As signs of spring arrive, the Division of Undergraduate Studies already is looking ahead to the coming academic year with the announcement of the 2016-17 Common Reading book selection.

After reviewing nearly three dozen books, the selection committee — a volunteer group that includes about 20 students, faculty and staff members from across campus — was unanimous in its first choice of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” as the next selection in the annual series. The slim but powerful volume, written as a letter from a father to his teenage son, offers a meditation on the liberation of the mind as well as a call for justice.

“‘Between the World and Me’ is perhaps the perfect common reading book for an emerging adult audience in today’s United States,” said Lisa Freinkel, vice provost of undergraduate studies.

The book just won the National Book Award for nonfiction and has been widely celebrated as one of the best books of 2015. Toni Morrison compared Coates to James Baldwin and hails the book as “required reading” by “the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States.”

Others have pointed out that Coates may be one of the best writers on the subject of America today. The book has been called “a love letter written in a moral emergency.”

Thanks to generous support from the Office of the President and the divisions of Equity and Inclusion and Student Life, undergraduate studies will provide Coates’ book to incoming 2016-17 first-year students. The Common Reading committee is also developing programming and co-curricular opportunities to support students’ encounter with the text.

“Our greatest hope is for strong faculty involvement in the program, not only on behalf of our first-year students, but also on behalf of the larger opportunities the book presents and in light of the challenge and intensity of its scope,” Frienkel said. “With faculty help and guidance from the Teaching Effectiveness Program, we are eager to move forward with care and attention to teach this book well.”

To that end, the Division of Undergraduate Studies is also announcing a new teaching opportunity. Over the next year, the division will review and improve the First-Year Seminars program to make it more relevant and robust. It will also pilot a potential new version called the Common Reading Signature Seminar, an opportunity for inspirational teachers to work with small groups of students in courses specially designed to make use of the annual Common Reading book selection.

Visit First-Year Programs to learn more about this opportunity and how to submit a proposal.

To learn more about the UO’s Common Reading program:

• Follow: @uocommonreading, #uocommonreading, #btwam
• Visit the website: commonreading.uoregon.edu
• Call 541-346-1221
• Email vpugs@uoregon.edu