Bunker Hill Community College

One Book Program

Description

Program Rationale: The One Book program will increase awareness of an issue and engage the college community in a dialogue that invites analysis, fosters critical thinking, and encourages positive change.  Students, faculty and staff will have a shared experience of reading a text and examining its effects upon our community.

Aligned with the college’s mission, vision statement and institutional values, the One Book program would foster the very competencies and experiences we strive to promote for our student body and college community.  As an institution of higher learning dedicated to “student-centered learning that draws upon the rich diversity of our students’ life experiences and that uses strategies and technologies to maximize opportunities for reaching educational goals,” the One Book program will serve as a catalyst for classroom, and beyond-the-classroom, discussions, creating opportunities for our students to share their experiences with the author’s style and voice, as well as the issues addressed in the book.  The One Book project promotes literacy in an innovative way and potentially creates interest within a subject that students may be encouraged to pursue and advocate for in the future.

Chosen Book for the Project:

Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. On the burgeoning shelf of cautionary but occasionally alarmist books warning about the consequences of dramatic climate change, Kolbert's calmly persuasive reporting stands out for its sobering clarity. Expanding on a three-part series for the New Yorker, Kolbert (The Prophet of Love) lets facts rather than polemics tell the story: in essence, it's that Earth is now nearly as warm as it has been at any time in the last 420,000 years and is on the precipice of an unprecedented "climate regime, one with which modern humans have had no prior experience." An inexorable increase in the world's average temperature means that butterflies, which typically restrict themselves to well-defined climate zones, are now flitting where they've never been found before; that nearly every major glacier in the world is melting rapidly; and that the prescient Dutch are already preparing to let rising oceans reclaim some of their land. In her most pointed chapter, Kolbert chides the U.S. for refusing to sign on to the Kyoto Accord. In her most upbeat chapter, Kolbert singles out Burlington, Vt., for its impressive energy-saving campaign, which ought to be a model for the rest of the nation—just as this unbiased overview is a model for writing about an urgent environmental crisis. (Mar. 14)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Click here for a calendar of events for November and December 2009.

One Book Planning Committee

Aurora Bautista - Behavioral Science Professor
Patricia Brady - Publications Director
Meghan Callaghan - Civic Engagement Coordinator
Ian Churchill -Web and E-Marketing Manager
Jennifer Cohn - English Professor
Michael Dubson - English Professor
Elizabeth Dunphy - Science Professor
Cynthia Fong - English as a Second Language Professor
Jean-Dany Joachim - Student Activities Technical Assistant
Alessandro Massaro - Professor and Chair of English as a Second Language (ESL) Department
Luana McCuish - English Professor
Timothy McLaughlin - Professor and Chair of English Department
Laura Montgomery - Director of the Art Gallery
Jennifer Rosser - English Professor
Diane Smith - Director of Library and Learning Commons
Jac-Lyn Stark - English Professor
Enzo Surin - Library and Learning Commons Assistant
Louise Vrande - Human Resources Associate
Kevin Wery - Conference Planning and Special Events Director
Margaret Witham - English and English as a Second Language Instructor

We would also like to recognize all past and current Bunker Hill Community College members who have used or are currently using the texts in class.