Incoming Arts & Science students get head start on University

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Sutherland_Peter-02.jpg” caption=”Peter Sutherland, director, Arts & Science Program, reads The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M. G. Vassanji. Photo credit: Julia Thomson”]It may be the middle of summer, but McMaster's newest arts & science students have already started their required reading – but in a lighter summer way.
Peter Sutherland, director, Arts & Science Program, sent copies of the novel The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M. G. Vassanji to all 65 incoming first-year students.
The novel, which won the 2003 Giller Prize, is about Vic Lall, a young man growing up in Kenya. Although he is third-generation African, Lall's Indian heritage ensures that he is always less Kenyan than his friends. The novel explores his struggles to fit in in the culture and country of his birth.
“As the brand new director of Arts & Science, I thought it would be fun to try an experiment this year,” he says, citing certain schools in Quebec and the University of North Carolina as other educational systems that use summer reading for their students.
Sutherland chose The In-Between World of Vikram Lall for many reasons. “Not only is it by an excellent Canadian writer, it is also at least indirectly relevant to some of the first-year courses our students will take beginning in September. For some of them I expect there may be a resonance with the history of their family or friends. Overall, I think it will be worthwhile to create a shared experience, even before we have all met.”
Sutherland hopes that the students and professors will participate in a discussion group in early September to talk about the book.
“Arts & Science students come into a program that is very intense, but has a lot of commonality. Therefore, a shared summer reading experience fits really well,” says Sutherland. “With their courses on writing and literature, it's part and parcel of their program to read good stuff.”