Featured (List) Features

Faculty publications of 2024

“Bruce Songs: The Music of Bruce Springsteen, Album-by-Album, Song-by-Song” by Kenneth L. Campbell and Kenneth Womack

Monmouth University is no stranger to Bruce Springsteen. With our Bruce Springsteen Archives and their current expansion underway, Monmouth is the proud location for various aspects of Springsteen’s history. On Sep. 23, 2024, “Bruce Songs: The Music of Bruce Springsteen, Album-by-Album, Song-by-Song” was published by two of our very own Springsteen professors. Written by Professor Kenneth Womack, professor of English and popular music, and Professor Kenneth L. Campbell, professor of history and anthropology, this book explores Springsteen’s musical legacy by covering his entire discography, analyzing each of his songs, and providing insight into the reasons they were written.

“The opportunity to write about Bruce Springsteen is a genuine privilege,” explained Womack. “He’s one of the most influential artists of the past 50 years, and with this book, Professor Campbell and I wanted to bring his music and his story vividly to life.”

Campbell continued, “Bruce Springsteen has been one of my favorite artists since I first started listening to his music in the mid-1970s. The arc of his life and career is practically unparalleled in music history. It’s remarkable how his music continues to resonate decades later, with recent work that often matches or surpasses the brilliance of his earlier material.”

Womack and Campbell both teach Springsteen-related courses at Monmouth. This semester, Campbell will instruct the perspectives class Springsteen’s America” and Womack will teach a music class titled Life and Work of Springsteen.

“It took more than a few years to write the book, but it is worth noting that the book is the product of the academic courses devoted to Springsteen that Professor Campbell and I regularly teach at Monmouth. We owe a great debt to our students for intense and revealing discussions over the years about Springsteen’s music,” Womack said.

Campbell also noted, “The book takes a slightly more academic approach than many popular treatments of Springsteen’s work, yet it remains accessible to both students and general readers…the book benefits from the combined strengths of two authors: Ken Womack’s literary and musical expertise and my historical background, enriched by years of teaching courses on the Beatles and Springsteen. Together, we offer individual essays on each album, as well as careful song analyses that reflect our shared passion for Springsteen’s musical legacy”

The two authors derived great satisfaction from their collaborative efforts and only had positive things to say about the other when working together. Womack said, “Professor Campbell is a tremendous, learned colleague. Working with him on this book has been a great joy. He provided 21 essays associated with the history and background of every Springsteen studio album.”

Campbell concluded, “Collaborating with Professor Womack was an absolute pleasure. I couldn’t have asked for a better co-author—he has not only been an exceptional colleague throughout this project but has also become a trusted friend. [he has] been incredibly supportive of my work for years, and his confidence in my ability to share this project with him was deeply meaningful. Bruce Songs is one of my proudest accomplishments, and having the opportunity to share this journey with someone I respect and admire so much has made it even more special.”

“Devil is Fine” by John Vercher

In Monmouth’s Department of English, many professors have enhanced their teachings by publishing their own books. Monmouth’s newest member of the English department faculty is John Vercher, renowned writer and Monmouth’s newest author-in-residence, and his third book “Devil is Fine” was published in June of 2024.

“Devil is Fine” follows a biracial unnamed narrator as he finds himself the new owner of a former plantation, passed down from his white mother’s side of the family. Vercher employs magical realism to tell this story of fatherhood, trauma, grief, and humor.

Vercher read a section of his book during Monmouth’s Visiting Writers Series on Nov. 6. During the session, Vercher also answered audience questions about his work and writing in general while in discussion with Professor Alena Graedon.

“Devil is Fine” has attracted high praise since its release, as it was a “Time Magazine” must-read book of 2024, the best book of July chosen by Independent Bookstores, and an “LA Times” 10 books to add to your reading list in June.

With this book, Vercher hopes readers can take away a different perspective on the complexities of life. “My hope is a greater understanding that more than one thing can be true at once. This idea is the thematic purpose of the jellyfish, a creature that can be beautiful and deadly, that can live under thousands of pounds of water pressure and is also as delicate as tissue paper and can tear at the lightest touch,” Vercher explained.

This semester, Vercher will be teaching three classes – Black Satire and Absurdism, Literature II, and Intro to Creative Writing. With his teachings, Vercher hopes students can further learn about the publishing industry and encourages them to keep working hard despite any industry setbacks. “The answer to this question exceeds the scope of a short column––in fact, I have a talk I give on the subject. That said, if I had to distill it to one piece of advice, it would be not to give up. Value yourself and your work enough to know there is a readership for your writing. Publishing is an industry built on ‘no,’ so you’ll hear it often. Don’t let that dissuade you from putting in the effort to achieve your goal.”

“Fort Monmouth: The US Army’s House of Magic” by Melissa Ziobro

Just around the corner from our campus resides the historic Fort Monmouth. This area served as a military installation for the Department of the Army in Monmouth County from 1917 until 2011, and it is a source of great passion for Professor Ziobro, who released her book about the topic “Fort Monmouth: The US Army’s House of Magic” on May 31, 2024.

“I started working as a historian, archivist, and curator for the US Army at Fort Monmouth in 2004,” Ziobro explained. “I worked at the base until it closed in 2011, at which point my job moved to Maryland and I resigned rather than leave the great state of NJ. At that time, though, I vowed that I did not want to let the people of NJ forget all of the wonderful things that had happened at the base…so I’ve been writing and lecturing on Fort Monmouth history ever since.”

Although there are a few other publications on the topic of Fort Monmouth, Ziobro’s addition will provide readers with information and language about the base that is easily accessible to all types of readers, even if they do not have a military or scientific background. “The work that was done at Fort Monmouth was very technical in nature and can be very difficult to understand. If you read some of the internal ‘Annual Command Histories’ my colleagues and I compiled while at the base, there’d be whole passages where you had no idea what was going on because of the military acronyms and the scientific language used. I wanted this book to be very accessible to the general public,” Ziobro said.

Ziobro admits that in a way, she has been working on this book for 20 years. With her knowledge and passion for the topic, readers are sure to gain a true insight into the workings and history of Fort Monmouth. “I always loved this quote that the last Commanding General of Fort Monmouth, MG Randolph P. Strong, wrote in the foreword to my book, ‘The United States military is the most formidable warfighting force in history largely because of its technological superiority and much of that came from Fort Monmouth and the amazing people that worked there – and the local community that supported them.’”

Past the book’s publication, Ziobro is still honoring the men and women who worked at Fort Monmouth by donating her author royalties to the InfoAge Science and History Museums at the Camp Evans National Historic Landmark, as Camp Evans was once a part of Fort Monmouth. She encourages individuals who are interested in learning more about military history through Camp Evans to plan a trip at infoage.org.