Founded in 1956, Penn State University Press publishes rigorously reviewed, high-quality works of scholarship and books of regional and contemporary interest, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. The publishing arm of the Pennsylvania State University and a division of the Penn State University Libraries, the Press promotes the advance of scholarship by disseminating knowledge—new information, interpretations, methods of analysis—widely in books, journals, and digital publications.
Scholarly publishing has faced monumental challenges over the past few decades. The Press takes its place among those institutions moving the enterprise forward. Its innovative projects continue to identify and embrace the technological advances and business models that ensure scholarly publishing will remain feasible, and widely accessible, well into the future.
Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe
Utilizes the collection of magic texts from the late Middle Ages at St. Augustine's, Canterbury, to examine the orthodoxy of magical approaches to the medieval universe and to show how it was possible to combine magical studies with a monastic vocation.
Experiencing the resonant acoustics of the church of Hagia Sophia allowed the Byzantine participants in its liturgical rituals to be filled with the Spirit of God, and even to become his image on earth.
Bissera Pentcheva's vibrant analysis examines how these sung rites combined with the church's architectural space ......
A manual for constructing talismans, mixing magical compounds, summoning planetary spirits, and determining astrological conditions, Picatrix is a cornerstone of Western esotericism. It offers important insights not only into occult practices and beliefs but also into the transmission of magical ideas from antiquity ......
How does one deal with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease at the age of forty-three? My Degeneration, by former Anchorage Daily News staff cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl, answers the question with humor and passion, recounting the author's attempt to come to grips with the malicious whimsy of this chronic, progressive, and ......
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to its knees. When we werent sheltering in place, we were advised to wear masks, wash our hands, and practice social distancing.
A coming-of-age graphic memoir set in the West Bank, depicting the reality of growing up in a region split by religious tensions-and sometimes violent conflict.
With an affecting mix of humor and introspection, she describes the subtle and not-so-subtle ways she was pressured to have children and the feelings of isolation and self-doubt that ensued.
The Creaturely in Museums, Zoos, and Natural History
A collection of essays on the historical representation and display of animals. Using examples from the eighteenth century to the present, the essays situate case studies in historical and sociocultural context while addressing the importance of visibility for the arrangement and sustenance of human-animal ......