PLU’s Diversity Center community explores this year’s Common Reading material

Angie Hambrick, PLU’s Assistance Vice President of Diversity, Justice and Sustainability, hosts a roundtable conversation with Diversity Center alumni Maurice Eckstein ’11 and Nicole Jordan ’15 to discuss this year’s Common Reading book, “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

PLU’s Common Reading program, founded in 2007, is an opportunity for incoming students to engage in an enriching academic experience with the campus community — a chance to immediately establish a connection with their peers and learn strategies for academic success.

“Between the World and Me,” drawing from an autobiographical account of the author’s youth, is written in the form of a raw, emotional, poignant letter to his teenage son and depicts the feelings, symbolism and violent realities of being black in America. All first-year students, faculty and staff are encouraged to read the book as part of that campus-wide Common Reading experience.

The conversation between Hambrick, Eckstein and Jordan, split into two parts for easy consumption, examines the text and bring a rich, lively analysis to bear grounded in the trio’s own personal experiences and expertise, helping listeners see the book through a different lens.