Online Book Group

Spring 2023 NCTA Alumni Online Book Discussion Group:

Surveillance State:  

Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control

by Josh Chin and Liza Lin

This discussion group is for NCTA Alumni in the University of Pittsburgh Coordinating Site region (PA, OH, MI, WV, MD, AL, MN, DE, LA, IL, KY) 

This winter Dr. Diana M. Wood and NCTA Alumni Cindy McNulty will lead a free asynchronous discussion group for NCTA alumni educators on Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control, by Josh Chin and Liza Lin. These Wall Street Journal reporters examine the astonishing reach and personal consequences of China’s expanding surveillance network. Topics include: the use of technology to control the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, Hangzhou as a model “smart city,” Chinese attitudes toward privacy, and the role Covid played in expanding state surveillance. 

Spring 2022 NCTA Alumni Online Book Discussion Group: 

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick

This Spring Dr. Diana M Wood will lead a free asynchronous book discussion group on Barbara Demick’s new book Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town (Random House, 2020). This fascinating study places us firmly in Sichuan, China in a small town, Ngaba, located on the Himalayan plateau and populated primarily by Tibetan people. Studying this book gives us an inside look at the challenges facing Tibetans within the People’s Republic of China who wish to pursue their beliefs and cultural practices.

Several years ago Dr. Wood lead a seminar-long group on Demick’s book Nothing to Envy which was a great success in aiding in an understanding about North Korea, so she is looking forward to reading and discussing Demick’s latest book on Tibetan people in the People’s Republic of China.

This free book discussion group on Eat the Buddha is for NCTA Alumni in the Pittsburgh Coordinating Site region (PA, OH, MI, WV, MD, AL, MN, DE, LA, IL, KY). It will be conducted asynchronously beginning in late January and will continue through the Spring using the Proboards Discussion Board site (a more detailed schedule will be sent once registration has closed). Registrants will receive a complimentary copy of the book.

For Pennsylvania teachers, completion of this book discussion will be worth fourteen Act 48 hours. For teachers in other states we can provide you with a certificate of completion and/or a personal letter from the instructor.

Registration Deadline is January 17, 2022

To apply, please click on the link here: https://forms.gle/hNTKbeH7iTW8K4UD8

NCTA Alum Fall Book Discussion Group: Two Trees Make a Forest: 

In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts by Jessica J. Lee

This Fall, Dr. Diana M Wood will lead a free asynchronous book discussion group on Jessica Lee’s Two Trees Make a Forest, a fascinating and unique approach to understanding Taiwan. As reviewer Sy Montgomery comments, Lee "performs a subtle miracle. She retrieves lost strands of family, landscape, and history and weaves them together to create a surprising and soulful whole." It is important to note that Lee is a British Canadian Taiwanese author who explores environmental history as well as her family history. Lee blends facts and stories about her Chinese maternal grandparents with her personal hiking expeditions through Taiwan's challenging mountains and her gradual discovery of her grandparents' experiences during World War II and the years following once they went to live in Taiwan. Dr. Wood has read the book at least three times and feels confident that the group will have a great adventure understanding what Lee learns about her heritage and herself.