Monday, April 12, 2010

Go Big Read; Title has been Selected!

Chancellor Biddy Martin and a steering committee of campus staff have selected Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as 2010’s common book selection for the UW-Madison campus.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks recounts a very personal odyssey to piece together the life story of Henrietta Lacks from whom a particularly-successful cell line was harvested, cultivated, and eventually marketed and distributed to scientists around the world.

While this cell line, known as HeLa, would inform significant discoveries in medicine, Henrietta’s family would suffer for lack of sufficient information regarding how her cells were actually harvested and used. Their story raises essential questions about healthcare and race in the United States and inevitably the ethics of scientific research when requiring the use of human subjects and biological tissue.

For more information about the book and a slice from its introduction, visit the author’s site for the book. And, do consult with campus and area public libraries for available copies.

Go Big Read” is UW-Madison’s common book program where students, staff and the community are invited to read the same book then participate in a variety of related programs in-and-out of the classroom.

Chancellor Martin will welcome your participation with this new title during the fall semester 2010.

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