the Age of Emancipation. In\u00a0Dominican Crossroads, Davidson explores H.C.C. Astwood\u2019s extraordinary and complicated life and career. Davidson tracks the challenges that Astwood faced as a Black politician in an era of rampant racism and ongoing cross-border debates over Black men\u2019s capacity for citizenship. As a US representative and AME missionary, Astwood epitomized Black masculine respectability. But as Davidson shows, Astwood became a duplicitous, scheming figure who used deception and engaged in racist moral politics to command authority. His methods, Davidson demonstrates, show a bleaker side of Black international politics and illustrate the varied contours of transnational moral discourse as people of all colors vied for power during the ongoing debate over Black rights in Santo Domingo and beyond.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                    <\/div>\n\n\n                    \n                        \n                            \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dukeupress.edu\/dominican-crossroads\"  aria-label=\"Read more about Dominican Crossroads: H.C.C. Astwood and the Moral Politics of Race-making in the Age of Emancipation\">\n  \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img decoding=\"async\"\n                            src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/461\/2024\/10\/c26d4f48685a19c9d32e50034e82716b95a99f25.jpg\"\n                    sizes=\"(min-width:1024px) 50vw, (min-width:768px) 100vw, 100vw\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n      <\/a>\n  \n\n<\/div>\n\n                    \n                <\/div>\n\n            \n                <div class=\"card\">\n\n                    <div class=\"title-description\">\n\n                                                      \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/nyupress.org\/9781479827015\/global-guyana\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      > Global Guyana: Shaping Race, Gender,  and Environment in the Caribbean and Beyond <\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                                                        \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  <p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Join us in celebrating the publication of\u00a0<strong>Dr. Oneka LaBennett\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0newest book,\u00a0<\/span>Global Guyana: Shaping Race, Gender, and Environment in the Caribbean and Beyond. Global Guyana\u00a0exposes the global threat of environmental catastrophe and the forms of erasure that structure Caribbean women\u2019s lives in the often overlooked nation of Guyana. LaBennett draws from archival research and oral history, and examines mass-mediated flashpoints across the African and Indian diasporas\u2014including Rihanna\u2019s sonic routes, ethnic conflict reportage, HBO\u2019s\u00a0Lovecraft Country, and Netflix\u2019s\u00a0Indian Matchmaking\u2014to\u00a0reposition this marginalized nation as a nexus of social and economic activity which drives popular culture and ideas about sexuality while reshaping the geopolitical and literal topography of the Caribbean region. LaBennett employs the powerful analytic of the pointer broom to disentangle the symbiotic relationship between Guyanese women\u2019s gendered labor and global racial capitalism. She illuminates how both oil extraction and sand export are implicated in a well-established practice of pillaging the Caribbean\u2019s natural resources while masking the ecological consequences that disproportionately affect women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                    <\/div>\n\n\n                    \n                        \n                            \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n        <a href=\"https:\/\/nyupress.org\/9781479827015\/global-guyana\/\"  aria-label=\"Read more about  Global Guyana: Shaping Race, Gender,  and Environment in the Caribbean and Beyond \">\n  \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img decoding=\"async\"\n                            src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/461\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-2-768x1024.png\"\n          srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/461\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-2-768x1024.png 768w\"          sizes=\"(min-width:1024px) 50vw, (min-width:768px) 100vw, 100vw\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Global Guyana book cover\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n      <\/a>\n  \n\n<\/div>\n\n                    \n                <\/div>\n\n            \n                <div class=\"card\">\n\n                    <div class=\"title-description\">\n\n                                                      \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/uncpress.org\/book\/9781469683409\/carceral-apartheid\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      > Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                                                        \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  <p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">We look forward to reading\u00a0<strong>Dr. Brittany Friedman\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0forthcoming book,\u00a0<\/span>Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons,\u00a0set to be published on January 7, 2025.\u00a0Carceral Apartheid\u00a0delves into how the California Department of Corrections deployed various official, clandestine, and at times extralegal control techniques, including officer alliances with imprisoned white supremacists, to suppress Black political movements, revealing the broader themes of deception, empire, corruption, and white supremacy in American mass incarceration. Drawing from original interviews with founders of Black political movements such as the Black Guerilla Family, white supremacists, and a swath of little-known archival data, Friedman uncovers how the US domestic war against imprisoned Black people models and perpetuates genocide, imprisonment, and torture abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n                        \n                    <\/div>\n\n\n                    \n                        \n                            \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n        <a href=\"https:\/\/uncpress.org\/book\/9781469683409\/carceral-apartheid\/\"  aria-label=\"Read more about  Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons\">\n  \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img decoding=\"async\"\n                            src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bsc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/461\/2024\/11\/9781469683409.jpeg\"\n                    sizes=\"(min-width:1024px) 50vw, (min-width:768px) 100vw, 100vw\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n      <\/a>\n  \n\n<\/div>\n\n                    \n                <\/div>\n\n            \n        <\/div>\n    \n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":218,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-177","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - 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