Dear USC Rossier Faculty, Staff and Students,
I’m happy to announce the next book in our USC Rossier Book Club: There There, by Tommy Orange.
Our school-wide discussion will take place in the Radisson Ballroom on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, from noon until 2 pm. Lunch will be provided, so please RSVP by Oct. 12.
Books can be picked up in WPH 1100 beginning Tuesday, Sept. 25, 10 am–noon or 2 pm–4 pm, Tues–Fri, until Fri., Oct. 12. Please note that your acceptance of the book indicates your commitment to read it and participate in our discussion!
We also welcome remote participants to take part in the discussion. Please provide a mailing address if you will need the book shipped to you. A link to the virtual classroom will be provided closer to the date of the Book Club.
Part of the Rossier Way
We launched our book club last spring as part of a new initiative, “The Rossier Way,” which is designed to cultivate a culture of caring and support among faculty, staff and students. I am hosting the book clubs in partnership with Darline Robles, our Associate Dean of Equity and Inclusion.
Our goal is to select a work of fiction that helps us explore themes relevant to our mission to advance educational equity. This book was among the many thoughtful suggestions submitted by faculty and staff at our August Kick-Off.
There There is, according to its publisher, Knopf Doubleday, “a relentlessly paced multigenerational story about violence and recovery, memory and identity, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. It tells the story of twelve characters, each of whom have private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.”
Tommy Orange is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, Calif., and currently lives in Angels Camp, Calif.
We look forward to a lively discussion in November.
Sincerely,
Karen Symms Gallagher, Ph.D.
Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean
USC Rossier School of Education
Waite Phillips Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0031
Asst: hardison@usc.edu
213.740.5756 (office)
213.821.2158 (fax)