TAMIU Announces Reading the Globe Pick for Campus Common Read this Fall
The Fall Campus Common Read for incoming Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) First-Year Students has been announced by the University’s Reading the Globe Program. The text is also the Laredo Public Library’s One City, One Book selection as part of an ongoing community partnership.
Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye by Marie Mutsuki Mockett, is the selection. TAMIU’s Reading the Globe Program, housed in University College, will bring the author to Laredo this Fall. TAMIU students will have a chance to apply for selection as TAMIU Ambassadors and participate in a study abroad trip to Japan in Spring 2024.
The memoir examines the author’s grief against the backdrop of the 2011 Great East Earthquake in Japan. The book was a Barnes and Noble Discover pick and a finalist for the 2016 PEN Open Book Award, Indies Choice Best Book for Nonfiction, and the Northern California Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Born to an American father and Japanese mother, Mutsuki Mockett’s family owns a Buddhist temple 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In March 2011, after the earthquake and a following tsunami, radiation levels prohibited the burial of her Japanese grandfather's bones. As Japan mourned thousands of people lost in the disaster, Mutsuki Mockett also grieved for her American father, who had died unexpectedly.
Reading the Globe is a University-wide initiative aimed at engaging all members of the University and the surrounding community. It nurtures a common purpose and sense of belonging, supporting the mission of University College.
Since 2008, the program has enabled all First-Year students to engage in a selected book with an international focus through their Fall University Seminar. The Common Read Program provides an opportunity for discourse about student-relevant issues and raises social awareness on a local and global scale.
Faculty and staff of TAMIU also participate in the Common Read to better support students in embracing holistic development.
Mutsuki Mockett graduated from Columbia University with a degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, where she wrote about female shamans in Japan. She received her MFA from the Bennington Writers Seminars.
Her latest work, American Harvest: God, Country, and Farming in the Heartland (Graywolf) sees her journey through seven heartland states in the company of evangelical Christian harvesters. It examines the role of GMOs, God, agriculture, and race in society.
To find out more about TAMIU’s Reading the Globe 2023 offerings, visit https://www.tamiu.edu/uc/map/commonread.shtml, email university.college@tamiu.edu , phone 956.326.2134 or visit offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 416.
Registration for TAMIU’s Summer and Fall 2023 is now underway. View the registration schedule here: https://www.tamiu.edu/registrar/registration.shtml.
To learn more about TAMIU’s Registration processes, go to the dedicated Registration Hub at https://go.tamiu.edu/registration.
University news and information can also be found online at tamiu.edu and on TAMIU’s social channels on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
