Breaking Bad, Education Reform, Lovelace, and More from the University Press Blogs

Our weekly roundup of some of the best posts from the university press blogs:

The debate about education “reform” is bound to heat up as kids start heading back to school. Writing on the Beacon Broadside, Dave Chura correctly points out that the voices often missing from these debates are those of the teachers. Chura learned that though teachers have much to contribute to this debate, they’re frequently afraid to speak up for fear of losing their job.

Is the number of people living in poverty in the United States growing or shrinking? Growing, according to John Iceland, author of the forthcoming Poverty in America: A Handbook, published by the University of California Press. According to his research the number of the nation’s poor is at a record high—46.2 million, or 15% of the population.

A recent settlement in North Carolina compensating victims of forced sterilization, prompted Desmond King and Randall Hansen, authors of Sterilized by the State: Eugenics, Race, and the Population Scare in Twentieth-Century America, to write a post on the Cambridge University Press exploring the ugly history of eugenics in the United States.

What is the role of university presses in the digital age? To this oft-discussed topic, Richard Brown, director of Georgetown University Press, talks about the importance of getting content online in new ways and collaborating with authors in ways that move away from conventional paradigms.

The Harvard University Press blog has a great interview with Catherine MacKinnon on the forthcoming Lovelace, a film that exposes the violence and exploitation that Linda Lovelace faced while working in the pornographic film industry.

We have a book on the cinema of Richard Linklater and so does the University of Illinois Press. David T. Johnson, the author of Richard Linklater talks about Linklater’s latest, Before Midnight.

Would Herodotus have a home on Twitter? Debra Hamel, author of Reading Herodotus: A Guided Tour through the Wild Boars, Dancing Suitors, and Crazy Tyrants of The History (Johns Hopkins University Press), looks at iHerodotus, an effort to get his histories up 140 characters at a time.

J.K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Stephen Healy, authors of Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities respond to the recent New York Times op-ed by Peter Buffett (son of Warren) on the charitable-industrial complex at the University of Minnesota Press.

It’s not been a great summer for Hollywood blockbusters but times are good for science consultants in Hollywood. David Kirby author of Lab Coats in Hollywood (MIT Press) examines how the work done by science consultants on a couple of films from the past proved prophetic.

Bzzzzz. Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut are authors of Buzz: Urban Beekeeping and the Power of the Bee (NYU Press) discuss the bee/human community in New York City.

Everyone is talking about it and so is Scott Trudell at the Oxford University Press blog. We are of course referring to the final episodes of Breaking Bad. Trudell, a contributor to Early Modern Theatricality: Oxford 21st Century Approaches to Literature
, examines the tragic elements of the television show.