The Open Minds Book Club invites thoughtful participation from GVSU students, faculty and staff, Hauenstein Center members, and community members. Kahler Sweeney, program manager of the Common Ground Initiative, and Brian Bowdle, associate professor of psychology, will host discussions on books that seek to understand and serve the needs of our democratic society.

January 2026

For the January 2026 session of Open Minds, we will be reading and discussing I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.

"I, Robot, the first and most widely read book in Asimov’s Robot series, forever changed the world’s perception of artificial intelligence. Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-reading robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world—all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asimov’s trademark."

The discussion for this book will be held on Wednesday, January 21, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm in the Richard M. DeVos Center’s Meijer Regency Room located on the GVSU City Campus.

Books for GVSU students will be mailed to those who register by midnight on January 6.

Register Here

February 2026

For the February 2026 session of Open Minds, we will be reading and discussing Who is Government : The Untold Story of Public Service  edited by Michael Lewis.

"Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers, including Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell, to join him in finding someone doing an interesting job for the government and writing about them. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees."

The discussion for this book will be held on Wednesday, February 18, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm in the Richard M. DeVos Center’s Meijer Regency Room located on the GVSU City Campus.

Books for GVSU students will be mailed to those who register by midnight on January 21.

Register Here

April 2026

For the April 2026 session of Open Minds, we will be reading and discussing On Civil Disobedience, edited by Roger Berkowitz and featuring essays from Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau.

"Together for the first time, classic essays on how and when to disobey the government from two of the greatest thinkers in our literature. In Resistance to Civil Government (1849), Henry David Thoreau recounts the story of a night he spent in jail for refusing to pay poll taxes, which he believed supported the Mexican American War and the expansion of slavery. His larger aim was to articulate a view of individual conscience as a force in American politics. No writer has made a more persuasive case for obedience to a “higher law.” In Civil Disobedience (1970), Hannah Arendt offers a stern rebuttal to Thoreau. For Arendt, Thoreau stands in willful opposition to the public and collective spirit that defines civil disobedience. Only through positive collective action and the promises we make to each other in a civil society can meaningful change occur."

The discussion for this book will be held on Wednesday, April 1, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the Richard M. DeVos Center’s Meijer Regency Room located on the GVSU City Campus.

Books for GVSU students will be mailed to those who register by midnight on March 3.

Register Here