Off the Shelf is a Columbia News series in which professors discuss their recently published books, as well as what they have read recently and recommend, and who they would invite to the perfect dinner party.
Helen Benedict’s The Good Deed is set against the backdrop of a refugee camp in Greece.
Hisham Matar’s My Friends involves tensions between home, family, and exile, as well as revolution and safety.
James Shapiro’s The Playbook is an account of a culture war over the place of theater in American democracy.
Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi’s book, Architecture of Migration, asks readers to reconsider the Dadaab refugee camps in Africa through a new lens.
Anne Higonnet’s new book profiles three historic French women who led a fashion upheaval.
Ying Qian’s book traces the evolution of a medium that was embedded in historical upheavals.
David Scott says that seeking to rectify such historical wrongs must recognize that they lie beyond repair.
In Smoother Pebbles, Jonathan Cole traces the development of the sociology of science.
Co-writer Ann Cooper’s Newshawks in Berlin describes the perils of reporting from war zones.
In his new book, Dennis Yi Tenen presents AI as a matter of collaborative labor history.
In Julia Bryan-Wilson’s book, the sculptor’s work is put in dialogue with marginalized makers and artists.
In Splinters, her first memoir, Leslie Jamison explores her divorce and the birth of her daughter.