2013-2014 Academic Year: Inter/Action
CICC is pleased to announce Inter/Action as the theme for the 2013-2014 academic year. The theme and related programming are being organized around two books that will, together, compose a campus common reading.
We believe the common read can: create a shared academic experience, help us continue discussions of ethics, civility, and global citizenship, foster connections among students, faculty and staff, and increase cross campus participation in and awareness of the yearly theme.
This year, we have chosen two books in support of this year's intellectual theme that could be featured in a variety of settings and disciplines: Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago, by LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, and Blasphemy, by Sherman Alexie.
Inter/Action starts from the premise that not all Americans are always given an equal opportunity to speak their piece. However, as LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman state in Our America: "You must learn Our America as we must learn your America, so that maybe, someday, we can become one." Jones and Newman were teenagers when they were asked to begin documenting their lives in and around Chicago's Ida B. Wells housing project. The book offers their first-hand accounts of that life, and chronicles how their lives are different from "other" Americas.
Both books raise questions about our common humanity (across the globe, across ethnic and socio-economic divides). They focus our attention on the dangers of dehumanization and social inequality. How do we engage with people of different classes or ethnicities in a civil or ethical manner?
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"What Will The Collective Voice Of A Generation Have to Say?"
Presentation by LeAlan Jones