Books featured in the May 2009 issue of Book Marks focus on the papers of FDR refugee adviser James G. McDonald, a history of criminal justice in China, a diary kept by a Russian merchant around the year 1800, a biography of Muslim mystic Baba Rexheb, essays on surface decoration in African art, the concept of glamour in the 20th century, the importance of sensibility in defining a young American nation, folk performance art in Turkey, and concepts of race and nation in Brazil and the U.S.

Candy Gunther Brown, an associate professor in the Indiana University Bloomington Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $150,000 grant to pursue research on divine healing practices and their involvement in globalization.

The March 2009 issue of Book Marks features books about the Romanian-born French philosopher E. M. Cioran, the late style of composer Claude Debussy, the use of irony in the Hebrew Bible, developments in civil and criminal law on child maltreatment, and the roles of Muslims in Western politics.

National Public Radio national correspondent Jamie Tarabay will keynote a half-day workshop about Islam and Muslim practices for journalists and media professionals on March 27 in Bloomington, presented by Voices and Visions -- a consortium of six Title VI National Resource Centers at IU, funded by the Social Science Research Council.

Voices and Visions, a consortium of six Title VI National Resource Centers at IU, led by the Center for the Study of Global Change, is being recognized for its efforts to counter misperceptions and improve understanding about the second most practiced religion in the world.

Rachel Carson is best known for Silent Spring, her 1962 book that changed Americans' thinking about the dangers of chemicals and inspired the environmental movement. Rachel Carson: Legacy and Challenge, co-edited by Lisa H. Sideris, assistant professor of religious studies at Indiana University Bloomington, examines the contested influence of Silent Spring along with Carson's earlier work, such as The Sea Around Us and her posthumously published The Sense of Wonder.

In the midst of urban violence and political turnoil in Guatemala, the idea of "Christian citizenship" has taken on a new meaning. Once overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, the country is now more than half non-denominational Christian. Kevin O'Neill, assistant professor of religious studies and American studies at Indiana University Bloomington, studies "an issue critically important not just to Guatemala but also to countries throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia, not to mention the United States of America. These are all places where the continued entanglement of evangelical Christianity and democracy is unmistakable."

About 80 faculty members at Indiana University's Bloomington campus have research or professional interests in the Middle East. They can be found from the Kelley School of Business to the Jacobs School of Music and in many specialized areas as well, such as designing national health care plans and government administration. The new director of IU's Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program hopes to involve as many of them as possible in the program's future activities.

As rapid advances in biotechology raise questions about appropriate uses of these new tools, there is another kind of question to consider: Is it important for humans to accept certain physical limitations, even if those limitations could be eliminated?