Fall 2008

1) Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, by Maryanne Wolf, facilitated by Fernan Jaramillo and Mike Flynn

2) Iliad by Homer, facilitated by Chico Zimmerman

While we have not decided on exact dates, each group will meet two or three times in late afternoon at Headley House, with refreshments provided. Please register your interest in either or both groups by contacting Jennifer Cox Johnson at the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching (jcoxjohn@carleton.edu or x4192). We will try to have the books to you by mid-summer.

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Spring 2008 reading and discussion group

Thursday, April 10
"[Re]reading James Baldwin on Racial Images"

Facilitator: Harry McKinley Williams, Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professor of History

Thursday, April 17
"[Re]reading and Discussing James Baldwin with Lawrie Balfour"

Facilitators: Professor Lawrie Balfour, Harry McKinley Williams, Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professor of History, Elizabeth Ciner, Associate Dean of the College

Tuesday, April 29
"[Re]reading James Baldwin: On Education and Manhood"

Facilitator: Harry McKinley Williams, Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professor of History

All meetings 4:30-6:00 pm, Headley House 815 East Second Street
refreshments provided

Co-sponsors: Perlman LTC/Mellon Faculty Life Cycles grant and Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities

Join the group by contacting Jennifer Cox Johnson (jcoxjohn@carleton.edu or x 4192).

Winter 2008 reading and discussion group

1) Human Responses to Climate Change:

Wednesdays: Jan 9 (Gould 305), Jan 16 (Headley House), and Feb 13 (Headley House)

As part of its year-long focus on climate change, the ENTS program and the LTC are co-sponsoring a winter term reading group to explore the human impacts of climate change. We tend to think about climate change as an issue of science and global policy - global temperature increases, greenhouse gas concentrations, the Kyoto Protocol, etc. We hear less about the human impacts of climate change. But some non-industrialized societies, such as the Inuit in Alaska and Canada, have been observing climate change for generations and have already had to adapt.

Essays in “The Earth is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change” raise important questions about merging native knowledge and a framework of academic research and about the capacity of societies to adapt to differing amounts of environmental change. “Field Notes from a Catastrophe,” based on articles originally written for the New Yorker, fleshes out the human stories behind the science and policy “basics.”

Discussions will be facilitated by Mary Savina, Mark Kanazawa and Ken Tape (University of Alaska, Fairbanks). Please join us for a lively set of discussions:

The group will be meeting at the following times and places:

4:30-6 p.m. Wednesday January 9 - Gould Library 305 (Earth is Faster Now: Foreword, Preface, Introduction, chs. 3, 4, and 5).
4:30-6 p.m. Wednesday January 16 - Headley House
4:30-6 p.m. Wednesday February 13 - Headley House

(We've front-loaded the schedule to take advantage of Ken Tape's presence on campus).

Please let Jennifer Cox Johnson know if you are interested in participating. Books are available in the LTC.

2) Stumbling on Happiness: Thursdays Jan 31 and Feb 21 (Headley House)

All except January 9 are in Headley House,

4:30-6:00 pm with refreshments.

Contact Jennifer Cox Johnson (jcoxjohn@carleton.edu) or x 4192 to join either. Books are available now.

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Fall 2007 reading and discussion group

Thursdays: September 27, October 11, and 25

Accountability in Higher Education: How does Carleton participate in the national conversation?

Almost daily, we read about No Child Left Behind, the Spellings Commission's recommendations, proposed changes in accreditation, and national standards for higher education--what does all of this mean for Carleton? This fall, faculty and staff are invited to three discussion sessions at Headley House to consider background readings, relevant news of the day, and on-campus preparation for our accreditation process. How does Carleton define quality? What kind of evidence do we offer our students, parents, trustees, and ourselves? How do we recognize success as well as problems that need attention? At the final session, Bill Condon of Washington State University, a longtime friend of Carleton and nationally-recognized authority on quality measures for higher education, joins in the discussion.

Thursdays: September 27, October 11, and 25
Headley House, 4:30-6 p.m. with refreshments provided.

Chico Zimmerman and Carol Rutz, facilitators

Co-Sponsored by the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, the Mellon Faculty Lifecycles grant, and The College Writing Program

Sign up for this group by contacting Carol Rutz or email .

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Acacemic year 2006-2007

Spring 2007 book discussion group:

Randall Kennedy's Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

facilitated by Harry Williams, David and Marian Adams Bryn-Jones Distinguished Teaching Professor of History and the Humanities

Thursday, April 19 and Tuesday, May 15

4:30-6:00 pm Headley House

with refreshments provided

To join the group, please contact Jennifer Cox Johnson
x 4192 or jcoxjohn@carleton.edu

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Winter 2007 book discussion group:

Liberal Education in its Historical Context
We will read a selection of primary texts (in English!) that have been seminal in bringing academe to its current understanding of what a liberal arts education means.
Chico Zimmerman, facilitator

Tuesday, January 23
Thursday, February 8
Tuesday, February 27
Headley House, 4:30-6:00 pm, with refreshments

Cosponsored by Mellon Faculty Lifecycles grant
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Fall 2006 book discussion groups:

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (2003), by Tracy Kidder

We think this book about Dr. Paul Farmer will help create rich, humane, interdisciplinary conversation around the issues of public health in poor communities where social and political strategies interface with biological and health issues.

To join this book discussion, please email Stephanie Ewing (spenning@Carleton.edu), administrative assistant for CISMI. She will contact participants when books are ready to be picked up at the Carleton bookstore. Books are free to all participants who sign up. Discussion times are above.

Cosponsors are the Carleton Interdisciplinary Science and Math Initiative (CISMI) and the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching (LTC), with support from the Mellon Faculty Life Cycles grant and Carleton's Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant.
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Writing Program book discussion groups:
During fall term, Carleton hosts two authors of books designed to help college writers approach research. Faculty are invited to read and discuss the books and meet the authors. All meetings are on Thursdays at Headley House, 815 East Second Street, 4:30-6 pm, with refreshments provided.

Co-sponsored by the Writing Program and the Perlman LTC, with support from grants through the Bush and Mellon Foundations. To join one or both book discussion groups, please contact Carol Rutz (x4082 or ). Books are provided to participants.

September 21 and October 5: We discuss Joseph Harris' new book, Rewriting, just out from Utah State University Press. Harris, Director of the University Writing Program at Duke University, will join us on October 5.
October 26 and November 9: We turn to a classic, The Craft of Research, by Wayne Booth, Greg Colomb, and Joseph Williams, University of Chicago Press, 2003 (2nd ed.). Colomb, Professor of English at the University of Virginia, will be on campus November 9.

Academic year (2005-2006) we read:

John M. Barry: Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, an account of the 1927 Mississippi River Flood (1998, Simon & Schuster, 528 p.). This book has something for everyone, as Barry combines accounts of the natural (and political) conditions that led to the catastrophic flooding with stories about the impacts on individual lives and the culture of the South. It’s a long book and I’ll be happy to suggest chapters to read and skim, if the whole book seems too daunting. Mary Savina

Thursday: April 13, 4:30-6:00, Headley House and

Tuesday, April 25, 4:30-6:00, Headley House

Derek Bok's new book Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should be Learning More (2006, Princeton University Press, 413 p.). I think the book has an unfortunate title, since Bok works hard to distinguish his book from other critiques of American higher education. (I wish Amazon had the short introduction online for you to skim; you will find Amazon’s reviews helpful). The core of the book is the eight chapters about disciplinary-crossing habits of mind: critical thinking, communication, building character and five others that most of us probably agree students should develop at Carleton (in fact, I think we’d add a few). In other words, these are some of the central issues for us as we work on the curriculum review. Throughout, Bok’s tone is positive, acknowledging the many good aspects of undergraduate education while highlighting ways to make it even better. Mary Savina

Monday: April 24, 4:30-6, Headley House

Monday, May 15, 4:30-6, Headley House.

Lee Shulman essay discussions:

This group meets one final time during Shulman's visit to campus on Wednesday, May 3, 4:30-6:00 pm at Headley House.

We have ordered copies of a collection of Lee's essays, titled Teaching As Community Property (edited by Pat Hutchings). These are available in the bookstore to essay group members, courtesy of the Mellon Faculty Lifecycles grant. Sign up for the group by contacting Jennifer in the LTC.

Headley House, 812 East Second Street

Wednesday, February 1: Lee Shulman discussion:
reading assignments are groups of essays, "Professing the Liberal Arts" and "Teaching as Community Property."

4:30-6:00 pm, Headley House

Wednesday, February 22: Lee Shulman discussion:

groups of essays, "The Doctoral Imperative: Examining the Ends of Erudition" (in book) and also "Signature Pedagogies in the Profession" (available in the LTC and in the summer 2005 issue of Daedalus).

4:30-6:00 pm, Headley House

Gender in Academia

cosponsored by the Mellon Faculty Lifecycles grant

Book discussions for winter: All in Headley House

Wednesday, January 11–
Gender in Academia: continuing the conversation

4:30-6:00 pm, Headley House, 812 East Second Street

Come prepared to discuss chapters 3 and 5 in Gender and Academia.

P.S. Another source mentioned on October 31 was material coming from the Good Work project () specifically the part of the the project on Higher Education, coordinated by William Damon at Stanford.

We'll have sherry, juices, and snacks available for all. See you at Headley House, 815 East Second Street at 4:30 pm.

Wednesday, February 8:
Gender in Academia group continues the conversation with Rising Above Cognitive Errors: Guidelines for Search, Tenure Review, and Other Evaluation Committees by JoAnn Moody, PhD, JD, National Diversity Consultant; Director, Northeast Consortium for Faculty Diversity (available in the LTC)

4:30-6:00 pm, Headley House

Book discussions on this theme began in spring 2005 and will continue in 2005-06. The books are:

• Unlocking the Clubhouse by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher, 2002 (MIT Press, 172 p.), a short and readable account of gender dynamics in a male-dominated field, computer science. (Note: this book has already been discussed, but may be of interest to those new to the discussion group.)
• Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to do About It by Joan Williams (2001).
• Career Strategies for Women in Academia : Arming Athena by Collins, Lynn H., Joan C. Chrisler, and Kathryn Quina, eds. (1998).

Complimentary copies provided to faculty who sign up through the LTC with funds from the Mellon Faculty Lifecycles grant. Extra discount available to staff members who join the group.

Fall 2005 book discussions:

The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler