BOOK EVENTS

Jules Gill-Peterson discusses “Histories of the Transgender Child” (2018, University of Minnesota)
4:30-5:30 p.m. Oct. 10, Hillman Library, Thornburgh Room (first floor)

The pervasive myth still exists that today's transgender children are a brand new generation — pioneers in a field of new obstacles and hurdles. Histories of the Transgender Child shatters this myth, uncovering a previously unknown 20th-century history when transgender children not only existed, but pre-existed the term transgender and its predecessors. The talk by Gill-Peterson, an assistant professor in the English department, is part of a University Library System program that invites Pitt faculty authors from various disciplines to share their research and discuss their recently published books. A Q&A will follow.

Book Launch: “Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges and Universities” by Gina Garcia, associate professor in the School of Education
4-6 p.m. Oct. 15, 4303 Posvar Hall (Center for Urban Education)

Gina Garcia will discuss her book about Hispanic-serving institutions — not-for-profit, degree-granting colleges and universities that enroll at least 25 percent or more Latinx students — and explores how they are serving Latinx students, both through traditional and innovative approaches. A Q&A and brief book signing will follow. A limited quantity of copies of the book will be available for registrants for free, and other copies will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served. Find more details here. Co-sponsored by the School of Education and Center for Latin American Studies. Find more details here.

Tisa Bryant & Douglas Kearney: Readings and Onstage Conversation with Yona Harvey, assistant professor in the English Department’s Writing Program
7:30-9 p.m. Oct. 17, Heinz Memorial Chapel

Tisa Bryant is the author of the poetry chapbook “Tzimmes”; the hybrid fiction and essay collection “Unexplained Presence”; and “Residual,” writings on grief, longing, desire and archival research. Bryant teaches fiction and experimental writing in the MFA Creative Writing Program and is co-director of equity and diversity at the California Institute of the Arts.

Douglas Kearney is the author of five books of poetry — “FEAR, SOME”; “Patter”; “The Black Automaton,” a National Poetry Series selection; “Someone Took They Tongues”; and “Buck Studies,” a Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize winner, Community of Literary Magazines and Presses Firecracker awardee, and California Book Awards silver medalist. He also has written and performed several librettos for opera and the stage. He teaches at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Book event with Clay Risen, author of “The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century” (2019)
4 p.m. Oct. 18, Humanities Center, 602 Cathedral of Learning

Risen, deputy op-ed editor at The New York Times, is the author of “Single Malt: A Guide to the Whiskies of Scotland” (2018) and the spirits bestseller American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Guide to the Nation’s Favorite Spirit. His groundbreaking guide has quickly become the bible on American whiskey and placed Risen at the top of authorities on the history, business, and diversity of U.S. spirits. Sponsored by the Humanities Center.

A Conversation with Kate Hope Day, author of “If, Then” (2019)
6:30-7:45 p.m. Oct. 22, Carnegie Library, East Liberty 

Kate Hope Day, an associate producer at HBO, holds a bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. from Pitt. Her book “If, Then” (Penguin Random House) is set in the quiet haven of Clearing, Ore., where four neighbors find their lives upended when they begin to see themselves in parallel realities. Dan Kubis, associate director of the Humanities Center, will be leading a discussion with Day followed by an audience Q&A. Visit the Eventbrite page to register. Co-sponsored by the Carnegie Library and the Humanities Center.

NEW BOOKS

“Language and Culture in Dialogue” (Bloomsbury Academic Publishing, 2019), co-authored by Andrew Strathern, professor of anthropology, and Pamela J. Stewart, senior research associate

This book delineates the relationship between “language in particular” and “culture in general” by focusing on language as both social practice and a means of classifying and interpreting the world. A traditional linguistic approach to focus on language is illuminated by the authors’ anthropological emphasis on the embodiment of relationships and experience. In the book, the body is placed in the foreground for understanding language in culture, which helps in turn to understand how it enables us to adapt to the world of lived material experience.

Sustainability, Conservation, and Creativity. Ethnographic Learning from Small-scale Practices” (Routledge, 2019), co-authored by Pamela J. Stewart, senior research associate, and Andrew Strathern, professor of anthropology

The authors examine how small communities have dealt with forces of change and have sought to maintain themselves over time, and then offers pointers and lessons for conservation practices at all levels of society.