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length. Recommendations for titles and themes are
solicited from throughout the campus community.
An advisory board of cross-disciplinary faculty,
staff, and students meets, reviews, and selects Through reading diverse
the title in consultation with the Provost’s Office. perspectives and
Selected texts celebrate diverse voices, cultures,
and experiences that address social issues directly experiences, students gain
and indirectly. Reading diverse literature chosen
for the program exposes participants to different a deeper understanding
perspectives and experiences, types of narratives, of different cultures and
and ways of decoding and encoding meaning-
making through literature. Various authors note backgrounds...
that common reading programs support inclusive
excellence by promoting diversity and inclusion
(Fabian et al., 2023; Ferguson, 2006; Laufgraben,
2006). Through reading diverse perspectives and experiences, students gain a deeper
understanding of different cultures and backgrounds, fostering an inclusive campus
environment. This can cultivate empathy and understanding among students, staff,
and faculty, strengthening the university’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity
by learning directly from narratives created by leading authors and researchers.
Embracing various viewpoints enriches the university community through dialogue,
respect, and empathy around complex—and even difficult—topics (Fabian et al.,
2023; Kennedy & Boyd, 2018; Sweeney, 2019). Choices emphasize current student
interests and sociocultural importance as identified by advisory board members,
campus leaders, and campus program partners.

Recent Selections
Selections and their related activities help the campus community feel part of
meaningful local and global issues. For example, one of the recent texts was offered
in alignment with the university’s Environment Initiative and addressed issues
and contexts of climate change and ways of thinking through Indigenous research,
cosmologies, and epistemologies in combination with Western practices around
research, epistemologies, and cosmologies. This selection, Braiding Sweetgrass
(Kimmerer, 2013), was so engaging and popular that it was the first book to be
selected 2 years in a row and sparked interest and new opportunities for engagement
with communities from other universities across the western United States as well
as programs through the United Nations.
Recent selections include the following:
• 2023–2024 academic year: The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand
Women, and the Consequences of Having—or Being Denied—an Abortion
by Diana Greene Foster; Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender
Violence by Anita Hill; and The Palace Papers by Tina Brown in collaboration
with the 50th anniversary of the Center for the Study of Women in Society.
• 2022–2023 and 2021–2022: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,
Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
in collaboration with the UO’s Environment Initiative.
• 2020–2021: Becoming by Michelle Obama; This is My America by Kim

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