Preface
First-year Reading and Writing Program
Preface is a first-year reading program that introduces students to the joy of reading critically and using academic disciplines and methods to approach the complex issues in our communities, nation, and world. Preface combines guided reading of a common book with special events and discussions, in which students engage questions raised by the book with university, community and national experts. We read, think, and talk together in order to see how concentrated, research-based attention to any subject can bring new solutions to light.
First-year students read the Preface text in English 101 and most University 101 courses and attend related events throughout the fall semester.
While Preface is geared primarily toward first-year students, it offers a calendar of events that are relevant to a wide range of university courses as well as the community. Events are planned in close cooperation with USC Upstate departments and organizations and are free and open to the public.
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This fall, first-year writing students will read Border Child, a novel by Michel Stone. This award-winning author also lives in Spartanburg and published her first novel with the local Hub City Press. Border Child, which offers a sequel to Stone's Iguana Tree, explores the quest for the American dream and the nightmare of losing a child. It alternates points of view among different characters in order to tell the complicated story of past pain, present survival, and an enduring hope for the future. The events of the 2019 Preface series will explore visible and invisible borders around the world and in ourselves. Preface GoalsThe intent of this series of programs is to help USC Upstate first-year students make connections to each other and to the university and community, to practice skills and explore ideas that contribute to success in college, and to discuss how a deeper understanding of a shared reading can inform the way we make personal decisions and influence public policy today. |
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Thursday September 12, 2019
Speaker Name: Speaking Down BarriersSession Title: “What's the Difference between You and Me?” |
Tuesday September 17, 2019
Speaker Name: Dr. Araceli Hernandez-LarocheSession Title: “Building El Nuevo Sur: Latina/X Voices, Community & Chingona Leadership” Session Time: 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. |
Thursday September 19, 2019
Speaker Name: Office of Service Learning and Community EngagementSession Title: “Boots on the Ground: Students and Service Learning” Session Time: 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. |
Tuesday September 24, 2019
Speaker Name: Rep. Neal CollinsSession Title: “DACA Students and South Carolina Law” |
Thursday-Sunday October 3-6, 2019
Speaker Name: Upstate TheatreSession Title: “Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iiuzuka” |
Tuesday October 8, 2019
Session Title: “Don't Tell Anyone”Session Time: 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. |
Thursday October 10, 2019
Speaker Name: Dr. Karma ChavezSession Title: "HIV-AIDS and the Rhetoric of ImmigrationSession Time: 1:40 - 2:55 p.m. |
Keynote Speaker: Tuesday October 15, 2019
Speaker Name: Michel StoneSession Title: “Borderlands: Opposition and Opportunity” |
Tuesday October 22, 2019
Speaker Name: Alianza Hispana of Spartanburg PanelSession Title: “Children and Immigration” |
Tuesday November 5, 2019
Speaker Name: Dr. Jason HansenSession Title: “Berlin Wall 1989: Historical Ruptures and Continuities” |
Wednesday November 6, 2019
Speaker Name: Dr. Matthew PlacekSession Title: “The Lives of Others” |
Thursday November 7, 2019
Speaker Name: Dr. Alex LorenzSession Title: “Life Behind Bars in Communist East Germany: Public Interview of a State Security Prisoner” |
Wednesday November 13, 2019
Speaker Name: Lindsay Grainger and Friends of RefugeesSession Title: “The Refugee Resettlement Experience in America” |