The fruits of more than 100 campus scholars’ research and passion will be on display Tuesday at the annual faculty authors celebration at Shields Library.
Fourteen speakers, from across UC Davis’ disciplines, will be on hand to discuss their works published over the past year.
In all, books from 130 campus authors will be featured at the afternoon event and available for purchase later at the UC Davis bookstore, which will create the library display.
The program and reception, held since 1993, offers campus colleagues and the public the chance to see what interesting scholarship is coming out of UC Davis, said George Bynon, associate campus librarian.
But faculty members also get a kick out of the presentations.
"It gives the faculty the chance to say, ‘This is what it was like to write this book or do this research,’" he said.
Lecturer Liz Applegate’s nutrition books and articles are probably some of the most popular recently published by any campus author. But despite her widespread audience, she still is looking forward to speaking at the authors event to tout Eat Smart Play Hard.
Based on her research, Applegate describes optimal nutrition for athletes from basketball players to yogis, at all levels of competition and practice. Rodale Press published the book in June.
"I’m part of the campus community," Applegate said. "Like any other author, you’d like people to know that you are part of the research that goes on on this campus."
Associate Professor of English Catherine Robson will use the authors event to introduce the campus to research captured in Men in Wonderland: The Lost Girlhood of the Victorian Gentleman.
"I was on sabbatical last year," she said, "and I haven’t really done much (publicity) on campus yet."
The book, published by Princeton University Press earlier this year, tackles the controversial fascination with girls found in the writings of Victorian British authors such as Lewis Carroll and John Ruskin and asks whether the theme was part of a larger cultural context. Robson found that the authors, as well as other painters and poets of the era, were trying to recreate their own lost, idyllic 19th century childhood – a time when boys were dressed as girls and were swathed in the protective environment of the nursery.
The book has received favorable reviews on the BBC Radio and in the London Review of Books, Robson said.
Faculty members also scheduled to speak at the library celebration are: Patricia Turner, Scott Fishman, Bruce Layrock, Albert Harrison, Francisco Alarcon, Martina Newell-McLoughlin, Linda Egan, Arnold Bauer, James Spriggs, Grady Webster, Emmy Werner and Robert Blake.
The faculty authors program will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. in the library. University Librarian Marilyn Sharrow and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw will also speak. Refreshments will be served.
The event is free and open to the public.
For more information, call Debbie Ojakangas in Library Administration at 752-3444, or Kathy Spurr in the UC Davis Bookstore at 752-9075.