Wheaton Blog

Kate Mason
Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies

The Reproduction of Inequality: How Class Shapes the Pregnant Body and Infant Health. NYU Press, 2023.

An important analysis of the difference class makes in reproductive health choices. Drawing on interviews with dozens of pregnant women and new mothers from poor, middle-class, and mixed-class backgrounds, Katherine Mason paints a vivid picture of the immense weight of expectation that comes with the early stages of motherhood. The women in Mason’s study universally sought to give their children a healthy start in life; however, their chosen approaches varied based on their socio-economic class.

Gail Sahar
Jane Oxford Keiter Professor of Psychology

Blame and Political Attitudes: The Psychology of America’s Culture War. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2023.

This book demonstrates that  the current emphasis on value differences, whether between conservatives and liberals in the U.S. or between religious and secular countries on a global level, ignores commonalities in the way people think about issues. She proposes that focusing on perceived causes of social problems is a much more promising avenue for dialog than trying to reconcile fundamental belief systems. Informed by the latest psychological science, this new take on how to change attitudes has implications for anyone seeking to influence the viewpoints of others, from politicians and activists to ordinary people talking about current events at a dinner party.

Alireza Shomali
Professor of Political Science

A Time that is out of Joint [Rouzgar-e Mabada; in Persian]. Tehran: Nasr-e Negah-e Moaser, 2023.

The driving question of this book is how a certain way of envisioning the revelation-governance relationship may help democratic life in present-day Iran and, by implication, in similar societies. The volume explores and interprets a set of ideas within the traditions of Perso-Islamicate political thought to propose a sketch of such vision.

Hope Bastian
Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Contemporary Cuba: The Post-Castro Era (Third Edition). Co-edited with Philip Brenner, John M. Kirk, and William M. Leogrande. Rowman and Littlefield, 2023.

This completely revised and updated edition of Contemporary Cuba focuses on Cuba since Raúl Castro stepped down as president in 2018. The book offers a comprehensive description and analysis of contemporary Cuban politics, economy, international relations, and society. All but two of the twenty-seven articles were written expressly for this volume, in a style accessible for a broad audience. Ideally suited for students and general readers seeking to understand this small yet still influential country, the book includes a substantive introduction setting the historical context, as well as introductions to each topical section and a chronology of events since 2014.