UO's next common reading theme will be 'Feminist Futures'
Book titles that have been selected for this theme include 'We Should All Be Feminists.'
Events that will be offered to students for this theme include a book talk titled, 'Just Get On the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics'
The University of Oregon’s recently announced that its theme for its 2023-2024 Common Reading program will be “Feminist Futures: Research on Women and Gender in Society.” For this theme, OU’s Common Reading program will partner with OU’s Center for the Study of Women in Society.
Book titles that have been selected for the year include We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and The Turnaway Study by Diana Greene Foster.
Foster told Campus Reform, “I appreciate the University of Oregon selecting a book that takes a scientific approach to what is otherwise a polarizing and political topic.”
The UO common reading program presents reading material “that will be the focus of a campus-wide discussion” for the year, according to the university.
A summary for The Turnaway Study states, “Judges, politicians, and pro-life advocates routinely defend their anti-abortion stance by claiming that abortion is physically risky and leads to depression and remorse. Dr. Foster’s data proves the opposite to be true.”
Events that will be offered to students for this theme include a book talk about Just Get On the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics and an event titled “Haunting Ecologies: The Past, Present and Future of Feminist and Indigenous Approaches to Forest Fire.”
[RELATED: UC Santa Barbara unveils new ‘feminist studies’ degree program]
Krystale Littlejohn, associate professor of sociology at UO, is the author of Just Get On the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics. This book, “uncovers how parents, peers, partners, and providers draw on narratives of “male” and “female” birth control methods to socialize cisgender women into sex and ultimately into shouldering the burden for preventing pregnancy.”
UO is already accepting suggestions for the Common Reading program’s 2024-2025 theme. The 2018-2020 theme was “Transborder/Transnational.”
The University of Oregon, UO’s Center for the Study of Women in Society, OU’s Common Reading program, Krystale Littlejohn, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Diana Greene Foster have not responded to request for comment.
