Welcome to our weekly roundup of news from university presses! Once again, there is a lot to share this week from our fellow academic publishing houses and much to learn on What SUP at the social university presses. This week, we found conversations on hospitals adding artwork to rooms inspired by a book, the artistry of writing love letters, and the update for the Summer Olympic Games. What did you read this week?
Harvard University Press features Dr. Esther Sternberg’s book Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being which evolves around issue on the complex relationships between health and the environment. Dr. Sternberg focused on healing made in hospitals and other medical institutions. As a result, Healing Spaces inspired Vermont hospitals and the Susan Sebastian Foundation to complete a multi-year project of installing original artwork in over 400 hospital rooms.
Penn Press has Barbara Newman, a professor from Northwestern University, write about her newest book Making Love in the Twelfth Century which embarks readers on a century where writing love letters with ink and scented paper was the best way to communicate with someone who he or she loved. Newman talks about the variety of languages love letters were written in and the eloquence of someone pouring out their feelings to one another. Unlike a text message, love letters took weeks to go over sea which made waiting for a reply more worth it.
Princeton University Press talk about gendered toys and the lack of women in the architectural careers. Despina Stratigakos, author of Where are the Women Architects, argues that even though 40% of those pursuing a degree in architect are women, majority of the positions are filled by male because of the outside pressure that is made at an young age. Stratigakos uses the Lego company as an example of how their website has a tab for girls only and not having real role models through the dolls to play with other than the typical homemaker and beauty.
University Press of Colorado provides insight from Jon D. Lee, a professor from Suffolk University, about the rumor and panic of the Zika Virus especially for the upcoming 2016 Olympics. The outbreak that was first discovered in May 2015 and since then others such as Ebola has made the Summer Olympic Games concerning for participants and attendees of the games. The public is still waiting for the official reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) of the risks related to the Zika Virus and how that will affect the Olympics this summer.
From the Square (NYU Press) looks into the idea of mail-order marriage. Marcia Zug, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina, writes in her newest book Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail-Order Matches, the complicated history of marrying a stranger. Online dating and websites like Tinder have changed the way people meet and despite people’s different views of meeting someone online, marriage is still holds value of marrying someone who he or she knows very well. Meeting and dating has taken a variety of forms but that should not mean there should be any stigma on how a couple met.
Between Memory and History