Common Reading Books
On Thursday, September 11, 2008, the Class of 2012 and other members of the Carleton community will gather in the Chapel for a convocation and afterward engaged in small group discussions based upon Travels of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli. Read summarization below.
- Financial Times
"This charming, intelligent narrative debunks myths on both sides of the globalization debate. Mixing historical perspective with current events, the book highlights that it's not market forces but avoiding them that creates winners in world trade... a rich tapestry of globalization past and present that focuses on real people to rip fabrications on all sides of the debate... a great read."
- Asia Times
"During a 1999 protest of the World Trade Organization, Rivoli, an economics professor at Georgetown, looked on as an activist seized the microphone and demanded, "Who made your T-shirt?" Rivoli determined to find out. She interviewed cotton farmers in Texas, factory workers in China, labor champions in the American South and used-clothing vendors in Tanzania. Problems, Rivoli concludes, arise not with the market, but with the suppression of the market. Subsidized farmers, and manufacturers and importers with tax breaks, she argues, succeed because they avoid the risks and competition of unprotected global trade, which in turn forces poorer countries to lower their prices to below subsistence levels in order to compete. Rivoli seems surprised by her own conclusions, and while some chapters lapse into academic prose and tedious descriptions of bureaucratic maneuvering, her writing is at its best when it considers the social dimensions of a global economy, as in chapters on the social networks of African used-clothing entrepreneurs."
--Excerpt from the Hardcover edition.
Past Common Readings:
2007: Mountains Beyond Mountains
Presenters: Robert A. Oden, Jr., President of the College; Joseph Chihade, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Director of Biochemistry; Patrick Ganey, Carleton Development Officer; Amenah Babar '05.2006: Persepolis and Persepolis 2
Presenters: Robert A. Oden, Jr., President of the College; Carol Donelan, Professor of Cinema and Media Studies; Visiting Professor Louis Fishman; Professor Cherif Keita2005: The Working Poor: Invisible in America
Presenters: Robert A. Oden, Jr., President of the College; Kaila Yang, Class of 2003; David K. Shipler, Author2004: West of Kabul, East of New York
Presenter: Tamim Ansary, Author2003: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Presenters: Qiguang Zhao, Burton and Lily Levin Professor of Chinese; Roy Grow, Frank B. Kellogg Professor of International Relations; Laura Clise, Class of 20012002: All Over but the Shoutin'
Presenters: Martha Paas, Professor of Economics; Paul Thiboutot, Dean of Admissions; Christopher Gonzalez-Crane, Class of 20022001: A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League
Presenters: Diane Nemec-Ignashev, Professor of Russian; Robin Hart, Director of Campus Activities; Lance McCready, Class of 19902000: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Presenters: Denise Intihar-Lum, Nurse Practitioner; Mark Hansell, Associate Professor of Chinese; KaShia Tasli Moua, Class of 19991999: The Color of Water
Presenters: Hudlin Wagner, Associate Dean of Students; Justin London, Associate Professor of Music; Dana Wright, Class of 19951998: My Brother
Presenters: Jillian Baird Burnett, Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions; Harry Williams, Associate Professor of History; Mario Small, Class of 19961997: The Tortilla Curtain
Presenters: Mark Govoni, Dean of Students; Marisela Marquez, Fred C. Anderson Fellow in Political Science and American Studies; Ariadma Berkovich, Class of 19951996: Whose Art Is It?
Presenters: Elizabeth J. Ciner, Associate Dean of the College; Rick Salafia, Assistant Professor of Art; Raul Raymundo, Class of 1987, Alumni Board Member1995: Colored People: A Memoir
Presenters: Clement F. Shearer, Dean for Budget and Planning; John Ramsay, Associate Professor of Educational Studies; Carol Barnett, Class of 1986, Carleton Trustee1994: The Woman Warrior
Presenters: Eleanor Zelliot, Laird Bell Professor of History; Nader Saiedi, Associate Professor of Sociology/Anthropology; Eden T. Inoway, Class of 19871993: The House on Mango Street
Presenters: Elizabeth J. Ciner, Associate Dean of the College; Robert Tisdale, Professor of English; Georgina Moreno, Class of 19921992: Donald Duk
Presenters: Robert Bonner, Dean of Students and Professor of History; Lloyd Komatsu, Associate Professor of Psychology; Andrew Kim, Class of 19921991: Black Boy (American Hunger: a Record of Childhood and Youth)
Presenters: Elizabeth J. Ciner, Associate Dean of the College; Michael Zuckert, Dorothy and Edward Congdon Professor of Political Science; Harry Williams, Assistant Professor of History1990: Hunger of Memory
Presenters: Maria Lugones, Professor of Philosophy; Jackson Bryce, Professor of Classical Languages; Deborah Appleman, Assisant Professor of Educational Studies1989: July's People
Presenters: Stephen R. Lewis, Jr., President of the College; Susan Jaret McKinstry, Associate Professor of English; Cherif Keita, Assistant Professor of French1988: Love Medicine
Presenters: Nancy Ashmore, Director of Publications/Editor Carleton Voice; Rudolph Byrd, Assistant Professor of English; Robert Bonner, Professor of History
