The Affirmative Action Puzzle: A Living History From Reconstruction to Today, by Melvin I. Urofsky (Pantheon Books; 570 pages; $35 hardcover, $16.99 e-book). A look at the debates over affirmative action in academe within the larger context of the history of the issue.
Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education, by Yingyi Ma (Columbia University Press; 294 pages; $35 hardcover, $34.99 e-book). Draws on research at Chinese high schools and American colleges to depict the pressures and hopes that attract students to the United States and the worries they face as they try to integrate on U.S. campuses.
Amherst College: The Campus Guide, by Blair Kamin (Princeton Architectural Press; 256 pages; $37.50). A guide to the campus’s architecture, history, and development, presented as a series of six walks, with 120 color images.
The Art of World Learning: Community Engagement for a Sustainable Planet, by Richard Slimbach (Stylus Publishing; 251 pages; $125 hardcover, $27.50 paperback, $21.99 e-book). Reimagines study-abroad experiences in the context of global threats like climate change, income inequality, and imperiled minority cultures and languages.
An Athletic Director’s Story and the Future of College Sports in America, by Robert E. Mulcahy III with Robert Stewart (Rutgers University Press; 219 pages; $25.95 hardcover or e-book). A look at some of the issues in college sports by a former director of athletics at Rutgers University, who calls for values and accountability.
Career Pathways for All Youth: Lessons From the School-to-Work Movement, by Stephen F. Hamilton (Harvard Education Press; 200 pages; $62 hardcover, $32 paperback) Describes the disconnect between high school and postsecondary education, and programs that help bridge that gap and enable students to create career pathways.
Changing Academia Forever: Black Student Leaders Analyze the Movement They Led, by Kitty Kelly Epstein and Bernard Stringer (Myers Education Press; 112 pages; $139.95 hardcover, $39.95 paperback or e-book). An analysis of a four-and-a-half-month student strike that shut down most of San Francisco State College in the late 1960s and led to the creation of the country’s first College of Ethnic Studies, with insights for today’s student movements.
The College Stress Test: Tracking Institutional Futures Across a Crowded Market, by Robert Zemsky, Susan Shaman, and Susan Campbell Baldridge (Johns Hopkins University Press; 155 pages; $39.95 hardcover or e-book). An examination of the market stresses on higher education, with an analysis of the factors that could put colleges at the highest risk of closing or merging.
An Insider’s Guide to University Administration, by Daniel Grassian (Johns Hopkins University Press; 268 pages; $27.95 paperback or e-book). Nuanced guidance on how to lead colleges well in the areas of finance, free speech, strategic planning, ethics, diversity, and more.
The Last Negroes at Harvard: The Class of 1963 and the 18 Young Men Who Changed Harvard Forever, by Kent Garrett and Jeanne Ellsworth (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 299 pages; $27 hardcover, $14.99 e-book). A look at the experiences and the mixed life outcomes of 18 black students recruited to enroll at Harvard in 1959, in a book coauthored by one of them.
Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education, by Joshua Kim and Edward Maloney (Johns Hopkins University Press; 211 pages; $39.95 hardcover or e-book). Explores the new academic discipline of digital learning, with several case studies on how advances in learning science have changed colleges.
Navigating an Academic Career: A Brief Guide for PhD Students, Postdocs, and New Faculty, by Jeffrey J. McDonnell (American Geophysical Union and John Wiley & Sons; 82 pages; $29.95 paperback, $23.99 e-book). A manual on how to be strategic in a competitive market, including advice on avoiding anxiety, staying neutral in department debates, and developing a research brand identity.
The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on College Campuses, by Jerusha O. Conner (Johns Hopkins University Press; 225 pages; $39.95 hardcover or e-book). Examines how today’s activists use tools from previous generations of protesters but take an “intersectional” perspective that links causes.
The Ocean in the School: Pacific Islander Students Transforming Their University, by Rick Bonus (Duke University Press; 249 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $26.95 paperback, $25.60 e-book). Looks at how Pacific Islander students at the University of Washington felt let down by its student-success and diversity efforts, and depicts their strategies to overcome their sense of being devalued by participating in multiethnic coalitions.
The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide, by Bonni Stachowiak (Stylus Publishing; 270 pages; $125 hardcover, $22.50 paperback, $17.99 e-book). Describes what works in online education, with tips on encouraging communication, managing tasks, using checklists, grading, updating courses stored in a learning-management system, and more.
(Re)Considering What We Know: Learning Thresholds in Writing, Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle (Utah State University Press; 341 pages; $39.95 paperback, $32.95 e-book). Discusses the crucial concepts writing students must understand to succeed, in chapters aimed at teachers of first-year writing and other faculty members who teach writing-intensive courses.
Regulating Human Research: IRBs From Peer Review to Compliance Bureaucracy, by Sarah Babb (Stanford University Press; 171 pages; $70 hardcover, $22 paperback, $17.15 e-book). Sheds light on how universities’ Institutional Review Boards have evolved beyond faculty-run panels making decisions about the ethical design of research projects involving human subjects to bureaucratic systems making sure that researchers are complying with federal regulations.
The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM, edited by Angela Byars-Winston and Maria Lund Dahlberg (National Academies Press; 288 pages; $75 paperback, $59.99 e-book, free PDF). A report on effective programs to mentor undergraduate and graduate students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine, with attention to what colleges can do to support such programs.
Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus, by Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan (W.W. Norton; 395 pages; $27.95 hardcover, $14.99 e-book). Sheds light on the social context for sexual assaults on campus and suggests how to prevent those incidents, with findings based on a comprehensive five-year research project at Columbia University.
Teaching by Heart: One Professor’s Journey to Inspire, by Thomas J. DeLong (Harvard Business Review Press; 223 pages; $30 hardcover or e-book). Examines the role of leadership and empathy in teaching, and deconstructs the processes of preparing for and conducting classes, and creating covenants and connecting with students.
We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989, by Joshua M. Myers (New York University Press; 288 pages; $30 hardcover). Describes through the eyes of participants a protest at Howard University over a Board of Trustees appointment that shut down the institution and led to shifts in campus culture and politics.