Social Cohesion Dialogues 2026

These 2026 featured books and authors grapple with histories and hopes that continue to shape our world. 

Join CSRD director and ASU professor Lois Brown, PhD and authors Amy Bowers Cordalis and Dean Calbreath for a revelatory conversation about the nature of war, honor, environmental injustice, history and the impacts of colonization. Small bites and beverages will be available from 5:30 - 6:00 p.m. and a book signing will follow the dialogue.

Register for a SCD 2026 Book Discussion to receive your free electronic or print copies of The Water Remembers by Amy Bowers Cordalis and The Sergeant by Dean Calbreath 
 

Amy Bowers Cordalis [Yurok] is a devoted advocate for Indigenous rights and environmental restoration. An enrolled  member of the Yurok Tribe and ceremony family from the village of Rek-Woi at the mouth of the Klamath River, she is a fisherwoman, attorney, and mother deeply rooted in the traditions of her people. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group, Cordalis leads efforts to support tribes in protecting their sovereignty, lands, and waters, including the historic Klamath Dam Removal project. The dam, which impacts waters in southern Oregon and northern California, is at the center of one of the world’s largest river restoration and dam removal initiatives. Cordalis has served as general counsel for the Yurok Tribe and as an attorney at the Native American Rights Fund. She has been recognized as a United Nations Champion of the Earth and selected as a Time 100 climate leader.  Her book, "The Water Remembers", has been hailed as “a powerful, poetic testament to Indigenous resilience and reverence for the natural world” and as “a triumphant” memoir that is a “song of survival and restoration.”

"The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life" (2025) propels readers through generations of [Cordalis'] family’s struggle, where she learns that the fight for survival is not only about fishing—it’s about protecting a way of life and the right of a species and river to exist. Her great-uncle’s landmark Supreme Court case reaffirming her Nation’s rights to land, water, fish, and sovereignty, her great-grandmother’s defiant resistance during the Salmon Wars, and her family’s ongoing battles against government overreach shape the deep commitment to justice that drives Cordalis forward. When the source of the fish kill is revealed, Cordalis steps up as General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe to hold powerful corporate interests accountable, and to spearhead the largest river restoration project in history. "The Water Remembers" is a testament to the enduring power of Indigenous knowledge, family legacy, and the determination to ensure that future generations remember what it means to live in balance with the earth.” https://amybowerscordalis.com

Dean Calbreath is a Pulitzer Prize and Polk Award-winning journalist, author, educator and an intrepid traveller who has journeyed to 42 countries and all 50 states. He began his career as a student reporter at the University of California at Berkeley. Calbreath is a freelance journalist who writes on politics, political conventions and presidential elections, the law and on groundbreaking legal cases. He has interviewed influential individuals such as Robert Redford, Julian Bond and Jane Fonda. In addition to his writing, Calbreath has taught journalism and continues to lecture on history, journalism, and public affairs. "The Sergeant: The Incredible Life of Nicholas Said," his most recent book, is the result of more than a decade of research. An acclaimed historical biography, the book chronicles the remarkable life of an African-born man who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. It has been hailed as “an enthralling story, brilliantly told” and a “sparkling biography.” 

"The Sergeant: The Incredible Life of Nicholas Said: Son of an African General, Slave of the Ottomans, Free Man Under the Tsars, Hero of the Union Army" (2023) is an unforgettable story about a long-forgotten man, Nicholas Said. "Through the lens of Said’s continent-crossing life, Calbreath examines the parallels and differences in the ways slavery was practiced from a global and religious perspective, and he highlights how Said’s experiences echo the discrimination, segregation, and violence that are still being reckoned with today.” The book traces Said's tragic and triumphant life “from his noble childhood in the kingdom of Borno to being kidnapped into slavery... from Africa and the Ottoman Empire through Czarist Russia and, finally, to heroic acclaim in the American Civil War. Said was born into a world of wealth and privilege in the powerful, thousand-year-old African kingdom of Borno. But instead of becoming a respected general like his fearsome father (who was known as The Lion), Nicolas Said’s fate was to fight a very different kind of battle." pegasusbooks