Books

Bakersfield
Rising: The First 50 Years at California State University, Bakersfield
By Olivia Garcia, alumna, CSU Bakersfield
Published September 2020

The history of CSUB is the story of a tough little college that overcame hardship to become a beacon of academic and economic opportunity.

Channel Islands
Delivering Health: Midwifery and Development in Mexico
By Lydia Z. Dixon, assistant professor of health science, CSU Channel Islands
Published November 2020

Through the perspectives of midwives, “Delivering Health” ​uncovers the ways maternal health outcomes have been shaped by broader historical, political and social factors in Mexico.

Channel Islands
Virtuous Citizens: Counterpublics and Sociopolitical Agency in Transatlantic Literature
By Kendall McClellan, English lecturer, CSU Channel Islands
Published February 2021

This book explores some of the fundamental issues underlying today’s sociopolitical unrest, McClellan traces the transatlantic origins of questions still central to the public representation of movements such as Black Lives Matter, the Women’s March and the “alt-right,” a white nationalist movement: What is the primary loyalty of a virtuous citizen? Are patriots those who defend the government against attacks or those who challenge the government to fulfill sociopolitical ideals?

Chico
The Art of the Bird
By Roger J. Lederer, professor emeritus, biological sciences
Published December 2019 

Devout birder and ornithologist Lederer celebrates the heyday of avian illustration in forty artists’ profiles. He begins with the work of Flemish painter Frans Snyders in the early 1600s and continues through to contemporary artists like Elizabeth Butterworth, famed for her portraits of macaws.

Chico
Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology.
By Beth Shook, anthropology professor, Chico State; Katie Nelson; Kelsie Aguilera; and Lara Braff
Published December 2019

This is the first comprehensive, peer-reviewed open textbook for biological anthropology courses. Biological anthropology as a discipline explores who humans are from biological, evolutionary and adaptive perspectives. “Explorations” is a no-cost textbook option for students. 

Chico
Operation Chrysler: Stolen Valor Behind Enemy Lines During World War II
By Pate McMichael, journalism and public relations professor, Chico State
Published December 2019

After northern Italy’s liberation, an Army investigator solved one of World War II’s enduring murder mysteries: the disappearance of U.S. Maj. William V. Holohan of the Office of Strategic Services. Holohan went missing while leading a secret mission in northern Italy, and this book brings shocking evidence to light.

Chico
Repensando el Indigenismo Mexicano: el Centro Coordinador del Instituto Nacional Indigenista en los Altos de Chiapas y el Destino de un Proyecto Utópico
By Stephen E. Lewis, history professor, Chico State
Published October 2020 into Spanish translation

Mexico’s National Indigenist Institute (INI) was at the vanguard of hemispheric indigenismo from 1951 through the mid-1970s, thanks to the innovative development projects that were first introduced at its pilot Tseltal-Tsotsil Coordinating Center in highland Chiapas. This translation, coordinated by the humanities division of Mexico’s largest public university, the UNAM, traces how indigenista innovation gave way to stagnation as local opposition, shifting national priorities and waning financial support took their toll.

Dominguez Hills
The Chicago Guide to College Science Teaching
By Terry McGlynn, biology professor, CSU Dominguez Hills
Published November 2020

Teaching is a critical skill for scientists in academia, yet it’s barely touched upon in their professional training. This book is a practical guide for anyone teaching STEM-related academic disciplines at the college level.

East Bay
Supporting English Learners in the Classroom
By Eric Haas, educational leadership doctoral program director, Cal State East Bay; and Julie Esparza Brown
Published May 2019

This book is written for educators and is filled with evidence-based practices to help them address the needs of English learners who have academic challenges and those who have been referred for special education services.

Fresno
SEL From a Distance: Tools and Processes for Anytime, Anywhere
By Jessica Djabrayan Hannigan, assistant professor in educational leadership, Fresno State; and John E. Hannigan
Published September 2020

To easily build social and emotional learning into virtual, blended or in-person environments, the authors, who are behavior experts, have drawn together a collection of tools and processes for SEL that can be applied in any learning environment. 

Humboldt
The American LGBTQ Rights Movement: An Introduction
By Kyle Morgan, librarian, Humboldt State, and Meg Rodriguez
Published July 2020

“The American LGBTQ Rights Movement: An Introduction” is a peer-reviewed chronological survey of the LGBTQ fight for equal rights from the turn of the 20th century to the early 21st century. Illustrated with historical photographs, the book includes personal narratives as well as details of essential organizations, texts and court cases that defined LGBTQ activism and advocacy. This is an open-access textbook that’s free to students.

Humboldt

Geospatial Concepts: The Fundamentals of Geospatial Science
By Nicolas R. Malloy and Amy Rock, geography lecturers, Humboldt State
Published August 2019

This book covers concepts and tutorials for readers who have little to no experience using geographic information systems (GIS) software. Each chapter starts with text about fundamental concepts related to geospatial science and its subdisciplines. The chapters also include one or more tutorials. This is an open-access textbook that’s free to students.

Humboldt
Red Silk: Class, Gender and Revolution in China’s Yangzi Delta Silk Industry
By Robert Cliver, history professor, Humboldt State
Published July 2020

“Red Silk” is a history of China’s Yangzi Delta silk industry during the wars, crises and revolutions of the mid-20th century. Based on extensive research in Chinese archives and focused on the 1950s, the book compares two groups of silk workers and their experiences in the revolution.

Humboldt

Spanish I: Beginning Spanish Language and Culture
By Matthew Dean, world languages and cultures professor, Humboldt State
Published August 2020

This peer-reviewed textbook contains themed chapters, divided into eight sections. Each section has its own set of learning objectives, and is further separated into three types of assignments, Para estudiar en casa (with detailed explanations), Para practicar en casa (homework exercises) and Para practicar en clase (paired and group classwork activities). This is an open-access textbook that’s free to students.

Long Beach
The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy
By Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, sociology professor, Cal State Long Beach; and Ellen Reese
Published September 2020

This coedited book provides a rich and interdisciplinary collection of critical essays by scholars, activists, and labor and community organizers that examines the global significance of Amazon’s rise and the growing popular resistance to it around the world. 

Long Beach
Designing Post-Virtual Architectures: Wicked Tactics and World-Building
By Heather Renée Barker, associate professor of design, Cal State Long Beach
Published December 2019  

The author explores, describes and demonstrates theories and strategies for design in a postvirtual world, revealing affinities among social, mathematical, philosophical and language expressions integrated into a theoretical framework across physical and virtual space.

Los Angeles
Chabrancán 
By Pablo Baler, Spanish professor, Cal State LA
Published October 2020

This book, written in Spanish, is described as a work of literary fiction that combines the traditions of the absurd with the apocalyptic genre.

Los Angeles
Iranian Diaspora Identities: Stories and Songs 
Coauthored by Kamran Afary, communication studies professor, Cal State LA; and Ziba Shirazi, alumna, Cal State LA
Published June 2020

Oral history, storytelling, theories of communication and performance studies are combined into a unique study of an immigrant community.

Northridge
Learning Challenges for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Students With Disabilities 
By Soraya Fallah, research assistant, Center for Teaching and Learning; Bronte Reynolds, professor of educational leadership and policy studies; and Wendy Murawski, executive director and Eisner Endowed Chair of the Center for Teaching and Learning; all at CSUN
Published January 2020

This reference publication identifies ways in which CLD families can help schools build educators’ cultural competence. It explores the idea of disabilities as a social model with a focus on strengths rather than a medical model focused on needs and weaknesses.

Pomona
Reflective Planning Practice: Theory, Cases and Methods
By Richard Willson, urban and regional planning professor, Cal Poly Pomona
Published October 2020

The value of professional reflection is widely recognized, but there is a difference between acknowledging it and doing it. This book takes up that challenge, providing planners’ reflections on past practice as well as prompts for reflecting in the midst of planning episodes.

San Bernardino
The Chicana/o/x Dream: Hope, Resistance and Educational Success
By Gilberto Q. Conchas; and Nancy Acevedo, associate professor of education, CSU San Bernardino
Published October 2020

Based on interview data, life testimonios and Chicana feminist theories, "The Chicana/o/x Dream" profiles first-generation, Mexican-descent college students who have overcome adversity by utilizing various forms of cultural capital to power their academic success.

San Diego
Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age
By Jessica Pressman, associate professor, English and comparative literature, San Diego State
Published December 2020

Pressman examines the new status of the book as object and symbol and considers the multivalent meanings of books in contemporary culture. She explores the rise of “bookishness” as an identity and an aesthetic strategy that proliferates from store-window décor to experimental writing. 

San Diego
Compound Remedies: Galenic Pharmacy From the Ancient Mediterranean to New Spain
By Paula DeVos, history professor, San Diego State
Published December 2020

“Compound Remedies” examines the equipment, books and remedies of colonial Mexico City’s Herrera pharmacy—natural substances with known healing powers that formed the basis for modern-day healing traditions and home remedies in Mexico.

San Francisco
Nonprofits in Policy Advocacy: Their Strategies and Stories
By Sheldon Gen, associate professor in the PACE Public Administration program, San Francisco State; and Amy Conley Wright, former assistant professor, child and adolescent development, San Francisco State
Published August 2020

This publication reports original findings from case studies of 32 advocacy campaigns and a survey of more than 800 nonprofits in the United States. Gen and Wright’s application of Q-methodology—a scientific approach to studying subjectivity—revealed six strategies toward policy change.

San Francisco
Tasting Difference: Food, Race and Cultural Encounters in Early Modern Literature
By Gitanjali G. Shahani, professor and chair of English language and literature, San Francisco State
Published May 2020

“Tasting Difference” takes a deep dive into early modern writings about food and travel to explore how perspectives on race changed as colonialism brought different cultures into contact.

San Marcos
A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century, Volume 5
By Joyce Huff; and Martha Stoddard Holmes, literature and writing studies professor, CSU San Marcos
Published 2020 

Industrialization was a major factor in the changing landscape of disability, providing new adaptive technologies and means of access while contributing to the creation of a mass-produced environment hostile to bodies and minds that did not adhere to emerging norms. In defining disability, medical views, which framed disabilities as problems to be solved, competed with discourses from such diverse realms as religion, entertainment, education and literature.

San Marcos
Intercultural Health Communication
By Andrew Spieldenner, associate professor, communication, CSU San Marcos; and Satoshi Toyosaki
Published September 2020

The coeditors of this collection employ critical, qualitative and interpretive research methodologies to engage the political and intersectional nature of health and culture.

Sonoma
Great Philosophical Objections to Artificial Intelligence 
By Eric Dietrich; Chris Fields; John Sullins III, philosophy professor, Sonoma State; Bram Van Heuveln; and Robin Zebrowski
Published January 2021 

This book examines the most famous philosophical arguments against building a machine with human-level intelligence. From claims and counterclaims about the ability to implement consciousness, rationality and meaning, to arguments about cognitive architecture, the book presents a vivid history of the clash between philosophy and AI.

Sonoma
Stargazing in the Atomic Age 
By Anne Goldman, English professor, Sonoma State
Published January 2021

During World War II, with apocalypse imminent, a group of well-known Jewish artists and scientists sidestepped despair by challenging themselves to solve some of the most difficult questions posed by our age. The author interweaves perso​nal and intellectual history in exuberant essays that cast new light on these figures and their virtuosic thinking.