Duke professor emeritus Orrin Pilkey will discuss and sign copies of his latest book, The Rising Sea, which he co-authored with Rob Young.  “Sea level rise is a lurking dragon.  Experts chart its pulse nervously, but speak quietly.  Pilkey and Young pierce this reticence, telling a story that the public must understand—or the dragon may burst out of humanity’s control,” writes James E. Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Deborah Willis will discuss, show work from, and sign copies of her new book, Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, the first photographic history of black beauty.  It tells a story overlooked by most of America, and promises to transform the way we think about the history of African-American visual culture.  From posed studio portraits to dandies on parade to elegant debutantes, Willis has constructed a bold narrative of the ever-changing idea of beauty, both female and male, and shows how history books, newspapers, and mainstream magazines deliberately excluded black models until the late 1960s.  Willis is the author of Reflections in Black and Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs.