BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – “Still there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.”
In this passage from the final installment of her 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri suggests knowing where you’ve been is just as important as knowing where you’re going. With the selection of Maladies as the centerpiece of this year’s summer reading program, Illinois Wesleyan students and staff hope to instill in the campus community a similar dedication to embracing your roots.
“The reading program book selection speaks to our values as a university,” said Roshaunda Ross, director of multicultural student affairs. “Here at Illinois Wesleyan, we’re committed to striving for diversity.”
Based on the idea that reading and critical reflection are central to the mission of a liberal arts college, IWU’s annual summer reading program provides an opportunity for new students to participate in a shared intellectual conversation with the campus community by expressing ideas about a common text. With past titles including Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man, Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, the reading program helps ease the transition from high school to college by preparing new students for the discussion-oriented courses characteristic of Illinois Wesleyan.