Most frequently regarded as a writer of the supernatural, Poe was actually among the most versatile of American authors, writing social satire, comic hoaxes, mystery stories, science fiction, prose poems, literary criticism and theory, and even a play. As a journalist and editor, Poe was closely in touch with the social, political, and cultural trends of nineteenth-century America. Recent scholarship has linked Poe's imaginative writings to the historical realities of nineteenth-century America, including to science and technology, wars and politics, the cult of death and bereavement, and, most controversially, to slavery and stereotyped attitudes toward women. Edgar Allan Poe: Beyond Gothicism presents a systematic approach to topical criticism of Poe, revealing a new portrait of Poe as an author who blended topics of intellectual and social importance and returned repeatedly to these ideas in different works and using different aesthetic strategies during his brief but highly productive career. Twelve essays point readers toward new ways of considering Poe's themes, techniques, and aesthetic preoccupations by looking at Poe in the context of landscapes, domestic interiors, slavery, prosody, Eastern cultures, optical sciences, Gothicism, and literary competitions, clubs, and reviewing.

Communicative Understandings of Women's Leadership Development: From Ceilings of Glass to Labyrinth Paths, edited by Elesha L. Ruminski and Annette M. Holba, intertwines the disciplines of communication studies, leadership studies, and women's studies to offer theoretical and practical reflection about women's leadership development in academic, organizational, and political contexts. Women's leadership development exists at the intersection of consciousness-raising, communication competence, and education to increase one's knowledge and practice of "leadership," which makes the weaving together of these three disciplines important. Thus, Communicative Understandings of Women's Leadership Development claims a space for women's leadership studies and acknowledges the paradigmatic shift from discussing women's leadership using the glass ceiling phenomenon to what Eagly and Carli (2007) identify as the labyrinth of leadership. Recognizing this metaphoric shift is crucial because many women now develop leadership amid the postmodern flux of organizational change; hierarchical, top-down systems are being eroded in lieu of transformational, collaborative, even improvisational leadership processes. Women's leadership studies is emerging as a fruitful interdisciplinary area that reframes the debate about whether we live, work, and learn within a third-wave feminist or post-feminist context. While this area might include feminist theorizing, it also might not emphasize such epistemologies. For this reason, Ruminski and Holba's edited collection explores and highlights a variety of feminist and non-feminist intersections, and is thus an important and timely contribution to both marking where we are with women's leadership development in higher education and how women can further develop themselves as leaders.

Communicative Understandings of Women's Leadership Development: From Ceilings of Glass to Labyrinth Paths, edited by Elesha L. Ruminski and Annette M. Holba, intertwines the disciplines of communication studies, leadership studies, and women's studies to offer theoretical and practical reflection about women's leadership development in academic, organizational, and political contexts. Women's leadership development exists at the intersection of consciousness-raising, communication competence, and education to increase one's knowledge and practice of "leadership," which makes the weaving together of these three disciplines important. Thus, Communicative Understandings of Women's Leadership Development claims a space for women's leadership studies and acknowledges the paradigmatic shift from discussing women's leadership using the glass ceiling phenomenon to what Eagly and Carli (2007) identify as the labyrinth of leadership. Recognizing this metaphoric shift is crucial because many women now develop leadership amid the postmodern flux of organizational change; hierarchical, top-down systems are being eroded in lieu of transformational, collaborative, even improvisational leadership processes. Women's leadership studies is emerging as a fruitful interdisciplinary area that reframes the debate about whether we live, work, and learn within a third-wave feminist or post-feminist context. While this area might include feminist theorizing, it also might not emphasize such epistemologies. For this reason, Ruminski and Holba's edited collection explores and highlights a variety of feminist and non-feminist intersections, and is thus an important and timely contribution to both marking where we are with women's leadership development in higher education and how women can further develop themselves as leaders.