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Jasmine Hazel Shadrack‘s latest book (co-edited with Christine Welch) is Religion, Death and the Senses, to be published by Equinox on 1 August 2024. You are warmly invited to the online book launch on 12 September 2024.
If you are interested in reviewing this book (and thus receiving a free copy!) please email our Book Review Editor at reviews@ncis.org.
We have a new book review for you! Click here to read Shelby Shapiro’s review of Defining the Age: Daniel Bell, His Time and Ours by Paul Starr and Julian E. Zelizer (eds.).
In The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information, Craig Robertson “demonstrates what can be done when something taken-for-granted is examined, and examined minutely, or to use Robertson’s phrase, with “granular certainty.” He places this piece of office furniture within the context of the growth of corporate capitalism in the United States.” Click here to read Shelby Shapiro’s review of this fascinating book.
Sociomusicologist Dr Jasmine Hazel Shadrack, in her review of Music & Identity in Twenty-First-Century Monasticism, describes this book as “an exceptional feat of research and ethnography”. Author Amanda J. Haste tackles topics from gender identity through the commodification of monastic music to the ‘Singing Nun’ phenomenon.
To read the review of this fascinating book, go to https://www.ncis.org/book-reviewsthe-independent-scholar-tis.
It’s been two years in the making, but the NCIS Guide for Independent Scholars is finally here!
Edited by Amanda Haste & Linda Baines, and with contributions from authors in the USA, Great Britain, France and Australia, this 180-page volume was inspired by Ronald Gross’s seminal Independent Scholar’s Handbook (1982; 1993), and we are delighted and honoured that Ron has provided the Foreword. Thirty years on from Ron’s Handbook, the academic landscape has changed immeasurably, as demonstrated in the rich diversity of chapters in the NCIS Guide.
In line with NCIS’s commitment to open access, this volume is free to download and print. It contains active hyperlinks, and is eminently searchable. Copyright of each chapter remains with the respective authors, from whom permission to reproduce material should be sought.
For the full PDF, go to https://ncis.org/the-independent-scholar-tis/ and dive into this rich and much-needed resource.
We were delighted to learn of Janis Bell’s co-authored book Designed to Impress: Guido Mazenta’s Plans for the Entry of Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria into Milan (1597). This volume, by Janis Bell, Elisa Ruiz Garcia (University of Madrid, Spain), Silvio Leydi and Stefano Bruzzese, is “a clearly-structured and well-written account of the sources and context in which the Milanese Guido Mazenta planned the Triumphal Entry of Gregoria into Milan. It offers a transcription of MS 2908 made by Elisa Ruiz Garcia, an extremely interesting source material, with a useful introduction on the iconography of the project identifying the emblematic and allegorical sources used by to construct the program for the welcoming of Gregoria Maximiliana into Milan, a failed project by Mazenta. Janis Bell, Stefano Bruzzese and Silvio Leydi, in the first three chapters of the monograph, offer insight into this intriguing sixteenth-century figure and on his contribution to the artistic and intellectual life of Milan.” (https://www.vernonpress.com/book/1701).
You can benefit from the discount code CFC110160CAFC which will give you 24% off. The same book is for sale on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Designed-Impress-Madrid-History-Multilingual/dp/1648896227/
Many thanks to Dr. Jean-Olivier Gransard-Desmond, icono-archeologist at ArkéoTopia and associated researcher at the CNRS (Centre nationale de la recherche scientifique) in France for bringing to our attention a paper entitled “Independent Researchers: A Bibliometric Analysis.” The paper cites NCIS and describes our mission, and is also a good read. The paper is open access, so do check it out at https://jscires.org/article/6387
Congratulations to NCIS member Kempe Ronald Hope, Sr. who has just published his latest book, Corruption, Sustainable Development and Security Challenges in Africa: Prospects and Policy Implications for Peace and Stability (Springer Nature, 2023).
This book sheds light on Africa’s development performance and dynamics arising from the interface between corruption and sustainable development on the one hand and the challenges that poses for peace, security and stability. Corruption also contributes to the spread of terrorism and violent extremism. Pervasive corruption networks often include politicians, civil servants working at all levels of state institutions, representatives of the private sector and members of crime syndicates. The consequences of corruption are detrimental in many aspects, such as undermining governments’ ability to serve public interests and eroding public trust in democratic processes.
Presenting empirical evidence, the book explains why corruption and the looting of staggering amounts of national assets undermine the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has a negative impact on peace, stability, security, the rule of law, gender equality, the environment and human rights. This makes the book a must-read for students, researchers and scholars of political science, international relations, and economics in general, as well as African studies, development studies, and security sector studies in particular, covering issues and themes on corruption, governance, socio-economic sustainable development, public administration and management, policing in an international context, police reform, and security sector reform. It will also serve as a helpful resource for policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the connection between corruption, sustainable development, and security challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa.
For further details see: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-32229-7
Congratulations to NCIS member Kate Burrows who has just published the last of 3 papers from her dissertation. This article, about the history of deaf technology advertising (including early hearing aid advertising and modern cochlear implant advertising) connects the advertising message with the “meaning of deafness” throughout the ages. It’s published in Advertising and Society Quarterly 24.2 and is Open Access (OA) until winter 2024, so check it out! https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/21/article/905721
BOOK NOW for our next free on-line event!
We welcome back archivist and academic librarian Joanna Baines, who will be talking about “Demystifying special collections and archives for independent scholars” on Sat. 2 September.
9am Pacific Time; 12noon Eastern Time; 5pm BST (UK); 6pm CET (Central Europe).
Access to special collections (rare-books, archives, records and manuscripts) provide a wealth of resources for conducting independent research. Such resources offer independent scholars a myriad of ways in which they can expand their research subjects through accessible data. In this presentation Jo Baines will show you how to use heritage collections for research. We’ll discuss issues of accessibility, tactics maximizing online collections in research, and much more. By the end of the session you will have greater understanding of how you can use and access collections for your research.
You can register now at Demystifying special collections and archives for independent scholars Tickets, Sat 2 Sep 2023 at 17:00 | Eventbrite
