Community Reads: About Community Reads

The charge of the Library’s Community Reads Team is to plan, market, facilitate, and assess quarterly events and/or creative projects in the Library around common books or other media. Our intention is to choose readings and other media which will cultivate engagement among the campus community around topics of equity, social justice, and anti-oppression. We are informed by current discussions and community needs in our selection of material, and encourage participants to actively expand their engagement with these ideas to their local and global communities.

The team aims to:

• Build community across campus through shared engagement with works of art or scholarship around issues of social justice and anti-oppression.
• Create opportunities for campus community members to engage in shared creative practices.
• Foster interdisciplinary and cross-campus connections between students, faculty, staff, and community members.
• Elevate and support community interests and needs relating to issues of social justice.

The Community Reads team members stand with the Campus Library’s Statement of Solidarity.

During In-Person and Online Events:

Community Reads events aim to inspire dialog about important issues facing our diverse campus communities. When you attend a Community Reads event, you will join your campus community in active large- and small-group discussions and activities related both to the material itself as well as to larger issues that the source might touch on. We try to end each event with an opportunity to think about actionable ways to incorporate what was discussed into our everyday lives.

The Community Reads team is:

• Alyssa Berger
• Carina Bixby
• Hannah Mendro
• Laura Dimmit Smyth
• Nicholas Whale

Please feel free to contact us with questions, suggestions, or concerns: 

uwblibcommreads@uw.edu  

The University of Washington is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, and activities. Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made 10 business days prior to the event to the Community Reads Team. See email contact info above.

The Social Justice Team guide can be found here: