Gerard Shea – University Libraries

Librarian Leisure Read Recommendation – The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson

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If you were alive in the mid-1980s, Bo Jackson was more than a sports star; he was a cultural phenomenon. The iconic “Bo Knows” Nike advertising campaign made him a national legend, transcending baseball and football to become a household name. There was nothing he could not do; he played professional baseball and football at an All-Star level. He was a college track star, with a blazing 4.13 forty-yard dash time, who also won the Heisman as the nation’s best collegiate football player, and he somehow found time to hunt and surf.

Sportswriter Jeff Pearlman captures his mythic accomplishments in his bestselling book, The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson. Pearlman draws on an astounding 720 interviews to tell Jackson’s amazing tale. The stories told in the book are great fun to read and hard to believe. Pearlman brings the myth to life through these stories, like the time Jackson jumped over a parked Volkswagen or when he threw a football so high that he hit the New Orleans Superdome scoreboard, 140 feet above his head.

Even in the digital world, Bo was unmatched. In the classic Tecmo Bowl video game, his character was famously unstoppable, earning him the title of “the greatest video game athlete of all time,” according to ESPN and USA Today.

You can find The Last Folk Hero in the Leisure Collection on the second floor of Walsh Library. Stop by and check it out. You don’t have to be a sports fan to enjoy this unforgettable ride through Bo Jackson’s extraordinary life.

David Frank Discusses Leisure Reading

We are excited to announce the latest episode of the University Libraries podcast series, Zet Forward, dropped in June. In the episode, Gerry Shea, Communication Librarian and Dr. Alan Delozier, Outreach and Humanities Librarian, are joined by Access Services Librarian David Frank for a lively discussion about their favorite sports books from the Walsh Library Leisure Collection. Whether you are a die-hard sports fan or just enjoy a good book, this episode is packed with great recommendations and fun conversation.

You can find the podcast here. Please give it a listen and discover your next great read!

Book Talk With Jon Radwan: Contact Rhetoric

The University Libraries is pleased to co-host a book talk with Jon Radwan, Ph.D., on his recent publication, Ethics in Contact Rhetoric: Communication and The Dance of Bodies and Power. Dr. Radwan is an associate professor of communication and director of the Institute for Communication and Religion in Seton Hall’s College of Human Development, Culture, and Media. The event will take place on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at 9:30 in the Common Area on the second floor of Walsh Library.

About the book: Ethics in Contact Rhetoric re-orients communication theory by centering touch and de-centering symbolic acts. Inspired by MLK’s tradition of nonviolent power, a contact orientation highlights the incarnate and immediate ground of communication ethics. Ethical interactions are defined as bio-relational dances arcing steps of nurture, respect, justice and too often, violence. Centering humanity’s physical mutuality is a vital move today. Communication is a thoroughly interactive art, but the West’s ancient “instrumental” tradition of rhetoric and its accompanying utilitarian ethic valorize individual agency over joint action. This book re-balances rhetorical theory by enabling critique of embodied relational patterns. Special emphasis is placed on engaging material injustice and discerning the role of rhetoric in social transformation. Critical case studies demonstrate contact rhetoric’s rich heuristic and diverse applications.

Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Time: 9:30 – 10:45 am

Location: Walsh Library, Common Area (second floor)

Please register for the event here.

You can also join us on Teams.

Dr. Branden Buehler Discusses “Front Office Fantasies” on University Libraries Podcast

We are happy to announce the newest episode of the University Libraries podcast series, Zet Forward, dropped in September. In the episode, Gerry Shea, Communication Librarian at Walsh Library, talks with Dr. Branden Buehler, Associate Professor of Visual and Sound Media, in the Department of Communication, Media, and Arts at Seton Hall University.

Branden Buehler is a media studies scholar who received his Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He teaches a wide variety of courses within the Visual and Sound Media program, including “Introduction to Film History,” “Introduction to Media Studies,” and “Sports, Media, and Culture.”

His research centers around sports media, with a particular focus on sports television and sports media industries. His book Front Office Fantasies: The Rise of Managerial Sports Media, which examines the ubiquity of sports media texts focused on administrative figures and bureaucratic duties, was published by University of Illinois Press in 2023. In this episode we discuss Front Office Fantasies.

You can find the podcast here. Please give it a listen when you have time.

University Libraries Podcast Zet Forward – Professor Brendan Kiely Discusses “All American Boys”

We are happy to announce the newest episode of the University Libraries podcast series, Zet Forward, dropped in March. In the episode, Gerry Shea, Communication Librarian at Walsh Library, talks with Professor Brendan Kiely, Writer-in-Residence in the English Department at Seton Hall. He is The New York Times bestselling author of All American Boys (with Jason Reynolds), Tradition, The Last True Love Story, and The Gospel of Winter. His most recent book is The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege. His work has been published in over a dozen languages, and has received the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, the Walter Dean Meyers Award, and ALA’s Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults.

In this episode, we discuss his New York Times Best Seller All American Boys. The New York Public Library has selected All-American Boys for its Teen Banned Book Club. The novel, tells the story of two teens—one Black, one white—grappling with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country divided by racial tension.

You can find the podcast at Zet Forward. Please check it out when you have time.

Oxford African American Studies Center

If you are interested in finding resources about African Americans, the Oxford African American Studies Center is a great choice! The Oxford African American Studies Center provides students, scholars and librarians with more than 20,000 articles by top scholars in the field. The Oxford African American Studies Center combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture.

Check out Statista!

If you are interested in finding statistics and catchy infographics, Statista is a great option! With Statista, you can find statistical data on over 80,000 topics from 22,500 sources. You can easily download charts and infographics as PPT, PDF, PNG, and CSV. Look at this interesting infographic about Meta’s Reality Labs division, losing billions of dollars. And Statista content is continuously updated by their expert staff. Statista is available from University Libraries, please check it out when you have a chance.

“Pirates” – The Unveiling and Embrace of the Iconic Seton Hall Nickname

Introduction

By Alan Delozier, Humanities Librarian

Beyond an educated choice of academic specializations, the selection of a nickname, mascot, school colors, special cheers, and other unique campus traditions have long been one of the most important legacies that any college or university can make to universally celebrate their respective athletic teams in particular while honoring their student, alumni, and fan base by extension. On a competitive level sports-wise, there have been an abundance of Tigers, Bulldogs, Lions, Bears, and other wildlife for example in order to show team pride and hopefully inspire fear in opponents. However, other appellations have a logical link to history including such local models as the “Queensmen” of Rutgers College (founded in 1766 as Queen’s College) and the “Vikings” of Upsala (established in 1893 by Swedish educators who noted the nickname was synonymous with Scandinavian lore). Beyond what their opponents were formulating when it came to their own respective mascot preferences, Seton Hall had its own road to image-based immortality.

Throughout its storied history, the hues of “White and Blue” have always been synonymous with Seton Hall. These colors were adopted during the nineteenth century and likely inspired by Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley whose family crest features a series of white stars affixed to a cobalt field. Additionally, Blue is associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the early patronesses of the school and associated with finding truth while White is the symbol of purity, light, and saints who were not martyred (although Elizabeth Ann Seton was not canonized until 1975, she did not achieve martyrdom). Link to full story here.

Podcast on American Catholicism Drops

We are happy to announce the latest installment of the University Libraries podcast series entitled: Zet Forward. This podcast entitled: “American Catholicism” features an interview by University Archivist, Alan Delozier, D.Litt. with Dr. Margaret McGuinness and Dr. Tom Rzeznik who collaborated on the edited work: The Cambridge Companion of American Catholicism (Cambridge University, 2021). Margaret M. McGuinness, Ph.D. is Professor of Religion at La Salle University. Thomas F. Rzeznik, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of History at Seton Hall University and coeditor of the quarterly journal, American Catholic Studies. He is author of Church and Estate: Religion and Wealth in Industrial-Era Philadelphia (2013). This podcast covered a number of topics within the American Catholic experience in both a historical and contemporary context.

You can find this podcast at Podcast @ Seton Hall University. Please check it out along with our other sessions conducted by Professor Chelsea Barrett and Professor Gerry Shea.

Zet Forward is a podcast to celebrate authors and other individuals who are involved with projects for the benefit of Seton Hall University and the wider world. The series began in February of 2022.

Dr. Chistopher Tienken Joins Zet Forward Podcast

We are happy to announce the second episode of the libraries’ new podcast series, Zet Forward, dropped in March. In the episode, Gerry Shea, Communication Librarian at Walsh Library, talks with Dr. Christopher Tienken from the College of Education & Human Services about his book The School Reform Landscape Reloaded: More Fraud, Myths, and Lies.

Dr. Tienken is an associate professor of Education Leadership, Management, and Policy at Seton Hall University in the College of Education and Human Services. He is the former editor of the American Association of School Administrators Journal of Scholarship and Practice and the current editor of the Kappa Delta Pi Record. His research interests include school reform issues such as standardization, the influence of curriculum quality on student outcomes, and the construct validity of high-stakes standardized tests as decision-making tools. He has authored over 85 publications. His new book, with Carol Mullen, is The Risky Business of Education Policy.

You can find Dr. Tienken on Twitter @ChrisTienken and also at his website.

You can find the podcast at Podcast @ Seton Hall University. Please check it out when you have time.