Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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A Short Handbook for writing essays in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Dan Allosso; Salvatore Allosso · Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project · 2019
A retired master teacher of English and Comparative Literature teams up with his son, a History professor, on a new version of the writing manual he wrote and used for decades at the University of California, Davis.
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Literature, the Humanities, and Humanity
Theodore Steinberg · Open SUNY · 2014
Literature, the Humanities, and Humanity attempts to make the study of literature more than simply another school subject that students have to take. At a time when all subjects seem to be valued only for their testability, this book tries to show the value of reading and studying literature, even earlier literature. It shows students, some of whom will themselves become teachers, that literature actually has something to say to them. Furthermore, it shows that literature is meant to be enjoyed, that, as the Roman poet Horace (and his Renaissance disciple Sir Philip Sidney) said, the functions of literature are to teach and to delight. The book will also be useful to teachers who want to convey their passion for literature to their students. After an introductory chapter that offers advice on how to read (and teach) literature, the book consists of a series of chapters that examine individual literary works ranging from The Iliad to Charles Dickens' Bleak House. These chapters can not substitute for reading the actual works. Rather they are intended to help students read those works. They are attempts to demystify the act of reading and to show that these works, whether they are nearly three thousand or less than two hundred years old, still have important things to say to contemporary readers.
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Reframing Digital Humanities: Conversations with Digital Humanists
Julian Chambliss · Michigan State University · 2021
Growing from Reframing History, a podcast about history theory and practice, Reframing Digital Humanities: Conversations with Digital Humanists, Julian Chambliss, Professor of English at Michigan State University, brings together a diverse group of digital humanities practitioners to reflect on theory and practice. From the question of public engagement and knowledge production to considerations of identity and cultural production, the conversations presented in this work shed light on the ways digital humanities offer scholars tools to ask humane questions. Are the benefits promised being achieved? Are the right tools and training available? Are we asking the right questions? In this volume, scholars deeply engaged in using digital tools reflect on their work and this dynamic academic field.
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Making Sense of Digital Humanities
Julian Chambliss; Ellen Moll · Michigan State University · 2022
Taking up the challenge of navigating the complex world of digital humanities, Making Sense of Digital Humanities offers readers an exploration of the many ways scholars have employed the diverse toolkit of digital humanities to create a better understanding of the synergies and disruptions created by technological change. Rooted in a concern for the daunting tasks associated with teaching and learning about the digital humanities, this volume hopes to provide easy entry into a complex topic while highlighting how an understanding of digital humanities can transform our thinking about technology in the modern world.
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Cases on Social Issues: For Class Discussion
Deirdre Maultsaid; Brianna Doyle; Celine Wai Shan Li; Gregory John · Kwantlen Polytechnic University · 2023
This Open Education resource, “Cases on Social Issues: For Class Discussion – 2nd Edition”, includes valuable cases for student use on issues of discrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion and general social issues in the workplace. Included are cases for discussion on workplace scenarios as follows: homophobia; working with Indigenous communities; oil and gas pipelines and the family ranch; invisible disabilities; employee anxiety; safety for women, transgender women and non-binary people; and the bullying of new immigrants and refugees. The critical events portrayed in the cases are realistic and emotional, and most feature the experiences of under-represented and marginalized people. These thoughtful, contemporary cases pose ethical dilemmas about social issues that encourage post-secondary students and instructors to have stimulating, inclusive, and compassionate discussions. Inspired by input from post-secondary students and authored by students and people who are usually under-represented in education material, this resource is designed for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, business, healthcare, science, agriculture, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, land use studies, law and more. Each case is supplemented with modifiable discussion prompts, notes for teaching strategies, and a short reading list.
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Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions
Veerabhadran Ramanathan; Roger Aines; Max Auffhammer · eScholarship · 2019
Climate change is an urgent problem. Because it is causing new weather extremes and fatal catastrophes, climate change is better termed climate disruption. Bending the curve to flatten the upward trajectory of pollution emissions responsible for climate disruption is essential in order to protect billions of people from this global threat. Education is a key part of the solution. This textbook book lays out ten solutions that together can bend the curve of climate warming below dangerous levels. These solutions fall into six categories: science, societal transformation, governance, economics, technology, and ecosystem management. Four themes emerge from the book: * There is still time to bend the curve. The time to act was yesterday, but if proper actions are taken now, there is still time to avoid disastrous changes. We have to pull on three levers: The carbon lever to achieve zero net emissions of carbon dioxide before 2050; the short-lived climate pollutants lever to drastically reduce concentrations of other major climate pollutants; and the atmospheric carbon extraction lever to remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. * Bending the curve will require interdisciplinary solutions. Climate change requires integrating approaches from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, so this textbook—unlike most on climate change solutions—does just that, with chapters written by experts in climate science, social justice, economics, environmental policy, political science, energy technologies, ecology, and religion. Bending the curve also requires preservation and restoration of ecological systems. * Bending the curve requires a radical shift in attitude. This shift requires change in behavior, change in our attitudes towards each other, and change in our attitude towards nature. Climate justice has to be an integral part of the solution. * Technology, market mechanism and policy need to be a part of the solution. New market mechanisms an
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Introduction to Environmental Studies
Bridgitte Barclay · Aurora University · 2026
The interdisciplinary study of environmental issues that engages with humanities, sciences, and policies.
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Technology, Media Literacy, and the Human Subject: A Posthuman Approach
Richard Lewis · Open Book Publishers · 2021
What does it mean to be media literate in today’s world? How are we transformed by the many media infrastructures around us? We are immersed in a world mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). From hardware like smartphones, smartwatches, and home assistants to software like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, our lives have become a complex, interconnected network of relations. Scholarship on media literacy has tended to focus on developing the skills to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media messages without considering or weighing the impact of the technological medium—how it enables and constrains both messages and media users. Additionally, there is often little attention paid to the broader context of interrelations which affect our engagement with media technologies. This book addresses these issues by providing a transdisciplinary method that allows for both practical and theoretical analyses of media investigations. Informed by postphenomenology, media ecology, philosophical posthumanism, and complexity theory the author proposes both a framework and a pragmatic instrument for understanding the multiplicity of relations that all contribute to how we affect—and are affected by—our relations with media technology. The author argues persuasively that the increased awareness provided by this posthuman approach affords us a greater chance for reclaiming some of our agency and provides a sound foundation upon which we can then judge our media relations. This book will be an indispensable tool for educators in media literacy and media studies, as well as academics in philosophy of technology, media and communication studies, and the post-humanities.
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New Media Futures
Daniel Faltesek; Daniel Adams · Oregon State University · 2019
This book is intended for use in a large introductory class in new media in a program that covers the “full-stack” including critical/cultural studies, media management, diffusion of innovation, and synthetic media production. The first half of this basic sequence covered new media and democracy, finance, intellectual property law, basic games, and transmedia. The second half of the sequence covers many topics related to aesthetics, design, technology, and methodology. To that end, this book needed to be written so that it would be helpful for many different professors and trajectories of study. This book is in neither engineering, social science, nor the humanities, but also all of those. At the same time, this is a program in the Communication Studies and Media Studies traditions of the United States and that texture will come across.
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Para vivir con salud
Kathryn McKnight; Jill Kuhnheim · Kathryn Joy McKnight and Jill Kuhnheim · 2022
We are asking anyone who adopts this webbook or uses portions of it in their teaching to please let us know at this link (click here). Para vivir con salud: Leyendo la salud y la literatura is the first textbook to introduce literary and textual analysis of Hispanic literature through the lens of health, illness, and medicine. The book meets the needs of the fast-growing numbers of Spanish majors and minors who are preparing themselves for careers in healthcare, in which they will engage Hispanic communities. These students seek advanced-level study of Hispanic culture and language that prepares them to communicate about health-related issues. While a growing number of literature departments teach Spanish courses with a health focus and most require their majors and minors to take an introductory course in literary or textual analysis, the crucial connection between the study of literature and professionalization in healthcare is generally not being made for or by these students. The movements of Narrative Medicine and Health Humanities have shown persuasively that healthcare providers benefit from a humanistic preparation that promotes empathy across difference; builds an understanding of how culture, language, and history shape our knowledge of health, illness, and medicine; and trains students in narrative competence to better understand and collaborate with patients and colleagues. Para vivir con salud is designed especially for the often-required Introduction to Hispanic Literature or Introduction to Textual Analysis course in most college Spanish programs, allowing individual sections to be transformed into a learning experience that prepares health professionals and brings them into greater engagement in literary and cultural studies in the Spanish major or minor. Para vivir con salud includes classics of Hispanic narrative, drama, and poetry—pieces by authors such as Cervantes, Garcilaso, Sor Juana, Martí, Neruda, Castellanos, Pizarnik, and Morejón, less-wel
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No-Nonsense Filmmaking
Jessy Livingstone; Mischa Livingstone; Vanessa Newell · Loyola Marymount University · 2025
No-Nonsense Filmmaking is an OER textbook uniquely designed for student filmmakers who have a story to tell. It guides students through the key choices professionals make, while providing comprehensive technical information. From inception of ideas to shot design to modes of storytelling, this text demystifies complex concepts and makes film production accessible to all.
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Basic Persian
Nahid Shiran; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2023
Basic Persian is an online, interactive, tech-enhanced, theme-based textbook for the true beginner of Persian language which promotes speaking, listening, reading, writing and cultural skills. Basic Persian promotes communicative, linguistic, and cultural competence. It has a mixture of pedagogical approaches to fit all types of learning and teaching philosophies/styles to achieve intermediate low to mid ACTFL proficiency level within a two-sequence semester.
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Intermediate Persian
Nahid Shiran · Michigan State University · 2026
This resource is an online, interactive theme-based textbook for intermediate students in the Persian language that promotes communicative, linguistic, and cultural competence. It has a mixture of pedagogical approaches to fit all types of learning and teaching philosophies and styles to achieve the Intermediate High ACTFL proficiency level within a two sequence semester.
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Intermediate Arabic I
Ayman Mohamed; Sadam Issa · Michigan State University · 2026
This is an open textbook on Intermediate Arabic for undergraduate students who are taking Arabic in their third semester. It addresses language structures in theme-based modules that cover the four language skills. The book can be used as a self-study resource or as the main textbook in intermediate Arabic classes.
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Basic Tibetan
Jampa Khedup; Sonam Tsering; Rajiv Ranjan; Erlin Barnard · Michigan State University · 2026
Basic Tibetan is a first-of-its-kind, multimedia interactive online textbook designed for learners of Tibetan in higher education. Learners are encouraged to listen, repeat, and internalize the sounds of Tibetan through audio recordings. To support vocabulary and sentence structure acquisition, the book offers a wide range of interactive exercises, making learning both effective and enjoyable.
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Basic Telugu
Asfar Mohammad; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2026
This book is a modest effort to make your learning process in Telugu a practically viable experience. Though it’s great fun to learn Telugu, learning script might take a while as it contains secondary symbols and double consonants. We tried our best to make this process a simpler one. As we follow the standard Telugu patterns in planning this book, the learners who get an opportunity to visit Andhra should be aware of various dialects, slangs and colloquial practices. You should be able to transfer your knowledge of the standard Telugu to the real–life contexts accordingly.
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Basic Punjabi
Rinku Kathuria; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2026
Basic Punjabi is an online interactive theme-based textbook for the true beginner of the Punjabi language. It promotes communicative, linguistic, and cultural competence. It has a mixture of pedagogical approaches to fit all types of learning and teaching philosophies/styles to achieve intermediate low to mid-ACTFL proficiency levels within a semester.
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Rhetorical Communities: Understanding Language, Power, and Communication Across Contexts
Leigh Meredith; Phil Choong; Melisa Garcia · Leigh Meredith, Phil Choong, and Melisa Garcia · 2025
Rhetorical Communities guides students in analyzing and engaging with the practices, values, and expectations that shape communication within different communities. Beginning with foundational concepts of rhetoric and discourse community theory, the text progresses through genre analysis, audience and context, composing processes, collaboration, and ethical considerations, while highlighting how identity and power influence discourse. Emphasizing real-world examples and community contexts, this book helps students understand and participate in rhetorical practices across academic, professional, and civic settings.
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Writing Our Bodies
Sunayani Bhattacharya; Meghan Sweeney; Yin Yuan; Gina Kessler Lee · Saint Mary's College of California · 2025
Writing Our Bodies offers students a holistic approach to writing that intertwines embodied rhetorics with critical inquiry and academic conventions. Beginning with an introduction to rhetorical embodiment and personal experience, the text guides learners through writing to analyze, take a stand, revise, synthesize sources, and make arguments with research, while attending to how identity, technology, linguistic diversity, and power influence both reading and writing. Emphasizing reflection, audience awareness, disciplinary literacy, and ethical source use, this resource prepares students to write purposefully across contexts and audiences.
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Basic Bangla
Prasenjit Dey; Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University · 2026
This theme based, interactive, open-source online textbook is designed for beginning level learners of Bangla language. By using this book, a learner will learn Bangla vowel and consonant sounds and letters, basic grammar of the language, important vocabulary, useful expressions, and—most importantly—communicative skill.