Announcing the KU Reads 2025 Academic Year Common Book Selection

Dear Colleagues, 

The University of Kansas is pleased to announce the 2025-2026 KU Reads: A Common Book Experience selection, “The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet,” by John Green. This collection of essays explores various aspects of the human experience while considering the interconnectivity of life, encouraging readers to think critically about the world around them. 

By surveying a wide range of familiar topics in a series of essays, the author employs a five-star rating system, thereby “reviewing” what it means to be human in the modern era. This KU Reads selection serves as an entry point to inspire curiosity and generate enthusiasm for scholarly inquiry about research topics in any field or discipline. The selection provides ample opportunities for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members to come together for engaged discussion and discovery, both in the classroom and beyond.

“In many of the chapters, the author is clearly looking for meaning, for sense, in a world where pain, disease and egotism appear to dominate,” said Jorge Soberon, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and member of the KU Reads Advisory Board. Dr. Soberon added, “The author tells the reader how nature, beauty and the power of communities to create allows him to make some sense of a seemingly chaotic world. I find these short narratives interesting, often moving, and always thought provoking.”

“The Anthropocene Reviewed” became the top choice for 2025-2026 after an extensive review process conducted by a KU Reads Selection Committee and the KU Reads Advisory Board, each consisting of students, faculty, staff, and partners from KU Libraries, the Hall Center for the Humanities, and Academic Affairs. The volume of essays, although slim, possesses great potential to foster critical academic exploration while embodying the KU Reads goals to build community, encourage intellectual engagement, and create a shared conversation about topics of significance. 

Opportunities for faculty and staff to consider how they may teach excerpts or the entire book from different disciplinary standpoints, or develop programming will be held at the KU Reads Teach-In April 14-18, 2025. This week of informal discussion sessions and programs will be followed by the launch of the KU Reads program during the fall 2025 semester. 

“The innovative review setup for each of the essays provides both a shared language for community discussion and a flexible framework for assignment design,” said Tracey LaPierre, KU Reads Advisory Board member and Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Sociology Department. “KU faculty, staff, and students can debate Green's ratings, develop, apply, and contrast rating scales shaped by different disciplinary lenses and perspectives, and engage in deeper discussions about how we evaluate and make meaning of the world around us.”

Faculty and staff who are considering teaching the book in the fall or next spring, or developing related programming for students, may request a copy via the webform. Student copies of the book will be available in August.

For more information, please visit the KU Reads webpage.   

We are grateful to the many campus colleagues who collaborated to bring “The Anthropocene Reviewed” to the Jayhawk community. The program sponsors are eager to extend the reach and impact of the program with expanded partnerships, events, and staffing. We are also excited to share the addition of Samantha Greeson, KU Libraries Common Book Librarian. Samantha will design curricular and co-curricular opportunities and engage with partners in sustained support of the program at the KU Lawrence and Edwards campuses. Curricular and co-curricular preparations will begin this spring and for the introduction of the book to students throughout the 2025-2026 academic year. 

Thank you in advance for being part of this vital campus- and community-wide experience.

Respectfully,

Barb and Carol

Barbara A. Bichelmeyer 

Chief Academic Officer, Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor

Carol Smith 

Dean of Libraries