UCSB Reads: The Best We Could Do

This week, the week of April 22nd, Thi Bui, author and artist behind the UCSB 2019 Reads selection, The Best We Could Do, came to UCSB for a talk at Campbell Hall. One of our News Directors, Dorothy Tang, had the opportunity to interview her.

In collaboration with the Public Affairs committee here at KCSB, KCSB News covered several UCSB Reads-related events on campus over the past several months, in anticipation of the author’s UCSB visit.

On January 22nd, the UCSB Library presented a lecture by Dr. Maryam Kia-Keating, who explored some of the themes found in this year’s UCSB Reads book The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. KCSB’s Daisy Kershaw spoke with the clinical psychologist about her work studying mass migrations and displaced youth.

Additionally, the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center presented “UCSB Reads: The Best We Could Do: Telling and Re-Telling the Stories of Asian America,” a panel discussion with professors from the Asian American studies department. They discussed some of the literary themes from the 2019 UCSB selection. KCSB’s Dorothy Tang spoke with panelist, Professor Eleanor Ty, about Asian American literature and narratives.

In conjunction with UCSB Reads 2019 and its companion Library exhibition In Her Own Image, UCSB Professor Brian Donnelly opened up his undergraduate English class to campus and the community for a discussion of comics by and about women. Chizu Morihara, Art & Architecture Librarian, provided a preview of the upcoming Library exhibition that explores and celebrates female comic book creators and their works. This was followed by a panel discussion with Addie Jensen, graduate student in History, Rachel Rys, graduate student in Feminist Studies, and Maite Urcaregui, graduate student in English. The panel was moderated by Swati Rana, Assistant Professor of English.

This year’s coverage of UCSB Reads is part of a continuing media collaboration of KCSB with the UCSB Reads program. Last year, KCSB News reporter Peyton Stotelmyre also spoke with the author of the 2018 UCSB Reads selection, Lab Girl, Hope Jahren.