Pepperdine Libraries Invites Recently Tenured Faculty to Comment on Inspirational Books

Ruth Bernstein

Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management, Business Administration Division, Seaver College

Man's Search for Meaning 
By Viktor E. Frankl

"In my classes, I hope to inspire my students to consider their purpose in life. Who are they now, who do they want to be in the future, what do they want their legacy to be, etc. Victor Frankl, in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, writes about his time in concentration camps during WW 2, yet drives home how his own sense of purpose, that of publishing his manuscript, gave him a will to live. Despite the horrible experiences he endured, he kept his eye on achieving his goals, something that could not be taken away from him. This drive to achieve his purpose and have a future allowed him to put his suffering in context and endure it. He writes that even when his external freedoms were removed, he was still able to have inner freedom, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.” This book has provided me and so many readers inspiration to have deep purpose. I want to impart this drive to create positive impact to my students."

Amy Bronson

Founding Dean, School of Physician Assistant Studies

The Heart of Higher Education 
By Parker J. Palmer and Arthur Zajonc

"I first encountered The Heart of Higher Education as a gift from a mentor during my first year of teaching. As a clinician by training, this book helped me understand teaching not simply as an extension of medicine, but as a calling and a craft. Over the years, it has profoundly shaped how I understand my vocation as an educator and mentor, reminding me that education is ultimately about the head and the heart.

Palmer and Zajonc write:
“Long after they forget the content that they learned, who they have become will endure and determine much of the character and quality of their contribution to society.”
— The Heart of Higher Education, p. 102

These words continue to shape how I teach. They remind me that the heart of education is not simply what we teach, but who our students become.

I believe God’s purpose in our lives is often revealed through the people we are invited to accompany and serve. Teaching gives me the privilege of standing with students during a formative season of their lives while listening, encouraging, challenging, and mentoring them as they become not only capable clinicians, but whole people prepared to use their gifts in service to others."

Katherine Parsons

Associate Professor of Digital Art/Studio Art, Fine Arts Division, Seaver College

Digital Witness: Revolutions in Film, Design, Photography, and Film
By Britt Salvesen, Staci Steinberger (Editors)

"Digital Witness is personally and professionally significant to me because it offered a clear reflection of the visual culture that has shaped my life and my practice. In the exhibition and its accompanying book, I recognized many of the tools, aesthetic strategies, technologies, and trends that have defined visual culture from my childhood to the present day. I was particularly struck by the exhibition’s willingness to take commercial and entertainment-oriented forms seriously alongside more established art practices, bringing these visual worlds into conversation rather than treating them as separate or unequal. I also recognized many of the people who have shaped my own professional and creative development: mentors, friends, collaborators, and artists I have learned from, worked alongside, and curated into exhibitions through FEMMEBIT. Seeing these influences, relationships, and visual traditions gathered together, contextualized, and celebrated was tremendously validating, given that this is the artistic and pop-culture-saturated world I have grown up in and continue to work within. In a simple but meaningful sense, I saw myself reflected in this exhibition and this book—both as a person shaped by this visual history and as a professional who continues to engage with and contribute to it."

Leah Stiemsma

Associate Professor of Biology, Natural Science Division, Seaver College

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
By Ed Yong

"I study the microbiome, all the microorganisms in a system. This book came out years ago when I had just finished my PhD thesis. I still read from it to my microbiology class today and all the stories are still relevant for the influence microbes have on our daily lives (even though we cannot see them)."

Dana Sumpter

Professor of Organization Theory and Management, Graziadio Business School

Surfing and Social Theory: Experience, Embodiment and Narrative of the Dream Glide
By Nicholas J Ford, David Brown

"This is a book I drew from for my dissertation research, which was on relational energy at work in the surf and board sport industry. Surfing and Social Theory was one of the few academic treatments of how not only the sport, but the experience and subculture of surfing could be perceived through the lenses of social science disciplines. It’s scientifically rigorous, yet also engages in great storytelling through narratives that truly capture the essence of surfing (and, as they authors put it, the "dream glide"!). I love this as an example of how research can become ‘me-search', in that we scholars can combine our personal passions with scientific inquiry in a way that can uplift both."

Jessica Hooten Wilson

Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books, Humanities and Teacher Education Division, Seaver College

Are Women Human? 
By Dorothy L Sayers

"This book shows a liberating view of Scriptures, why women matter to God."

Kevin Wong

Associate Professor of Education,  Education Division, Graduate School of Education and Psychology

Marisol MacDonald Doesn't Match 
By Monica Brown

"I chose Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match because it reflects a way of moving through the world that has shaped much of my own life. Multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural identities do not always fit neatly into the categories others create for us. Sometimes we belong to several worlds at once, and sometimes we have to create a space of our own between them. That idea has followed me from my own experiences as a student, to my years as an elementary school teacher, and now to my work preparing teachers and conducting research. This book reminds me why I care so deeply about helping schools become places where children do not have to simplify who they are in order to belong."