What We're Reading: Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

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It's winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. The cold slows everything down. A young French Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse. One evening, an unexpected guest arrives: a French cartoonist determined to find inspiration in this desolate landscape. She agrees to accompany him on trips to discover an "authentic" Korea, [b]ut he takes no interest in the Sokcho she knows. As she's pulled into his vision and taken in by his drawings, she

International Women's Day: #EmbraceEquity

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March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD). This year's theme is #EmbraceEquity to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren't enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action. Inclusion should be intersectional and is for all ages. We can all be allies to #EmbraceEquity. https://youtu.be/wPbOORwmFA0 (Wait, what does intersectionality have to do with IWD? All forms of inequality are mutually reinforcing and must therefore be

Celebrating OER Week at Â鶹ӰÊÓ

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March 6-10 is Open Education Week! Open Educational Resources (OER) are high-quality educational materials that are available for free in the public domain and can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed under Creative Commons licensing. These materials can be textbooks, research documents, or instructional tools, among other things. https://youtu.be/gLWTbIt8l3U Â鶹ӰÊÓ has already awarded stipends for OER adoption to almost 20 instructors, and the OER Task Force is pleased

Read Across Â鶹ӰÊÓ!

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Tuesday through Saturday of next week (March 7-11) are Â鶹ӰÊÓ's Inclement Weather Make-Up Days (aka "Not Spring Break"), and since we haven't had inclement weather, there will be a break in classes. March is National Reading Month and this year, Thursday, March 2 (today!) has been designated Read Across America Day. We get that sometimes when you're in school or teaching that it can be hard to budget time, energy, and attention for reading if it's not your go-to, but we believe that

Small Steps to Improve Heart Health for Heart Month (February)

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We may be reaching the end of February and American Heart Month, but we can pump out a month-end blog post. (That pun was weak. I know. Let's not talk about it, okay?) This year's theme is "Live to the Beat," which aims to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in Black adults ages 35 to 54 by taking small steps to address key risk factors such as hypertension, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar. Some tips? Get moving! Just 10 minutes a day to get started can have a positive impact!

Â鶹ӰÊÓ's Favorites for Black History Month

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It's nearing the end of Black History Month, so while our blog post topics may broaden, we'd like to leave you with some books by Black Americans that have made an impact on the Â鶹ӰÊÓ community to read beyond just February because Black history is American history all year long. Keep reading for Â鶹ӰÊÓ's favorite reads by Black American authors--fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, environmental justice, social justice, criminal justice, economics, fantasy, and finance--, and for a

Contemporary Black Activists and Advocates

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This week's Black History Month post highlights contemporary activist and advocates and their works, but also highlights some folks closer to home. North Carolina has a history of Black advocates and activists--in no particular chronological order--from Pauli Murray to Ann Atwater to James Shepard to Ella Baker to the Greensboro Four (Franklin McCain, Jibreel Khazan, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond) to Nina Simone to the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II. Two time Â鶹ӰÊÓ university graduate

What We're Reading: Waste by Catherine Coleman Flowers

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In a place that was once the center of the voting rights movement, another struggle faces Lowndes County, Alabama--basic sanitation. Catherine Coleman Flowers examines the class, racial, and geographic conditions that lead to many people not having an affordable way of disposing of sewage. --paraphrased from publisher's summary Title: Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret Author: Catherine Coleman Flowers Genre: Memoir; Nonfiction Read Great Things 2023 Categories: A book about

What We're Reading: The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama (& A Request for Audience Participation)

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So far we've highlighted Black History Month on the blog with Black Visual Artists, Black History, and Black Musicians and Poets. We've got one left in queue for next week--Activists and Advocates--, but we'd like to finish the month by sharing a list of your favorite books by Black authors. Share your favorite 1-2 books by Black American authors. They can be fiction or nonfiction, classic or contemporary, any reading level (kids, middle grades, YA, or adult), any topic or genre, and they do not