Every year there’s an enchanted experience on the campus of Finlandia University as students, faculty, staff and the community come together with the focus on literature.
A book is chosen.
Dialogues happen.
Minds open.
Below you’ll find a list of articles and events related to Campus Read.
Finlandia’s Campus Read and Helsinki Slang communities invite you to attend A Common Place: Remembering, Imagining, Healing on Tuesday, April 19. The free event will start at 4 p.m. at the Chapel of St. Matthew where the winners of the 2022 Campus Read Writing Contest will be announced. For anyone interested in sharing their work, an open mic will be provided.
“This is a great opportunity for people to hear some powerful work by local authors, to present their own work in a supportive setting, and just to come together as a creative community after being physically isolated for so long,” Associate Professor of English Mark Lounibos said.
A recent announcement from Campus Read shared more details:
In conjunction with United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s recent visit, please join us, along with celebrated Anishinaabe writer T. Marie Bertineau, to share stories about the power of place in the lives of individuals and communities. We will announce winners of the Campus Read Writing Contest and offer an open mic for anyone interested in sharing work oriented to our theme.
Date/Time: 4PM Tuesday, April 19,
Place: Chapel of St Matthew at Finlandia University
This event is free and open to the community.
For further information please contact Mark Lounibos mark.lounibos@finlandia.edu
In conjunction with our Campus Read author and text (Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise), we offer the 2022 Campus Read Writing Contest.
Joy Harjo is the incumbent Poet Laureate of the United States. A member of the Muscogee Nation, Harjo’s work often recalls the legacy of forced removal, and the “Trail of Tears” which saw her people driven from the Southeast U.S. to Oklahoma. In keeping with this topic, the theme of the Writing Contest is “displacement,” broadly understood. Works should engage with this theme in some way, whether on an individual or community level. Some ways you could consider this topic include questions like: Did you move as a child? Are you writing a story about a character who loses a home? Have you wondered what it would feel like to be without a place? Can someone who feels displaced feel at home again? How? What does it mean to be “in” or “from” a place, and is it the same thing as being “at home” or “connected” to a place?
This contest is open to poetry, essays, creative non-fiction and prose fiction, with a 1500 word limit.
Entries will be judged by celebrated author T. Marie Bertineau, whose most recent novel The Mason House was named a 2021 Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. Winners will be announced at a Campus Read open mic event at the end of the semester, where they will receive awards and also have an opportunity to present their work. Winners will also be published in the Carrot Ranch website.
All submissions should be in Word format and submitted via email to mark.lounibos@finlandia.edu by Friday, March 11, 2022.
Feb 4, 7 PM, Wargelenin Hall Room 303 – Falls Around Her
Feb. 18, 7 PM, Wargelenin Hall Room 303 – Indian Horse
March 11, 7 PM, Wargelenin Hall Room 303 – Songs My Brothers Taught Me
March 25, 7 PM, Wargelenin Hall Room 303 – In Jesus’ Name
Archives
2021 Campus Read Series and News
This year’s campus read book is Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. Stamped From the Beginning can be purchased from North Wind Books at bookstore.finlandia.edu.
ANTI-RACIST OPEN CLASSROOM SERIES
Virtually jump into a FinnU class with some of our amazing professors to learn about these topics in the Campus Read Spring 2021 Anti-Racist Open Classroom Series. Sign up here, for free, for the Zoom link.
Thursday, January 21, 1-2:30pm Dr. Bill Knoblauch, “Reconstruction,” US History from 1865 [View the full lecture here]
Tuesday, February 2, 4:10 pm: Dr. Hilary Virtanen, “Racism and White Nationalism in Finland Today,” History and Culture of Finland.
Thursday, February 11, 9:10 – 10:30am Rev. Sarah Semmler Smith, “For the Bible Tells Me So: Christian Nationalism & White Supremacy,” World Religions.
Wednesday, February 17, 2:00pm Dr. Michael Reay, “Race and Ethnicity are Social,” Introduction to Sociology.
Tuesday, March 16, 11:00am – 12:00pm Dr. Carolyn Dekker, “Organizing with Dr. King,” African American Literature.
Wednesday, March 24, 1:10-2pm Dr. Jeff Pettibone, “Stereotypes and Prejudice,” Social Psychology.
NEWS
The Campus Read Committee is pleased to announce the Spring 2021 Anti-Racist Open Classroom Series, which will complement the selected Campus Read book, Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi.
“We chose Stamped from the Beginning and Stamped as the Campus Read books for this year because Ibram X. Kendi’s work as a historian of racist ideas and antiracism can help provide such a powerful tool with which to think about history and about America’s present moment,” said Assistant Professor of English Dr. Carolyn Dekker, who is a member of the Campus Read Committee.
The series will open up numerous Suomi College of Arts & Sciences virtual course lessons to the public throughout the semester, in the hopes of providing insight into how racism plays a role in various facets of the arts and sciences. Interested participants can join the classes for free by registering online here. A Zoom link will be sent to participants the day before each event.
“When we engage with histories of racism, we need to draw from across academic disciplines – from history and literature, the history of science and the best in current science, from sociology and psychology in order to understand the impacts that racism has on groups and individuals,” said Dr. Dekker. “Our best public thinkers on the subject are reading widely and performing this sort of synthesis. I’m excited for this open classroom series because it will give students and community members an opportunity to sample what our various liberal arts disciplines can offer this discussion, perhaps even including exposing visitors to a discipline that they would never have otherwise had the opportunity to study and bring into the conversation.”
Associate Professor of History Dr. William Knoblauch will kick off the series on January 21 with a lesson on the Reconstruction era. The Reconstruction era is defined as the period immediately after the Civil War in which America tried to reincorporate the South. It represents the years 1863-77 in American history.
“Students can expect to learn about the political ramifications of Reconstruction, the different approaches to Reconstruction, the rise of Jim Crow laws in the American South, and how specific laws, initiative, and organizations, actively worked to create a South in which African Americans would have very few political rights or economic freedom,” said Dr. Knoblauch.
When asked why the Reconstruction era is so important to understanding systemic racism in 2021, Dr. Knoblauch talked about how the foundation of today’s racism was built as a result of the Reconstruction effort.
“The roots of today’s American-form of racism arose in part from the attempts at, and failures of, Reconstruction,” said Knoblauch. “Reconstruction was an opportunity to address what we call the ‘structural’ obstacles that recently-freed slaves faced. But armed with political weapons – more Congressional power, the Fillibuster, local Jim Crow Laws, and the KKK – southern Whites and their leaders refused to reshape the southern economy. The continuing efforts of oligarchs that arose from the slave aristrocracy spread their ideas into the American West in the decades to come, and their ideas about superiority morphed, but never went away. Therefore, Reconstruction’s legacy continues on to this day.”
Dr. Knoblauch’s lesson will begin with a lecture and accompanying images via powerpoint, but there will be ample opportunity for discussion and Q&A.
You can register for each of the classes for free here.
ABOUT CAMPUS READ AT FINLANDIA UNIVERSITY
Campus Read is an annual event series at Finlandia University where the students, staff and faculty come together to explore literature around a theme, book or author. For more information on Campus Read,visit finlandia.edu/campusread.
Camps Read Staff
Campus Read is put on annually by a committee of Finlandia University faculty and staff. Please contact the two members of this committee below with any questions.