Mirrors and Windows: Reading for & Beyond Empathy - an Advancing Racial Equity Speakers Bureau Workshop with Leah Milne

Scholar Rudine Sims Bishop and author Grace Lin liken reading to mirrors and windows. Some books are mirrors, reflecting one’s identity. In the wake of recent race-based discussions in the US, many readers sought windows, books that offered insights into differing lives and experiences.

This talk explores the connections between reading and empathy, and the benefits of reading outside our comfort zones. What are strategies for reading empathetically? On the other hand, what are the limits to this approach to empathy, especially when reading across differences of race, ability, or gender? Do certain narratives more readily foster compassion?

Leah Milne (she/her) is the author of Novel Subjects: Authorship as Radical Self-Care in Multiethnic American Narratives, which won the 2021 Midwest Modern Language Association Book Award and examines multiculturalism and self-care in works by authors such as Carmen Maria Machado, Ruth Ozeki, Toni Morrison, and Louise Erdrich.  As an Associate Professor of English at the University of Indianapolis, she teaches multicultural, postcolonial, and young adult literature.  Her work has been published in journals and magazines such as The Journal of American Culture, African American Review, Newsweek, The Hill, and Ms. Magazine. You can find out more at LeahMilne.com.

This program is eligible for one (1) LEU.

This program was made possible with the support of the Advancing Racial Equity Speakers Bureau powered by Indiana Humanities.