Scott J. Pearson

Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, & Evaluating Quantitative & Qualitative Research

By Scott J. Pearson | March 25, 2021March 25, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

I work in an academic field at the crossroads of biomedical research and research into higher education practices. (I pursue research about research.) I have familiarized myself with biomedical research practices, but I also wanted to familiarize myself with educational research practices. Biomedical research is heavy on quantitative analysis, but educational research seems to involve qualitative methods much more. I needed deeper introduction to the latter. Creswell’s 650-page opus seemed to fit the bill, and…

HIV/AIDS: A Very Short Introduction

By Scott J. Pearson | March 21, 2021March 21, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

HIV, which can lead to AIDS, continues to present a pandemic situation wherever humans live. It differentially affects marginalized communities and tends to have an associated social stigma. It has hurt people in Africa particularly hard, and Whiteside, a professor in South Africa and a global leader in AIDS health discussions, is well-poised to witness the global effects. In this short and well-written work, he extracts the biomedical, social, political, and economic implications of this…

Fiction-Stories

Adulting: A Novel by Liz Talley

By Scott J. Pearson | March 13, 2021March 13, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

To “adult” is a colloquial verb meaning taking responsibility for one’s own life. In this book, romance-book author Talley tells the story of fictional celebrity character Chase London and her therapist Olivia Han. Chase was a famous child actress who has, as she reached adulthood, gotten in highly publicized trouble with drinking, drugs, and men. To prepare her for an acting assignment, Olivia attempts to teach her how to take responsibility in a life-coaching program…

Healthcare History HIV/AIDS Science Society

The Origins of AIDS

By Scott J. Pearson | March 8, 2021March 20, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Understanding the origins of AIDS is important for at least three reasons. First, HIV/AIDS is an important biomedical global disease that is still not conquered. Second, much cultural rhetoric due to stigma exists in society about this disease, and blame for the AIDS pandemic have been wrongfully placed at the feet of many oppressed groups. Third, contemporary events with coronavirus have shown that humans aren’t as safe from disease and pandemic as we might imagine,…

Biography-Memoir

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

By Scott J. Pearson | March 6, 2021March 6, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

J.R.R. Tolkien is most well-known to the public as the author of the famous trilogy Lord of the Rings, surely one of the best works of art ever written in the English language. This work by Carpenter serves as his authorized biography. Tolkien’s professorial and academic life as an Oxford don dominates most of the narrative, but always lingering behind lies his unique love of language (philology) – particularly “sub-creating” worlds with language. Carpenter achieves…

Healthcare Research-Education Society

Introduction to Public Health

By Scott J. Pearson | March 3, 2021March 3, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Ironically, public health has been one of the most successful academic fields since 1900, yet still struggles to implement its agenda on the public (at least, in America). It is responsible for most of the doubling of life expectancy in America and for vast improvements in the quality of life. Schneider excellently chronicles those contributions with an eye towards the present and the future. She covers her topics in an accessible, easy-to-read manner that does…

Biostatistics Healthcare Research-Education

Biostatistics for Epidemiology and Public Health Using R

By Scott J. Pearson | February 27, 2021October 20, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

First, let me define the lay of the land for the curious reader. Biostatistics is the study of statistics relevant for biomedical applications. It combines mathematics and the bio world, which includes Public Health and Epidemiology. R is free software for a programming environment that allows researchers to perform advanced analyses of statistical questions on datasets. This volume by Chan was the first textbook that addressed R and biostatistics in depth in the same volume.…

Biography-Memoir Society

Black Boy out of Time

By Scott J. Pearson | February 23, 2021March 11, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Ziyad is a black, queer male writer from Cleveland, who now lives in New York City and uses the pronouns they/them (which shall be used in this review). They write about his struggles forming an identity in a world that seems violent and hostile to his health. While such an environment exists in some part for most children, Ziyad seems to have a particularly difficult time given a multi-religious home, public schooling that seemed to…

Fiction-Stories Religion-Philosophy

The First Man by Albert Camus

By Scott J. Pearson | February 19, 2021February 19, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

When he died in a tragic and unforeseen car crash in 1960, novelist and existentialist Albert Camus had a draft of this work in his briefcase. It was not published until the 1990s, but is the most autobiographical of Camus’ works. The main character, like the author, grew up impoverished in Algeria and escaped a life of the same through education. This tale, properly characterized as a coming-of-age novel, shares how the great writer and…