Duke University and the University of North Carolina have jointly decided upon Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals as summer reading for their respective incoming classes this year:
“A 21-member selection committee of students, faculty and staff from both universities chose the book from six finalists. Students on the committee described Eating Animals as an even-handed review of the food industry — not a campaign for vegetarianism.”
The schools will ask new students who will enroll next fall to read the book this summer and participate in small group discussions during orientation or soon thereafter. The program aims to stimulate critical thinking outside the classroom and give new students intellectual common ground. An academic icebreaker, it encourages students to engage with the scholarly community and come to their own conclusions about the material.
I really like this American tradition of assigning a book to all members of a university’s incoming class. We unfortunately didn’t have that at the Université de Montréal. Moreover, as someone whose research agenda focuses on food policy, I think this is excellent news and I am thinking of volunteering to lead one of those discussion groups.
I guess I should order the book and read it before the class of 2015 arrives on campus!