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2009-10 OneBook advocates community

Written by Johnathan Silver, Contributor to The Shorthorn

Thursday, 07 May 2009 07:19 PM

Beginning this fall, departments will discuss — through video, essays and public figures — sustainability and the 2009-10 OneBook, Deep Economy.

Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future is a nonfiction book by Bill McKibben. He argues that big business fosters alienation and encourages people to get to know their local communities. He suggests the same people contribute to their local communities by supporting public transportation, soliciting local pride and become more like a village.

Justin Lerberg, first-year English assistant director, said he was optimistic about how sustainability will impact the university.

“It’s a good subject because it branches out into other disciplines,” he said.

OneBook/Conversations is a program that annually chooses a book for beginning English classes to analyze throughout a semester.

Computer science freshman Osuvaldo Ramos read the 2008-09 OneBook, The History of Love, last fall and said he would also read Deep Economy because of its subject.

“It couldn’t hurt to read,” he said. “Especially since everyone is worried about the environment.”

OneBook faculty co-chairman Christopher Conway will prepare a series of one- to two-minute video tutorials on the book.

“Our goal is to personalize the reading experience for the first-year students and give them confidence as they read Deep Economy,” he said.

Margaret Lowry, first-year English director, said staff throughout campus contributed to the OneBook English curriculum.

“In English 1301 and across the campus, the OneBook/Conversations Program creates interdisciplinary conversations about a timely issue,” she said. “English 1301 is the heart of that conversation.”

Gretchen Trkay, instruction and information literacy librarian, will contribute by helping readers with essay writing.

“There’s never an instance when students are coming in the library to just learn about the library,” she said. “It’s about how the library can help students do better on specific course projects.”

Trkay’s colleague, instruction and information literacy librarian Evelyn Barker, creates reading guides for students to understand the book from chapter to chapter by clarifying issues the book addresses.

When Barker wrote the guide to the 2006-07 OneBook, The Kite Runner, she included statistical information about Afghanistan, a setting in the novel.

Future visitors to the campus include McKibben and environmentalist Doug Fine, author of Farewell, My Subaru, according to a OneBook program release.

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 June 2009 02:02 PM )

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