Anna Brickhouse

I was once, many years ago, a first-year student at UVA. I loved the major I eventually chose—English—because I had always loved reading. But I also struggled with the reading I did in college. As a teacher, I hope to share with my students both the love of reading and the value of the struggle. Today the struggle to read—deeply, with different layers of comprehension and meaning-making—involves unprecedented challenges. We are all faced with the dangers of smartphone addiction, “continuous partial attention,” and the steady offer of new kinds of AI assistance. Meanwhile, the links between these technologies and mental health crises, especially among the young, are well documented. Can reading—and reading together—help us navigate our collective problems? I don’t know the answer yet. This course will be an experiment, a chance to find out what we can learn by working together.