Our Spring 2020 catalogue is winging its way to inboxes and mailboxes across the country. We are pleased to have a slate of books from a wide variety of disciplines. From changing people’s minds to educational technology, this roster of titles covers a lot of ground. We’re sharing some excerpts from these forthcoming books below.
![[book cover] The Art of Communication in a Polarized World](https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120291_The-Art-of-Communication-in-a-Polarized-World-cover.jpg)
The Art of Communication in a Polarized World by Kyle Conway
“People’s minds are hard to change. When we encounter a new idea, we compare it to things in the world we already know, and that world—the one we navigate through every day—already makes sense. It is fully formed, and even if an outside viewer might say it’s faulty, it seems complete to us. There are no loose ends, and new ideas clash with its completeness. To make sense of them, we ask whether they fit in the world we know, but because they’re new, they might not. The problem isn’t the new idea—it’s the persuasiveness of the world we have come to know and take for granted.” —from the Introduction
![[book cover] Regime of Obstruction](https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120293_Regime-of-Obstruction-cover.jpg)
Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy edited by William K. Carroll
“Corporate control of the production of energy (most of which takes the form of fossil fuels), and the reach of corporate power into other social fields, pose the greatest obstacles to addressing the ecological and economic challenges humanity faces today. The organization of economic power, materialized in large corporations and extending into political and cultural life in complex, multifaceted ways, presents a set of blockages. To move toward a just transition to energy democracy, we need to understand how these blockages function as a regime of obstruction, rooted in the political economy of fossil capitalism, and conjoined to a panoply of hegemonic practices that reach into civil and political society, and into Indigenous communities whose land claims and world views challenge state mandated property rights.” —from the Introduction
![[book cover] Psychiatry and the Legacy of Eugenics](https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120292_Psychiatry-and-the-Legacy-of-Eugenics-cover.jpg)
Psychiatry and the Legacies of Eugenics: Historical Studies of Alberta and Beyond edited by Frank W. Stahnisch and Erna Kurbegović
“The scholarly study of eugenics in Alberta has been seriously limited, as concentration has been restricted to the province’s original Sexual Sterilization Act, passed in March 1928, and to the political, social, and economic conditions of the 1920s. Although the 1928 act was of great significance, being the first sterilization law passed in Canada, it was its 1937 amendment and the permitting of involuntary sterilizations that made the Alberta eugenics movement truly distinct. During the mid- to late 1930s—a time when the majority of regional governments in the United States and Canada were either decommissioning or disregarding their sterilization laws due to a lack of funding, the discrediting of hereditary science, and an increase in public protest—Alberta expanded its own legislation. Although similar laws were met with fierce opposition in other jurisdictions, the 1937 amendment remained largely unopposed in Alberta.” –from Chapter 5, “The Alberta Eugenics Movement and the 1937 Amendment to the Sexual Sterilization Act” by Mikkel Dack
![[book cover] 25 Years of EdTech Book](https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120290_25-Years-of-EdTech-Book-cover.jpg)
25 Years of Ed Tech by Martin Weller
“Looking back 25 years starts in 1994, when the web was just about to garner mainstream attention. It was accessed through dial-up modems, and there was a general sense of puzzlement about what it would mean, both for society more generally and for higher education in particular. Some academics considered it to be a fad. One colleague dismissed my idea of a fully online course by declaring, ‘No one wants to study like that.’ But the potential of the web for higher education was clear, even if the direction this would take over the next 25 years was unpredictable.” —from the Introduction
![[book cover] The Finest Blend](https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120295_The-Finest-Blend-cover.jpg)
The Finest Blend: Graduate Education in Canada edited by Gale Parchoma, Michael Power, and Jennifer Lock
“Intelligently integrating online and blended learning models into course delivery and modulating the use of text and voice in new and creative ways mark a departure from earlier models of distance education as deployed by single mode, distance education universities. Such an appropriation and integration of new learning technologies (e.g., online collaborative apps, social media, virtual reality, artificial intelligence ) are redefining the way contemporary universities are positioning themselves, both locally, with regard to their traditional student population, and nationally, with regard to their sister institutions.” —from Chapter 10, “Leading the Reform in Canadian Higher Education, Not Following Along” by Jennifer Lock and Michael Power
![[book cover] Grieving for Pigeons](https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120294_Grieving-for-Pigeons-revised-cover.jpg.jpg)
Grieving for Pigeons: Twelve Stories of Lahore by Zubair Ahmad, translated by Anne Murphy
“Sometimes the relationships we keep become mysterious, and sometimes the mysteries of life become our companions. Perhaps these relationships are like the shade of clouds, floating high above. Most of our journey in this world is in the piercing, naked sunshine. The few companions we find, they are the soft shadow cast by high clouds, above in the brightness. How empty the bare light is, how inhospitable.” —from “Bajwa has nothing more to say now”
Check out the complete catalogue for a full listing of what’s coming out in the next few months.
