The line-up of books this year offers a glimpse into “the breadth of scholarship at Bowdoin,” said Humanities and Media Librarian Carmen Greenlee, who is organizing the series. She added that the six highlighted books are just a fraction of the total number of new faculty publications.
By inviting the campus community and the public to the free book events — which will include readings, Q&As, or more formal talks by the authors — the library is encouraging more people to view the library as a vibrant community resource. “I see the library as a hub on campus,” said Bowdoin Library Director Marjorie Hassen. “It’s very important to us that we be that space.”
The series will kick off Sept. 14 with an event for Professor of Education Chuck Dorn’s book, For the Common Good: A New History of Higher Education in America.
Two other book launches are scheduled for this semester: Ovid’s Homer: Authority, Repetition, Reception, by Winkley Professor of Latin and Greek Barbara Boyd, and The Passion of Perfection: Gertrude Hitz Burton’s Modern Victorian Life, by Professor of Dance Emerita June Vail.
Three book talks will take place in the spring by faculty. Scheduled to speak are German professor Birgit Tautz, who is Bowdoin’s George Taylor Files Professor of Modern Languages; Scott MacEachern, a professor of anthropology who specializes in African archaeology; and Meredith McCarroll, Bowdoin’s director of writing and rhetoric, who is publishing a book on race, film, and Appalachia.
All the book events will take place on Thursday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. The library will provide refreshments.
If there is interest, the series could expand next year to include more authors, Hassen said. “This is a way for us to engage with Bowdoin and the broader community,” she said, reiterating her community-focused vision for the library.
Greenlee added, “And it’s a way to celebrate new books.”