Faculty sought to lead spring student faculty reading groups We are recruiting faculty who are interested in co-leading a one-credit "Student Faculty Reading Group" mini-course during the Spring 2007 semester. These mini-courses, which have been offered for the last two years, are co-led by two faculty on a topic outside the expertise of either, with the overall goal of creating a community in which faculty and students work together as co-learners. So far, two such mini courses have been identified for the upcoming semester. One is on the topic of culture clash, with course participants reading "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman, a story of Hmong immigrants in California, and "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" by Stephen G. Bloom, a story of a Hasidic Jewish community in rural Iowa. The second course is on the topic of challenging the conventional wisdom. In that course, participants will read and discuss Malcolm Gladwell’s "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking," which argues that intuitive judgments can be as effective as carefully researched ones, and Steven Levitt’s "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything," which explores the hidden incentives behind various kinds of human behavior. We are seeking faculty to co-lead either of these courses or to propose a mini-course on anther interesting topic outside their areas of expertise. If you are interested, contact either Libby Rankin (libby.rankin@und.nodak.edu) or Jim Antes (james.antes@und.nodak.edu). The project is funded by the Bush Foundation, and faculty will receive a $500 stipend for their efforts. -- Libby Rankin, Director, Office of Instructional Development, libby_rankin@und.nodak.edu, 777-4233