Honors Book of the Year
1493: Uncovering the New Worlds Columbus Created
Join Honors Program students, faculty, and staff as we explore interdisciplinary connections together through Charles Mann’s 1493.
On Tuesday, September 11th we kicked off the first Honors Book of the Year event with book teasers from our faculty, high-energy bluegrass music from BYU Mountain Strings, and delicious tacos. This year, participating Honors students, faculty, and staff are reading together 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. Our aim is to bring together a community of many differing disciplines and experts —to quite literally be “on the same page,” as Dr. Dennis Cutchins put it.
1493 pulls back the curtain on the Columbian exchange and its permeating effects on human history with the latest research from ecologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, just to name a few. The interdisciplinary discussions this kind of approach fosters among the Honors community are key to our university experience. We are not just one college, we are a university seeking to bring together knowledge from the arts, history, languages, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciences. A common read, and co-curricular events throughout Fall and Winter semesters, will provide the opportunity for the Honors community to discuss the many intersections between disciplines in order to better understand our human experience today.
Although the Columbian exchange took place 500 years ago, we are still seeing surprising intentional and unintentional exchanges taking place as a result. At the Kick-off event, Dr. Cutchins talked about how the Industrial Revolution, the trade war between the U.S. and China, the common carp filling Utah Lake, and even the rubber wheels on the new Spin scooters in Provo are a result of this exchange. Dr. Poole discussed malaria. He noted not just how European and Native American populations were devastated by it, but how people from Africa were uniquely immune to the disease, a contributing factor in the slave trade. The barrier between the malarial states and the non-malarial states in the U.S. was the same as the line between slave states and free states. Dr. Spencer Magleby shared his top ten items from the book—ranging from Peruvian guano to worms—and his top ten reactions—from pastries to famine. He left students to come up with the connections ourselves and invited us to find him in his office to share insights we find!
The next 1493 event for our Honors Book of the Year series will be a Chocolate Chat at noon on Friday, October 11th. Watch for details to come, and happy reading!