An ethnography of Russian teacher education reforms as scripted performances of political theater.
Around the world, countries undertake teacher education reforms in response to international norms and assessments. Russia has been no exception. Elena Aydarova develops a unique theatrical framework to tell the story of a small group of reformers who enacted a major reform to modernize teacher education in Russia. Based on scrip...(Read More)
A psychological study, based on extensive interview data, of Jewish adults who take on a devout lifestyle.
Spiritual transformation is the process of changing one’s beliefs, values, attitudes, and everyday behaviors related to a transcendent experience or higher power. Jewish adults who adopt Orthodoxy provide a clear example of spiritual transformation within a religious context. With little prior exposure to traditional pract...(Read More)
The Future of (Post)Socialism
(November 2018)
Eastern European Perspectives John Frederick Bailyn - Editor Dijana Jelaca - Editor Danijela Lugaric - Editor
Explores the current and future trajectories of the paradigm of postsocialism.
If socialism did not end as abruptly as is sometimes perceived, what remnants of it linger today and will continue to linger? Moreover, if postsocialism is an umbrella term for the uncertain times of various transitions that followed in socialism’s wake, how might the “post” be rendered complicated by the notion that the unfinished b...(Read More)
Religious Journeys in India
(September 2018)
Pilgrims, Tourists, and Travelers Andrea Marion Pinkney - Editor John Whalen-Bridge - Editor
Explores how religious travel in India is transforming religious identities and self-constructions.
In an increasingly global world where convenient modes of travel have opened the door to international and intraregional tourism and brought together people from different religious and ethnic communities, religious journeying in India has become the site of evolving and often paradoxical forms of self-construction. Through ethno...(Read More)
Nine Nights of the Goddess
(August 2018)
The Navaratri Festival in South Asia Caleb Simmons - Editor Moumita Sen - Editor Hillary Rodrigues - Editor
Explores the contemporary nature and the diverse narratives, rituals, and performances of the Navarātri festival.
Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or “the tenth (day) ...(Read More)
The first comprehensive anthropological description of the Khmer Buddhism practiced by Cambodian refugees in the United States over the past four decades.
Cambodian Buddhism in the United States is the first comprehensive anthropological study of Khmer Buddhism as practiced by Khmer refugees in the United States. Based on research conducted at Khmer temples and sites throughout the country over a period of three and a ha...(Read More)
Undervalued Dissent
(December 2016)
Informal Workers' Politics in India Manjusha Nair - Author
Uses two case studies to demonstrate how neoliberal reforms in India have de-democratized labor politics.
Historically, the Indian state has not offered welfare and social rights to all of its citizens, yet a remarkable characteristic of its polity has been the ability of citizens to dissent in a democratic way. In Undervalued Dissent, Manjusha Nair argues that this democratic space has been vanishing slowly. Based on ext...(Read More)
Asian Muslim Women
(October 2015)
Globalization and Local Realities Huma Ahmed-Ghosh - Editor
Presents multifaceted aspects of Asian Muslim women’s lives and agencies.
This book resists the homogenization of Muslim women by detailing the diversity in their lives and by challenging the dominant paradigm of Arabized Islam as the sole interpreter of the faith. Though much has been written on the Middle East, there is a huge gap in research on Asia, which has two-thirds of the world’s Musl...(Read More)
It Hurts Down There
(September 2015)
The Bodily Imaginaries of Female Genital Pain Christine Labuski - Author
Tracks the medical emergence and treatment of vulvar pain conditions in order to understand why so many US women are misinformed about their sexual bodies.
How does a woman describe a part of her body that much of society teaches her to never discuss? It Hurts Down There analyzes the largest known set of qualitative research data about vulvar pain conditions. It tells the story of one hundred women who s...(Read More)
