2024-2025 Common Read Announcement and Speaker

ID: Professional photo of a woman on a gray background

The Office of Academic Programs, the Office of Institutional Equity and Belonging, and the Feminist & Gender Studies Department are excited to announce that we have partnered to bring you the 2024-25 Colorado College Common Read: Belonging: A Culture of Place by bell hooks.

To center our collective values of equity and belonging, as we commemorate 150 years of Colorado College, we are exploring what it means to have been a part of this broader community in the Southwest United States and how our present commitment to antiracism helps us reconcile the complex and traumatic history of the region.

Traversing past and present, Belonging charts a cyclical journey in which hooks moves from place to place, from country to city and back again, only to discover that the places we call home are those where we can be our most authentic selves. As you read, we ask the CC community to consider: who is allowed to become a member of a community, and how do factors such as race, class, and gender shape our sense of belonging?

ID: Professional photo of a a woman on a grey background

We are also pleased to announce this year’s Common Read Speaker, Dr. M. Shadee Malaklou. Dr. Malaklou is a critical race, gender, and sexuality studies scholar who serves as the Inaugural Director and founder of the bell hooks center and Associate Professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Berea College.

Please join us on Wednesday, Oct. 2 from 2:30-4 p.m. in Gates Common Room for a conversation about the work.

If you would like a copy of Belonging: A Culture of Place, there are limited copies available in Tutt Library 230, along with copies of Common Reads from previous years. You can also recieve a copy from the bookstore with your CC ID, and there are also physical and digital copies available to borrow from Tutt Library.

If you are a member of a department, program, or office hosting programming related to the Common Read and would like your event added to the Common Read website, please contact Brett Gray in the Office of Academic Programs at bgray@coloradocollege.edu” style=”font-weight: normal;font-weight: normal;color: #7a6646;text-decoration: underline;color: #7a6646;text-decoration: underline”> bgray@coloradocollege.edu.