EIU Booth Library

Booth Library to host “Authors@EIU” April 9 & April 15 

Posted on April 1st, 2026

CHARLESTON – Booth Library’s Authors@EIU series continues April 9 and April 15. On April 9, the second event in the Spring 2026 series will recognize two recently published EIU faculty: 

Alan Pocaro, Associate Professor, Art + Design
Tom Torluemke: Live! On Paper, 1987-2024, contributor Alan D. Pocaro 
Skira-Arte Publishing, May, 2025 

Pocaro’s long-form essay “In the Beginning” is featured in the 2025 book Tom Torluemke: Live! On Paper, 1987-2024, published by the prestigious SKIRA in 2025.  “In the Beginning” traces the evolution of drawing into “works on paper,” charting a larger shift in which images move from sacred, active agents in the world to autonomous artworks and, ultimately, commodified objects. The essay culminates in the work of Tom Torluemke, whose practice reclaims paper as a vital, expressive space—reinvesting contemporary art with a sense of immediacy, humanity, and lived experience. 

Alan Pocaro is an artist, writer, and educator. The author of over two hundred articles, essays, and reviews, his critical practice is deeply rooted in Chicago and the American Midwest. 

and Gary Canivez, Ph.D., Professor, Psychology  
Assessing Psychometric Fitness of Intelligence Tests Toward Evidence-Based Interpretation Practices, edited by Gary L. Canivez, Ph.D. 
Bloomsbury Publishing, April, 2025 

This book addresses issues and concerns regarding appropriate ethical and scientific underpinnings for the appropriate interpretation of intelligence tests. Ethical test interpretation requires test users to consider the empirical evidence for individual and all test score comparisons and to make appropriate clinical decisions accordingly. This requires test users to have competencies in advanced psychometric principles.  

Gary Canivez, Ph.D. is professor of Psychology at Eastern Illinois University and principally involved in the Specialist in School Psychology program. He is senior editor for School Psychology Review and serves on the editorial boards of School Psychology and the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. Dr. Canivez is the author or coauthor of over 100 peer-reviewed articles. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 5 and 16), a Charter Fellow of the Midwestern Psychological Association, and an elected member of the Society for the Study of School Psychology. His research focuses on psychometric studies of tests of intelligence and psychopathology to help provide evidence necessary to guide evidence-based assessment. 

On April 15, the final event in the Spring 2026 series will recognize three recently published EIU faculty:  

Danelle Larson, Ph.D., Professor, Music Education and Director of the Music Education Division
Music Teaching and Learning in America’s Public Normal Schools 
Edited by Danelle Larson, Ph.D. and Jill M. Sullivan, Ph.D. 
Bloomsbury Publishing, January 2026 

Dr. Larson and her colleague Dr. Jill Sullivan, Arizona State University, collaborated with fourteen authors who share research on histories of music in public normal schools (institutions for training teachers) in America. Combined with these histories are considerations of the impacts of race, gender, and geographic location on curriculum in America’s Public Normal Schools. Dr. Larson conducted research at EIU and authored the chapter “Music in the Eastern Illinois State Normal School.”  

Danelle D. Larson is Professor of Music Education and Director of the Music Education Division at EIU. She teaches a variety of courses in the music education curriculum, supervises student teachers, and oversees the Master of Arts, Music Education Degree program that serves practicing music educators across the country. Her research interests include mentorship of new teachers, female military bands, and history of music education in public schools.  

and Robin L. Murray, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, English, Film Studies and Women/Gender/Sexuality Studies 
along with
Joseph K. Heumann, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Communication Studies
Eco-Teen Films, by Robin L. Murray, Ph.D. and Joseph K. Heumann, Ph.D. 
Routledge, September, 2024 

Focused on the impacts of environmental disasters and climate crises globally, this book examines the experiences of teens grappling with eco-disasters and issues in films of the twenty-first century. With an emphasis on teen activism, international settings and filmmakers, and marginalized perspectives, this book showcases teens on film that are struggling with present and future everyday eco-disasters amplified by climate change. By highlighting and interrogating diverse genres of teen films in which young adults encounter, address, and battle environmental issues and calamities while also struggling with adolescent development, this book acknowledges the young adult point of view missing from most critical ecocinema research and underlines connections between the more complex ‘coming-of-age’ themes found in teen films with ecocinema themes and approaches.  

Robin L. Murray is Professor Emeritus of English, Film Studies, and Women/Gender/Sexuality Studies, EIU. Joseph K. Heumann is Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies, EIU. They have co-authored eight ecocinema books: Ecology and Popular Film: Cinema on the Edge (SUNY Press 2009) That’s All Folks?: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features (U Nebraska Press 2011) Gunfight at the Eco-Corral: Western Cinema and the Environment (U Oklahoma Press 2012), Film and Everyday Ecodisasters (U Nebraska Press 2014), Monstrous Nature: Environment and Horror on the Big Screen (U Nebraska Press 2016), Ecocinema and the City (Routledge 2018), Film, Environment, Comedy: Eco-Comedies on the Big Screen (Routledge 2022), and Eco-Teen Films (Routledge 2025). 

Five authors are being featured in three Spring 2026 Authors@EIU events to celebrate the research, scholarship and creative success of EIU faculty and alumni who have recently achieved publication of a book or comparable scholarly or creative work. Both the April 9 and April 15 event will be held in the Library’s West Reading Room beginning with a shared reception at 5 p.m. Presentations will begin at 5:30 with introductory remarks, author presentations, and question & answer sessions for each author.  

All members of the Charleston and EIU communities are welcome, including students. 

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MEDIA CONTACT:  
Diane Highland   
Events & Programming Coordinator, Booth Library   
dehighland@eiu.edu /217-581-6061