All Vanderbilt faculty, students and staff are invited to help select The Commons Reading for the Class of 2017.
The Commons Reading is a book that is mailed to all rising first-year students to be read during the summer before they arrive on campus. The reading will be discussed at The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons and across campus during the students’ first days at Vanderbilt and throughout the academic year.
The reading for 2016 will be Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book was chosen in a blind process by the dean and faculty heads of house of The Ingram Commons from a list of 176 titles suggested by faculty, students and staff last spring.
The chosen book was suggested by then-sophomore Shelby Begany, an RA in Stambaugh House at The Ingram Commons. Begany will be invited to dinner with Half the Sky author Sheryl WuDunn at the dean’s residence when WuDunn visits campus next fall.
How to nominate a book
Before March 25, visit Common Place and click on “The Commons Reading” button. There you can see a list of the titles that have already been suggested; once logged in with your VUnetID, “Like” a suggestion and add a comment as to why a particular book might or might not be a good fit — or suggest a new title of your own.
The final book will be chosen by the dean and the faculty heads of house at The Ingram Commons from the list of suggestions. If possible, the author or a related expert will be brought to campus in fall 2013.
What makes a good Commons reading? The book should be well-written and accessible for an audience composed of 18-year-olds. It should be intellectually challenging and accommodating to multiple opinions and perspectives and model the standards for intellectual life at Vanderbilt.
Please take a few minutes to visit Common Place, and help us out with a “Like,” a comment or a title suggestion.
Contact: Michael Martin, (615) 322-2952
michael.martin@vanderbilt.edu