On the Record

A conversation with Jacqueline Wood, editor of I’m Black When I’m Singing, I’m Blue When I Ain’t (2010: Duke University Press)

Poet Sonia Sanchez has received some of literature’s most prestigious awards, been called a “national treasure,” and had 18 collections of her work published, but one thing still disappointed her professionally: Her prose never got the attention she felt it deserved. That all changed recently, thanks to Jacqueline Wood, Ph.D., associate professor of African-American literature in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, who collected and edited Sanchez’s essays and plays in the author’s first prose collection, I’m Black When I’m Singing, I’m Blue When I Ain’t.

On the Record: How did this project come about?

Wood: Sonia is extremely well known for her poetry. She is a wonderful treasure to African-American literary history as well as American literary history. But she’s also written a lot of drama and no one has ever really talked about it. I teach African-American drama—that is my specialty—and as I was working through one of the courses, I realized I did not have a female voice for militant drama for the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. I knew that Sonia had done a few plays and began to research her. I found out that her drama had not been collected and examined in any kind of critical way.

On the Record: How did Sanchez respond?

Wood: She was thrilled. She told me she was always disappointed that her drama had never really been produced a great deal.

On the Record: How has the book been received?

Wood: We already have received inquiries about the plays. I spoke to a theatre group that is interested in producing one of them. We have been doing a book tour for about five months, going to a number of different venues. It is a whole new dimension for me to work with a living writer. I have that special opportunity, and it has been wonderful to be with her.

Metro Malice

Unhealthy Cities: Poverty, Race, and Place in America
By Kevin Fitzpatrick and Mark LaGory
(2010: Routledge)

In Unhealthy Cities, LaGory (Sociology and Social Work) and Fitzpatrick demonstrate that geography can have a dramatic effect on well-being—showing how certain areas of cities “seem to be designed to make people sick.” Using research from a variety of disciplines, the authors identify the structural factors that promote poverty and injustice in urban America.

Mental Toolbox

Public Health Tools for Practicing Psychologists
By J.A. Tucker and D.M. Grimley
(2010: Hogrefe Publishing)

Tucker and Grimley (both from the Department of Health Behavior) offer a framework for incorporating essential public health intervention approaches alongside traditional clinical and psychotherapeutic techniques. Throughout, the authors offer practical suggestions and examples, including concrete strategies to implement behavior-change interventions and enhance patients’ motivation to change.

Focus on Forgetting

Mechanisms of Memory: Second Edition
By David Sweatt
(2009: Academic Press)

The highly evolved processes of human learning and memory are so complex that many researchers have been tempted to conclude that complete understanding may be impossible. Sweatt (Neurobiology) originally took up the challenge of explaining memory on a molecular level in 2003 with the release of Mechanisms of Memory—and it is still the only book on the market that takes the molecular approach. This updated edition contains four new chapters and is adaptable for senior-level undergraduates as well as first- and second-year graduate students.

Faster, Lighter, Stronger

Composites for Automotive, Truck and Mass Transit: Materials, Design, Manufacturing
By Uday Vaidya
(2010: DEStech Publications)

Advances in composite materials technology have produced a revolution in vehicle design. Manufacturers are taking advantage of the possibilities created by lightweight, super-strong blends of metals, plastics, and other materials to decrease weight, expand design options, improve crashworthiness, and reduce fuel consumption. In this encyclopedic text, Vaidya (Materials Science and Engineering) provides hundreds of case studies and equation-based analyses to assist in the selection of materials and the fabrication of vehicle parts.

Food and Disease

Nutrition and the Cancer Patient
Edited by Vickie Baracos, Tim Bowling, Eduardo Bruera, Egidio Del Fabbro, Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, and Jane B. Hopkinson
(2010: Oxford University Press)

Decreased appetite and the corresponding weight loss create long-term health risks for a large number of cancer patients and cancer survivors. In this comprehensive reference guide, Demark-Wahnefried (Nutrition Sciences) and her co-editors provide both scientific background and practical, clinical advice for managing patients at all stages of the disease. The multidisciplinary approach is specifically designed to aid general practitioners, internists, medical oncologists and surgeons, palliative care specialists, and related professionals.

Setting the Standard

Medical Sociology: Twelfth Edition
By William C. Cockerham
(2011: Prentice Hall)

In this updated edition of the standard text in the field, Cockerham (Sociology and Social Work) illustrates the latest concepts, issues, and research in medical sociology through first-person accounts from patients, physicians, and other health-care providers. The intended audience includes upper-division undergraduate and beginning graduate-level students in medical sociology and behavioral-science students in public health, medicine, pharmacy, and nursing.

The New Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology
Edited by William C. Cockerham
(2009: Wiley-Blackwell)

This authoritative, topical, and comprehensive reference covers the key concepts and most important traditional and contemporary issues in medical sociology. The international cast of contributors offers a global perspective on standard topics, as well as emerging issues such as bioterrorism, bioethics, and infectious diseases.

What’s the Plan?

Strategic Human Resources Management in Health Services Organizations: Third Edition
By S. Robert Hernandez and S.J. O’Connor
(2009: Delmar Cengage Learning)

As American health care undergoes a seismic shift, Hernandez and O’Connor (Health Administration) explore contemporary and future challenges in the field, including leadership development, job analysis, physician practice management, and medical-staff relations.

Thinking Makes It So?

Matter to Mind Consciousness: Anatomy of the E.L.F.
By T. Lee Baumann
(2010: CreateSpace)

In God at the Speed of Light: The Melding of Science and Spirituality, Baumann began an exploration into the connections between quantum physics and human consciousness that inspired a network TV show (Joan of Arcadia) and led him to create an endowed scholarship at UAB to support students in the departments of biology, chemistry, computer and information sciences, mathematics, or physics. In this, his fifth book, Baumann, a Birmingham writer and husband of UAB Athletics team doctor Brenda Baumann, shares his investigations of extremely low-frequency brain waves. He contends these energy sources could explain phenomena such as mental telepathy, conscious thought, dreams, and near-death experiences.