Anthony Ray Hinton was poor and black when he was convicted of two murders he hadn't committed. For the next three decades he was trapped in solitary confinement in a tiny cell on death row. Eventually his case was taken up by the award-winning lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, who managed to have him exonerated, though it took 15 years for this to happen. How did Hinton cope with the mental and emotional torture of his situation, and emerge full of compassion and forgiveness? This is a story of hope and the resilience of the human spirit.
"I've met Anthony Ray Hinton, and he's an extraordinary man. He stands out among exonerees (and I know hundreds of them) for his dignity and gentle soul encased in his massive frame. His story is important and compelling. Bryan Stevenson, a national treasure and central character in this story, fought tirelessly for over fifteen years and won a rare and landmark case in the United States Supreme Court. The Sun Does Shine is the gripping and inspirational story that the public has been waiting for."
— Barry Scheck, Attorney, Director of the Innocence Project
Author: Anthony Ray Hinton
When: TBD - January 2023
Where: TBD
When faculty from diverse academic disciplines integrate a common text into their freshmen level courses, we achieve the following objectives:
Facilitate a universal academic experience that enables dialogue and learning around a common point of reference.
Our incoming freshman body is diverse and non-residential. The freshman reading book provides a common academic experience that can help students of varying backgrounds and academic preparedness to connect with one another in an educationally purposeful way.
Initiate a universal academic experience that introduces reading as a gateway to meaningful exploration of a topic via a variety of academic disciplines.
Freshman students benefit from observing how a central topic can be applied and explored from a variety of methods and points of view. i.e., how might a sociologist apply this topic? Mathematician? Biologist? Etc. This process helps to reinforce the benefits of a solid general educational core, enhances critical thinking skills, and possibly assists students with their major and career choices.
When new freshmen encounter the freshman reading book in multiple academic and social settings, they experience a learning model that provides “environments and experiences that bring students to discover and construct knowledge for themselves” (Barr and Tagg, 1995, p. 12), moving them beyond the traditional instructional model of simply receiving information. This process more effectively enables students to become “members of communities of learners that make discoveries and solve problems” (Barr and Tagg, 1995).
If you have any ideas on how UVU can more dynamically integrate the freshman book into course curriculum and campus events, we'd love to hear them!
