Caribbean American Heritage Month

Happy Caribbean American Heritage Month! To learn more about Caribbean culture, life, and history, we partnered with SHU’s West Indian Student Organization (WISO) and compiled a list of reading recommendations. Below is a list recommended by Ijah Penn, the treasurer of SHU WISO. To see more reading recommendations, you can go on Instagram and follow #caribbeanreads, and you can get involved in SHU WISO or learn more about their organization by following their Instagram: shu_wiso

Additionally, Chelsea Barrett, Business Librarian and Africana Studies liaison, compiled a new Research Guide on Caribbean Studies. Please check it out and provide feedback!

1. Land of Love and Drowning (2014)- The author Tiphanie Yanique represents St. Thomas and the U.S Virgin Islands. The story is a book of twisted and dark family secrets that plague the Bradshaw women over 60 years in the early 90’s in the U.S Virgin Islands. The novel is available as a print book in the library.

2. Elizabeth Nunez is a Trinidadian author who writes about internal cultural and societal struggles and the complex identities of her characters reflect the turmoil of these challenges. Two of Nunez’s works listed below can be found in the SHU library catalog as ebooks: Even in Paradise (2016),  and Not Everyday Use (2014).

3. The Dragon Can’t Dance (1986) by Earl Lovelace is a novel that discusses the difficulty of postcolonial Trinidad. The story is told through one man’s preparations of an elaborate dragon costume for Carnival as he attempts to shed the struggles of his life after Emancipation.  This book can be found in print in the library.

5. A Brief History of the Seven Killing (2014) is written by Marlon James, who represents Jamaica. The novel is a suspense-filled fictional story about Jamaica’s history and the political climate of the 1960’s through the 80’s. This book can be found in print in the library.

6. Esmeralda Santiago is a prominent Puerto Rican author in the United States. She writes memoirs that encapsulate her own assimilation into this American culture and way of life, which allow others with similar experiences to relate and feel represented. Her writing showcases themes of self-discovery, immigration, working-class immigrant experience and biculturalism.

Below are just a few samples of her writing and contributions:

Esmeralda Santiago. “El Hombre Que Yo Amo.” Ploughshares, vol. 26, no. 2/3, 2000, p. 146. EBSCOhost. Link to Read Full Text.

Video: “Esmeralda Santiago discusses her novel When I Was Puerto Rican.”

More selections from Santiago’s writing are also available to read in this print book, Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings — An Anthology

 

Anti-Racist Readings

As members of an academic community, we strive to continually better ourselves and the world through learning and education. These books, recommended by academics and experts all around the world like Ibram X. Kendi, Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, may help you challenge your own internalized biases and understand the pervasiveness of racism in history that colors society to this day.

Read the University’s Statement Regarding Unrest Across the Nation.

Anti-Racism Readings in eBooks from the Library Collections

Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-First Century by Dorothy Roberts

How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman

The Autobiography of Malcolm-X

We Have Not Been Moved: Resisting Racism and Militarism in 21st Century America

Black and Blue : the Origins and Consequences of Medical Racism

The Construction of Whiteness: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Race Formation and The Meaning of a White Identity

White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness by Ruth Frankenberg

“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum

ebrary books featured in ProQuest database search results.

In a recent enhancement to ProQuest’s platform, eBooks from ebrary are now included in ProQuest database search results.

If you search any ProQuest database, including ProQuest Central, you will see a tab marked “ebrary books” next to your total search results.

You can also search for eBooks right in the recently updated  ebrary database.

e-books

With two new licenses for e-books, the University Libraries is happy to announce that the Seton Hall community now has access to almost 180,000 e-books, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  These are available through SetonCat and through the main search box (“Search Ebooks”) on the Libraries’ web page.  Off campus users will need to give their PirateNet Username and Password to login, and one of the book packages requires an account be set up to fully download the book (but you can print out individual chapters up to 60 pages without doing so).  This represents a significant step forward in access to a broad range of titles, and is a wonderful supplement to the other electronic holdings of Seton Hall University Libraries.