2011 Common Reading Program: Outcasts United

by Jill Lingard  

This year’s Common Reading Program selection is Outcasts United by Warren St. John.  With the sport of soccer serving as a back drop, the book chronicles the daily trials of refugee families making their way in a new country alongside the growing pains of a small southern town as it assimilates the changing composition of its community.  Coach Luma, the book’s central character, struggles to repair rifts within her own cross-cultural family while building a second American family of young soccer players from war-torn countries all over the globe.
     

“Outcasts United is a book about people from a lot of different backgrounds who come together in a new place and have to figure out what kind of community they’re going to make for themselves,” explains St. John in a video message directed to UF students posted on the Dean of Students web site.  “In some ways, I think that has some similarities with what you as first-year students are going to be encountering.”

UF’s Common Reading Program is in its fifth year now.  The program is designed to provide all first-year students with a common intellectual experience to stimulate discussion, critical thinking, and encourage a sense of community among students, faculty and staff.   Each year, the book is chosen by a committee comprised of faculty, staff, and students who are charged with selecting a book that is interdisciplinary, global, recently published, and relevant to both first-year students and the UF community.

The Dean of Students Office has posted information about the book and related resources (including the above referenced author’s message to UF students) on their website.  DSO staff update their site throughout the summer with discussion guides, class activity ideas, and campus events related to the book during Summer B and fall terms. Similar to previous years, the author will address all first-year students at convocation in the O’Connell Center on August 19.  Coach Luma will be speaking at UF on November 17.