WITS Study Hall is a collaborative learning space for adult learners to actively participate in anti-racist conversation and enjoy the works of writers of color. We focus not just on anti-racist discourse, but celebrating the range of genres and stories by BIPOC authors.
WITS Study Hall explores one book every two months and is open to all readers. You can sign up to join our virtual meetings, or use this framework to start your own book club. We’ll provide the book selection, discussion questions, and supplemental resources. Whatever your engagement, we hope you join us in this important reading.
currently reading
The Undocumented Americans
Our next meeting
September 25 2024
6:00-7:00pm CST
Zoom Link will be emailed
Sign up to attend
Please fill out this form to sign up for the next Study Hall meeting
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS - The Undocumented Americans
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SUPPLEMENTAL RESOURCES - The Undocumented Americans
These additional resources will help integrate learning from our Study Hall books with additional interviews, articles, and podcasts. They may be referenced during WITS Study Hall meetings, so check them out.WHAT WE ARE READING THIS YEAR
September 2024 - May 2025
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio // Memoir // 208 pages
"One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation. The Undocumented Americans combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories, we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American." - GoodreadsAbout the Author
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is an Ecuadorian-American writer and the author of The Undocumented Americans, a National Book Award finalist. Her work, which focuses on race, culture, and immigration, has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, Elle, n+1, The New Inquiry, Interview, and NPR.All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby // Novel // 341 pages
"At once a narrative about a serial killer on the loose, a tale of the lingering effects of racism in the South, a contemplation of religious zealotry, an exploration of trauma, and a love story that bubbles under a lot of fear, blood, and tension, S.A. Cosby's All the Sinners Bleed elegantly walks a fine line between horror and the kind of gritty crime fiction that has catapulted Cosby to crime fiction stardom." - NPRAbout the Author
S. A. Cosby is an Anthony Award-winning writer from Southeastern Virginia. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Guardian, and Library Journal, among others. When not writing, he is an avid hiker and chess player.Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks // Nonfiction // 216 pages
"In Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks—writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual—writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal.
Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines a practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself." - Goodreads