A Sense of Places

Come and discuss relations among learning, displacement, and identity.

We will kick off with very short presentations, from Profs. Alice Craven (Literature and Film, and organiser with Prof. Bill Dow, of the major international conference on James Baldwin that will be held at AUP this summer), Peter Hägel (Political Science), Charles Talcott (Communications), Michelle Kuo (History, Politics, and Law); and Andre Gray (AUP graduate student in Communications).

This is a chance to consider together your thoughts on two readings that were assigned to all incoming first-year students: James Baldwin’s essay, ‘How it feels to be an American’, and Fareed Zakaria’s ‘Learning to Think’. The presentations should help to kick off discussion, and then we want to hear you speak and argue about the two readings and the issues that they raise. Other students are very welcome – if anyone needs a copy of the readings, please contact Geoff Gilbert (ggilbertaup.edu) or Elizabeth Kinne (ekinneaup.edu).

There will be a reception afterwards, so we can continue and intensify our conversations over drinks and snacks.