Across the political spectrum, people agree on one point and one point only: our public sphere is a great big mess. Mistrust of our neighbors, anger at their folly, inadvertent or deliberate misunderstanding of their views, attribution of the worst possible motives to those whose politics we despise: these are the dissonant notes we hear

The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward.

DePaul University Library’s Special Collections and Archives recently created a teaching kit for Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate by Sister Helen Prejean. The library houses Prejean’s papers and twenty primary sources were selected for the kit to deepen the reading experience.   Developed by members of DePaul’s College of Education, the

For Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize Board called THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, by Colson Whitehead “a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America.” The novel chronicles a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in

Writing for the popular film blog The Film Experience, Jose Solís interviews Sue and Saroo Brierley about their favorite moments in Lion, the Oscar-nominated movie adaptation of Saroo’s memoir, A LONG WAY HOME.

I was born in Cameroon and moved to the United States after high school to attend college. Having never been that far from home, I was extremely homesick in my first months in the country (it didn’t help that the weather was too cold for my liking). That all changed when I arrived at college.

In a new Ted Talk entitled “Solving Illegal Immigration [For Real],” decorated journalist and author Sonia Nazario suggests an alternative method to naturalization or heavy border policing to stem the flow of undocumented individuals into the United States. Nazario boasts a long and impressive writing career, during which she has shown immense dedication to featuring

The Invisible Boy Promotes Kindness in Kentucky’s One Book One Frankfort for Children Project by Trudy Ludwig, author of The Invisible Boy (Knopf Books for Young Readers, October 2013) It’s one thing for an author to write a story that she has a strong need to share. It’s quite another for her to experience in person

EXIT WEST by Mohsin Hamid is an astonishingly visionary love story that imagines the forces that drive ordinary people from their homes into the uncertain embrace of new lands. The talented New York Times bestselling author also narrated his own audiobook. Join Hamid in the studio as he discusses the universality of the migration experience,

Auburn University has chosen The Circle by Dave Eggers as their 2017 Common Book. Auburn is the 26th college or university to select The Circle for their common reads program. This novel, which is soon to be a major motion picture, follows idealistic Mae Holland after she is hired to work for the world’s most powerful

On February 10, 2017, the Penguin Random House First-Year Reading Advisory Board convened for their annual summit the day before The First-Year Experience® Conference exhibit and sessions commenced. The Board members, representing a variety of public and private higher education institutions of varying sizes, came together to exchange ideas, and provide feedback and guidance. Two new members joined the existing five members for

The best defense against sly prevaricators, the most reliable one, is for every one of us to learn how to become critical thinkers. Critical thinking trains us to take a step back, to evaluate facts and form evidence-based conclusions.