Books published by New York University Press

The first comprehensive history of the DREAM Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)In 1982, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Plyler v. Doe that undocumented children had the right to attend public schools without charge or impediment, regardless of their immigration status. The ruling raised a question: what if undocumented students, after graduating from the public school system, wanted to attend college? Perchance to DREAM is the first comprehensive history of the DREAM Act, which made its initial congressional appearance in 2001, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the discretionary program established by President Obama in 2012 out of Congressional failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform. Michael A. Olivas relates the history of the DREAM Act and DACA over the course of two decades.With the Trump Administration challenging the legality of DACA and pursuing its elimination in 2017, the fate of DACA is uncertain. Perchance to DREAM follows the political participation of DREAMers, who have been taken hostage as pawns in a cruel game as the White House continues to advocate anti-immigrant policies. Perchance to DREAM brings to light the many twists and turns that the legislation has taken, suggests why it has not gained the required traction, and offers hopeful pathways that could turn this darkness to dawn.

Uncovers why Catholic organizations fail to foster civic activismThe American Catholic Church boasts a long history of teaching and activism on issues of social justice. In the face of declining religious and community involvement in the twenty-first century, many modern-day Catholic groups aspire to revive the faith as well as their connections to the larger world. Yet while thousands attend weekly meetings designed to instill religiosity and a commitment to civic engagement, these programs often fail to achieve their more large-scale goals.In Catholic Activism Today, Maureen K. Day sheds light on the impediments to successfully enacting social change. She argues that popular organizations such as JustFaith Ministries have embraced an approach to civic engagement that focuses on mobilizing Catholics as individuals rather than as collectives. There is reason to think this approach is effective¿these organizations experience robust participation in their programs and garner reports of having had a transformative effect on their participants¿ lives. Yet, Day shows that this approach encourages participants to make personal lifestyle changes rather than contend with structural social inequalities, thus failing to make real inroads in the pursuit of social justice. Moreover, the focus on the individual serves to undermine the institutional authority of the Catholic Church itself, shifting American Catholics¿ perceptions of the Church from a hierarchy that controls the laity to one that simply influences it as they pursue their individual paths.Drawing on three years of interview, survey, and participant observation data, Catholic Activism Today offers a compelling new take on contemporary dynamics of Catholic civic engagement and its potential effect on the Church at large.

"'Queering Family Trees' explores race, reproductive justice, and lesbian motherhood"--

""Gamer Trouble" explores feminist confrontations in digital culture"--

""Becoming Human" explores matter and meaning in an antiblack world"--

"The Movement for Reproductive Justice explores the relationship between women of color and social activism"--

""Technologies of Speculation" explores the limits of knowledge in a data-driven society"--

""The Law of Law School" serves as a guide for first-year law students"--

""The Content of Our Caricature" is an in-depth exploration of African American comic art and its relationship to political belonging"--

"A Pledge with Purpose" explores Black sororities and fraternities and the role(s) that they play in the fight for equality"--

""None of the Above" explores atheist and non-religious experience(s) in the US and Canada"--

Collecting 635 meticulous recipes, Scents and Flavors invites us to savor an inventive cuisine that elevates simple ingredients by combining the sundry aromas of herbs, spices, fruits, and flower essences. This popular 13th-century Syrian cookbook is an ode to what its anonymous author calls the "greater part of the pleasure of this life," namely the consumption of food and drink, as well as the fragrances that garnish the meals and the diners who enjoy them. Organized like a meal, it opens with appetizers and juices and proceeds through main courses, side dishes, and desserts, including such confections as candies based on the higher densities of sugar syrup--an innovation unique to the medieval Arab world. Apricot beverages, stuffed eggplant, pistachio chicken, coriander stew, melon crepes, and almond pudding are seasoned with nutmeg, rose, cloves, saffron, and the occasional rare ingredient like ambergris to delight and surprise the banqueter. Bookended by chapters on preparatory perfumes, incenses, medicinal oils, antiperspirant powders, and after-meal hand soaps, this comprehensive culinary journey is a feast for all the senses. With the exception of four extant Babylonian and Roman specimens, cookbooks did not appear on the world literary scene until Arabic speakers began compiling their recipe collections in the tenth century, peaking in popularity in the thirteenth century. Scents and Flavors quickly became a bestseller during this golden age of cookbooks, and remains today a delectable read for epicures and cultural historians alike.

""The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois" explores racism and colonialism at the center of the understanding of modernity"--

How taking Indigenous sovereignty seriously can help dismantle the structural racism encountered by other people of color in the United States Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law provides a timely analysis of structural racism at the intersection of law and colonialism. Noting the grim racial realities still confronting communities of color, and how they have not been alleviated by constitutional guarantees of equal protection, this book suggests that settler colonial theory provides a more coherent understanding of what causes and what can help remediate racial disparities. Saito attributes the origins and persistence of racialized inequities in the United States to the prerogatives asserted by its predominantly Angloamerican colonizers to appropriate Indigenous lands and resources, to profit from the labor of voluntary and involuntary migrants, and to ensure that all people of color remain ΓÇ£in their place.ΓÇ¥ By providing a functional analysis that links disparate forms of oppression, this book makes the case for the oft-cited proposition that racial justice is indivisible, focusing particularly on the importance of acknowledging and contesting the continued colonization of Indigenous peoples and lands. Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law concludes that rather than relying on promises of formal equality, we will more effectively dismantle structural racism in America by envisioning what the right of all peoples to self-determination means in a settler colonial state.