UMass Amherst Common Read Blog

UMass Amherst’s Common Read program challenged this fall’s incoming students to write essays focused on themes presented in Orange is the New Black. The Common Read Committee received numerous well-written pieces and our committee of judges narrowed down the essays to three that stood out among the rest. The authors of these essays did an exemplary job articulating ways in which Orange is the New Black relates to the themes of social justice, the power of personal narratives, and finding one’s place in a new community. The Committee invites you to read all three essays below and post questions and commentary in the comments. Thank you for your contributions!

College is the New High School by Dhanya Kumar

An Insight into Community by Lauren Briggs

Maroon is the New Orange by John Cusick

 

On behalf of the Common Read Committee, we write with exciting news.  Last Friday, October 31, after an intensive month-long process, the committee selected three finalists for the University’s Common Read, 2015-16.  We began this process with more than 30 book nominations from faculty, staff, and students across campus, including nominations from faculty in eight different colleges and schools.  We then involved nearly three dozen readers in evaluating potential books on a range of criteria, including readability for first-year students and fit with the Chancellor’s Common Read themes of community, connection, and active engagement.  The committee was especially cognizant of its responsibility to the campus community to select books that would promote dialogue and engagement around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The three finalists we selected are Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, and The True American by Anand Giridharadas.  Fuller information about the three books is provided below and in the attached handout.

•  Americanah, by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, is a novel about a young Nigerian woman who leaves her country for the West, coming to America for college and life beyond.  It’s a moving, often funny, always engaging story about race, immigration, and youth.  Published in 2013, it was one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.  One of our readers wrote of the book that it was full of “nuanced descriptions of characters, from the subtle differences in their skin tone to the way they move their arms when picking up a cup of tea.  It also does an awesome job of tapping into the mindset of a young person experiencing college and life in America for the first time.”  Another reader wrote, “The book will challenge diverse audiences across multiple categories of identity and experience, and it will do this with a compelling narrative rather than through journalistic non-fiction.”

•  The Round House, by Louise Erdrich, is set on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota.  Told through the voice of a 13-year-old boy, it’s a captivating story of a family shaken by violent crime and the search for justice that follows.  The book is not only an exciting read; it is rich with themes of race, history, law, and family.  It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012.   As one of our readers wrote, it’s a “coming-of-age story that also opens up a world that most students will likely be unaware of.”  Another reader found it “engrossing . . . beautifully written yet also fast-paced . . . Through Erdrich’s writing, the reader gets a sense of the multi-layered community that is the Ojibwe Reservation.”  Another simply wrote, “This is a remarkable novel.”

•  The True American, by Anand Giridharadas, is a true story of racial hatred and forgiveness in the contemporary United States.  Published in 2014 and set in Texas, the book chronicles the lives of “American terrorist” Mark Stroman and Raisuddin Bhuiyan, the Bangladeshi store clerk whom he shoots in an act of revenge for the 9/11 attacks.  It follows the two men as they try to re-build their lives and learn to understand each other.  One of our readers called the book “a landmark read . . . a story of forgiveness and coming together.”  Another described it as “deeply moving . . . it deftly makes the reader sympathetic to a murderer and one of his intended victims.  It’s a critique of some of the worst aspects of American culture but acknowledges capacity for individual and societal growth.”

Our next steps include identifying approximately 100 campus readers (50 faculty/staff and 50 students) to review all three books over winter break.  We will be making a general call to students and faculty/staff to serve as readers; we will also be soliciting readers from particular campus groups, such as SGA, CEPA, Student Bridges, the Chancellor’s Diversity Advisory Committee, and CLC.  Once our readers have provided their input, the Common Read Committee will submit a report to the Chancellor, Provost, and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, along with a book recommendation.  We hope to make a mid-February public announcement about the University’s Common Read for 2015-16.

Check out some new opportunities starting THIS Monday, September 22nd! Interested in learning who will be presenting? Check out their bios here.

 

This post is a truncated version of a post from  CoCo’s Culture Corner. For the full version go here. 

In a recent interview with Uzo Abuba, the Emmy-Award winning actress from the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, for Vanity Fair, she was asked to what was it like to work with a large number of other female actresses of color.  Her response recalled a recent conversation I had with a close friend about why the space this series has created is so important.  The question that then emerged for me is “why can women-only spaces be nurtured, desired, and supported in a prison setting?”

Continue reading “Guest Blogger: Orange is the New Black and the Sacredness (and Necessity) of Women-Only Spaces”

Call me a devil’s advocate, a killjoy, or an literary ignoramus, but I must admit that I do not find Orange is the New Black as well-written, deep, or as fascinating as others on this blog seem to find it. Do not be mistaken: I do believe this memoir is worth reading and powerful; however, I had hoped to hear more about the institutional oppression jail presents to women as well as more personal growth in Kerman at the termination of the memoir.

Firstly, while the work lacked organization, it swam with characters—too many characters to track. Before you could often understand or appreciate a character, Kerman focused on
another, and seemed to be no chronological order to the memoir. I suppose I simply prefer a little more structure. Secondly, for someone who undergoes such an emotionally, mentally and at times physically strenuous time, Kerman certainly does not leave with any amazingly complex or deep revelations (“What I discovered was that I am emphatically not alone.”). The last few pages were more of a reflection upon how Kerman recognized the need for others (dropped the “I am an island fortress method of dealing”) and her affection for the women in Danbury instead of the horrors of the American prison system or national drug issue. This made me wonder: Did Kerman regret pushing people away more than drug-trafficking? The memoir was a tad shallow, and I craved more significant, if you will, epiphanies. Thirdly, this memoir was neat in the sense that it was not too messy or gritty when it came to conflict. Even the moral ambiguity regarding Nora that Kerman experienced at the end of the memoir—“Regardless of whether she was honest to me, I wanted to forgive her…If I could forgive, it meant I was a strong, good person…”—was short-lived and cursory. Lastly, though I would have liked to see Kerman address the calls to action for the things prison does not do for the society, this is a memoir, and therefore never promises any of those conclusions.

Nonetheless, I refuse to end this brief blog post on a negative note. The true power of this
book, the part that struck me the most, is the fact that it made me step into the shoes of a
female in a prison and feel, no matter how superficially, how we as a society punish lawbreaking.

Though Kerman is a class apart from most of the women at Danbury (she consistently makes comparisons for the reader, with her books, education, and visitors), Kerman’s psychological journey most definitely made me never want to enter the prison system. And truthfully, because it is a memoir, it allows the reader to make his/her own connections and conclusions. Kerman told her story. It is the reader’s responsibility to reflect.

Leigh Hamlet is currently attending UMass Amherst as a member of the Class of 2018.

Interested in social justice? Check out these courses below! Topics include many issues touched on in this year’s Common Read selection.

Educ 392 is highly interactive course that blends content and personal experience in addressing critical social justice issues such as racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, religious oppression, and transgender oppression using a small group facilitated weekend seminar format. The weekend seminars are led by 2 or more second year Master’s students in the Social Justice Education program under Prof. Zúñiga’s supervision.
This fall we are offering:  Racism, sexism, heterosexism and transgender oppression.
Each weekend earns 1 credit  (P/F).  Students can enroll in more than one section and MUST ATTEND A MANDATORY MEETING ON WED.  9/10/14 from  5:30pm – 8:30pm.

–          EDUC 392D –Racism Weekend Workshop

• 10/25-10/26 from 9am – 5pm

–          EDUC 392E –Sexism Weekend Workshop

• 11/1-11/2 from 9am – 5pm

–          EDUC 392I – Transgender Oppression Weekend Workshop

• 11/8-11/9 from 9am – 5pm

–          EDUC 392L – Heterosexism Weekend Workshop

• 11/15-11/16 9am – 5pm

Please note: There are no prerequisites. Registration is still open to students and courses are open to the general undergraduate student body. For more information please check out SJESeminars!

Please see below for a new event available for interested students! The information below will also be available via the Common Read website at www.umass.edu/studentlife/commonread .

 

“Real Women. Real Voices: The Movement of Formerly Incarcerated Women to End Mass Incarceration”

Andrea James, Executive Director of Families for Justice as Healing
Nov. 3, 6:30 p.m. Campus Center 162

Andrea James has worked within the criminal justice system for more than 25 years, including as a criminal defense attorney, when she provided zealous representation for families within her community of Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 2009, she was sentenced to a 24-month federal prison sentence, part of which she served at the federal prison camp for women in Danbury, Connecticut. Even after a lifetime of work seeking justice on behalf of disenfranchised people, she was stunned by what she encountered upon entering the prison system as an incarcerated person. Since her release, Andrea James has mobilized to support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children through the organization Families for Justice as Healing, a criminal justice reform organization advocating for community wellness initiatives to replace the war on drugs and incarceration. Through this work, she is fulfilling the promise she made to the women who remain in prison—to speak their truth, advocate for an end to the war on drugs, and support a shift toward community wellness.

STPEC is proud to sponsor Andrea James’s visit to UMass as part of our effort to support UMass programming on prison reform and prison abolition. Ms. James will also be visiting STPEC’s First-Year Faculty Seminar “The Prison-Industrial Complex and Prison Abolitionism,” co-taught by STPEC director Sigrid Schmalzer and STPEC student Emily Shepard, and organized in conjunction with the 2014 UMass Common Read, Orange Is the New Black.

This past week members of the UMass Amherst community were set to meet some incoming students from abroad. UMass Amherst was fortunate to be able to enlist the expertise and services of Gretchen Dobson Ed.D., a leading global alumni relations consultant to coordinate these exciting opportunities for students.

On August 14^th, 2014, the first of our Summer Send-Offs from abroad took place in Beijing, China. With several recent alumni in attendance, we welcomed new students Yin (Roy) Luo and Wei (Chris) Chengrao (seated front left and right respectively) to the UMass Amherst family.  Lei Song, Yan Qiao, Peng Sun and Fei Li (back left to right) were with our new students in Beijing to speak with new students, share copies of our Common Read and begin answering many of the question that Roy, Chris and many other incoming students will have as they transition to life at UMass.

The following night, Daniel Cheng and Shane McEwan (both Class of 2009) were on-sight in Shanghai to meet with incoming students and their families. Daniel and Shane were able to share insight into transitioning to college life and academics as well as the pressing concern of where to find the best pizza in Amherst (we hear Antonio’s name was mentioned several times). Incoming students Chengjin (Frank) Xie and Jiajin (Janet) Zhu (seated front left and right respectively) were provided with copies of the 2014 Common Read as well as some gear to get them ready for their time at UMass Amherst!