Berry Center > Reading Groups

Reading Groups

Readings groups sponsored by the Berry Center provide students with rewarding opportunities for academic enrichment, allowing them to extend intellectual inquiry beyond the classroom. Reading groups are hosted by faculty or staff members. Informal gatherings promote dialogue between faculty members and students, and between the students themselves. Reading groups attract students from different academic departments, facilitating conversation across disciplinary lines. The reading group experience is sometimes enhanced by having students meet with the author of the book, or invited guests with relevant expertise.

Reading Groups Organized by the Berry Center

Why Nations Fail
	Students across campus participated in a reading group facilitated by Professor A'amer Farooqi from the Department of Economics and Business and Professor David Yamanishi from the Department of Politics. The group read Why Nations Fail by M.I.T. economist Daron Acemoglu and Harvard political scientist James Robinson. Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny.
Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day
	Students across campus participated in a reading group facilitated by Professor Todd Knoop and Professor Chris Conrad from the Department of Economics and Business. The group read Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven. From Amazon.com: Nearly forty percent of humanity lives on an average of two dollars a day or less. If you've never had to survive on an income so small, it is hard to imagine. How would you put food on the table, afford a home, and educate your children? How would you handle emergencies and old age? Every day, more than a billion people around the world must answer these questions. For more information about the book, click here.
Delta Phi Rho Lecturers Karl Rove and Dee Dee Meyers
		The Berry Center hosted a reading group in advance of the Delta Phi Rho lecture, titled “Election 2012: Two Perspectives,” which featured former presidential advisors Karl Rove (deputy chief of staff for policy under George W. Bush) and Dee Dee Meyers (White House press secretary for William Clinton). The group read selections from Rove’s book, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight and Meyer’s book, Why Women Should Rule the World. The group was moderated by Professor David Yamanishi from the Department of Politics and Professor Leon Tabak from the Department of Computer Science.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
		Eighteen students joined President Emeritus Les Garner, his wife Katrina, and professor of mathematics, Ann Cannon in his home for discussions on Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Students questioned topics such as "why do drug dealers still live at home with their moms and how the Ku Klux Klan is like a group of real estate agents." Following their conversations, the group traveled to Chicago to meet coauthor Steven D. Levitt, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and director of The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. Students participated in a Becker Center conference lecture, attended a lunch with Levitt as the keynote speaker, and held a 90-minute private meeting with him about his book. Levitt is pictured to the left with student Chelsea Coyne.

Past Berry Center Reading Groups

The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid (Hosted with Dimensions)
Facilitated by Professor Chris Conrad (Economics and Business) and Professor Barbara Christie Pope (Biology)
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton C. Malkiel
Facilitated by Professor A'amer Farooqi (Economics and Business), Professor Chris Conrad (Economics and Business), and Professor Todd Knoop (Economics and Business)
Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-László Barabási
Facilitated by Professor Santhi Hejeebu (Economics and Business)
The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch
Facilitated by Professor Steven Hemelt (Politics) and Professor Kate Kauper (Education)
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (Hosted with Dimensions)
Facilitated by Professor Barbara Christie-Pope (Biology) and Professor Erin Davis (Sociology)
The Economic Naturalist by Robert H. Frank
Facilitated by Professor A'amer Farooqi (Economics and Business) and Professor Jerry Savitsky (Economics and Business) Reading group participants met with Professor Frank during his campus visit.
The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek
Facilitated by Professor Leon Tabak (Computer Science)
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Facilitated by former President of the College Les Garner. Students traveled to the University of Chicago to meet with co-author Richard H. Thaler.
One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth by Dani Rodrik
Facilitated by Professor Todd Knoop (Economics and Business) and Professor David Yamanishi (Politics)
The White Man's Burden by William Easterly
Facilitated by Professor Todd Knoop (Economics and Business)

For more information about the reading groups, please contact
Associate Director of the Berry Center.