UVic professors share bookshelf staples for before you toss your grad cap
Photo by Alexander Grey via Unsplash.
Every student’s academic journey is shaped by the ideas they encounter, and books are a key way students broaden their perspectives. The Martlet asked staff and faculty members from different faculties and departments at UVic what book every student — regardless of their program — should read at some point before they graduate.
Blue Bear Woman
Blue Bear Woman, a novel by Cree writer Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau, explores the real impacts on the Cree people when the Eastmain dam in northern Quebec was built.
This book, recommended by Dr. Pierre-Luc Landry, Associate Professor in UVic’s French and Francophone Studies department in the Faculty of Humanities, “reframes completely the way you can understand northern Quebec, which is a territory almost never visited by white people but where the majority of the electricity is made.”
Blue Bear Woman presents the story of Victoria, an Indigenous woman searching for the remains of her great-uncle, who has been missing for several years. Victoria must find and bury him before the territory gets flooded by the Eastmain dam, or he will never find peace. Blue Bear Woman is a work of historical fiction that brings Indigenous voices forward and is “extremely powerful for everyone,” says Landry.
According to Landry, “everyone needs to read this because hydroelectricity might not be as green as we think.”
The Alchemy of Air
Dr. David Leitch, Associate Professor in the Chemistry department of the Faculty of Science, recommends The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager.
“I think this is important for everyone to read because it describes the history of (arguably) the most impactful scientific/technological advance in human history: our ability to convert the air (nitrogen) into fertilizer (ammonia) for agriculture,” Leitch explains in an emailed statement to the Martlet.
Dr. Leitch mentions that Hager’s work is written as a “historical non-fiction book that gets the science correct,” so it is a book that anyone, regardless of their knowledge of chemistry, can enjoy.
“Humanity relies so heavily on Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis,” he says, “and yet very few people have ever even heard of it!”
In Leitch’s view, this book presents a perfect opportunity to learn about one of the most important scientific advances in our history in an enjoyable way.
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
Jean-PaulRestoule is an Anishinaabe scholar, educator, professor, and Chair of UVic’s Indigenous Education department in the Faculty of Education. His recommendation for all students to read is Alicia Elliott’s A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, a book that questions the treatment of Indigenous people in North America while offering personal reflections on the impact of intergenerational trauma.
“The writing is powerful,” says Restoule, explaining that “it conveys heartbreaking true stories of the intersection of colonialism, intergenerational trauma, poverty, mental illness, and other oppressions written in a personal, accessible style, but provoking us to rethink how systems of oppression operate at the micro and macro levels.”
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Dr. Thomas Land, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities, chuckled as he recommended Lynne Truss’ Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a New York Times bestseller that showcases the importance of properly placed punctuation.
A panda goes into a library, eats a sandwich, grabs a bow and arrow, shoots and leaves. “It’s what pandas do!” Land explains, showing the text that reads, “A panda eats, shoots and leaves.”
“It’s about spelling and punctuation and how to write proper English, and I find that students really struggle with that,” Land says. “It’s a really fun way to think about a subject that people tend to think [of] as really boring!”
The Compassionate Imagination: How The Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy
John Threlfall, Communications and Special Projects Officer in the Faculty of Fine Arts says “all the things that make life worth living are the arts, and yet they are constantly perceived as fringe.” He recommends The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy by Vancouver-based arts writer Max Wyman — a book that argues that the role of art in society should be reimagined.
“We hear this all the time in times of economic and political uncertainty,” says Threlfall, “‘We don’t have money for the arts; we only have money for the important things.’” Threlfall argues, however, that art is essential during times of crisis — just look at history. He says The Compassionate Imagination is a key read for all students.
Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation
Natalie Slawinski, Professor and Director of the Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation, along with Associate Professors Simon Pek and Ricardo Flores from the Gustavson School of Business, all recommended the same book — Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation by Paul Hawken. This book advocates for an inclusive movement that must address current human needs rather than future threats.
In a joint emailed statement to the Martlet, the three faculty members say that “Regeneration transcends the political divisiveness surrounding climate change, replacing fear and cynicism with hope and action… Addressing the climate crisis isn’t about politics, but about collaboratively building a livable future.”
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, by Safiya Umoja Noble, reveals the biases embedded in search engines. This is the recommendation of Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin, English professor and Acting Associate Dean of Research of the Faculty of Humanities at UVic.
“It’s a deep dive on how surveillance technologies, algorithms, settings of your search engines, and the beginnings of AI all have racism baked in,” Williams Boyarin says.
The book is written for a general audience, analyzing search engines and demonstrating how they continue to uphold white supremacist ideals. It also starts a conversation about the programming and use of AI.
“It [was] published right before the set off of all the AI debates,” says Williams Boyarin. “As we push towards full use of AI, even at the university level, it seems to me more and more important that people understand how these systems work; how problematic they are…. They are only programmed by humans.”
