OC Weekly consults REBEL GIRL

In today’s OC Weekly:
Lisa Alvarez’s Summer Reading List: Cowboy gunplay, High Sierra poetry, the Inland Empire and more!:

Since Oakley Hall passed away, I’ve consoled myself by reaching again for his books. Hall published more than 20 novels in a half-century writing life, most set in the West. Hall co-founded UC Irvine’s master’s-of-fine-arts fiction program (I was his student) and the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley (where I work). Warlock revisits the shootout at the O.K. Corral—but much more. A 1958 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Warlock famously inspired Thomas Pynchon. Fans of Cormac McCarthy and HBO’s Deadwood should see where it all began.

I fell hard for Alfredo Vea’s Gods Go Begging 10 years ago; today, it resonates Iraq-wise. Meet Jesse Pasodoble, a Vietnam vet criminal-defense attorney in 1990s San Francisco. He discovers yesterday’s war being fought today while solving a double murder. Vea, himself a combat vet and attorney, both fulfills and transcends multiple genres—war novel, Chicano novel, mystery—laced with magic realism, sharp humor and, somehow, hope. I taught it in my Chicano lit class and will add it to composition classes next fall.

Robert Hass’ Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005. I bought a dozen last year as gifts for friends. And that was before Hass won both the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. What I like best about this poet is all here: sense of place, humanity and history—so often starting in California, in the High Sierra, then traveling to landscapes past and present, near and far.

Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California’s Inland Empire, an anthology edited by Gayle Wattawa, features writers who also appear with me in Latinos in Lotusland (Kathleen Alcala, Michael Jaime-Becerra and Alex Espinoza) but ranges widely in its thoughtful reach, with the usual suspects (Mary Austin, Raymond Chandler, Joan Didion, M.F.K. Fisher, Carey McWilliams, John Steinbeck), some surprises (hmmm . . . Joan Baez? Norman Mailer? Calvin Trillin?) and real finds such as Katherine Saubel’s translation of the Cahuilla Indian creation story, which opens this must-have collection.

In Jim Krusoe’s latest novel, Girl Factory, the innocent and almost archetypally misguided Jonathan works at Mr. Twisty’s, a yogurt shop in the mall. He confronts the responsibilities of liberation upon discovering in the basement five naked ladies kept in suspended animation in, yes, acidophilus. In Esquire recently, Krusoe suggests this novel explores the desire to bring dead people back to life. I’m ready. Like Hall, Krusoe is a former teacher of mine, and he’s a crafter of instructively wise, funny, elegant prose. I look forward to this long-awaited novel of quotidian allegory.

THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (aka "liberal busybodies") OFFERS BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:

UCI study on Academic Women

In this morning's Inside Higher Ed: 'Quiet Desperation' of Academic Women:

.....Interviews with 80 female faculty members at a research university — the largest qualitative study of its kind — have found that many women in careers are deeply frustrated by a system that they believe undervalues their work and denies them opportunities for a balanced life. While the study found some overt discrimination in the form of harassment or explicitly sexist remarks, many of the concerns involved more subtle “deeply entrenched inequities.”
.....While the study was conducted, with support from the National Science Foundation, at the University of California at Irvine, the report’s authors and most of those who were interviewed for the research state that they don’t believe the problems discussed are unique to Irvine.…
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.....The article, “Gender Equity in Academia: Bad News From the Trenches, and Some Possible Solutions,” appears in the new issue of Perspectives on Politics (abstract available here)….
.....…Here are some of the highlights:

Unintended bias and outdated attitudes: Many of the women in the study described a steady stream of comments, some of them ostensibly offering support, that suggested that the older men who made them didn’t really understand how to interact with women in a professional manner. These men generally had no clue that their attitudes were either patronizing, sexist or both, the report says. One woman is quoted as describing a job interview in a top department in which an African American scholar took her aside and said, “This is a great place for people like you and me, if you know what I mean, honey.” ….

Devaluing positions once women hold them: At Irvine, as at most research universities, the last decade has seen a significant change in the number of women serving as committee chairs, department chairs, deans and administrators in a variety of capacities. And the women interviewed for the study praised this development, crediting women in various senior positions for being mentors or going to bat for their younger counterparts. But the women — across disciplines — described a pattern in which once a woman was named to a more senior position, others treated it as more service-oriented and less substantive….

Service and gender: Those interviewed reported some protection for junior faculty women, but said that among the senior faculty ranks, women were picked disproportionately for service assignments, especially those that are time-consuming. Then those same women are criticized for not doing more research, and the theoretical credit awarded service is never to be found.

Family vs. career: As in similar reports, women reported intense pressure — well beyond that faced by their male colleagues — with regard to having children, raising them, and also caring for aging parents. Many women reported strong reluctance to take advantage of policy options that might be helpful, fearful of how they would appear to male colleagues, and women reported regret and some dismay over choices they made to avoid confronting colleagues with their needs for more flexibility….
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.....Asked for a reaction to the study, Irvine released a statement criticizing it. “Professor Monroe’s article draws attention to the persistence and toll of sex discrimination on women faculty. Unfortunately, the article cannot to be said to offer original insight into the promise and challenge of gender equity in higher education. The formulation of the problem overlooks research in a host of related issues, such as gender schemas, work-life balance, and leadership development among others,” the statement said….

NO DECLINE. Also in this morning's Inside Higher Ed:

.....Despite warnings in many recent reports that the United States is losing its edge in science and technology, the lead remains significant and U.S. investments in science remain high, according to a new report from the Rand Corporation. The study said that the United States should not be complacent, and that some other countries are stepping up, but that the idea of a significant decline having taken place is unfounded.