Honors Associate Dean and religious studies professor Marie Dallam published her newest book, Religion, Attire, and Adornment in North America in March 2023, a co-edited volume with Dr. Ben Zeller of Lake Forest College. Honors @ OU had the opportunity to sit down and speak with her about the new book and how it differs from her previous publications.
Tell us a little bit about the edited volume you have just published.
MD: The book is titled Religion, Attire, and Adornment in North America. It contains 14 essays by different scholars exploring aspects of the topic, and it very deliberately includes a wide range of religions across a time period of a couple hundred years. Authors were asked to employ one of four lenses of analysis to explore the relationship of religion and dress: theology, negotiation, identity, or activism. These four lenses of analysis were first developed in our previous edited volume, Religion, Food, and Eating in North America (Columbia Univ. Press, 2014). So this book intentionally builds upon that one.
What are some of the challenges of publishing an edited volume? How is it different from writing a monograph?
MD: Putting together an edited volume is very different from writing a single-author book. The tasks center more on logistics, outreach, networking, and providing feedback for revision. My co-editor and I were trying to make sure all of the essays would fit within a particular academic vision, and we had to positively encourage our colleagues to stick with that. And we had to keep on schedule! When you have a dozen or more authors in the mix, all of that becomes very challenging.
Is it more difficult to find a publisher for an edited volume than for a monograph?
MD: I think it can be. Although university presses typically operate on a non-profit basis, they certainly don’t want any book to lose money, so they’re concerned with a book’s marketability. In our case, the intention is that this book will primarily be for undergraduate classroom use. We published our first edited volume with Columbia University Press and they were pleased enough with that result that they agreed to publish the second one.
What are some of the things you are most and least satisfied with about your new book?
MD: I really enjoyed writing the introductory chapter with my co-editor, Ben Zeller. He and I have worked on projects together many times, but it was our first attempt at writing a single piece as a team. It was a surprisingly smooth and easy process, which I don’t think is necessarily the case for many co-writers, so that was very satisfying. On the other hand, a disappointment was the length of time this book took to come to fruition. In addition to delays with individual contributors here and there, the entire volume got stuck in the press review process during COVID. We heard nothing from them for a full year! The waiting was painful. But I’m relieved it’s finally in print and that all of the authors finally have their work out there.
Will you do another edited volume?
MD: It’s possible, but it’s not at the top of my priority list. Working on an edited volume inevitably draws my attention away from my own research. However, my co-editor proposed an idea for a third volume related to material culture in new religions, and we continue to talk about that as a possibility. But at least for a little while I would like to just focus on my own projects.
