Available: January 9 – April 30, 2012
Interested participants may choose any or all of the following books to read and answer self-reflection questions. Participants will earn 0.30 CEU credits toward the Cultural Competency Certificate (C3) for each book and self-reflection form completed. Only the books on this list are available for credit.
Pre-registration is required for this event. Register for this event via WebAdvisor or by calling Continuing Education at 586-498-4000.
After registration, participants will read the selected book, then print and complete the book’s self-reflection questions. Participants must provide complete and thoughtful responses to each question in order to obtain credit.
Return completed answers by April 30, 2012 to: Dr. Cassandra Spieles, South Campus J-360-3 during normal business hours.
For questions, please contact the MMII office at: 586-498-4031
Sponsored by the Macomb Multicultural International Initiatives (MMII).
Winter 2012 Books
Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
This exposé puts human flesh on the bones of such abstractions as "living wage" and "affordable housing." Ms. Ehrenreich worked, for a month at a time, at "unskilled" jobs to report on how people survive on wages of six or seven dollars an hour. In an easy, conversational style, she brings us the daily life of the working poor and shows that their diligence and good nature cannot earn them a place to live. In her last chapter, Ms. Ehrenreich suggests that the working poor are "the major philanthropists of our society," sacrificing their families, their health, their privacy, and their leisure so that the rest of us can live more cheaply and conveniently.
The registration code for this event is: 94647
Nickel & Dimed Self-Reflection Questions
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
The registration code for this event is: 94650
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Self-Reflection Questions
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The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Help is set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi and told from the perspective of three women: Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. The daily lives of Southern homemakers and their maids during the early 1960s in Mississippi are explored, and the dangers of undertaking writing a book about African-Americans speaking out in the South during the early '60s hover constantly over the three women. The novel is a superb intertwining of personal and political history in Jackson, Miss., in the early 1960s.
The registration code for this event is: 94645
The Help Self-Reflection Questions
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Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles--and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.
The registration code for this event is: 94651
Cutting for Stone Self-Reflection Questions
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Native Son by Richard Wright
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.
The registration code for this event is: 94648
Native Son Self-Reflection Questions