The Common Text
Discover Seattle University's Common Text program, which engages incoming students in critical conversations and inquiry through a selected text that supports their academic journey.
Each year the university selects a text or texts to launch the academic year for incoming students. At Seattle University, a key part of our mission is “empowering leaders for a just and humane world.” The Common Text program welcomes students to our Ignatian-inspired process of inquiry that emphasizes meaning-making, intellectual risk-taking, and engaging in deep and critical conversations.
Incoming students receive the year’s Common Text at orientation and are asked to read thoughtfully over the course of the year. Several first-year courses will include the text, and the book and its themes will be pursued in a year-long series of programs built around the themes.
2025 Common Text
I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán
How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times
As a journalist, Guzmán has embraced the power of curiosity to generate good conversations, talking with people with differing points of view rather than about them. In her book, Guzmán describes herself as the “loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted—twice—for Donald Trump.” The book explores the social, political, and even geographic dynamics which prevent us from communicating across divides and provides a timely, personal guide to having conversations with people in your life whose worldview is different from or even opposed to your own. She offers practical strategies for creating the best conditions for a conversation, unleashing our curiosity, asking questions, learning from people’s stories about themselves, and prioritizing both candor and clarity such that we might cross boundaries to find common ground.
Read more about Mónica Guzmán on her website: https://www.moniguzman.com/about
How Curiosity Will Save Us | TED
For Mónica Guzmán, curiosity isn’t a muse that flits by when we wonder about something. It’s the most powerful tool we have to navigate our world, especially when our world is dangerously divided along political lines. “If you can’t be curious across divides in a polarized world,” she says, “you can’t see the world at all.” Mónica shares examples of curiosity-driven conversations that make it possible for even the most opposed liberals and conservatives to see and hear one another, despite the misperceptions from their news feeds. With simple, powerful questions she herself has used in countless treks across the divide, Mónica shows us how having critical conversations with people—instead of about them—changes everything. And how taking the first steps toward understanding the views that most confound us isn’t just possible, it’s easier than you think.
Mónica Guzmán (author of I Never Thought of It That Way) at the FYE® Conference 2024 | CommonReads
Mónica Guzmán, author of I NEVER THOUGHT OF IT THAT WAY (BenBella Books), speaks about her book at the First-Year Experience® (FYE) Conference in Seattle, Washington.
A Braver Way (podcast) with Mónica Guzmán | KUOW
Done with the divisiveness in our politics and ready to do something about it? Host Mónica Guzmán is joined by guests from across the political spectrum to unearth tools, insights, and messy real life stories that can guide you over the divide in your everyday life. So whether you’re Red, Blue, or something entirely different, A Braver Way will help you hear and be heard by people who confound you.
The Lemieux Library offers a number of resources and our dedicated library faculty can help you pursue your research interests. You can view their services, tools, and collections here.
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion offers programs and resources such as Red Talks and the Inclusive Excellence Summer Reading list.