Common Read to Continue Discussion of Disability Justice

Kean students will explore the topic of disability justice through the University’s next Common Read selection, The Future Is Disabled, a collection of essays by disabled author Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.

The choice of The Future Is Disabled comes during Disability Awareness Month and coincides with the theme of Kean’s most recent Human Rights Conference, which also focused on disability justice. The book was chosen after it received the most recommendations from Kean students, faculty and staff in a universitywide survey.

Kean freshmen and others will read the book during the 2023-2024 academic year. The author, who wrote the book during the pandemic, will also speak on Kean's Union campus. 

“Each year Kean University explores important topics through the shared experience of reading, and this year’s Common Read will continue that tradition with a discussion of disability justice,” said Kean President Lamont O. Repollet, Ed.D. “Kean has a variety of initiatives, such as the Common Read, that put our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion into action and provide an opportunity for students to further develop their own individual perspectives on these issues.”

Kean Lecturer Abriana Jetté, Ph.D., Common Read coordinator, said Kean students, faculty and staff made about 120 recommendations for a book choice.

“Many featured prominent themes of human frailty and social justice,” she said. “We want to cultivate meaningful conversation, to get people talking about, thinking about, and reading about a particular issue, one that permeates some type of social, ethical urgency.”

Piepzna-Samarasinha is a nonbinary, femme, autistic, disabled writer and disability and transformative justice movement worker with roots in the Burgher/Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma cultures, according to their website.

In the book’s introduction, they write, “I believe in the disabled future,” and speak of the need to “start listening to disabled people about how to make more accessible worlds.” 

The Common Read provides free books to Kean freshmen and other readers. An author’s book reading and discussion, scheduled for Tuesday, October 3, at Wilkins Theatre on Kean's Union campus, will be part of the experience. The event will be accessible and  livestreamed with Kean Ocean and Kean Skylands. 

Jetté said the University community is already discussing ways to incorporate disability justice in classrooms or activities in the Fall. 

“Already, the Common Read program has begun planting seeds of conversations, and the book has not yet even reached our mailboxes,” she said. “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that everyone on our campus is in some way invested in issues of disability justice. The Common Read creates a welcoming, common space, from academic to extracurricular, for these people to meet.”

Melissa Libbey, a lecturer in the School of General Studies, nominated the book. Libbey, who was born with a disability, noted that the Common Read gives students insight into diverse perspectives and experiences.

"The message I want the students to get from this book is more understanding of disabilities,” she said. “Disabilities are visible and invisible. You never know who is struggling with a disability.”

Kean’s Human Rights Institute and Office of Disability, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) also support the Common Read. Erin T. Lester, DEI multicultural affairs coordinator, said the Common Read is “a powerful demonstration of the togetherness we strive for as the Kean Cougar community.

“The sphere of identities within Disability Awareness should be integral in our dialogue of diversity, equity and inclusion and social justice advocacy,” she said.

In addition to announcing the choice, Jetté reminded students about the Common Read Awards, the program’s inaugural award series. Students are invited to submit writing inspired by last year’s Common Read book, All Boys Aren’t Blue, by the Tuesday, May 2 deadline.

The monetary awards are funded by a grant from the Freedom to Read Foundation, which supports First Amendment issues.