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WISE co-leads a summer book club for incoming first years with the WISE Residence Program and leads a winter break book club for graduate students and graduating seniors. Peer mentors guide discussion with challenging questions on maneuvering through an unjust world and reflecting on the why of STEM.
2020 – 21 Book Clubs
Over 300 students have joined us to read What the Eyes Don’t See, a memoir by Michigan alum Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha about her work as the scientist leading the fight for the people of Flint during the water crisis. What does it mean to use STEM to do good or to do harm? How can one person make a difference?
About the Book
This book reveals how inaction, indifference, and a callous disregard for our most vulnerable citizens led to the shameful disaster we know as the Flint Water Crisis. It also shares how the compassion of an unrelenting group of scientists, engineers, politicians, and citizens fought their own government to bring it to light and save their children. Be enraged and inspired by Dr. Mona’s riveting first-person account of the crisis as it unfolded, her personal story as a scientist, immigrant, and mother, and her detailed history of racism and inequality in Michigan. What the Eyes Don’t See directs readers to consider how collective human learning and the knowledge of the wider world can be harnessed and applied in advocacy for the betterment of individuals, societies, and the natural world.
About the Author
MONA HANNA-ATTISHA, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a physician, scientist, and activist who has been called to testify twice before the United States Congress, awarded the Freedom of Expression Courage Award by PEN America, and named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. An associate professor of pediatrics and human development at Michigan State University, she is also the founder and director of the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, a model program to mitigate the impact of the Flint water crisis so that all Flint children grow up healthy and strong.
