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Incoming Ithaca College Students To Discuss Barack Obama's Autobiography

ITHACA, NY — Incoming students at Ithaca College will get together the day before the start of classes to discuss their summer reading assignment: Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father.” The 44th president’s autobiography was chosen as the 2009–10 First-Year Reading Initiative selection.

“President Obama’s ruthlessly honest self-examination on issues of race and identity gives us an opportunity to lead students through what could be the most important conversation they will have during their freshman year,” says Ithaca College President Tom Rochon.

The initiative was created in 2003 as a way to offer the incoming class a shared academic experience and bring together new students with faculty and staff to consider an important issue outside of the constraints of the classroom.

Published in 1995, “Dreams from My Father” tells the story of Obama’s struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother — a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the tiny African village of Alego.

First-year students will gather on Tuesday, Aug. 25, for a presentation and question-and-answer session with Michael Smith, assistant professor of history, and Cynthia Henderson, associate professor of theatre arts. Henderson — who has been a Fulbright scholar in Africa — will discuss Obama’s writings as they relate to his thoughts about identity and his African father. Smith will share his perspective on the cultural, social and historical connections of Obama’s introspection. Students will then participate in small discussion groups led by faculty and staff facilitators.

For more information on “Dreams from My Father” and the First-Year Reading Initiative, visit http://www.ithaca.edu/library/fyri/.