A practical, accessible handbook for chairing a department. Over the course of a typical academic career, most faculty will serve at least one term as chair of a department. It's a leadership and service role that's at the very heart of faculty satisfaction and student success, yet few receive any training on how to do the job. How to Chair a Department is a practical, accessible handbook for new and prospective chairs, providing both principles and practices for effective departmental leadership. Based on his dozen years of chairing departments, Kevin Dettmar provides invaluable advice on: * hiring tenure-track and visiting faculty * mentoring faculty colleagues at every stage of their careers * working with staff and other departmental administrators * managing department resources and budgets * meeting the needs of students * dealing with stress and conflict * connecting the department to the larger university or college as a whole * overseeing the department's curricula * maintaining a scholarly or creative profile * preparing for career moves after chairing a department How to Chair a Department demystifies this important faculty position and argues that the role of chair, though sometimes seen as a burden, can prove to be a genuine opportunity for personal and professional growth.

THINK ROCK is the first Music title in the THINK series. It is designed for an introduction to rock music course for the non-music major at an economical price. Taking a chronological approach, it offers a basic introduction to the key eras, performers, and songs that shaped rock music. THINK ROCK is a full history, beginning with pre-rock styles and covering all styles right up to today's latest sounds. In addition to the music itself, THINK ROCK addresses the rich cultural history of the rock era, and how social/cultural events shaped rock and were shaped by it. The book is richly illustrated with period photographs and reproductions of album covers and concert posters. An open access companion website is available with THINK ROCK at www.thethinkspot.com.

Considering the work of such artists as Madonna, George Clinton, U2, Elvis Costello, and Nirvana, the contributors deftly combine the rigors of scholarship with the energy of rock journalism to provide an analysis at once critical, contextualized, and enthusiastic. While a number of scholars have recently turned their attention to rock and pop music, most of their work has focused on providing sweeping cultural contexts for its popularity rather than exploring the music itself. Now, in "Reading Rock and Roll, " Kevin Dettmar and William Richey have gathered a wealth of erudite, original, and clever writings that perform close readings of rock music -- often with surprising results.

The authors in this volume view rock and roll as having had affinities with postmodernism from its inception. With its mongrel pedigree -- drawing on blues, folk, R and B, and bluegrass -- and its relation to mass media and high-tech modes of production, rock music has been self-conscious and full of irony from the beginning. These essays regularly call attention to the allusiveness and intertextuality of rock and roll, whether it is Kurt Cobain undermining the Beatles, M. C. Hammer stealing from Rick James's "Super Freak," or U2's use of Johnny Cash's legendary voice.

From a careful examination of the roles of addictions and female sexuality in the remakings of Courtney Love and Madonna, to the politics of George Clinton's uses and abuses of language, to the referencing of Elvis Costello in two recent novels and the use of 1970s rock in several recent film soundtracks, these essays are as varied as the artists they consider. Informal and theoretically informed, "Reading Rock and Roll" is an important investigation of the music that more than any other has defined our century.