“The Power to Die: Slavery and Suicide in British North America,” authored by Terri L. Snyder and released last year, was recently honored with the Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize by the Western Association of Women Historians.
Snyder drew on ships’ logs, surgeons’ journals, judicial and legislative records and newspaper accounts, as well as abolitionist propaganda and slave narratives to write the 256-page book, which was published by University of Chicago Press.
In an interview about the book, the professor of American studies said, “In the context of slavery, death by suicide was often construed as a politically powerful act. Regardless of what enslaved women and men intended, their acts of self-destruction sent the very visceral message that their enslavers did not fully control enslaved bodies.”
Assistant professor of art Wendy Grieb’s most recent work as a children’s books illustrator, “Monster Needs Your Vote,” has won the Midwest Book Awards “Children’s Picture Books” category. Grieb illustrates the “Monster & Me” book series for ages 2-6. Before joining Cal State Fullerton in 2013, she worked as a storyboard artist for Walt Disney TV Animation.