By Masudur Rahman

Staff Intern

The otherwise

quiet fourth floor of the Kresge Library was transformed into a place of lively

discussion Wednesday, March 19.

Close

to a hundred faculty members and students gathered there for the third annual

“Authors at Oakland: A Celebration

of the Book,” which was presented by the Senate Library Committee and Kresge

Library. The event celebrated and discussed books authored or co-authored by

Oakland University faculty members that were published in the last two years.

Two

authors were chosen by the Senate Library Committee to speak about their books.

Thomas Pedroni, an assistant professor of education, presented his book “Market

Movements: African-American Involvement in School Voucher Reform,” and Annette

Gilson, an associate professor of English, presented her novel “New Light.”

The

event was hosted by Julie Voelck, the dean of the library, and Ji-Eun Lee,

chair of the library committee.

Thomas

Pedroni presented his book, which was based on his experiences in teaching in

an under-funded public school in New Orleans

in the mid-1990s and his time as a graduate student at the University of

Wisconsin-Minnesota.

“Market

Movements” is about the school voucher program, the African-American

community’s role in its implementation and the alliance between wealthy

foundations and low-income minority communities.

Pedroni argued

that the school voucher programs are not a serious long-term solution to the

crisis in poor urban schools, but sometimes only give the illusion of choice to

poor parents who want to provide good education for their children.

“For example,” he

said, “in Milwaukee you can take

your kids to an underperforming public school or you can take them to an

underperforming private school.”

Afterward,

Pedroni fielded questions about his discoveries and his writing process. There

was also a brief debate with an attendee who objected to Pedroni’s labeling of

the Bradley Foundation, a force in the voucher program, as “far-right.”

Annette

Gilson presented “New Light,” a novel about Beth Martin, a graduate student

working as a waitress, who has a “vision” while driving through America. Beth

later goes with a neuroscientist to a commune called New Light, where she is

exposed to many things, including emotional and sexual experimentation.

Gilson

read a small chapter from her book and talked about why she wrote it.

“We’re

all inheritors of a visionary life,” Gilson said.

She

also said that in her research she found communes to be an important part of

American history as an alternative to mainstream society.

“There

is a lot of cynicism and lack of engagement found in many mainstream Americans

in a world that doesn’t give them a lot of choices,” she said.

Afterward, there

was a lively discussion between the audience and the author about her book, as

well as the writing process.

The event

alternates every other year between published books and scholarly journal

articles authored or co-authored by OU faculty.

Topics of last

year’s 84 scholarly journal articles included history, sciences, modern

language and literature, and mechanical engineering. Next year, published

scholarly journal articles will again be celebrated.

This

year, 53 books by 40 faculty members were honored. The topics of the books

included art history, English, political sciences, mathematics and education.

Frank

Lepkowski, the associate dean of the library, was not present at this event but

later said that this annual event emphasizes the fact that OU is a scholarly

place.

Other

events that fulfill this role are the poetry readings held on the first

Thursday of every month at the library, according to Lepkowski. Students are

also invited to the poetry slam, a judged competitive performance co-sponsored

with Auburn Hills Public Library, which will be on the fourth floor of Kresge

Library on April 10.

“We

want the library to be more than just a repository for books,” Lepkowski said.

“We believe that promoting intellectual life of the university is an important

role of the library.”