FOR POLY FACULTY AND STAFF: American Studies Book Club Embarks on Eighth Year

What’s better than a good book and hanging out with our brilliant Poly Upper Schoolers for a couple hours? Your answer is probably “Nothing!” and you’re right! It’s why for the last seven years, Poly Enriched American Studies has invited the faculty and staff community to join our juniors in a nonfiction book club. This year, the topics include evangelical Christianity; the intersection of religion, morality, and politics; climate change and its effects on food; the history of American imperialism; and the West’s involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Our adult participants are Andrea Fleetham, Mikki Mares-Tamayo, Nora Murphy, Alex Melonas, Sam Anderson, and Maya Seneus. The first meeting of the book club will be October 16.

The assignment isn’t graded, and the adults don’t lead the discussions; rather, everyone is simply a learner and gets to share their voice in a meaningful way. Every year, both the adults and the students share how much they love coming together in this informal but intellectual capacity. As the year progresses, the students get to be “the experts” on their particular topic when it comes up. It’s a delight to see them take on the mantle of authority that comes from having read and discussed an important book in the field and get to share their findings with the class.

If you want to get involved next year as a faculty or staff member, please email Laura Marion or Kristen Osborne-Bartucca.

This year, the groups will be reading:

1. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt 

2. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr

3. The Hundred Years War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi

4. Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot