LibGuides: Faculty Promotion & Tenure Books: 2017

BOOKS SELECTED BY 2017 HONOREES

Click on title to view catalog record & digital bookplate

The Annotated U. S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence by Jack N. Rakove (editor)
Call Number: KF4527 .A56 2012
“Before I had ever read a book, I knew lines from these great American documents. My immigrant family members, my relatives who served in the military, growing up in a diverse environment during the Cold War - even as a child, I not only knew the words, I was well aware of their importance to me and my family. The ideals expressed in these documents changed the world and have continued to inspire people at home and abroad for over two centuries. They are indeed profound! When I read them, I am so moved, and also so pained, because throughout our history, our nation and its citizens sometimes forget how we got here and who we can be. This is the most powerful and most beautiful sentence I ever will read: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Selected by:
Beau Case
University Libraries
Appointed Dean & Professor with Tenure, 2017
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749 B4 2006
“This book was an inspiration for me as a documentary filmmaker, because it was an exquisite example of the power of storytelling, as a rhetorical strategy, in the presentation of historical narratives. The spirit of Morrison's work, particularly this book, was the foundation for my first and most acclaimed film, which led to my successful effort to earn tenure at my first institution and my Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard.”

Selected by:
Charlene Gilbert
Professor, College of Arts & Letters, Department of Theatre & Film
Granted Tenure, 2017
Bifurcation Analysis in Geomechanics by J. Sulem; I.G. Vardoulakis
Call Number: TA705 .V32 1995
ISBN: 9780751402148
“This book is a new inspiration for me to move forward in the current and next stage of my academic career. It has inspired me to study the bifurcation and stability of geological materials, especially as applied to materials with microstructure and in relation to strain localization phenomena."

Selected by:
Liangbo Hu
College of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
Birds of Michigan by Stan Tekiela
Call Number: QL684.M5 T45 2000
“In reading and using this book in the last few years, I re-learned the importance of being present and aware, regularly unplugging from technology, and enjoying the outdoors, even if for a few minutes to spy a fancy bird.”

Selected by:
Kathryn Eisenmann
College of Medicine & Life Sciences, Department of Cancer Biology
Promoted to Associate Professor, 2016
The Concept of Law by H. L. A Hart
Call Number: KF380 .H362 1963x
“I first read this book while I was in law school. It introduced me to some of the perennial problems surrounding law’s legitimacy and has influenced the course of my research.”

Selected by:
Evan Zoldan
Associate Professor, College of Law
Granted Tenure, 2017
Contributions of Voice Research to Singing by John Large
Call Number: MT820 .C77y 1980
“This was one of the first books to feature a physiological look into the aspects of singing that also incorporated x-rays and video strobe. It literally changed the way we discuss singing and vocal health.”

Selected by:
Denise Bernardini
College of Arts & Letters, Department of Music
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke
Call Number: Q125 .B947 1985
Selected by:
Song Qian
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Environmental Sciences
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
Immortality by Milan Kundera
Call Number: PG5039.21 .U6 N3413 1991
"I will always be grateful to Milan Kundera for teaching me how to find the back doors. I started reading Kundera in grad school. The figures and themes that he wrote about in his novels, short stories and literary criticism were adjacent to the figures and themes that I worked on philosophically. I regarded him as a sort of mentor, or older friend, a figure like Professor Avenarius in Immortality, or Pontevin in Slowness, folks who had lived through the ugliness of mass society and managerialism with ironic detachment, gentle comedy and grace, and managed to cultivate the little patches of beauty and joy that had evaded the censors. I think that's why I decided to write my first peer-reviewed publication on Kundera's work, emphasizing Immortality in particular. In my own work, I explore the aesthetic formations that often underlie conceptual thinking. In Immortality, Kundera uses these aesthetic formations to find back doors in what he calls modernity's 'terminal paradoxes.' These paradoxes aren't just academic matters. I finished my PhD at a moment when many universities were using financial exigencies as a pretext to gut their programs dedicated to humanistic and artistic inquiry. Many universities seemed content to reimagine themselves as profit centers, as a place to pursue highly specialized technical training in STEM fields with nary a consideration for their grounding in what the phenomenologists called a shared lifeworld. It wasn't clear that there would be any room in that kind of academy for the sort of interdisciplinary work that I was most drawn to. I'm very grateful that I've nonetheless found my own backdoors, here at UT, to navigate these paradoxes. There are worse inspirations than Professor Avenarius in this pedagogical endeavor."

Selected by:
Ammon Allred
College of Arts & Letters, Department of Philosophy
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
Instructed Second Language Acquisition: Learning in the Classroom by Rod R. Ellis
Call Number: P51 .E47 1990
“Growing up speaking three languages/dialects and learning other languages as school subjects, I often wondered how languages were learned and why some people could learn a language faster than others. I used to ask which teaching methods or strategies worked for students in my early years of teaching. This book inspired me to explore the science of language learning, how learners acquire a language in the classroom, and how the understanding of second language acquisition contribute to language teaching. The search, inquiry, and discovery have kept me excited ever since.”

Selected by:
An Chung Cheng
College of Arts & Letters, Department of Foreign Languages
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family's Triumph Over Autism by Catherine Maurice
Call Number: RJ506.A9 M39 1994
“This is a memoir written by a mother of two children diagnosed with autism. She describes the trauma her family endured participating in fad interventions until finally finding the principles of behavior modification, an evidenced based program for children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. As a professional in a field that provides services to children with disabilities, this was a poignant reminder of how vulnerable families are on their quest for help, and how crucial it is to navigate them toward evidenced based interventions.”

Selected by:
Jennifer Reynolds
College of Health & Human Services, School of Intervention & Wellness
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
Light in August by William Faulkner
Call Number: PS3511.A86 L5 1990
“Faulkner’s South resonated deeply with me as a young man wandering the hills and hollows of rural Kentucky. His writing evokes so much of what lies just beneath the surface: the indelible mark of history ('The past is never dead. It's not even past'), the pain of alienation and human suffering, the caprice of deeply held belief ('Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.'), and the dangers of unquestioned knowledge. While many works of science and science fiction amplified the gravitational draw I felt towards a life spent chasing glimpses of the Universe, Faulkner above all others shone unflinching light on the very human struggles any searcher faces.”

Selected by:
John-David Smith
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Call Number: PR6029.B55 M37 1990
“This is the first novel in a series about the Age of Sail, when great ships sailed the globe on missions of exploration and war. The books follow the career of Jack Aubrey from a young Commander to Captain to Admiral in the British navy and his ship's surgeon Dr. Maturin who is an eminent naturalist. I love this series because each book is written with such a wealth of detail and vivid characterization that I am transported to the deck of a sailing ship in the early 1800s. Even the seas and skies become characters with their ever-changing colors and sometime murderous moods. The sailors have lives on land too, and the accounts of their courtships and marriages remind me of the writing of Jane Austin. Above all, these books remind me of why I love being on the water and why I went into a field that allows me to be on boats and study the mysterious world beneath the waves. I’m transported to an age of scientific discovery where Dr. Maturin, uncovering new species on remote islands and describing their strange adaptations, foreshadows the breakthroughs that Charles Darwin would make a few decades later. It’s adventure and science, and the great Age of Sail brought to life.”

Selected by:
Thomas Bridgeman
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Environmental Sciences
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations by Minor White
Call Number: TR654 .W475 1982
"This book, which I first encountered in college as an undergraduate majoring in photography, broadened my understanding of the language of the image and my ability to apply that language. I came to understand and apply White's theories about the spirit and the self within the subjects and the places captured by the photograph, by the camera. My work began to focus on the subjective experience, embracing transcendence within image by examining, not only what was within the subject matter, but what else the image could be seen as, could be understood as, could be experienced as."

Selected by:
Holly Hey
College of Arts & Letters, Department of Theatre & Film
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Molecules That Changed the World by K. C. Nicolaou, Tamsyn Montagnon
Call Number: QD262 .N53 2008
“This book details the structures, chemical synthesis, biological relevance, and historical details of over 40 important molecules that played significant roles in human history. It should be of much interest to a broad range of readers, such as chemists, pharmacists, biologists, and clinicians.”

Selected by:
Jianglong Zhu
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Music in Preschool by Katalin Forrai
Call Number: M1997.F7 E613 1998
“Music in Preschool is one of the few scholarly and pedagogically sound books on teaching music to 3-7 year olds. As an early childhood music methods specialist, it is invaluable. I also have a personal connection with this book. Originally written in Hungarian, it follows the Kodály approach to teaching music literacy which, along with the Orff-Schulwerk, is one of my research and teaching specialties. It was translated into English by my first dissertation advisor at Indiana University, Dr. Jean Sinor, who died in Hungary shortly after I had a dissertation appointment with her in 1999. Jean’s songs and games in this book are used in my classes today. My current research takes me to the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, Hungary where I am working with the archival collections with Jean Sinor and Katelin Foray, two strong female music pedagogues whom I hope to emulate.”

Selected by:
Pamela Stover
College of Arts & Letters
Department of Music
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
Neuroscience by Mark F. Bear, Barry W. Connors, Michael A. Paradiso
Call Number: WL300 B368n 2017
"This book surveys the organization and function of the human nervous system. The book presents materials at the cutting edge of neuroscience, in a way that is accessible to both science and non-science students. The book had a great impact on me as teacher and scientist. This book did help me to develop my teaching skills and knowledge with the use of the nice images and informative materials in the field of neuroscience and neuropharmacology."

Selected by:
Youssef Sari
College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Call Number: PR6025 .A86 O4 2007
“This novel, by W. Somerset Maugham, describes the experiences of a young man as he searches for understanding, truth, and meaning in life and deals with the consequences of his choices. This is a frank portrayal of human emotion that has influenced me both personally and professionally.”

Selected by:
Deborah Chadee
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Biology
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Seuss
Call Number: Juvenile Picture Books S496oh
“The value of an education was instilled in me by my mom when I was very young. My mom grew up during the Great Depression and desperately wanted to go to college, but her family could not afford to send her. She eventually realized her dream, earning her master's degree when I was in junior high, and taught me that hard work pays off. As my daughter, a high school senior, prepares for college next year, she has her sights set on graduate school and a research degree. Oh, the places you’ll go…with your education…an invaluable gift. You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way!”

Selected by:
Mary Jean Ohns
College of Nursing, Department of Advanced Population Care
Promoted to Assistant Professor, 2017
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Call Number: QH365 .O2 2003
“In this book, Darwin sets forth detailed evidence to explain one of the biggest questions in biology, that is, where did all of these plants, animals, insects and bacteria come from? It is clear that the idea of evolution was not Darwin’s alone, but the extent of the evidence presented illustrates a realization of the societal impact and anticipated resistance to this revolutionary idea.”

Selected by:
William Taylor
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Biological Sciences
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Call Number: BF637.S8 G533 2008
ISBN: 9780316017923
“When you are a math teacher, and then when you receive a Ph.D., people often say ‘You are really smart.’ Malcolm Gladwell reminds us that being smart or having talent is not enough. Successful people work hard and put in the time to learn and become good at what they do. Timing is also important—being in a certain place at the right time when opportunities are presented also matters. This book reminds me to work hard and look for opportunities to explore and try something new. That is how I have gotten to where I am today."
Selected by:
Debra Johanning
Judith Herb College of Education, Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Promoted to Professor, 2017
O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: Over 1,000 Fiddle Tunes by Miles Krassen
Call Number: M1744.O59 O5 1976
“I never have enjoyed reading for pleasure because my parents could tell stories. When I was 8, I started playing Irish fiddle with my grandfather. He was a great fiddle player, a patient teacher, and was very proud of our Irish heritage. Every Monday night for 10+ years, I went to his house and we played Irish fiddle tunes from this book. He scribbled notes in that book and penciled in dates every time we ‘conquered’ a new tune. During the summers, we would fly all over the Midwest to folk/bluegrass/Irish music festivals to compete in fiddle contests, listen to famous performers, and share Irish tunes with new friends. That same Irish fiddle tune book is at my house right now. It’s a scrapbook of my childhood and of those wild adventures with my grandfather. I still love playing Irish fiddle tunes and think of my grandfather every time I open my fiddle case. As the father of a young son, I hope to be a patient teacher and to pass along our family tradition of playing Irish fiddle.”

Selected by:
Jason Huntley
College of Medicine & Life Sciences, Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology
Promoted to Associate Professor, 2016
The Plague by Albert Camus
Call Number: PQ2605.A3734 P413 1991
“This is a story about a doctor who cares for people in his town who are dying from a plague, and his attitudes about life and death. In my opinion, it is also a commentary on hubris.”

Selected by:
Daniel Rapport
College of Medicine & Life Sciences, Department of Psychiatry
Promoted to Associate Professor, 2016
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
Call Number: BF335 .D78 2014
“The Power of Habit is the most recent book I read, and it brought together a lot of ideas that I have been learning from other books. Various books (on Montessori concepts, educating the whole person, how our brains work, and where humans stand as a species within the history of earth) have influenced my thinking and my work. This book really brought it together to explain how we defined where we are headed as a society. I am now thinking about how we can use some of the ideas in this book to help improve UT. Pick it up and take a look – you won’t be disappointed!”

Selected by:
Defne Apul
College of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Psycho-Pictography: The New Way to Use the Miracle Power of Your Mind by Vernon Howard
Call Number: BF637 .S8 H686 2012
“Dr. Vernon Howard's book had a deep impact on my life. Though I studied this book over twenty-five years ago, I have found ways to use it in my life every day. In a nutshell, it speaks of learning awareness with yourself, others, and finding truth within that awareness. I have used these principles with myself and my students to become more focused in the art form we are pursuing and to be better communicators. Composing music and performing music can be full of psychological pit falls, the principles Dr. Howard writes of can give us a sound way to overcome the many problems that can arise.”

Selected by:
Tad Weed
College of Arts & Letters, Department of Music
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit
Call Number: BJ1012 .P39 1987
“I wrote my undergraduate thesis on this book, and the process of reading it has turned out to be every bit as important at its contents. I found this book quite challenging, and my advisor allowed no shortcuts. He taught me a fundamentally different, slower, and more methodical way of reading. Once he had me spend a week diagramming a single page of text. Through this process I came to realize that there is very little one cannot grasp by slowing down and breaking the subject into smaller, simpler pieces. This lesson served me well in law school and I’ve found myself returning to it throughout my career. As a lawyer, it helped me craft cross examinations and closing arguments as much as it helped me figure out particularly thorny corporate structures. As an academic, it informs my research and guides my teaching.”

Selected by:
Gregory Gilchrist
College of Law
Granted Tenure, 2016 & Promoted to Professor, 2017
Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim S. Grover; as told to Shari Wenk
Call Number: BF503 .G767 2013
“This is an interesting book about training some of the world’s greatest athletes, including Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. The major theme is that hard work creates opportunities to be great, not some unchangeable, natural talent. The idea of work ethic, persistence, perseverance, or other similar terms also applies in becoming a successful student and professional. As a professor, learning new things, such as the problem solving skills of an engineer, is frequently difficult, but success usually favors the hard working student over the one labeled gifted or smart.”

Selected by:
Matthew Liberatore
College of Engineering
Department of Chemical Engineering
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Research Methods in Social Relations by Rick H. Hoyle; Monica J. Harris; Charles M. Judd
Call Number: H62 .K473 2002
“This book was the textbook for the first course in social science research methods that I took during my doctoral research on innovation in construction. The book was important to me because it (and the course) made me realize that effective interdisciplinary research is unlikely to result if one is grounded only in the literature and research methodologies associated with one’s primary discipline. The textbook not only was pivotal in helping me plan and execute an appropriate research methodology for my doctoral work, but also helped me supervise research and review submitted journal manuscripts over my career.”

Selected by:
T. Michael Toole
College of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering
Promoted to Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Call Number: HG179 .K563 2011
“This book has taught me how to make good decisions and plan ahead. It challenged me to think differently about my own finances.”

Selected by:
Alex Petkevich
College of Business & Innovation, Department of Finance
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2017
The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America by Elmer E. Schattschneider
Call Number: JK271 .S23 1975
“I read this book in my first semester in college, and it opened my eyes to a completely new level of understanding about the political realm. Schattschneider’s great contribution to the study of politics and conflict is to point out that the course of a conflict is determined not so much by the arguments and actions of both sides, but by what the conflict is about in the first place. If you control the question, you can control the outcome. That insight led me, then and ever since, to look below the surface of any conflict for what the core question is and to steer conflicts towards questions that have mutual answers that we can all agree on.”

Selected by:
R. William Ayres
College of Arts & Letters, Department of Political Science & Public Administration
Granted Tenure, 2017
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Call Number: SB959 .C3
“This book inspired me to pursue graduate studies in environmental engineering, because it celebrated and deftly articulated the confluence of scientific research and environmental justice. Often referred to as the ‘Mother of the Modern Environmental Movement,’ Rachel Carson was a pioneer for women in science.”

Selected by:
Cyndee Gruden
College of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Call Number: PS3572.O5 S6 2009
Selected by:
Agnieszka McPeak
College of Law
Promoted to Professor, 2018
The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
Call Number: Juvenile Picture Books S496sn
“My favorite book is The Sneetches published by Dr. Seuss in 1953. The book illustrates how arbitrary the classifications are that we use to discriminate against groups of people who we think are 'different' than us (such as skin color). The star belly sneetches exclude the non-star bellies and won’t invite them to their frankfurter parties. They teach their young star belly sneetches they are better than the non-star bellies. A charlatan comes along offering to add stars to the non-star bellies, then to remove the stars from the star bellies, and this goes on and on so that the groups can try to distinguish one from the other. The story ends with a star belly and a non-star belly sneetch holding hands. We are all really the same and no group is better than the other.”

Selected by:
Kamala London
College of Arts & Letters, Department of Psychology
Promoted to Professor, 2017
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Call Number: PS3565.B75 T48 1998
“This compilation of short stories, in particular the title story, has always been important to me. It influenced my decision to enter military medicine and it has been a source of reflection throughout my career as a physician.”

Selected by:
Michael W. Ellis
College of Medicine & Life Sciences, Department of Medicine
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior by Jonathan Weiner
Call Number: QH457 .W43 2000
“This book tells the life stories of Seymour Benzer and his friends and disciples. Seymour Benzer was called a 'scientist of scientists,' and his not winning the Nobel Prize was a great regret for many people. Jeffrey Hall, one of his postdocs, has just won this year’s Nobel Prize for research into circadian rhythms. I first read the book probably in 2001 while I was a postdoc at Fox Chase Cancer Center. It gave me the first peek into academic lives in the US system. The stories told were both inspirational and sobering at the same time. Learning how Seymour Benzer passionately pursued his research interest throughout his life time was certainly inspirational, but knowing a scientist who had done pioneering work could still lose his job (Dr. Ronald Konopka) was quite sobering. When I had a chance to start my own lab, the memory of the book spoke loudly to me: survive first and do intellectually satisfying work to have a sustainable career.”

Selected by:
Song-Tao Liu
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Biological Sciences
Promoted to Professor, 2017
Winning Through Intimidation by Robert J. Ringer
Call Number: BF637 .S8 R48
“This book helped me go through one of the toughest times in my life, completing my Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan. It taught me how to be positive and confident in myself all the time, no matter what my doctoral advisor said to me. Ringer focuses on the trade of real estate, but the fundamental message can be applied to everyone. The book is sometimes cheesy and cliché, but Ringer made it clear that life is full of intimidations and we can turn them into a winning process depending on how we look at them and how we deal with them. Thanks to Ringer for such a motivating and encouraging book that helped me get a grip on myself, finish my degree, and become a professor at the University of Toledo.”

Selected by:
Dong-Shik Kim
College of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering
Promoted to Professor, 2017