Dawn Dietrich to step down as director of Western Reads program after this year

Dawn Dietrich, faculty director of the Western Reads program, has announced that this will be her last year as director.

Dietrich has directed Western Reads since 2012, leading the program over a period characterized by expanded student participation and readership of the Western Reads book, numerous notable events, and vibrant partnerships between the program, academic departments, the Associated Students, Whatcom Reads and numerous community partners — including Pickford Film Center, Whatcom Museum, and the Bellingham police.

“Under Dawn’s leadership, Western Reads has become a centerpiece of the University’s intellectual vitality,” said Steve VanderStaay, Western’s vice provost for Undergraduate Education. “Dawn and the faculty and students she collaborates with have rather brilliantly selected books that touch on topics students want to engage with.”

“Her work with local tribes, and their participation in WR activities associated with this year’s book, ‘Tulalip, from My heart: An Autobiographical Account of a Reservation Community,’ have made this year’s events among the most engaging and instructive co-curricular programming I have ever witnessed on our campus,” he said.

Other highlights from Dietrich’s tenure as director (and the books they involved) include the following:

• The men’s crew team creates their own “Boys in the Boat” video that plays at Back 2 Bellingham before more than 100 guests and alumni (“Boys in the Boat,” by Daniel Brown). https://westerntoday.wwu.edu/videos/video-video-highlights-westerns-boys-in-the-boat
• Western Reads partners with the Whatcom Museum around their exhibit, “Vanishing Ice:  Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art 1775-Present,” and students take fieldtrips to the museum (“Early Warming:  Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North,” by Nancy Lord).
• Having Western Reads selected as a “Diversity Initiative,” by President Randhawa, with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” (2016-17). The book leads to dynamic events and collaborative events with the AS students and Justice Speaks. Community engagement with the book is so high the University Police and Bellingham Police Department reads it.
• Several more events associated with “Tulalip, From My Heart” are upcoming this fall, including field trips to the Hibulb Cultural Center at Tulalip, and presentations by visiting scholars of critical indigenous studies. Information on these and other events can be found at the Western Reads website at https://wp.wwu.edu/westernreads/

Dietrich is stepping down from Western Reads to devote more time to her scholarship. A search for the new faculty director of Western Reads will be announced in the next few weeks. Interested individuals may write Steve VanderStaay for more information.