April 17 1:00 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall The Temple Book Club presents a discussion with author and historian Peter Cole. Cole will speak on his book Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive Era Philadelphia (University of Illinois Press, 2007). Dr. Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University. His research focuses on the intersections of class, ethnicity, and race in U.S. History. Dr. Cole was born and raised in South Florida. He received his B.A. from Columbia University and his Ph.D. from Georgetown University. He has taught at Georgetown, Washington College, Western Maryland College, and most recently for two years at Boise State University. About the Book: For almost a decade during the 1910s and 1920s, the Philadelphia waterfront was home to the most durable interracial, multiethnic union seen in the United States prior to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) era. In a period when most unions, like many institutions, excluded blacks or segregated them, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was ideologically committed to racial equality. More than any other IWW affiliate, however, Local 8 worked to become a progressive, interracial union. For much of its time, the union majority was black, always with a cadre of black leaders, which included Ben Fletcher. Local 8 also claimed immigrants from Eastern Europe, as well as many Irish Americans, who had a notorious reputation for racism. In Wobblies on the Waterfront, Peter Cole outlines the factors that were instrumental in Local 8’s success, both ideological (the IWW’s commitment to working-class solidarity) and pragmatic (racial divisions helped solidify employer dominance). He also shows how race was central not only to the rise but also to the decline of Local 8, as increasing racial tensions were manipulated by employers and federal agents bent on the union’s destruction. Critics Say: “By demonstrating how interracial solidarity prevailed on the Philadelphia waterfront for the better part of a momentous and critically important decade, Peter Cole kindles the flames of the ‘class-race’ debate. As he also demonstrates, Local 8’s achievements in this regard were all the more remarkable because the larger context–in Philadelphia and in the nation–was one of racial polarization and virulent white racism.”–Bruce Nelson, author of Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality “Wobblies on the Waterfront offers a fascinating and engaging look at the Philadelphia longshoremen in Local 8 of the IWW. Offering a fresh perspective on an important organization that charted its own, independent course in the 1910s and ’20s, this study considerably adds to our knowledge of waterfront unionism, Philadelphia labor, the IWW, and race and labor. Local 8 deserves the in-depth treatment that Peter Cole gives it, for it stood out as a rather unique example of militant, interracial unionism in an age in which exclusion or segregation was the rule in the labor movement.”–Eric Arnesen, editor of The Black Worker: Race, Labor, and Civil Rights since Emancipation

April 9 4:00 pm Special Collections Reading Room Join a discussion around the variety of artists’ creative impressions of book design, using Ann Kresage’s Air Born: An Artist’s Book, as a starting point. This conversation allows for full exploration of the multiple techniques and concepts used in creating these creative treasures. The Special Collection Department’s rich and varied collection of artists’ books will illustrate the discussion with an interactive showcase. The Special Collections Showcase events allow for up-close encounters with, and conversations about, the historical sources found in a variety of special collections at Temple University Libraries. They offer the opportunity for investigation of the materials that document history.

April 7 2:30 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall Temple University Libraries and the General Education Program welcome author, professor, and theoretician Janet Jakobsen to Paley Library April 7. Jakobsen’s latest book, Secularisms, will be published by Duke University Press in March of 2008. She will speak on her latest research and writing with “Should we Secularists Just Admit we Lost?” and engage in conversation with the audience. Jakobsen, the director of the Center for Research on Women at Barnard College, teaches feminist and queer theories, sexuality studies, theories of women’s activism, and a course on religion and gender. Professor Jakobsen¹s research interests include: feminist and queer ethics; religion, gender, and sexuality in American public life; social movements and feminist alliance politics; and global issues of economics. Her other publications include: Working Alliances and the Politics of Difference: Diversity and Feminist Ethics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998); Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance (NYU Press, 2003); and Interventions: Activists and Academics Respond to Violence (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), for which she served as editor along with Elizabeth Castelli. This event is also consponsored by the Department of Religion, and Department of Jewish Studies.

March 26 4:30 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall Please join Temple University Libraries and the Temple University Press in welcoming author, entrepreneur and restaurateur Ellen Yin. The press recently published Yin’s Forklore: Recipes and Tales from an American Bistro, which coincided with the 10th Anniversary of her legendary Philadelphia restaurant, Fork. Yin will speak on her book, her accomplishments, and her restaurant, and then engage in conversation with guests. This event will also feature trivia, door prizes, and a reception. Yin’s book will also be for sale. Fork Restaurant is an acclaimed New American Bistro in Old City, Philadelphia. Since its opening in 1997, it has received many regional and national accolades including being named one of the “Best New Restaurants” by Philadelphia magazine and one of Philadelphia’s “Top Tables” by Gourmet magazine. In 2004, she expanded Fork to include Fork:etc, a specialty food store with prepared foods, artisanal and gourmet products. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, Fork continues to delight new visitors from throughout the world as well as its own local fans. Her last cookbook, From Our Restaurant’s Kitchen (2002), a compilation of the restaurant’s recipes and staff favorites, benefited scholarships for inner city students.

Come to the Science, Engineering and Architecture Library for– SEAL eResource Fair March Library Madness! Come meet the eExperts! Find out about library resources that will help you keep up with the latest research. Representatives from the following companies will be here: Elsevier – ScienceDirect, Compendex, INSPEC EbscoHost – Academic Search Premier, GeoREF CSA Proquest – Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, IEEE – IEEE Xplore Thomson -Web of Science, JCR and Biological Abstracts. A library table will feature Multisearch, RefWorks, TULink, Libguides, Blackboard course packages. The sciences, engineering, and architecture are emphasized, but all are welcome. Free food and drink, goodies and a raffle too, so stop by the SEAL eResources Fair.