Berkeley International Group Book Club

Berkeley International Group (BIG) Book Club

The BIG Book Club hosts a bi-monthly meeting to discuss a selected fiction or non-fiction text featuring experiences and perspectives from around the world or that are under-represented in the United States. We will broaden our collective understanding while also connecting with colleagues with shared interests in global engagement and internationalization. Those who participate will have the opportunity to suggest and select future reads and the direction of the book club.

The Berkeley International Group is a recognized Staff Organization Community of Practice, offering staff-led networking, professional development, and collaboration for UC Berkeley staff and faculty interested in international education. BIG is open to all UC Berkeley staff with a passion for (or interest in) international education, including those working in international student services, student exchanges, global engagement, international program development, area studies - and more!

With any specific questions, contact book club thought-leader and BIG leadership team member, Shannon Buckley-Shaklee.

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March 19, 2025: BIG Book Club | Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen (in-person)

Please join BIG on Wednesday, March 19 from 12:10-1 p.m. for the next meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas. The memoir details Vargas moving from his native Philippines to the US and only realizing later that he was undocumented. Vargas went on to become an acclaimed journalist–including winning a Pulitzer Prize–before publicly disclosing that he was undocumented. He has said, “This book is the closest thing I...

January 28, 2025: BIG Book Club|Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (in person)

Please join BIG on Tuesday, January 28 from 12:10-1 p.m. for the next meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll informally discuss Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo, translated by Jamie Chang. The novel, set in Seoul, is heralded as the book that ignited the 4B Movement, a feminist movement in South Korea that has received considerable attention in the U.S. following November’s presidential election.

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November 19, 2024: BIG Book Club | Crazy Brave: A Memoir (in-person)

Please join BIG on Tuesday, November 19 from 12-1 p.m. for the second meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll gather and informally discuss Crazy Brave: A Memoir, a brief but powerful book by Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Nation and the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate. In 2021, Harjo delivered UC Berkeley’s Avenali Lecture

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September 17, 2024: BIG Book Club | Solito: A Memoir (in-person)

Please join BIG on Tuesday, September 17 from 12-1 p.m. for the first meeting of the Berkeley International Group Book Club. We’ll gather and informally discuss Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora. (Participants are responsible for securing and reading the book in advance) We will meet in person and in a location on or near campus. We’ll announce the location in the weeks before the meeting.

The Berkeley International Group is a recognized Staff Organization ...