Several College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty on Book Circuit

Emmanuel Eze, associate professor of philosophy at DePaul, was recently honored by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals with the Best New Journal of the Year Award for the premiere issue of “Philosophia Africana.” A collection of peer-reviewed works of leading philosophers from around the world, the journal provides varied perspectives, particular or comparative, on the African and black diaspora. “To receive this award you are judged to be the best among the best,” said Eze. “It means there are certain things we have done right. It means we are on the right track. It means we have a bright future.”

Eze, founding editor, compiled and edited works from authors such as Giovanni Arrighi, professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, who wrote “The Lineages of Empire;” Santiago Castro-Gómez, professor of philosophy at Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, and his article on “The Cultural and Critical Context of Postcolonialism;” Ifeanyi A. Menkiti, professor of philosophy at Wellesley College, and the piece on “Philosophy and the State in Africa: Some Rawlsian Considerations;” Peiter Coetzee, professor of philosophy at UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa, who wrote on “Interventionism, Authoritarianism and the Liberal State in South Africa;” and Julian Bond, chairman of the Board of Directors of the NAACP and professor of history at the University of Virginia, who wrote “Reflections on 9/11: Why Race, Class, Gender, and Religion Matter.”

Eze teaches Critical Race Theory and Culture in the graduate philosophy program at DePaul. He was educated in Nigeria, Zaire, England and the United States. He has edited several books, including “African Philosophy: An Anthology” (1998); “Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader” (1997); and “Race and the Enlightenment” (1997). He is the author of “Achieving our Humanity: The Idea of the Postracial Future” (Routledge, 2001).

“Philosophia Africana” is published twice a year.

Aminah Beverly McCloud, an associate professor of religious studies at DePaul, has gathered together several erudite authors to probe Islam, a subject of great interest and curiosity to many, in “The Journal of Islamic Law and Culture.” Sherman A. Jackson, of the University of Michigan, takes an in-depth look at "Jihad and the Modern World" and examines the claim that Islam is a religion of peace. He further explores Islamic law and its meanings.

Irshad Abdal-Haqq gives a detailed overview of "Islamic Law-Its Origin and Elements." He also scrutinizes Islamic law in North America and its effects on Muslims in this region of the world. Akel Ismail Kahera, of the University of Texas at Austin, contemplates the idea of “The Twin Towers as Martyrs-a Philosophical Idea and Some of Its Problems.” Scott Alexander, of the Catholic Theological Union, expresses his views on “Inalienable Rights? Muslims in the U.S. Since September 11.” Mary Ann Weston and Marda Dunsky, of the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University investigate the U.S. media in “One Culture, Two Frameworks: U.S. Media Coverage of Arabs at Home and Abroad.” Michael Wolfe gives a personal audit of America post-September 11 as an American of Christian and Jewish parents who converted to Islam in “As the Smoke Began to Clear: Reflections on Islam in America After September 11th.”

McCloud is an internationally recognized authority on Islamic practices. She was organizer of the 2000 Exploring Muslim Culture project at DePaul – a comprehensive series of courses, public exhibitions, lectures and special events designed to promote a better understanding of Islam among the religion's diverse ethnic groups and non-Muslims.

Edmund Lawler, a journalism instructor at DePaul, released his second book on the famed restaurateur Charlie Trotter entitled “Lessons in Service.” This book explores the philosophy behind the extreme commitment to service for which Charlie Trotter is known. Trotter and his world-renowned restaurant, located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park area, have been the recipients of three James Beard Foundation Awards, one of the most prestigious accolades in the food service industry.

This book examines how Trotter’s most recent award, the Outstanding Service Award, was justly deserved, and it dissects all the elements that lead up to receiving such a distinguished honor into four parts: Knowing Your Business; Leading: Hiring, Motivating and Training Your Staff; Executing: Making Great Service Happen Every Day; and Exceeding Expectations: Attracting Lifelong Customers. Lawler concludes with It’s the Journey, Not the Destination and outlines the steps it takes to travel down the same path as Charlie Trotter.

Although “Lessons in Service” was written with the restaurant industry as its focus, it brings to light lessons that can be applied to any service industry. “[The reader] will get a basic lesson on service that they could apply to any service industry. I think these are fairly simple lessons. A lot of it just boils down to basic human courtesy, which I don’t think we see a lot of in the service sector these days,” explained Lawler.

Lawler is the author or co-author of five other books, including “Charlie Trotter’s: An Insider’s Look at the Famed Restaurant and Its Cuisine.” He writes a monthly column for Advertising Age’s Business to Business Magazine.

Ralph Erber, professor of psychology at DePaul, delves into the psychology of the perpetrators of genocide in “Understanding Genocide: The Social Psychology of the Holocaust,” the first collection of essays representing the social-psychological perspective on genocide and the Holocaust. Prominent social psychologists use the principles derived from their fields to try to shed light on the behavior of the perpetrators of genocide – not just the Holocaust, but the attempted extermination of the Armenians, the Rape of Nanking, the massacre of the Tutsis in Rwanda, the genocidal project of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and many others.

According to Erber, little has been written about the perpetrators of genocide, the focus has mainly been on the victim. The book is designed to help understand what may have motivated the perpetrators of genocide to act as they did and possibly see new ways of making sense of the resulting horrors.

The authors of “Understanding Genocide: The Social Psychology of the Holocaust” probe three main topics: Becoming a Perpetrator; Beyond the Individual: Groups and Collectives; and Dealing with Evil.

Erber is the co-editor of the journal “Psychological Inquiry.” He is also co-author of “Intimate Relationships: Issues, Theories, and Research” and co-editor of “Theoretical Frameworks for Personal Relationships.”

James Block, a political science professor at DePaul, takes a unique look at our country's beginnings and its founding doctrine, the Declaration of Independence, in “A Nation of Agents: The American Path to a Modern Self and Society.” Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were once thought to be the foundation on which the Declaration of Independence stood. But according to Block, agency, not liberty, is the primary concept that founded and developed this nation.

Block believes that liberty, which implies boundless freedom, is not what the initial colonists who fled England were seeking. "Whatever the nation was about, it was not about freedom. Freedom was not the central issue in American culture because, in many ways, the nation limits, contains, channels, directs its citizens into certain kinds of behavior, conduct, lifestyles, values careers etc.” explained Block. He points out that to be an agent, you are not working on behalf of yourself, but on behalf of someone else or a greater cause than your own, such as God or society.

The New York Times in 2002 chose Block’s work as one of a handful of scholarly research projects that offer “fresh insight” on our world in the new millennium.

Ivor Miller, a visiting professor in the Africa and Black Diaspora studies program at DePaul, documents the powerful and polemical graffiti culture of New York City by telling, and showing, how this public art form became the predecessor to the Hip Hop culture in his book “Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City.” His research, over a 15-year period, depicts the initial rebellious and defiant communications between rival neighborhoods and attempts to interpret the meaning behind the art as it evolves beyond scribbles on subway cars into murals of messages and images fit for a gallery wall.

“The illegal and rebellious nature of this form caused it to be, on one hand, attacked by the city administration and, on the other, celebrated by artists who recognized its aesthetic value,” Miller writes. He interviews creators of this controversial, yet aesthetically awakening, art form and allows them to share their take on graffiti culture.

James Fairhall, an associate professor of English at DePaul, has published a collection of poetry, “At the Water Puppet Theater” (Word Press 2002). The poems view the Vietnam war through a double perspective: that of a young soldier and that of an older man who has come back to Vietnam 25 years later. Thematically, the poems deal with friendship, love, beauty, the surreal nature of combat and Vietnamese culture.

Fairhall is the author of an award-winning book on James Joyce and an award-winning chapbook,“Dragon Music.” He served as an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam from 1970 to 1971. He returned to Vietnam for two months in 1996. “Though the war changed my life, I couldn’t write about it until my return taught me things that I had never known about Vietnam, America and myself,” said Fairhall.