“Transcendent Kingdom” Virtual GWS Reading Group – Fall 2021

Transcendent Kingdom Virtual GWS Reading Group—Fall 2021

What: The GWS Librarian and WGSC are collaborating to provide copies of Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi to GWS students interested in participating in a system wide, Gender and Women’s Studies-based discussion group. This is a powerful book focused on an immigrant Ghanaian family, their complexities, their heartbreaking trauma, and their emotional fight for survival. Gyasi’s novel is the selected reading for UW-Madison’s annual Go Big Read event, an annual event that engages students, faculty and community members in a discussion and author visit on a recently published book. We are extending this discussion to the wider GWS community across UW System to connect students from all campuses in a discussion centered on the book’s key relevance to issues in Gender and Women’s Studies: gender, race, intersectionality, immigration, and the fluidity of identity and belonging.

When: Students will spend the month of September and October reading Transcendent Kingdom, and meeting in self-organized groups on their home campus to discuss a pre-circulated reading guide. We will hold one virtual reading group in October to have a conversation with all participants. Students can then attend Yaa Gyasi’s Go Big Read Lecture the evening of November 3, 2021. We will host one more virtual reading group the week after the lecture to revisit previous discussion topics after hearing directly from the author.

How: Interested students should sign-up here to receive a copy of the book and receive the reading guides and virtual reading group invitations. We will send copies of the books to each campus the week September 27, 2021 and will work with GWS programs and departments and campus Women’s Centers for distribution.