What happens to people after an earthquake destroys their homes? What is daily life like under a humanitarian regime? Is aid a gift or is it a form of power? A House of One’s Own explores these enduring questions as they unfold in a Salvadoran town in the aftermath of the 2001 earthquakes. In a lively, intimate account of the social complexities that arise in post- disaster settings, Alicia Sliwinski recounts the trajectories of fifty families who received different forms of humanitarian aid, from emergency assistance to housing reconstruction. Drawing on seminal anthropological theories about gift giving and moral economy, the author thoughtfully discusses the complications and challenges of humanitarian action that aims to rebuild communities through participation. At the crossroads of disaster studies and the anthropology of humanitarianism, the book’s insights speak to timely and recurring issues that relocated populations face in regimented and morally charged resettlement initiatives. A richly textured, analytically nuanced ethnography, A House of One’s Own is a perceptive firsthand account of what happens on the ground in a post-disaster setting. Alicia Sliwinski is associate professor of global studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. One of the notable distinctions of Biełarusian authors, compared to other writers in Slavic literatures, is their depiction of Jewish characters as native to the land. The Jewish population in historic Biełarusian territories was the country’s largest minority, and Yiddish was one of the state languages of Biełaruś between 1919 and 1938. The Portrayal of Jews in Modern Biełarusian Literature sheds light on this little-known yet important part of Slavic and Jewish studies. Zina Gimpelevich demonstrates that the works produced by Biełarusian writers over a long period of time display a more consistent tolerance and sympathy towards Jews than has generally been recognized. Beginning several centuries ago but concentrating on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, she offers excerpts – and textual and comparative analyses – of works by Biełarusian poets, novelists, and dramatists, most of whom have not been previously translated into English. Each writer is discussed in terms of their socio-political background and the country’s history during the period in which they lived and wrote. Biełarusian literature has influenced and enlightened public consciousness since the middle of the sixteenth century, despite the destructive actions of its many rulers. The Portrayal of Jews in Modern Biełarusian Literature offers deep insights into how the region’s Biełarusian, Jewish, and other cultures interacted over many centuries. Zina J. Gimpelevich is professor emeritus of Slavic studies at the University of Waterloo and the author of Vasil Bykaŭ: His Life and Works. 3 8 M Q U P S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 S P E C I F I C AT I O N S March 2018 978-0-7735-5292-0 $32.95A CDN, $29.95A US, £24.99 paper 978-0-7735-5291-3 $110.00S CDN, $110.00S US, £91.00 cloth 6 x 9 264pp 20 illustrations, 3 tables eBook available S P E C I F I C AT I O N S July 2018 978-0-7735-5317-0 $95.00S CDN, $95.00S US, £79.00 cloth 6 x 9 528pp 6 b&w photos eBook available S L AV I C S T U D I E S • J E W I S H S T U D I E S A N T H R O P O L O G Y • D E V E L O P M E N T S T U D I E S The Portrayal of Jews in Modern Biełarusian Literature zina j. gimpelevich An insightful introduction to the relationship between Biełarusians of Christian and Jewish origins, as recorded in Biełarusian literature. A House of One’s Own The Moral Economy of Post- Disaster Aid in El Salvador alicia sliwinski An intimate study of everyday humanitarianism in post-earthquake El Salvador.