Faculty Promotion & Tenure Books

“On a trip to Prince Edward Island, my three sons said, 'You know mom, she isn’t real, she’s just a character in a book.' Oh, how wrong they are. This freckled, red-haired girl entered my life as a Christmas gift fifty years ago this year. She is a touchstone to my native land and beloved by many a young Canadian girl. I read and re-read and re-read her adventures, laughed at her mishaps and was inspired by her smarts and her imagination. I wanted to be her. Not a winter goes by that a snowy day doesn’t find me curled up in a blanket with that Christmas gift and one of my most kindred of spirits – the very special Anne, and that’s 'Anne with an E' mind you – Anne of Green Gables.”

Selected by:
Carolyn Lee
Professor
College of Nursing
Granted Tenure, 2014

“I have always loved reading and this is the first book I can remember reading as a kid that I picked out for myself to purchase (as opposed to checking out from the library). Also, this is the first book in which I can remember feeling like I was transported to another place and time. I'm sure I didn't get the big picture back then but what I came to realize is how powerful words can be and the formidable impact they can have on a reader.”

Selected by:
Janet Mosebach
College of Business & Innovation, Department of Accounting
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“This book is a passionate and irreverent examination of how to interpret evidence in the biomedical sciences. Goldacre uses his razor wit, and a healthy dose of cheeky humor, to expose the poor science and faulty logic used by big pharma and others to convince the public that their products are more effective and/or safer than they actually are. While the tone of the book is far from scholarly, Goldacre’s entertaining prose describes a pretty rigorous framework for evaluating evidence. Reading this book helped me to sharpen my own skepticism, but also inspired me to search for more entertaining ways to illustrate concepts that can be very boring for students. I keep a copy at my desk, and reach for it when my inspiration regarding teaching evidence-based practice is flagging.”

Selected by:
Michael Tevald
College of Health Sciences, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences
Promoted to Associate Professor, 2015

“A summary of the discoveries and astounding results based on brain plasticity. Daily learning and growth is possible at any age or stage in your family life or life as a faculty member.”

Matthew Liberatore
Associate Professor
College of Engineering
Department of Chemical & Environmental Engineering
Granted Tenure, 2015

“I enjoyed this series as a child because page after page C. S. Lewis brought Narnia, a colorful world of talking animals and other creatures, to life. Even then, I appreciated the mix of adventure and courage as well as loyalty, love, and sacrifice. The main characters, two brothers and two sisters were displaced to the countryside from London during WWII, and found their way into this magical world, where they were faced with the challenge to work together alongside Narnians to improve the society. As I grew up and read these again, I recognized the religious and moral symbolism that is woven into the narrative, and the only character who appears in all of the books, Aslan the Lion, clearly represents Jesus (C. S. Lewis was a Christian scholar and this is evident in many of his writings). If I had to pick my favorite book in the series, it is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I was always restless as a child and enjoyed traveling. Discovering new places, landscapes, and learning about other cultures fascinated me. The characters’ courage to venture into a new world and to help 'people' in that society appealed to me. In a sense, it met my needs at an early age to escape, and now it relates to my desire to engage in research that takes me to places I have never been and to contribute to the betterment of society.

Selected by:
Beth Schlemper
College of Languages, Literature & Social Sciences, Department of Geography & Planning
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“I’m now a historical foundations of education guy. However, when I was an undergraduate, through my high school teaching career, and even through my master’s program, I HATED foundations of education. I had no idea what relevance any of those old dead white guys had on my current practice. I could care less about people like Horace Mann or John Dewey. Then, I read that Counts book. It’s actually the text of a speech he gave at the 1932 Progressive Education Association annual meeting…and it resonated strongly with me. It gave a voice, meaning, and cohesion to my beliefs and practices both personally and professionally. I have gone on to read several more of his works, as well as many of those most immediately influenced by him such as Theodore Brameld; to this day, I find a way of 'slipping' a reference to either Counts or Brameld in almost everything I write, most often a direct quote from one of their works but on occasion a sly reference to one of their ideas. It is both powerful commentary on the visionary nature of Counts’ writing and thinking AND a scathing indictment of the educational system that so much of what he wrote in the 1930’s as critique is still true today. Sample passage: 'If an educational movement, or any other movement, calls itself progressive, it must have orientation; it must possess direction. The word itself implies moving forward, and moving forward can have little meaning in the absence of clearly defined purposes…Here, I think, we find the fundamental weakness, not only of Progressive Education, but also of American education generally. Like a baby shaking a rattle, we seem to be utterly content with action, provided it is sufficiently vigorous and noisy…At least we know that so long as we thus busy ourselves we shall not incur the serious displeasure of our social elders.' "

Selected by:
Edward Janak
Associate Professor & Department Chair
Judith Herb College of Education, Department of Educational Foundations & Leadership
Granted Tenure, 2015

“This has been my favorite non-fiction work since I first read it in graduate school. My approach to my own research as well as how I train students draws from Sagan's thesis that science is not a profession, but rather it is a way of observing and understanding the natural world, and requires a sense of wonder and open-mindedness tempered with thoughtful observation and rigorous skepticism. As these skills are as necessary for informed consumers and voters as they are for scientists, Sagan’s message about the responsibility scientists have to encourage critical thinking and scientific literacy among non-scientists has helped me integrate my scientific training into a broader societal context and impacted not only my professional life, but also my personal and political values and activities.”

Selected by:
John Bellizzi
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“My father was a biologist and had a copy of this book in our library. It was a companion of mine during family vacations at my grandfather's beach house on Cape Cod and as I explored the salt marshes and tide pools at the rim of the ocean. These experiences, along with a healthy diet of good old science fiction stories, codified my desire to become a scientist. Although my scientific interests led me away from a planned career as a marine biologist, I feel this book recounting the life and death struggles of tiny invertebrates in the face of the immense powers of tide and time have served me well as I ponder my life as an academic!”

Selected by:
David Giovannucci
College of Medicine & Life Sciences, Department of Neurosciences
Promoted to Professor, 2015

“I read this book in my 20's. The book taught me how to manage my thoughts and look at life positively. The analytical approach of the book resonated well with my engineering mindset and I believe has positively affected my life.”

Selected by:
Mohammad Elahinia
College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical, Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering
Promoted to Professor, 2015

“The Final Diagnosis by Arthur Hailey published in 1959 inspired me when I read this book during my early years of medical college training in Kashmir, India. It taught me that in the field of medicine one has to always keep updating knowledge and skills. A medical doctor ceases to be a doctor when he ceases to be a student. This inspired me to pursue a career in academic medicine. In this book, the chief of pathology and once an excellent pathologist is now out of touch with the latest methods in laboratory medicine. Change is underway in the hospital, and he faces the possibility of losing his job. That, however, could lead to the loss of a substantial donation to the hospital, from a rich benefactor, who is a friend of this pathologist. The surgeon who is the administrator weighs the pros and cons of his administrative decisions. Tragedy surfaces in the book, as it does in real life in hospitals, when errors are made, or when terrifying diseases strike young, likeable people.”

Selected by:
Dinkar Kaw
College of Medicine & Life Sciences, Department of Internal Medicine
Promoted to Professor & Granted Tenure, 2014

“I read this book as an undergraduate engineering student and it really sparked my interest process optimization, the theory of constraints, waste reduction, and the need for continuous process improvement. The theory of constraints emphasizes that 'a chain is no stronger than its weakest link' and it provided mathematical modeling and statistical tools to better understand process bottlenecks and optimize the performance of any system. I have applied these concepts in my research work related to sustainability, waste reduction, lean six sigma process improvement, and advanced manufacturing method design."

Selected by:
Matthew Franchetti
College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical, Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“I first read the book in grad school and although I had been interested in the history of gender and the history of colonial Virginia for a very long time, I never had seen the two subjects weaved together in this way before. The book both blew my mind and provided me with a model for how to approach early American history. Using traditional sources, Brown’s book examines the history of the rise of racial slavery in Virginia via the analytical lens of gender. She masterfully uncovers how colonial Americans’ ideas about race and gender were important components in the construction of colonial power structures. Moreover, she demonstrates how infusing race and gender into a traditional historical account can powerfully transform the meta-narrative of early American history. I now seek to accomplish the same goals within my own work.”

Selected by:
Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch
College of Languages, Literature & Social Sciences, Department of History
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

"Unexpected journeys and adventures should always be welcome in our lives. Beyond the enjoyable story, that is the point that sticks with me. I always hated to be bored (still do), so that aspect of the book always resonated with me."

Selected by:
Nikolas Podraza
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“As a prologue to my choice, I should mention that I would like to choose a beautifully written piece of literature, or some fantastically illustrated book on science. But if the guiding criteria are 'influence' and 'inspiration,' I will have to give that honor to a series of books: The How and Why Wonder Book Series. These had the quality of pulp non-fiction: cheesy illustrations, stilted prose, and books on many topics of science for the reasonable price of 50 cents. Available at the local supermarket, I purchased many of these and spent countless hours reading them. They opened my young mind to many different disciplines of science and the possibilities of space exploration.”

Selected by:
Tom Megeath
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Promoted to Professor, 2015

“I first read this book in my late 20’s and have circled back to it dozens of times since. The advice is practical for success in both personal and professional relationships. The book contains dozens of examples and principles for dealing with people in the most positive and productive fashion. Of all the principles, my top five are: 1. Don’t criticize condemn, or complain; 2. Ask questions to better understand; 3. Smile and be a good listener; 4. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view; 5. Remember people’s names."

Selected by:
Michael Mallin
College of Business & Innovation, Department of Marketing & Sales
Promoted to Professor, 2015

“Although the book is meant for Web designers during the earlier years of Web, I was drawn to information architecture for a number of reasons. I have once aspired to be an architect (I loved drawing buildings), I studied music and was particularly drawn to compositions of large well planned-out forms (like symphonic poems), and I could apply those as metaphors in my work as digital curator, which is not my current job title but it is certainly what I do at UT. Many methods and approaches (such as metaphors) discussed in this book were helpful in helping me conceptualize what I managed to realize through an intuitive user interface. As the coordinator of digital initiatives at UT Libraries, I have referred to this book in my publications and developed several virtual exhibitions for the Canaday Center. I am also the digital curator of Toledo’s Attic, which I have re-built a few times, using the physical museum as a metaphor. Finally, information architecture is a critical skill in the preservation of digital content because the relationships of hyperlinked contents are what present context and meaning to any digital content that need to be preserved.”

Selected by:
Arjun Sabharwal
University Libraries
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“This book influenced me as a young person to appreciate living in a civilized society governed by laws.”

Selected by:
Tomer Avidor-Reiss
Associate Professor
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Biological Sciences
Granted Tenure, 2015

“In this book, Victor Frankl describes his imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp, where despite horrific circumstances, he observed optimism. He describes 'tragic optimism,' the concept that a person can be naturally optimistic even in the face of extremely negative circumstances. From this book, I learned how to find meaning and purpose even in suffering, and how to practice optimism.”

Selected by:
Michele Knox
College of Medicine & Life Sciences, Department of Psychiatry
Promoted to Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“What I enjoyed about this Italian sociologist’s work is that he analyzed the period before a movement started through to when a movement confronted the institutions of daily life. Exploring how a person confronts the contradictions between what they consider positive values and negative values internally and the wider society reaching a point he describes as depressive overload. He then develops a theory of the nascent state in which a person moves from the experience of depressive overload to come up with an idea that tries to make sense of those contradictions. The person then seeks affinity with others around that idea. To the extent others join in the nascent state then those who have affinity for the idea become divided from the rest of the world as they reinterpret their existence in light of the nascent state idea. As the affinity group grows it becomes a movement based on the idea experienced in the nascent state. That movement is then confronted with the institutions of everyday life which react to the movement in some combination of four ways: 1) make the movement members think they are living an illusion, 2) co-opt the movement into the institutions, 3) extinguish the members of the movement by literally killing them, and/or 4) repress the movement. His analysis is particularly interesting as he looks at movements from the smallest (two people falling in love, two friends developing) up to worldwide movements like communism of Catholicism. In looking at all of them, he dissects the process of their development and makes one see the robustness of his theorizing about these sociological phenomena that I found fascinating and very comforting. Thus, radical Islam was more easily comprehensible under this vision than any other analysis I have seen since the War on Terror started.”

Selected by:
Benjamin Davis
College of Law
Promoted to Professor, 2015

“As best I can recall, this was the first book that exposed me to astronomy and I would make a beeline for it each time my elementary school class would go to our library."

Selected by:
Michael Cushing
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“This classic gives insight into what it means to truly struggle and fight to stay on course. In the end we may not always win the struggles we encounter but by perseverance and the ensuing character we develop will be a true measure of our success.”

Selected by:
Andrea Kalinoski
College of Medicine & Life Sciences
Department of Surgery
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015

“Why this book? Why not? We are all searching for the narrative that gives coherence to our life. In high school, this book taught me my guiding story need not be pristine, but rather I could get where I was going via murky byways and trails. Hmm. Pretentious? Certainly. Did I really like this book growing up? Yeah.”

Selected by:
Kelly Moore
Associate Professor
College of Law
Granted Tenure, 2015

“I first read the Tao Te Ching in my early twenties and found some of the philosophical concepts within useful to sustaining a career in organic chemistry. Organic chemistry is a highly creative endeavor once the chemist has mastered the myriad of intellectual and technical details which are also required for success. Organic chemists are essentially ‘molecular artists’ that create new forms of matter. Sometimes, nature provides us with an example of a complex molecular material that we would like to recreate. Other times, we are asked to design materials that arise solely from our imagination with the expectation that they will serve some useful purpose. We create these new materials from more basic materials. Often, there are many approaches or chemical pathways we could choose to attempt the synthesis. There may be many steps in the pathway we design and the process is a like a journey. Every step is challenging and there is a search for simplicity in the pathways we design. Many times, as we work through a pathway we encounter barriers to progress. It can almost seem as though we are working against the natural flow of nature. If we are rigid in our thinking and we just keep trying the same approach over and over, we may get nowhere. However, if we are flexible, step back and reflect on our pathway, design an alternate pathway, and continue the journey we are far more likely to arrive at our goal. We need to be flexible yet persistent, similar to the way in which water is malleable yet though its unceasing action will carve a valley through a mountain.”

Selected by:
Steven Sucheck
College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Promoted to Professor, 2015

“Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam wrote this book and it was a big influence on me when I was young. Whitlam was a Rhodes Scholar known for his eloquence and communication skills. His elected Government was fired by Sir John Kerr (the Queen of England's representative) in 1975. The dismissal pushed Australia into a political and Constitutional crisis. The way the book was written, as much as what it said, impressed me. He wrote memorable sentences that made an impression on the reader. I wanted to write like that.”

Selected by:
Mark Sherry
College of Languages, Literature & Social Sciences, Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Promoted to Professor, 2015

“This scholarly book that I read in the late ‘80’s, both convinced me that people across time and across the world have experienced something they take to be profoundly important and different from the things we can sense with our five senses, and also made me wonder why this is so in a new way -- are these experiences really 'news' as he says from another kind of reality, or news from this one? It made me simultaneously see the beauty of and question religion and helped set me on a course of doing that through the present.”

Selected by:
Jeanine Diller
College of Languages, Literature & Social Sciences, Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies
Promoted to Associate Professor & Granted Tenure, 2015