Ashland Center for Nonviolence and Women of Excellence are hosting a social justice book club on March 28 at 7 p.m. in Bixler room 209.

The club was created in March 2022 by ACN intern, peace scholar, and the convener of the steering committee, Josie Brown.

As a peace scholar, one has to minor in Ethics or Conflict Resolution, but can major in any field. Peace scholars are given a $1,000 scholarship merit based scholarship for the year. Peace scholars also receive academic advising, and VIP engagement with ACN speakers about nonviolence.

The club meets once a month to discuss books that highlight “the gay rights movement, domestic violence, healthcare, toxic/mindful masculinity, and a lot more,” according to Brown.

“I pick the books with the help of Beth Buttil, the assistant director of ACN, and we choose based on themed months or days, [like] Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Pride Month. I try to mix up the topics and types of books we read,” Brown said. “I greatly value knowledge regarding others’ experiences of life and treating each individual as experts of their own experiences.”

The books being discussed at the upcoming event are What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer and We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in honor of Women’s History month.

Jayne Waterman, an AU English professor, and Dr. Collins Sibley, a professor at Mount Union, will discuss “We Should All Be Feminists”.

“It was important to me to create a space where everyone can come together, learn about, and discuss important issues. Ashland, Ohio lacks a lot of diversity, so the need for diverse voices is quite real. I found those through books. We read many books about diverse experiences including memoirs by people from a variety of communities including Black, Indigenous, disabled, undocumented immigrants, and more,” Brown explained.

The event is open to the public and there is a zoom link available if one can not attend in person.

For more information on this event reach out to Josie Brown at [email protected] or follow ACN on Instagram at acn_au.