The Human Library

human library recruitment flyerFor the past three years, the Gaudino Fund has partnered with the Human Library Committee, comprised of Williams staff, students and faculty members, to convert the Paresky Center into a “Human Library.”  During this event, students and other attendees can “check out” human “books” of various titles representing particular aspects of the participants’ identities.  As individuals or in groups, “readers” are allowed up to thirty minutes of conversation with their human book.  The library and the dialogues it facilitates provide a means of contemplating difference with a goal of challenge preconceptions and prejudices.  The Human Library event in March of 2013 offered more than 40 “books,” with such titles as Man Who Has Never Watched TV, Refugee, 9/11 Survivor, Gay Varsity Athlete/EMT, Williams Admissions Dean and Recovering Anorexic.  In all years, this event was well-received by those who participated, especially students, and its return is much anticipated this spring. The Record covered the event in 20122013 and 2014.

You can visit the official site here.

The 2013 Titles:

Archaeologist
Child Psychiatrist
Community Activist
Cutter Crazy
Daughter of Divorce
Feminist/Womanist
First Generation Student
Fleeing Communism
Gay Varsity Athlete/EMT
Gun Shop Owner
Iraq War Veteran
Juvenile Judge
Legacy Student Libertarian
Man who has never watched TV
Mixed Identity
Mythic Professor
New York Painter/Widowed Dad
9/11 Survivor
Orthodox Jew
Philosopher
Prison Radical Islam
Quaker
Queer Rabbi
Recovering Alcoholic
Recovering Anorexic
Refugee
Roma (Gipsy)
Shaman
Southerner
Surviving Homelessness and Poverty in America
Teen Child of Manic Alcoholic
That Guy in the Library
The Answer Within
Town Manager
Transgender
Unitarian Universalist
Veiled Woman
Williams Admissions Dean
Williams Custodian
World War II Veteran
Yoga Master
Zen Buddhist