This book mines the space where aesthetic expression meets lived experience for Irish artists Rita Duffy, Mairéad McClean, Paula McFetridge and Ursula Burke. Portrait essays woven with photographs, document each artist’s coming of age in Ireland and Northern Ireland, in the context of her emerging practice. As individuals, their work considers infringements on human rights, systemic violence, gender roles and the negotiation of figurative and literal borders and boundaries. Together, they interrogate past and present conflict and emergence from conflict, locally and globally. Their critical work is threaded with hope in the context of past and present political fragmentation. Works considered include Rita Duffy’s paintings, drawings and animation like Siege, The Emperor Has No Clothes and Anatomy of Hope; Mairéad McClean’s films No More, Broadcast and Making Her Mark; Paula McFetridge’s productions like convictions, staged at the Crumlin Road Courthouse, This is What We Sang, performed at the Belfast Synagogue and Belfast Quartered, A Love Story, a promenade through Belfast’s LGBTQ+ underground; and Ursula Burke’s sculptures like Bonfire, Blue Sphinx and Peach Caryatid, and embroidery like The Politicians Frieze. 

How is emptiness made and what historical purpose does it serve? What cultural, material and natural work goes into maintaining `nothingness'? Why have a variety of historical actors, from colonial powers to artists and urban dwellers, sought to construct, control and maintain (physically and discursively) empty space, and by which processes is emptiness discovered, visualised and reimagined? This volume draws together contributions from authors working on landscapes and rurality, along with national and imperial narratives, from Brazil to Russia and Ireland. It considers the visual, including the art of Edward Hopper and the work of the British Empire Marketing Board, while concluding with a section that examines constructions of emptiness in relation to capitalism, development and the (re)appropriation of urban space. In doing so, it foregrounds the importance of emptiness as a productive prism through which to interrogate a variety of imperial, national, cultural and urban history.

In this classic grass-is-greener-elsewhere tale, the amphibious Trudy is happy sleeping in a bark-covered tree until one wide leap lands the little tree frog on a young girl's bedroom windowsill. There, she spies the girl's wondrous sleeping quarters and becomes desperate to get out of her scratchy limb bed and onto those fluffy pillows. See what happens when she gets her wish.This rhyming tale will make young readers smile and encourage them to think about slumbering in their own comfy beds. For ages 5 to 8.

A baby squirrel that has fallen out of his nest suddenly interrupts a spring game of catch. Knowing what to do, the two boys demonstrate how to handle the furry mammal properly and what to do when they find the squirrel's sibling. Placing them safely in a box, the two boys retreat to the house so as not to scare the mother away while she recovers her babies. Once again, Jennifer Keats Curtis combines an exciting animal encounter with an ordinary childhood event to create a fascinating, realistic story about wildlife rescue. Laura Jacques' extraordinary illustrations perfectly capture the thrill and excitement of the boys and the animals. Middle grades-ages 8-12.

An exciting tale about a young human hero, Braden, who discovers Squeak, an orphaned baby otter, in the park. Thinking quickly, the young hero and his parents contact a wildlife rehabilitator to collect Squeak and nurse him back to health. Although Braden would like to keep Squeak as a pet, he learns about otters and the importance of rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife that live among humans. This story is based on the work of wildlife rehabilitator, Suzanne McBride, who helps return healthy river otters and other creatures to the wild. Squeak is a real otter that now resides at the Calvert Marine Museum, in Solomons Island, Maryland. It is cared for by doting aquarist Linda Hanna, who enjoys the antics and games of the furry mammals. Early reader-ages 5-8.

Osprey Adventure describes the heroics of a boy and his biologist father who save a young osprey from certain death. Young Pete is concerned when he spies a trash bag in an osprey nest. He and his dad boat around the bird's channel marker and learn that, not only does the raptor's home contain trash, but one of the fish hawks has become tangled in fishing line and is gravely ill. This story is based on the work of a real hero, Pete McGowan, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Chesapeake Bay Field Office biologist, who has studied osprey for years. He believes that half or more of all osprey nests on the bay and surrounding rivers contain fishing lines, or similar cordage material. This story describes a big problem among these well-known birds of prey. Happily, ospreys are making a comeback after being nearly eradicated by pesticides in the 1970s, but fishing line and balloon ribbon have become serious threats to the well-being of chicks and adults. Early reader-ages 5-8.

On Arid Ground focuses on the relationships between empire and environment in Central Asia, using environmental history to examine the practice of Russian imperialism in Turkestan at the end of empire, from the 1860s until 1916. It reveals for the first time a comprehensive assessment of the environmental imprint of Russian colonisation, and shows how local ecologies fitted into broader repertoires of imperial rule, accommodation, and resistance. Ranging widely above and below the surface in Turkestan, from the deserts of Transcaspia to the highlands and lowlands of rural Fergana and Semirech'e, Jennifer Keating explores infrastructure development, migrant settlement, land reclamation and dispossession, the commodification of nature, and environmental violence to reveal the ways in which ecological change was central to the building and breaking of empire. Attentive to connections, synchronicities and scale, On Arid Ground makes the case for looking beyond cotton and water in Central Asian context, for the powerful material role played by animals and plants, sand, silt, and salt in human histories, and for the less visible relationships between far-flung people and things within and beyond Turkestan's borders. Laying bare the political roots and repercussions of environmental change, the volume brings fresh perspectives both to the history of Central Asia and to that of the wider Russian empire across Eurasia.

An examination of the implications for society of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence systems, combining a humanities perspective with technical analysis; includes exercises and discussion questions. AI and Humanity provides an analytical framing and a common language for understanding the effects of technological advances in artificial intelligence on society. Coauthored by a computer scientist and a scholar of literature and cultural studies, it is unique in combining a humanities perspective with technical analysis, using the tools of literary explication to examine the societal impact of AI systems. It explores the historical development of these technologies, moving from the apparently benign Roomba to the considerably more sinister semi-autonomous weapon system Harpy. The book is driven by an exploration of the cultural and etymological roots of a series of keywords relevant to both AI and society. Works examined range from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, given a close reading for its themes of literacy and agency, to Simon Head's critique of the effects of surveillance and automation on the Amazon labor force in Mindless. Originally developed as a textbook for an interdisciplinary humanities-science course at Carnegie Mellon, AI & Humanity offers discussion questions, exercises (including journal writing and concept mapping), and reading lists. A companion website provides updated resources and a portal to a video archive of interviews with AI scientists, sociologists, literary theorists, and others.