Faculty Work

Ugly Duckling Presse

For three weeks in May 2010, Robert Fitterman opened Rob’s Word Shop, a storefront shop at 308 Bowery where individual letters and words were sold. The words and letters were either chosen by the individual customers or arrived at with Fitterman's assistance, who would then hand-write or print the letter, word, or phrase. Single letters were sold for 50 cents and single words for one dollar. As the sole proprietor of the store, Fitterman invited people to stop by for a chat and shop for words. This special edition artist’s book contains ledgers and transcriptions documenting the exchanges that occurred at Rob’s Word Shop, followed by an essay by the store's Records Manager, Lawrence Giffin, and a sampling of materials collected for the store’s archives.

Walt Whitman (author), Brian Selznick (artist), Karen Karbiener (afterword)
Abrams & Chronicle Books

As he was turning forty, Walt Whitman wrote twelve poems in a small handmade book he entitled “Live Oak, With Moss.” The poems were intensely private reflections on his attraction to and affection for other men. They were also Whitman’s most adventurous explorations of the theme of same-sex love, composed decades before the word “homosexual” came into use. This revolutionary, extraordinarily beautiful and passionate cluster of poems was never published by Whitman and has remained unknown to the general public—until now. New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Brian Selznick offers a provocative visual narrative of “Live Oak, With Moss,” and Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener reconstructs the story of the poetic cluster’s creation and destruction. Walt Whitman’s reassembled, reinterpreted Live Oak, With Moss serves as a source of inspiration and a cause for celebration.

Simon & Schuster

Survival Math takes its name from the calculations it took to survive the Portland, Oregon of Jackson’s youth. The primary narrative, focused on understanding the antecedents of his family’s experience, is complemented by poems composed from historical American documents as well as survivor files, which feature photographs and short narratives of several of Jackson’s male relatives.

University of Nebraska Press

A cultural history of the intersection between two fundamentally American institutions which looks at the role the twinned industries played, and continue to play, in the construction of American identity.

Here’s the Pitch is the winner of the Liberal Studies 2019 Outstanding Scholarly and Creative Achievement award.

Counterpoint Press

A skillful hybrid of true crime and social history that examines the relationship between the media and popular culture in the portrayal of crimes against gay men in the decades before Stonewall.

Edited by Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis and Matthew McGowan
Fordham University Press

Jared Simard has contributed a chapter, “The Titans of Rockefeller Center: Prometheus and Atlas,” to Classical New York: Discovering Greece and Rome in Gotham.

A website, Antiquity in Gotham, has been launched in conjunction with the book’s publication and features a series of podcasts. Dr. Simard discusses some of his findings with Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis in episode 10: “Titans of New York City: Prometheus and Atlas at Rockefeller Center.”

Feminist Press

Mars, a short story collection by Bosnian poet and writer Asja Bakić, translated by Professor Jennifer Zoble, showcases a series of twisted universes where every character is tasked with making sense of their strange reality.