Missouri S&T historian Justin Pope’s newest book, Dangerous Spirit of Liberty: The Politics of Slaves and Rebels in Early America and the West Indies, 1688-1748, a part of the series called “Studies in Constitutional Democracy,” examines a period of slave unrest that stretched from the islands of the Caribbean to New York City in the first half of the 18th century. Pope specializes in Colonial America, the American Revolution, slavery and abolition, Native American history, and Atlantic history.
Matthew Goldberg’s first book, Night Watch, a collection of short fiction that explores longing, unease and hidden lives, received the 2025 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. The stories in Night Watch look at how fragile trust is and how what we experience shapes our worldview. Goldberg was an engineer for five years before deciding to follow his passion for writing. Now he teaches creative writing, composition and contemporary literature at Missouri S&T.
Psychologist Daniel Shank’s new book explores the cost of disregarding information provided by artificial intelligence. It is titled The Machine Penalty: The Consequences of Seeing Artificial Intelligence as Less Than Human. His research shows that individuals often prefer to receive personal subjective advice — like recommending food based on taste or career advice — from a human and look to AI for objective tasks, like playing chess or analyzing data.