Work Flows: Stalinist Liquids in Russian Labor Culture

By Maya Vinokour, LAB’04, AB’08; Northern Illinois University Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2024

During the mass collectivization in the 1920s and ’30s Soviet Union, references to bodily fluids and metaphorically flowing energy proliferated in Stalinist texts. Similar language was used before the Russian Revolution, Maya Vinokour says, but its ubiquity in Stalinist texts ushered in a new conception of labor as a channeling of the body’s resources into production. Vinokour argues that this language of liquidity is part of a larger 20th- and 21st-century trend characterizing the post-Soviet “managed democracy” and the work culture of today’s neoliberal West.

Microaggressions in Medicine

By Lauren Freeman, AM’02, and Heather Stewart; Oxford University Press, 2024

Microaggressions are subtle behaviors or environmental factors that, though often unintentional, reinforce biases and harm members of marginalized groups. In health care contexts, they can cause lasting harm to patients. Lauren Freeman and Heather Stewart introduce health care providers to the concept and offer strategies to prevent these incidents. They also help patients understand their experiences of microaggressions. Reducing microaggressions, the authors argue, can increase health equity.

In the Shadow of Liberty: The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States

By Ana Raquel Minian, AB’05; Viking, 2024

The inhumane treatment of immigrant detainees came to the forefront of public attention under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy, but immigrant detention in the United States is far from new. Ana Raquel Minian’s history of immigration begins in the 1800s. Structured around the stories of four people who entered the US during pivotal moments in immigration policymaking, the book traces shifting policy priorities as well as the intensified stripping of immigrants’ rights since the 1980s. Minian shows how this system affects individual lives and makes the case for a more humane alternative, such as a parole-based system.

Better Health Economics: An Introduction for Everyone

By Tal Gross, AB’03, and Matthew J. Notowidigdo; University of Chicago Press, 2024

The economic forces governing the US health care system are complex. Tal Gross and Matthew J. Notowidigdo, the David McDaniel Keller Professor of Economics at Chicago Booth, provide a conversational introduction to health economics, covering topics including insurance and pharmaceutical development. The authors also show how health economics interacts with related fields like medicine and public health to address issues that markets alone can’t explain, like the social determinants of health.

The Conceivable Future: Planning Families and Taking Action in the Age of Climate Change

By Meghan Elizabeth Kallman, AM’09, and Josephine Ferorelli, AB’05; Rowman & Littlefield, 2024

Discussions of climate change and reproduction often center on the idea that having fewer children is necessary to reduce carbon emissions. Meghan Elizabeth Kallman and Josephine Ferorelli argue that this narrative frames the climate crisis as the result of individual actions and is often used to blame people of color, poor people, and those in developing countries. Drawing on public health research and diverse testimony, the authors outline the climate and policy threats to reproductive health and provide steps to approach them through collective action.

For additional alumni book releases, use the link to the Magazine’s Goodreads bookshelf at mag.uchicago.edu/alumni-books.