Wright State to hold “Big Read” of common text

"Zeitoun" is the eighth book to be featured as part of Wright State’s Common Reading Program.

Wright State will hold a “Big Read” of this year’s common text, Zeitoun, the 2010 non-fiction winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

The entire book will be read in the Millett Hall Atrium on Wednesday, Nov. 9, beginning at 9 a.m. with students, faculty and staff taking turns reading aloud throughout the day.

Natasha Williams of WHIO-TV (Channel 7) will read a portion of the book at approximately 12:40 p.m.

Zeitoun follows the experiences of Syrian-born, Muslim-American building and painting contractor Abdulrahman Zeitoun, who remains in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in order to care for his clients’ properties.

During the days following the storm, Zeitoun saves the lives of trapped people and animals before being profiled (as an al-Qaida terrorist) and arrested by armed Homeland Security contract forces.

“Students reading this book will encounter, in Zeitoun and his wife, a native Louisianan convert to Islam, ordinary people like themselves,” said Carol Loranger, Ph.D., chair of the Wright State English department. “They are good citizens of deep and abiding religious feeling and devotion to home and family, wrestling with the perplexities of their lives and their little local worlds and capable—when called upon—of acts of quiet heroism.”

Zeitoun is the eighth book to be featured as part of Wright State’s Common Reading Program. Each year, faculty, staff and students nominate books that may be relevant to the president’s theme for the year.

Once a common text is selected, a series of interconnected academic and beyond-the-classroom activities are planned that challenge students’ critical thinking and evaluation of the text within Learning Communities and in General Education classes.

The Common Reading Program was developed

• To expose students to our academic atmosphere from the time first-year students arrive on campus
• To provide a common academic experience for all first-year students by giving them the opportunity to engage with their peers in intellectual discussions both inside and outside the classroom.
• To communicate the expectation that students must begin to read actively and critically, making judgments about the validity of what they read and be able to discuss challenging, sometimes conflicting, ideas.

Following the “Big Read” at 3 p.m., the common text for Fall 2012 will be announced.