2024/25 Academic Year Theme: Air
CICC is thrilled to announce AIR as our theme for the 2024-2025 academic year. Building on the momentum generated by FOOD and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s extraordinary Harvest Week Keynote, Air will serve as the second stage of our intellectual trilogy, which will culminate in 2025-2026 with WATER.
Like Food, Air will afford our community the opportunity to explore a myriad of interdisciplinary topics. From concrete examinations of air pollution, carbon sequestration, and atmospheric changes to substantially more abstract conversations. For instance, the late neuroscientist Dr. Paul Kalanithi reflected on the question when does “breath become air” as he struggled to understand his life after he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. From a space of such spiritual and metaphysical interpretations, we might also exam air as a holder or possessor of human emotions. When, for instance, is love or tension in the air? Is there an air of secrecy or foreboding. What comes out of thin air? Money, perhaps? Air also helps move the information we need as Wi-Fi and radio waves move invisibly all around us.
All these questions and more give breath to an expansive collection of possibilities for interdisciplinary and community driven activities that generate ideas, knowledge, and hopefully a lot of fun along the way.
Our Common Reads!
We are very excited that this year's common read programming features two firsts. One first is this will be the first time Cultural and Intellectual Climate (CICC) has partnered with the Student Government Association in making the book selections. This year CICC presented a collection of books for consideration, and the SGA voted for their top choices. From those votes, we arrived at our second first. We had two clear winners emerge one nonfiction and the other a fictional tale. Thus, we will have two common reads this year!
Bewilderment: A Novel by Richard Powers and The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture each afford opportunities for rich interdisciplinary conversations. Moreover, these two books complement each other in extraordinary ways. Power’s novel sparks emotions and imagination as a father and son work adjust to life without their wife and mother, while Maté’s non-fiction and critical examination of health and health care also explores intimate stories of family and community.
To facilitate the use of these books in class or SGA Clubs for discussion, copies of Bewilderment will be available on reserve at the library, while a free digital copy of The Myth of Normal is available HERE.
About CICC
The Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee (CICC) is an all-campus committee of faculty and staff. Each year members of the Committee choose a theme to frame a year-long series of lectures, discussions, film screenings, and art exhibitions. This theme is meant to promote cultural life on campus and help the campus and Cortland community engage in discussions connected to issues relevant to today's world.
If you are a member of SUNY Cortland's faculty or staff and would like to participate in the CICC, please contact Benjamin Wilson, the committee's chair. If you are member of the student body or the Cortland community and have a suggestion for a speaker or event, please feel free to contact us as well.