Western Reads Selects ‘Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists’ for 2015-2016 School Year

Western Washington University has selected Courtney Martin’s critically acclaimed “Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists” as the Western Reads book for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Western Reads is WWU’s reading program designed to promote intellectual engagement and civil discourse among members of the campus community.

“Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists” discusses how young people “do activism” today – through their lives, their careers, and their creative production. Each chapter features a different activist and their story.

“Courtney Martin’s book is inspiring,” said Dawn Dietrich, director of Western Reads. “The author is a young person who features other young people daring to care about the impossible causes close to their hearts.  The book is about a new generation of activists who are just as vulnerable, afraid, and doubtful as any of us, but ‘Do It Anyway.'”

Martin is a TED talk participant, a weekly columnist for “On Being,” and a writer for Feministing.com. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek and a variety of other publications.

The Western Reads program introduces new students to the intellectual communities and conversations of the university, including the variety of perspectives and forms of inquiry provided by the disciplines and the diverse students, faculty and staff that make up the Western experience. Copies of the book are provided free to incoming freshman and transfer students during Summerstart and Transitions.

The Western Reads selection committee is comprised of faculty, staff and students from across campus. Criteria for selecting the book include issues of concern to students, accessibility, possibilities for interdisciplinary conversation and opportunities for students to reflect on their own lives as learners.

Previous Westerns Reads books include: “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown; “Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North” by Nancy Lord; “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot; and “Religious Literacy” by Stephen Prothero.

Western Reads is sponsored by the WWU Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, the Vice President for Student Affairs and Academic Support Services and by New Student Services/Family Outreach.

Western Reads hopes to bring to campus some of the activists profiled in the book as well as the author herself.  Departments, programs, and individuals interested in this year’s book can make suggestions for programming to Dawn.Dietrich@wwu.edu. 

For more information about the Western Reads program, visit www.westernreads.wwu.edu or contact the program at Western.Reads@wwu.edu.