Alumni Bookshelf: Winter 2024

We are excited to share with you a roundup of alumni books recently published. If yours is missing from the list, or you have one coming out soon, please let us know!

Emily Thorson (Ph.D. '13), an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University, is the author of The Invented State: Policy Misperceptions in the American Public (Oxford University Press). The book argues that political misinformation takes hold more easily when the public has a fundamental misunderstanding about what the government does. She cites three conditions that lead to misperceptions: when citizens have incomplete information about an issue, when their own biases color their understanding of it, and when they feel that the issue is important. Thus the “ invented state” is created not just by exposure to explicit misinformation, but also by individuals' cognitive errors.

John L. Sullivan (Ph.D. ‘00), Professor and Department Chair of Media & Communication at Muhlenberg College, published Podcasting in a Platform Age (Bloomsbury Publishing). It explores the transition underway in podcasting from what had been an amateur media form into one dominated by media corporations, who have been acquiring content producers and hosting platforms, injecting big money into the space while also seeking profits. Through formalization, professionalization, and monetization, Sullivan argues that corporate entities are challenging the very definition of podcasting.

Journalist and opinion writer Paul Waldman (Ph.D. ‘00) has co-authored White Rural Rage: The Threat to Rural Democracy (Random House). The book discusses how rural whites, arguably the most influential voting block in America, view the U.S. government as having failed them in poor access to healthcare, crumbling infrastructure, and job losses in manufacturing and farming. As a result, they are the most likely group to abandon democratic norms and traditions, despite taking great pride in their patriotism. With their anger regularly stoked by Republican politicians and right-wing media, this group now poses a threat to American democracy. Waldman and his co-author, Tom Schaller, consider the prospects for creating a pluralist, inclusive democracy that delivers policy solutions that benefit rural communities.

Formerly a faculty member at York University, independent scholar Robert Hanke (Ph.D. ‘87) recently published A Smarter Toronto: Some Reassembly Required (Palgrave Macmillan Cham). This book bridges media, technocultural, urban, and journalism studies to examine the role of journalism in relation to a smart city project on Toronto’s waterfront. From the announcement of the public-private partnership called Sidewalk Toronto to the project’s termination, a mediatized controversy unfolded. Through an assemblage approach to this project and a case study of The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, it follows the actors and chronicles the Quayside project story as a conversation about the promise and perils of a future “smart” neighborhood.