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UC DAVIS: Offices of the Chancellor and Provost Campus Community Relations February 12, 2007 DEANS, DIRECTORS, DEPARTMENT CHAIRS, AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS RE: CAMPUS COMMUNITY BOOK PROJECT FOR FALL 2007 The sixth annual Campus Community Book Project will focus on The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea and explore the topic of immigration. We invite all members of our community - undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, administrators, and community members - to read the book and to participate in planning and attending the related events in fall 2007 and the related courses throughout next year. The Book Project, initiated in fall 2001 by the Campus Council on Community and Diversity, seeks to increase our knowledge and strengthen our sense of community by providing a common experience and provoking dialogue. By reading and analyzing a book together, we are offered the opportunity to share our insights and explore those of others. We encourage faculty to integrate the book into existing courses and to develop freshman seminars and other experimental courses that study immigration from varied perspectives. We urge campus units and student and community organizations to incorporate the book into training and development and book club activities. The Devil's Highway: A True Story provides a catalyst for a multidisciplinary exploration of immigration, including the history of immigration policies, laws, and patterns; the causes of legal and illegal immigration; the economic, cultural, and social effects of immigration; the impacts of gender and globalization on immigration; the effects of cultural and dietary change on immigrants' health; the economic significance of immigrant workers in California agriculture, construction, and other fields; immigrants' contributions to multicultural art, music, dance, and literature; the technology of border enforcement; and various proposals and possibilities for immigration reform. An award-winning poet, fiction writer, and essayist, Luis Alberto Urrea has written a suspenseful and gripping account of a notorious border incident in 2001, when a group of men attempted to cross the border in the desert between Mexico and southwest Arizona (one of the deadliest regions of the continent), led by inexperienced coyotes (human smugglers). Urrea masterfully recreates the true story of why these men risked their lives to immigrate to the United States and how half of them perished attempting to reach "el otro lado." Born in Tijuana, Mexico, to a Mexican father and an American mother, Urrea has lived on both sides of the border. The first of his family to graduate from college, he earned his B.A. at the University of California, San Diego, and his Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder. The author of ten books including The Fever of Being (poetry), Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life (memoir), Six Kinds of Sky (short stories), Wandering Time (nature essays), and his recently published epic novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter, Urrea currently teaches writing at the University of Illinois - Chicago. The Devil's Highway is available in paperback and the UCD Bookstore will offer a special discounted price of $9.95 beginning February 20. Copies of the book will also be available for review at the Office of Campus Community Relations and the University Writing Program. The Campus Community Book Project seeks broad participation in the planning, publicizing, and hosting of events for the fall program. The planning process will begin shortly; those interested may contact Gary Sue Goodman, gsgoodman@ucdavis.edu. Please join the Offices of the Chancellor and Provost and Campus Community Relations in making next year's Book Project a successful community-building event. Virginia S. Hinshaw Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Rahim Reed Associate Executive Vice Chancellor-- Campus Community Relations 07-021
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