Published this week

EDUCATION

- Academic Evaluation: Review Genres in University Settings

Edited by Ken Hyland, professor of applied linguistics in education, Institute of Education, and Giuliana Diani, tenured researcher in English language and linguistics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Palgrave Macmillan, £50.00. ISBN 9780230224339

In exploring how academics publicly evaluate each other's work, the contributors to this volume show how writers manage to critically engage with others' ideas, argue their own viewpoints and establish academic credibility.

ENGINEERING

- Resilience Engineering Perspectives, Volume 2: Preparation and Restoration

Edited by Sidney Dekker, director of research, Lund University. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754675204

Preparation and Restoration addresses issues such as the nature of resilience; the similarities and differences between resilience and traditional ideas of system performance; and what improves or erodes resilience.

HISTORY

- Sexual Perversions, 1670-1890

Edited by Julie Peakman, lecturer and honorary fellow, Birkbeck, University of London. Palgrave Macmillan, £55.00. ISBN 9780230555105

This edited volume covers religion, culture and literature in history and introduces new scholars exploring the history of sexuality. It offers an analytical appraisal of documentation, including plays, poems, erotica, trial records, pamphlets and sermons, via a multidisciplinary approach.

LAW

- Law in the Service of Legitimacy: Gender and Politics in Jordan

By Catherine Warrick, assistant professor in the department of political science, Villanova University. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754675877

Using gender and law in Jordan's political system as a means of investigating broader issues regarding the relationship between culture and political legitimacy, Warrick demonstrates how the state uses the legal system as a legitimisation tool, incorporating traditional social practices to maintain the support of certain elements of society.

LITERATURE

- Staging Pain, 1580-1800: Violence and Trauma in British Theater

Edited by James Robert Allard, associate professor in the department of English language and literature, Brock University, and Mathew R. Martin, associate professor in the department of English language and literature, Brock University. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754667582

This collection highlights two moments in the histories of pain, trauma and their staging in British theatre. Whether focused on individual plays or broad concerns, these essays seek to offer a fresh contribution to the interrelated histories of pain, the body and the theatre.

MEDIA

- Madness, Power and the Media: Class, Gender and Race in Popular Representations of Mental Distress

By Stephen Harper, senior lecturer in media studies, University of Portsmouth. Palgrave Macmillan, £50.00. ISBN 9780230218802

Madness, Power and the Media offers insights into the changing role of mental distress in contemporary Western culture. It covers film, television and print media since the mid-1990s and addresses the recent explosion of interest in celebrity "breakdowns".

RELIGION

- Disciplining the Divine: Toward an (Im)political Theology

By Paul Fletcher, former lecturer in Christian studies in the department of religious studies, Lancaster University. Ashgate, £55.00 and £17.99. ISBN 9780754667162 and 223

Disciplining the Divine attempts to provide a critical reconstruction of Christian theology and practice within the political and cultural contexts of the new millennium.