UNC-Chapel Hill Summer Reading Program Selection Focuses on Arab-Americans
by: Bruce Rosenbloom
Source: HIgher Education
The Carolina Summer Reading Program at UNC-Chapel Hill is drawing attention to members of a minority group and their pursuit of the American Dream with its latest literature recommendation.
Book selection committee chair Rita Balaban claimed that How Does it Feel to be a Problem? by Moustafa Bayoumi was chosen “due to the light it shines on ethnic differences.”
In approaching the social fallout of the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11, 2001, Bayoumi tells the stories of seven individuals with connections to Southwest Asia.
The title of the book is a question posed to W.E.B. Du Bois over 100 years ago and printed in The Souls of Black Folk, a collection of essays that deal with the politics of emancipation.
According to a press release from the university, incoming freshmen and transfer students are encouraged to read the book and participate in group discussions that will be held on it.
Book selections made by the committee in previous years include Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point by David Lipsky and Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.
