Bestselling author Thi Bui to give Common Read 2019-2020 keynote address
Tuesday, February 4, 2020 6:00 PM-9:00 PM
Collins Auditorium
Thi Bui
Thi Bui, the bestselling author of The Best We Could Do, will be at Lipscomb to deliver the Common Read 2019-2020 keynote address, followed by a book signing. The event is free and open to the public.
Bui was born in Vietnam and came to the U.S. in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees fleeing Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts, 2017), has been selected for an American Book Award, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, an all-city read by Seattle and San Francisco public libraries, a National Book Critics Circle finalist in autobiography, and an Eisner Award finalist in reality-based comics. It made over 30 best of 2017 book lists, including Bill Gates’ top five picks.
To go along with the book, here are some important facts from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:
• 70.8 million individuals have been forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.
• One person becomes displaced every 2 seconds. That’s 30 people who are newly displaced every minute.
• Refugees do not choose the country in which they would like to live. UNHCR identifies the most vulnerable refugees for resettlement and then makes recommendations to select countries.
• Once a refugee is recommended to the U.S. for resettlement, eight agencies in the U.S. government conduct a thorough vetting of each applicant. This process takes between 12 and 24 months and includes multiple security checks, a medical screening, and in-person interviews with the Department of Homeland Security.
Sharing more than just a book
Lipscomb’s LIGHT Common Read is a shared reading program intended to encourage everyone at Lipscomb University to join together to read and discuss a book in common. With it, the LIGHT program hopes to foster a greater sense of community through a shared academic and social experience; encourage an exchange of ideas among students, faculty and staff; increase awareness of academic, cultural and social issues; and promote various disciplines across campuses.
Lipscomb’s LIGHT Program prepares students to live lives of active collaboration and engagement with communities and cultures all over the world. Through its globally focused curriculum and experiential learning, students will not only develop respectful attentiveness to diversity, but also increase their understanding of cultural practices, systems and institutional structures. Most importantly, they will respond to the call to love their neighbors as themselves.