This spring, the Wayne State University Center for the Study of Citizenship and Wayne State University Press will celebrate the beginning of an important new interdepartmental partnership more than five years in the making: the Series in Citizenship Studies at WSU Press.

Immediately following the first day of programming in this year's Citizenship Studies Conference, the two WSU departments will publicly launch Generations: Rethinking Age and Citizenship, the inaugural book in the new series, at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in the McGregor Memorial Conference Center.

"This partnership between WSU Press and WSU's Center for the Study of Citizenship will help mark Wayne State as a leader in the emerging field of citizenship studies," said Kathryn Wildfong, editor-in-chief of WSU Press. "The study of citizenship touches in some way virtually every person on the planet, and our aim with this book series is to develop and make available a body of work that connects theory and practice, engaging conversation across disciplines within the academy, as well as between academic and public spheres."

Generations: Rethinking Age and Citizenship explores the meaning of citizenship and how its expression varies with age, develops over time and is often learned by interacting with members of other generations. The book's editor, Richard Marback, has collected contributions that explore this temporal dimension of membership in political communities through a variety of rich disciplinary perspectives.

The series will pick up steam in 2015, with three more books set to be published. The Meaning of Citizenship will take an interdisciplinary look at the conditions of citizenship in the 21st century; Acts of Angry Writing will explore how literary texts by activist writers in India have been crucial in spreading local struggles across borders and promoting bonds between activists and common citizens; Reconfiguring Citizenship and National Identity in the North American Literary Imagination will examine how alternative kinds of political membership, cultural identity, and social belonging are depicted in narratives that effectively challenge the notion of a national literature. 

"The urgent need to understand citizenship at the dawn of the new millennium has encouraged people around the globe to consider questions of identity, group membership, status, rights and obligations from a variety of political, social, economic and cultural perspectives," said Marc Kruman, director of the WSU Center for the Study of Citizenship and  co-editor of the series. "WSU's Center for The Study of Citizenship aims to assume a leadership role in the creation and development of this new field."

Subjects for future projects include the concept of representation in citizenship; the American immigrant soldier; migration and issues of citizenship, identity, and gender in Israel; immigration legislation in Italy; and citizenship, sovereignty, and space in contemporary Detroit.

The public is invited to the free launch event. Complimentary bites and beverages will be provided.  RSVP at citizenshipseries.eventbrite.com.