Books published by Lexington Books

Nicole C. Dittmer offers a reimagining of the popular Gothic female "monster" figure in early-to-mid-Victorian literature. Regardless of the extensive scholarship concerning monstrosities, these pre-fin-de-siècle figurations have often been neglected by critical studies or interpreted as fragments of mind and body which create a division between culture and nature. In Monstrous Women and Ecofeminism, Dittmer deploys monism to delineate from and contest such dualism, unifies the material-immaterial aspects of fictional women, and blurs the distinction between nature-culture. Blending intertextual disciplines of medical sciences, ecofeminism, and fiction, she exposes female monstrosities as material and semiotic figurations. This book, then, identifies how women in the Victorian Gothic are informed by the entanglement of both immaterial discourses and material conditions. When repressed by social customs, the monistic mind-body of the material-semiotic figure reacts to and disrupts processes of ontology, transforming women into "wild" and "monstrous" (re)presentations.

Communicating with Our Families: Continuity, Interruption, and Transformation examines how communication technologies are shaping childhood, parenthood, and families by exploring topics such as parental loneliness, family storytelling, family technology rules, mindful technology usage, multigenerational communication, and community. The scholars in this volume work from a human communication perspective and use various research modes of inquiry including quantitative, qualitative, and interpretive methods. Perhaps the most significant question implied by our contributors in this volume is whether the introduction of new communication technologies will fundamentally alter familial forms and if those new groupings that emerge will resemble what has been generally assumed for several millennia.

Towards Anti-Racist Educational Research: Radical Moments and Movements is a call for educational researchers and teachers to engage in the work needed to be anti-racist. In the academy, there is no place for neutrality when it comes to race. One either endorses the idea of a racial hierarchy or that of racial equality. Educators and researchers either believe problems are rooted in groups of people or locate the roots of problems in power and policies. Therefore, we can either allow racial inequities to continue or confront racial inequities. Delane Bender-Slack and Francis Godwyll work to confront those racial inequities in educational research. As they continue to grapple with their role in radical moments and movements--from various identities, perspectives, and positionalities--they strive to identify their intellectual, social, and cultural labor in their research, and in this writing, as anti-racist. The editors define what it could mean to be anti-racist in research methods, projects, and agendas, and they pose the following questions: How do we ask anti-racist research questions? How do we create anti-racist curricula? How do we design anti-racist policies? What does it mean to be racially humanizing educational researchers? How do we intentionally work towards racial justice?

In this book, Shannon O' Sullivan explores ';blue-collar frontier shows', a subgenre of reality television showcasing white, working-class men performing hazardous occupations in remote, wilderness settings. O'Sullivan argues that the proliferation of these programs represents a subtle yet potent reactionary veneration of white, rural, working-class men as ';real Americans' amid the Great Recession and social movements challenging white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism, nearly a decade before Donald Trump kicked off his presidential campaign. Through analyses of Deadliest Catch, Ax Men, Ice Road Truckers, and Gold Rush, O'Sullivan reframes dominant understandings of social class and challenges the neoliberal tendency to configure identity and social categories as stylized performances delinked from power relations. The author highlights the political significance of these series in relation to Donald Trump's rhetorical strategy and media narratives about his supporters. O'Sullivan also incorporates an analysis of Duck Dynasty, which exemplifies how affluent, white men take up stereotypical white, rural, working-class masculine performances to attain a public perception of masculine authenticity. Scholars of media studies, gender studies, television studies, communication, and political rhetoric will find this book of particular interest.

The Qur'anic verses 18:60-82 in Sūrat al-Kahf present the story of Khiḍr and Moses as a lesson on the modalities of being and of knowing. Traditionally, the story is seen from a variety of vantage points that include historical, textual, literary, and allegorical, each of which is framed differently depending on the religio-cultural context. This book, in addition to examining the theological sources, traces the story's mythical, mystical, and popular interpretations engendered by the Qur'anic story. The author argues that the story's major contribution is its ability to communicate the importance of cultivating humility--a fundamental goal for any person of faith. Despite his importance in the Qur'an, Moses is not the main hero in this story; instead, he is used to point to an even higher truth pertaining to the spiritual dimensions of faith. This book suggests that Khiḍr's Qur'anic story symbolizes these truths by providing a perspective on the tension between materiality and spirituality, the ẓāhir (exoteric) and the bāṭin (esoteric), and human and divine forms of knowledge. Additionally, in this work, the Khiḍr narrative is viewed as a source of nourishment for theories that speak to the intersectionality between Islam and other religious traditions.

Japan has often been portrayed as a mysterious, sexless, troubled land. Birth rates and marriage rates have been decreasing for decades, and national surveys show that Japanese people are simply having less sex overall. But Japan is not so different from anywhere else--it's simply on the leading edge of worldwide demographic shifts. Because of rigid norms around gender, marriage, childbearing, and work, and relatively strict immigration policies, Japan is also experiencing these shifts more acutely. In The Relationship People, Erika R. Alpert starts by exploring some of the factors that have contributed to later and less marriage and childbearing in Japan and elsewhere. Alpert then goes on to explore the disjuncture between what Japanese singles report as preventing them from getting married and popularly proposed solutions to this problem. Japanese singles point to economic factors, such as low income, as one of their most significant barriers to marriage. However, much of the popular discourse aimed at Japanese singles elides these economic concerns; instead, it encourages them to exert more personal effort to meet people in order to get married. These "marriage activities" (konkatsu) may take the form of signing up with a professional matchmaker, using an online dating site, or going to singles' parties. By examining konkatsu from the perspective of matchmakers, clients, and online daters, Alpert looks at the linguistic processes of connection that underpin konkatsu and its successes--or more often, failures. Institutions of matchmaking and technological structures such as databases and online profiles give shape to the ways singles connect. As this research shows, understanding this linguistic connective tissue enables us to answer questions about what constitutes "attractive" and "marriageable" in Japan, what kind of consciousness konkatsu is supposed to instill in singles, and what role Japan's various partner matching industries might be able to play in alleviating the country's demographic crisis.

Plato, in the Protagoras, suggests that the virtues are profoundly unified yet also distinct. In Plato on the Unity of the Virtues: A Dialectic Reading, Rod Jenks argues that the way in which virtues are both one and many is finally ineffable. He shows how Plato countenances ineffability throughout his corpus. Jenks's interpretation of Protagoras accounts for the otherwise-inexplicable inability of both Socrates and Protagoras to identify the bone of contention between them. Not only can the thesis not be argued for; it can't even be properly stated. In this book, Jenks shows how the long exegesis on the Simonides poem is philosophically relevant. Further, he shows that both the parts-of-the-face analogy and the gold analogy are inadequate, arguing that Plato intends them to be so. Jenks explains why the unity thesis is supported by what most scholars agree are terrible arguments: that the virtues are both one and many. He explains why, despite the unity claim being profoundly elusive, Plato believes it to be crucial that we come to appreciate how virtue, which really does have parts, can also be profoundly one.

Why do representatives of different religious traditions find the transhumanist vision of the future not only theologically compatible but even inspiring? Transhumanism is a global movement seeking radical human enhancement. The trans in transhumanism marks the transition from the present stage in human evolution into the future, namely, post-human existence. Containing chapters written by adherents to a variety of religious traditions, Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics provides first-hand testimony to the value of the transhumanist vision perceived by the religious mind. In addition, the contributors critique both secular and religious transhumanism in light of realistic science and commitment to social justice.

This study provides the first in-depth examination of the role and influence of American Christians in the advocacy efforts for Soviet Jewry during the 1970s and 1980s. It explores how American Catholics and Protestants engaged with American Jews to campaign for the emigration of Soviet Jews and to end the cultural and religious discrimination against them. The book presents a case study of the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry from its inception to its closure in order to better understand the complexities of the politics of interreligious affairs during this period. At the heart of the story is Sister Ann Gillen of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, who directed the Chicago-based task force under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee. The author provides a comprehensive look at task force activities, programs, and relationships, notes its ties to the civil rights movement, and offers in-depth analysis of its participation and role in the global arena. American political, religious, and ethnic leaders play prominent roles in this story, along with the national media, and countless religious and community groups across the United States. The relationship between American Jews and Israel is a factor of fundamental significance as well and plays a critical role in the development of the Task Force. This close-up analysis of the task force is based on extensive archival research and interviews with key players in its history.

Kurds and their Struggle for Autonomy: Enduring Identity and Clientelism is a comprehensive study of the roots of Kurdish identity, the processes of identity formation among the Kurds, and the Kurds' seemingly never-ending struggle for self-determination. By relying on a hybrid theoretical model of identity politics, this book offers a thorough treatment of the origins, characteristics, and evolution of Kurdish culture in general, and political culture in particular. It also examines the historical explanations and nuances of Kurdish struggles for some form of autonomy, assesses economic imperatives that shape the potentials and challenges of Kurdish social and political life, and offers a critical review of the contemporary Kurdish institutional and policy dynamics in Iraq and Syria.

How do military organizations learn? This book covers an important instance of military learning in which the United States military systematically examined the lessons of Israel's decisive victory in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and applied those lessons towards major doctrinal and equipment changes. The book relies heavily on Paul Senge's model of learning organizations outlined in his seminal work, The Fifth Dimension. Using Senge's model, the book examines the Departments of the Army, Air Force, and Navy's reactions to the Yom Kippur War and how they organizationally incorporated--or ignored--the lessons of the conflict within their force. Using source documents, including personal memoirs, doctrinal publications, and individual reflections, the book offers a vital examination of how militaries can use foreign conflicts to make substantive and necessary organizational changes. The Yom Kippur War, particularly the Israeli experience in that conflict, provided the American military a battle laboratory in which to develop new warfighting concepts and assess new weapons acquisitions. In its conclusion, the book offers a cautionary tale that suggests learning and change do not come automatically to military organizations. If they are to be successful in the future, military organizations must embrace learning structures.

Conflict at the Edge of the African State: The ADF Rebel Group in the Congo-Uganda Borderland studies one of the oldest and most secretive rebel groups in the eastern Congo warscape: the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Operating in the Rwenzori borderland of western Uganda and eastern Congo for nearly three decades now, they have proven to be an extremely resilient rebel force, surviving longer than nearly any other violent actor in the area. The ADF have come under increased scrutiny from regional governments and global conflict management actors recently, due to their Islamic character and alleged connections to the Islamic State and other international terrorist actors. Yet, there is a lack of informed discussion on the rebellion and very little understanding of the structures and constitution of the group. In Conflict at the Edge of the African State, Lindsay Scorgie offers a nuanced and ultimately corrective framework for understanding the ADF. Conflict at the Edge of the African State moves away from traditional state-centric concepts of cross-border conflict and instead situates the rebels within a borderland context, examining how their deeply embedded position in local cross-border histories has fueled their resiliency.

Theology of the Soul examines the possibility of a concept of the soul in modern theology. This study contains clear and carefully detailed overviews of concepts of the soul in Theology, Philosophy, and Biblical Studies and offers a constructive systematic theological proposal to speak of the soul in today's theological and cultural contexts.

The U.S. Declaration of Independence of 1776 decreed that all men were created equal and were endowed by their Creator with "certain unalienable Rights." Yet, U.S.-born free and enslaved Black people were not recognized as citizens with "equal protections under the law" until the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Even then, White supremacists impeded the equal rights of Black people as citizens due to their beliefs in the inferiority of Black people and that America was a nation for White people. White supremacists turned to biblical passages to lend divine justification for their views. A Womanist Reading of Hebrew Bible Narratives as the Politics of Belonging from an Outsider Within analyzes select biblical narratives, including Noah's curse in Genesis 9; Sarah and Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21; Mother in Israel in Judges 5; and Jezebel, Phoenician Princess and Queen of Israel in 1 and 2 Kings. This analysis demonstrates how these narratives were first used by ancient biblical writers to include some and exclude others as members of the nation of Israel and then appropriated by White supremacists in the antebellum era and the early twentieth century to do the same in America. The book analyzes the simultaneously intersecting and interconnecting dynamics among race, gender, class, and sexuality and biblical narratives to construct boundaries between "us versus them," particularly the politicization of motherhood to deny certain groups' inclusion.

For Christians, memories of God given in the Christian Bible are juxtaposed, echoed, and expanded within and outside Christian communities of faith. In Saving Memory and the Body of Christ, Sedgwick argues, Christians are attuned to the polyphony that is the voice of God calling those who have ears to hear into the love and grace of God in life together.Sharing together in the Eucharist, he goes on to describe, Christians remember, celebrate, and are drawn into life in God as imaged in the Greek word 'kenosis,' meaning emptying oneself. Christian faith is accordingly what the Latin word 'credo' means: to give one's heart to God, hence, to give oneself in faith and fidelity to the memory of God.In the memory of God, Christian faith is a practical piety. In prayer and worship Christians remember and respond to the call of God to life lived in the grace and love of God, in the glory of creation, in birth and death, in sickness and health, in compassion and care for one another in creation. This is the birth of moral conscience, hearing in the voice of others what claims those who have faith and calls for response.

How do Israel's Scriptures inform the account of Jesus's cruciform death in the Gospel of John? What does it mean for John's portrayal of Jesus's death to be "according to the Scriptures"? The Use of the Jewish Scriptures in the Johannine Passion Narrative: That the Scripture May Be Perfected argues that they are the focal element of the Johannine portrayal, and without them, John's Passion Narrative simply makes no sense. Whether through the evangelist's appeal to the fulfilment of Scripture (with such fulfilment accompanying the very moment of Jesus's death) or whether through allusions to the narratives of Creation or Passover, Israel's Scriptures provide the Passion Narrative's veritable heartbeat. This book also considers the impact of John's scriptural usage on the very concept of Scripture itself, contending that Scripture is brought to perfection by Jesus's actions and to a new standing or status in this regard. David M. Allen examines how the use of Scripture in the Passion account impacts the Fourth Gospel's own self-understanding, arguing that its capacity to pronounce on Scripture's fulfilment attests to the Gospel's own self-avowed, scriptural credentials.

Martin Luther's Theology of Two Kingdoms in Buddhist and Christian Communities examines the principle of separation through Martin Luther's model of two distinct but interconnected systems between religion and politics in the context of religious communities to give constructive advice and criticism for the health of all human beings.

The Anglican Church in Singapore examines the church from multiple perspectives, expositing its unique place within world Christianity. This book documents the Church's two-hundred-year history, from the conflicts and contradictions of British colonialism to the crucial and controversial disputes that currently divide Anglican Christians worldwide.

In The Last of Us and Theology: Violence, Ethics, Redemption? global academics probe theological and moral themes in the acclaimed video game franchise and series. Follow the plight of Joel, Ellie, Tess, and other beloved (and hated) characters while reading chapters examining themes like forgiveness, violence, fatherhood, and God.

Immigrant Moroccan Women in Spain: Honor and Marriage provides an ethnographic study of Moroccan Muslim immigrant women in Spain, capturing the predicaments and strategies they use in their adaptation to Spanish society. Working as domestic workers and agricultural laborers in Spain, Moroccan immigrant women illuminate the problems associated with gender, labor, modernity, and globalization.

This book exists at the intersection of two complementary and conflicting perspectives, law and biology. From the vantage point of both disciplines, Juris Zoology provides a comprehensive and realistic framework to objectively assess the role and significance of animals in American civil and criminal law. Contrasting the views of animal rights activists, Duckler examines animals in terms of their prehistory, history, biology, social utility, economic effect, and aesthetic value. Focusing on animal captivity, control, use, and value, Duckler refutes the proposal of granting animals legal rights. The book offers a new and controversial voice to the national conversation on the propriety of animal rights, and would be of interest to lawyers, economists, sociologists, as well as scholars and professionals in animal-related fields.

This book traces the history of Galilee from its biblical roots to the eruption of the Arab-Jewish conflict in 1948, illustrating how modernization in the region was intertwined with mystical beliefs and practices and developed among Palestinians, Orthodox Jews, Christians, and Druze without being a byproduct of Western intervention.

This book integrates pragmatism and transcendental philosophy in examining the most serious problem defining the human condition, death and mortality. Its analysis of human limits and finitude is intended to be relevant to the concerns of philosophers specializing in, for example, transcendental philosophy, philosophical anthropology, pragmatism, Wittgenstein, and the philosophy of religion. Mortality is studied as providing a necessary framework within which questions concerning the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of human life become possible.

Robert A. Wortham shines a light on W. E. B. Du Bois¿s role in shaping the scientific scope of the sociological perspective through his pioneering contributions in the areas of demography, urban and rural sociology, Southern Black Belt studies, and religion and society.

This book examines how Chinua Achebe presented the Igbo-African world in his writing by analyzing his engagement with critical issues like historical representation, gender, and indigenous political institutions. Contributors study how his work draws from African historical reality and identity while challenging Western epistemological hegemony.

In Art in the Pre-Hispanic Southwest: An Archaeology of Native American Cultures, Radoslaw Palonka reconstructs the development of pre-Hispanic Native American cultures and tribes in the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest. Palonka also examines the wider context through the lenses of settlement studies and social transformation, while paying close attention to the material manifestations of pre-Hispanic beliefs, including intricately decorated ceramics and rock art iconography in paintings and petroglyphs.