#ColgateSummerReads

Autumn 2020
Black is the Body book cover
Black is the Body
by Emily Bernard

Twitter can be many things: personal confessional, marketing tool, debate forum, and even a platform for a U.S. president. But can tweets also capture intellectual discourse and the exploration of great literature?

That was the question that arose when the staff of Living Writers was tasked with creating Colgate Summer Reads.

“President Casey asked if we’d do something over the summer that would bring people together virtually and engage them intellectually,” explains Professor Jennifer Brice, director of Living Writers. She, Living Writers coordinator Stephanie McClintick, and arts coordinator Michelle Puetz worked quickly to structure a community reading program conducted entirely online.

Year of Wonders book cover
Year of Wonders
by Geraldine Brooks

A bit of luck came into play when selecting the books, Brice says. “Serendipitously, the first two authors on our schedule for Living Writers — Geraldine Brooks and Emily Bernard — both write about issues on the forefront of people’s minds and in the headlines this summer.” 

Brooks’ novel, Year of Wonders, is a story about the plague in 17th-century England and closely parallels the struggles of contemporary society facing the coronavirus pandemic. Black Is the Body, a collection of personal essays on race by Emily Bernard, was a poignant choice during a summer of renewed racial tensions throughout the country.

Colgate Summer Reads provided daily reading schedules, podcasts, and group discussions of the two books on Zoom. The podcasts involved faculty members and students, President Brian W. Casey, and Provost Tracey Hucks ’87, MA’90, as well as Brooks and Bernard.

The Twitter feed — which attracted more than 170 followers — enabled participants to reflect on the extra elements of the program. After Carina Haden ’21 and Katie Roell ’21, Living Writers student researchers, released a podcast episode about Black Is the Body, tweets of praise sounded:

“Great conversation with @HadenCarina and Katie Roell! Something I’ve enjoyed in #BlackIstheBody that you all touched on was the tension btwn what we know academically/intellectually and what we know/feel through our more intimate relationships.” 

— Danny Barreto, associate professor of LGBTQ studies

“Loved this conversation about so much and all in 15 mins! I’m thinking about the discussion about mind and body. The 2 epigrams at the beginning of the collection now take on a new meaning.”

— Suzanne Vine P’17

“Sometimes being a scholar and thinking like a scholar can cause loss in a way which is really interesting to think about. This gem hit home hard. I am really loving these student podcasts!”

— Melanie Barclay-Wood ’06

Brice comments: “Twitter is a great way to talk with a lot of people at once. I’ve found the character limit to be paradoxically freeing: no matter how busy I am, I can find a few minutes to say something in 280 characters.”

Catch up on the conversation and the readings at colgate.edu/livingwriters.