October 24, 2023

Best-selling author David Grann: Ramapo knew him when…he delivered the keynote address at the 2022 Convocation. His book “Killers of the Flower Moon” was made into a movie that debuted this past Friday, October 20. It immediately became a New York Times “Critic’s Pick,” thanks to mastermind film director Martin Scorsese.

It is no surprise that the story about the oil-wealthy Osage Nation murders during the 1920s in Oklahoma caught the attention of movie-goers. It caught the attention of Ramapo’s Summer Reading Program committee, which led to the non-fiction book being named the 2022 summer read for incoming first-year students. Dr. David Gurney, assistant professor of law and society, was part of the committee charged with reviewing suggestions for the required reading. “I always take backroads on road trips, and the landscape of the great plains of Oklahoma brought the story to life. Few nonfiction books have had such a visceral impact on me. That this story—so violent and so poignant and so quintessentially American—could have remained untold for so long opened up a strange kind of doubt in me as I wondered how many other profound stories of American life had been hidden away or simply forgotten,” Gurney said.  First-Year Seminar Director Dr. Yvette Kisor, who is also a professor of literature, added that the book presented “opportunities to engage with the Ramapough Lenape nation, the local tribe, and shed light on their history.”

David Grann addressing the first-year students and Ramapo College community

The Summer Reading Program is part of the First-Year Seminar, which is the first course in the general education curriculum at Ramapo College. The FYS program is designed to help first-semester students at Ramapo improve their critical thinking skills through open discussions, reading, writing, and hands-on learning experiences. These courses are exclusively for first-year students and are meant to prepare them for the higher academic expectations they’ll encounter during their time in college.

Incorporating a summer read into the FYS program “provides a common experience for all incoming first-year students that they can share. It creates opportunities for campus-wide conversations among faculty, staff, and students through discussions of the book and programming on campus connected to the book,” said Kisor.

Stefanie Viera ’26, 2022 summer essay contest winner

First-year students also have the option to enter the essay contest by answering one of the prompts provided. History major Stefanie Viera ’26 of New Milford was one of three 2022 contest winners. Stefanie drew a parallel between the Spanish imposition of the casta system upon the Inca, noting that “this xenophobic hierarchy allowed the Spanish to divide the people, making them easier to restrain. The parallels between the experience of the Osage and that of the Inca can only be characterized as uncanny, which genuinely exhibits the pattern of unchanging racism, greed, and conflict when two distinct cultures meet.” She greatly appreciates what the Summer Reading Program adds to the first-year experience, noting that “it creates one unavoidable commonality between the students in the first-year population. You can be from all walks of life, but each freshman will have knowledge and thoughts about the reading. It is a truly amazing connection!”

Stefanie has not seen the movie yet, and admits to being somewhat surprised the film was made since the stories of Native Americans are rarely told properly. She loved the book and hopes the movie does justice by the Osage victims. “The book was a true emotional roller coaster, and the reader became deeply aware of systemic injustices that historically plagued the relationship between the United States and Native Americans.”

Books for the Summer Reading Program are selected from suggestions solicited across campus. The committee is composed of faculty, staff, and students who review the suggestions and select promising titles to read and review. Those recommendations are shared with the Mission Element Team, which makes the final selection. To see the list of summer reads from previous years, or to suggest a book for the 2024 program, visit ramapo.edu/first-year/summer-reading/