The Campus Reading

Every incoming student has something in common before arriving on campus: the Campus Reading – a text that all students will receive prior to move-in and are expected to read. This assignment forms the basis for a community-wide dialogue that begins during orientation and continues throughout the year and takes place in houses, Vanderbilt Visions groups, and across campus. In the fall, all new students will be invited to attend the 18th annual Lawson Lecture which will further develop the themes expressed in the book.

The Campus Reading for the Class of 2028 is I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations In Dangerously Divided Times by Mónica Guzmán. The book was chosen by a committee of faculty and students.

The book explores practical techniques that employ curiosity to overcome discord, underscoring the 2024–25 Martha Rivers Ingram Commons programming theme of “Embracing the Debate.” This theme, imperative in an election year, centers constructive conversation and mutual respect in the face of disagreement and will help anchor conversations throughout the year.

In the official announcement, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said, “Civil discourse is a core value at Vanderbilt because it is essential to the work we do together—in our classrooms, labs, and everywhere between. Teaching first-year students how to have constructive conversations about divisive subjects is one of the best ways we can continue to build a campus culture of open, courageous, and respectful dialogue and help students honor our Community Creed. I expect Mónica Guzmán’s book to be an excellent catalyst for learning and conversation, and I look forward to reading it myself.”

All incoming students are asked to complete a reflective essay on the Campus Reading prior to the start of classes. In addition to being available online (in early June), instructions for submission will be included with the book in the summer mailing. Essays must address one of three prompts. Essays will be shared with VUceptors for use in discussion during orientation. A letter from Dean Melissa Gresalfi will also accompany the text. Students may begin submitting essays on August 1, and they are due by August 12.

With questions about the Campus Reading, email campus.reading@vanderbilt.edu.

Past Campus Readings

2023 – Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
2022 – Creative People Must Be Stopped: 6 Ways We Kill Innovation (Without Even Trying) by David A. Owens
2021 – When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
2020 – The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh
2019 – The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah
2018 – The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
2017 – Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South by Andrew Maraniss
2016 – Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South by Andrew Maraniss
2015 – The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse
2014 – Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
2013 – College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be by Andrew Delbanco
2012 – Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn
2011 – The Good Life by Peter Gomes
2010 – Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin