Reading Culture: For Faculty & Staff

All HCC staff and faculty are welcome to be involved in Reading Culture! We are working to expand this great program across all HCC campuses! You can join the committee, join the Team on Microsoft Teams, join the Canvas course, attend events, promote events, post the fliers-- you can participate as little or as much as you want!

The committee meets two to three times before the start of each semester to determine a book and country and to set the schedule. There are six to eight events each semester, including an introduction to the country and book, writing workshops, and book discussion. We also try to schedule a scholar lecture or panel and a movie or documentary screening, depending on what's available. Some events are duplicated on multiple campuses. Many events are available online and recorded! Committee members are not required to go to every event. Near the end of the semester, committee members may choose to help rate the scholarship competition submissions.

Students who are not interested in competing for the scholarship may attend as many or as few events as they wish. Students who are competing for the scholarship must attend at least two events and submit a reflection for two events as part of the competition process.

Professors can promote and support the program and scholarship competition in a variety of ways:

1. Advertise the events and competition on the syllabus or class learning pages
2. Remind students about the events and scholarship competition in class
3. Offer bonuses/ extra credit for attending the events
4. Offer the scholarship writing sample as a class assignment or a replacement assignment

The Reading Culture Committee is a diverse group of interdisciplinary faculty and librarians.  The current co-chairs are:

• Shawn Anderson (Library) (treva.anderson@hccs.edu)
• Laura Ayers (Anthropology) (laura.ayers@hccs.edu)
• Jennifer Crispin (Library) (jennifer.crispin@hccs.edu)
• Raquel Donahue (Library) (raquel.donahue@hccs.edu)

If you would like to be involved with Reading Culture, please contact any of the people on the committee or email Shawn Anderson. Planning meeting invitations are sent to the Northwest listserv in May and November.